Religulous

Tonight Kjersti and I went and saw Religulous -- Bill Maher's documentary film about religion and how ridiculous it is. I liked it. I thought it was incisive, compelling, and frankly cathartic. Ten years ago -- maybe even five years ago -- I wouldn't have been able to openly admit that I liked this movie. It would have been "social suicide" as one ex-mormon in the movie described it (he was talking about actually leaving the church, which is obviously a much bigger deal, but you know what I mean). I don't claim to be an ex-mormon. I've never been religious. But in a very religious place in a very religious country, to be openly appalled by religion is not really something you can do in front of all your family and friends. Usually it doesn't seem worth it. You'll never change someone's mind. And you have to really ask if you want to be responsible for changing someone's mind.

The movie reminded me of how lonely I've been my whole life. I'm not trying to win sympathy points here, I don't feel bad for myself at all. I'm proud of who it's made me. But being an atheist is lonely, especially in Utah. Even though there are a lot of us out there, it's offensive and unacceptable to so many people. You really have to get to the point where you can come out of the closet and forget what anyone else thinks. You have to be willing to say -- at least in your head -- "fuck off" to someone who doesn't really want you to be yourself. People ought to root for others to be themselves; forget those who don't. Something as simple as openly being yourself is very empowering, and it's taken for granted by everyone in many ways.

Anyway, I was talking about being alone. Or feeling alone. But there was one statistic in the movie which I found quite encouraging. About 16% of Americans don't want to be affiliated with any religion. According to the CIA via Wikipedia, about 4% are "none" and 12% are "unaffiliated". There are way more of us than Mormons. Way more of us than Jews. Way way more of us than Muslims. More of us than there are gays. How come it seems so unacceptable to be nonreligious?

The movie also goes on to point out how detrimental religion truly is to humanity. Religion has done more harm than good throughout history and continues to today. I'm willing to have that argument with you, but I'm not going to elaborate in this post because giving a single example just doesn't do the magnitude of it justice. There's an endless stream of examples.

Another thing that struck me in the movie is the common argument styles of every religious person Bill talks to. It's something I've seen so many times. I'll try to generalize it here. The pattern goes something like, "I believe [insert something unprovable] because it's true and I know it's true in my heart because of [insert some anecdote here that very thinly implies the point they're trying to make]. Therefore it's true and you just don't understand because you're not one of us." The problem is, in everyday conversation, especially with people you know, you have to just let this mess of asinine logic go unchallenged because it's just that: asinine. To call out the flaws in their argument is tantamount to calling them stupid. But even if you take that risk and point out that they're just believing something silly based purely on faith, they get very defensive. Now you're offending them. Now you're talking about something you're not allowed to talk about. And there's the rub. You cannot reason with these people when you get to this level. It's not an even playing field. You're playing the game by the rules of rationality -- they're playing by a very different set of rules. Now you're talking past each other and it's futile.

At the end, Bill calls on people like me to not give up on this exercise in apparent futility because it's really not all for nothing. The more we can open up people's eyes to the world we live in, the better it is for all of us. People who are certain about their religion are dangerous; especially when they reach positions of power where they apply their beliefs blindly to things as important as public policy. Sound familiar? We cannot let that happpen again.

Anyhow, I've come a long way from hiding my true self. I hope people like me can continue forward with this march and be fairly represented in the country and the world. But at this point, it just feels like we're not part of the dialogue.

My honest dream is to one day be an openly atheist politician, but any time I start that thought experiment I give in to cynicism.