Any of you seen this?

http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/religulous/

I put it under funny videos because they say their making a documentary on religion. Watch the video and see if you this it's a documentary in the classic sense of the word or not. It's not a documentary because it's COMPLETELY biased without balance at all. Could they pick more ridiculous characters to talk to!?

Whether a skeptic or not, you'd have to agree how biased the trailer seems. It seems more like a mockumentary to me.

Hilarious!

Best line of the trailer...

"Gay muslim activists... you guys have big ones"


Bill Maher is an idiot -- but the trailer is funny.

It was the silence and them starring at him after he said that made me crack up.

It's directed by the same people who did Borat so you know this is very serious and quality material.

This is going to be spectacular!

I am putting it in my iCal right now, thanks for the link!

This seems funny but so freaking biased.

It is so amazing how he goes up to different people in the streets and makes them look silly because they dont know the answers, but you will never see him talking to people who KNOW what they are talking about. Did he ask James Dobson any questions, did he ask Rick Warren any questions?? Did he ask the Rabbi or a Muslim leader... no he goes for the gay guys who obviously are not following the will of their religion.


I know lighten up.... but it just makes me mad seeing people wanting to challenge God, gods or god by asking difficult questions to people they know wont have the answer to make themselves look good.

Hilarious!


And, you know, this is a "documentary" in the same way Michael Moore's movies are "documentaries"... take it with a grain of salt, have a laugh.

well I mean seriously it is from the same directors and Fahrenheit 911 and those. You think they aren't one sided?

I think it looks hilarious honestly.

But in all seriousness.... don't you think most peoples opinions about anything are mostly one-sided? Your side! People who have different views on religion than me can't relate personally to my thinking because they believe something different. They are just as foreign to me as mine are to them. The only way I think you can be on the same page is to agree that it's ok to disagree and have your own beliefs.

Oh, and every race, religion and profession has it's members that give it a bad name. You can't classify all lawyers as cheats, all Mormons as polygamists, all catholic priests as molesters, or all white guys with shaved heads as KKK members. (man, how many people did I just irk with that one sentence...?) Cause it's just not true in any way shape or form. Of course their are religious crazies out there that give your religion a bad name. He just managed to probably find them and interview them for the movie cause they stand out. but it's no reason for anyone to get up in arms about it- but I'm sure some people will. That's why they make stuff like this.

Truth is....do any of us really KNOW what we are talking about when referring to religion? Or do we just have to have faith?

I wonder what his own religious beliefs are....if any

Bill Maher is an atheist.

You irked me for sure! There are NO Mormon polygamists. If ANY member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is found to be practicing polygomy they are immeadetly excommunicated. We don't play around in that department! Now the FLDS (fundementalist) and other off-shoots of the LDS church practice polygomy but not the LDS church with over 13 million members. Sorry if I come off as a little angry but this is a VERY sensitive subject for most LDS because we get assoicated with the off-shoots in the media. Thus people think we all have the same beliefs and that is just not true.

We're getting off the subject but it's my thread and I can thread jack it if I want!

No reason to be irked. You meant, there are no modern day Mormon polygmists, right? You definitely gave me information I didn't know. To clarify, those off-shoots of the LDS church, do they call themselves Mormon but they're really not? If they call themselves Mormon, then wouldn't Art&Souls statement be correct?

Truly not trying to cause a fight but just clarification and genuinely curious.

Continuing with the off-topicness... Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven" is a really interesting study of the beginnings of the mormon church and the fundamentalists as well.
My favorite parts are about Joseph Smith, the founder of the religion.

I have no idea what they call themselves other than FLDS, or their name of their group. From the recent stories about them and an interview one of the top guys in the FLDS gave, they don't like to be accociated with the main LDS church either. It doesn't make sense they would call themselves Mormon when most people refer to the main LDS church as Mormons. Even the term Mormon is incorrect since it is a derrogatory term from the early days of the church. Ok sorry for the treadjack! But I am glad you know that Mormons aren't polygamists! Back to your normally scheduled program.......

Don't know the book or the author but I assume it is anti-LDS. Please remember for whatever you think about my religion or Joseph Smith, he was jailed mutliple times on unbased charges, tarred and feathered, and eventually killed with his brother by a mob. There was even an elimination order in Illinois that you could kill any LDS person just to get them to leave. Most of the church members walked all the way from Nauvoo, IL to Utah (not a state then) just so they could have the right to worship the way they wanted. Please just remember the pain and suffering people endured when you read the anti crap. Sorry for another threadjack!

Yup. Or...was that a rhetorical question?

If you really are asking, for Christians, it's entirely about faith. Have you ever physically seen Jesus Christ? I haven't. I've never seen the wind either...

...but I've seen the effects of the wind.

Jon Krakauer writes a lot for Outdoor magazine and wrote Into Thin Air (breathtaking) and Into the Wild (fantastic) among others. The crux of the story is about those FLDS guys who murdered the one brother's wife and baby back in the 90's or whatever, and around it he tells the story of the beginnings of mormon faith and offshoots of FLDS. He includes everything you mentioned, he is a meticulous researcher.

I wouldn't say his interpretation of regular mormons is negative at all, he's actually quite respectful, but what I was referring to was the biographical information from Smith's early years (his issues with fraud, etc.).

I knew that I would get someone upset with that statement. I appologize, I definitely didn't mean it in any derogotory way toward anyone at all. Actually quite the opposite! I meant that any generalization (true or false) is harmful. I actually have quite a few morman friends, so I'm sure I would have gotten corrected by them too on that one .

What I was trying to get at is that people are sterotyped all the time by other people that don't know all the facts or have their own assumptions.

Sorry if I jumped off the deep-end! All this stuff in the media about the Texas raid bothers me quite a bit because of the association between the two religions. Trust me when I say that the LAST thing LDS men want is another wife! LOL