I watched most of Religulous this afternoon while avoiding what I should really have been doing (i.e. marking assignments). It was light, but amusing. Can anyone tell me what happens in the end so I don't have to buy or rent the DVD? Do the good guys win? Does God reveal himself from a whirlwind, or anything like that? Is the DVD worth it for the extras?
What I find amazing, although I shouldn't, since I have a good enough intellectual knowledge of the situation, is the way all those big, tough American truckies (or "truckers", as they'd say) were so fiercely and literal-mindedly religious. I know they were a particular group, but it still seems extraordinary from my perspective that hardcore Christianity is commonplace in parts of American society where it would be very rare here, and would be looked on as oddball (to say the least). America really is a different culture once you step out of the big cities ...
About Me
- Russell Blackford
- Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019); AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021); and HOW WE BECAME POST-LIBERAL: THE RISE AND FALL OF TOLERATION (2024).
4 comments:
The rant at the end of the film was the best part of it, though it could not have been more out of place. 85 minutes or so of pointing out how weird beliefs are followed by a 5 minute warning of the dangers of such beliefs. Right answer, but the working out shown doesn't support that conclusion.
...then a giant monty-python foot comes down and squishes him.
Argument over. God is a special effect.
Sorry, biblical literalism is alive and thriving in more than half of the states. As a New Englander, I find it shocking when I cross over to the other side of the Mason-Dixon line as well. People ask you "which" church you go to. Like, regularly.
I live in South Carolina. I know only a handful of other atheists; it's hard enough to find someone who isn't a Biblical literalist here.
They are by far the local majority, and yet somehow they still manage to develop a martyr complex about not being able to proselytize (much) in public schools.
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