oooh! I've been wanting to see this! Me and teh best friend is gonna have verbally bash religious people-night I think and watch this and dawkins. Had a huge discussion the other week with a friend who turned out to believe in the genesis. I'm sorry, I really try to respect religion, but I couldn't stop myself and laughed until I almost cried. I mean, seriously.. Can people stop mixing up beliefes and actuall science? *prepares for getting half killed for that one.. *
I used to hold more militantly atheistic views, but now have found a modicum of peace with most believers. I still think that Christianity and Islam, in particular, are silly and nonsensical, but don't feel the need to tell every follower of those faiths. I also think that secularism is making decent progress. Rational and scientifically based understandings of the universe and human existence are relatively new to human societies. Darwin published The Origin of the Species less than 150 years ago and modern physics (relativity and quantum mechanics) are less than 200 years old. The world's religions have at least a 1,500 to 2,000 year head start on modern science. I really don't know anything about Swedish history, but guess that if we stepped into a time machine and went back 100 years, you'd find a country more similar to the U.S. in terms of religious belief among the population. Perhaps not people who handle poisonous snakes while asking God to protect them from being bitten, but lots more Swedish people who believe in God or the supernatural in general. Europe, the source of America's religious heritage, became dramatically secular over the course of the 20th century. I don't doubt that Americans will look at their Bibles and Korans with greater skepticism as we march forward into the 21st century.
Saw it a couple of months back. Its entertaining for the most part but Maher ain't no Michael Moore. The film isn't as good as it should be and Maher is lying through his teeth when he said in interviews that he doesn't have definite opinions of whether there is a God/afterlife or not, that he is just throwing ideas out there to be chewed over. Bullshit. Maher is 100% sure in his mind that the idea of a superior being is nonsense.
