Religulous and thoughts therein.

Yeah so, Globalism/Globalization, not happening for now. I kinda need a break from that economic mess.
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So, today I finally watched the (above depicted) documentary with Bill Maher- Religulous and it was quite a thought provoking, albeit not surprising, doc on people and religion(s). I half expected it to be one long tongue-in-cheek, skewed, film and while naturally some of it was, it really did something interesting: ask the hard (but seemingly easy) questions and show you what these people - of all walks of life - actually think.

Of course he does resort to his criticisms and sarcasm, but with some of the responses people had (including a member of Congress) it's a little bit hard not to, so it's forgivable. I'm not going to sit here and review the film, however, because I think it's more important to talk about the content than anything. A few things stood out to me:

According to some statistics presented (and I outright admit, I could not possible be a bigger skeptic of any statistic like this) in the film, it purports that there are approximately 1 billion Islamic faithful in the world - 1 billion! The world's population is approximately 6.76 billion. Similarly, Christianity is estimated to have approximately 2.1 billion. Realistically it's impossible to ever actually know and these numbers really only just that, but the thought itself of those numbers in comparison to the worlds population is overwhelming. What is surprising (in the prior link) is that the next largest group is *drum roll* Non-Believers at 1.1 billion.

While none of this (except the size of Non-believers) should be shocking at all, I don't think I have ever actually looked at a realistic numbers regarding the population of these religions (and sects therein). It's astounding to think that when combining those estimations, close to half of the worlds population is devoted to these two theologies alone. Neither should really be surprising when you consider the reign of both the Roman and Ottoman Empire's which had an immeasurable influence on religion at their respective times, but still, I somehow never fully imagined the numbers being so high, especially for Islam.

First, I want to touch on the Islamic faith, which I have almost always strayed away from due to mostly ignorance to the full-scope of the religion. Admittedly, I am no more educated on it than I have ever been, but there are facets of it which I feel I can more easily identify and speak of without having to even partially understand the religion (and of course each individual sect's practices). Even without a vast understanding though, I feel that Islamic religions are quite possibly the most insidious of all the major religions.

I don't necessarily mean that as an insult against the Islamic faithful, but it's a religion which has largely let the time pass it by and is sickeningly oppressive, not to mention in a lot of ways, tyrannical. But more importantly and quite visibly, it is unbelievably oppressive to women and in some sects, forces them to live as dehumanized objects. Although in some ways, they have gotten past the oppression of women, the practices on an individual level in many ways have not changed very much. Also, it should be noted that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007, it's semi-safe to assume that it probably partly had to do with her gender.

I do understand that not all Islamic sects are oppressive to women in those kinds of radical ways, but the real problem is that it still exists and when considering the size of the overall religion, I have to imagine that probably greater than 20-30% of the religion total still practices in such a way. The atrocities these women face are unimaginable, including but not limited to physical/mental abuse and rape. Some might argue it's also the culture, but religion is intrinsic in cultures even to those who do not necessarily practice the religion. It's not to suggest that this does not occur in society as a whole or within other religious cultures either, just to be clear, but that does not make it any less real in Islamic culture(s) either.

Moreover, many religions have practices which are minimally demanding, the best example being many Christian sects, which largely "require" an individual to attend services/institutions weekly (Saturday or Sunday) and otherwise you live your life as you wish. But Islam requires daily prayer and very specific hygienic (nothing against that, either) practices, methods to prayer, direction, etc. It's specificity and stringent requirements on a daily basis, I feel alone, are what make it tyrannical as much as anything else. The amount of devotion it requires is unbelievable and by my estimation, unreasonable.

But what has ultimately been created or manifested within it is something that has come to threaten the world and others within its stronghold. Israel is constantly threatened by its Islamic neighbors both near and far (I assure you, that is not a defense of Israel), religious sects within the the Middle-East which differ from one another and has also spilled over abroad. There is a lot of hostility surrounding this particular religion and the monster in the belly of it all has generated a level of extremism to an extent that is relatively unseen in much of the world (religiously based).

What's most concerning, beyond the humanitarian atrocities within it, is how far-reaching this violence has been and the threat it poses to parts of the world. What strikes me about it the most is the reality within it all that there is the potential for a situation of Nazi Germany type proportions on a world-wide scale. Firstly, if you don't think September 11th has had anything to do with our current economic standing, you're ignorant and blind. Yes, our own inherent and unique American-brand greed has much to do with it, but the wrench they threw into the gears on that fateful day ultimately created the instability that made us fall flat on our faces. On a global scale, with the right planning and even with a reckless execution (but execution nonetheless) they could cripple many nations in this world in such a way that a greater rise in power is not out of the question.

I don't think it's just an American hatred, I think it's an intolerance of anyone who does not see the world as they do and frankly, that's a recipe for disaster. Furthermore, when you consider that A) Not all Islamic people are bad or ascribe the radicalism, B) There is little-to-no differentiating between good and bad in the long run and C) Their overall visibility as an entity, in many ways, is very low (compared to swastikas, grandiose public events and a very outspoken fuhrer ). Understandably the immediate thought process here would be, "Well, what about Iran? There seems to be obvious concern there." That's not entirely wrong, in some ways they are a threat, but I think the threat is more deeply rooted in the religion than it is the political entity that is Iran. If something of that nature were to occur, I do feel that Iran would likely become a factor in it, without question. But the threat of Iran, to me, seems more reasonably local: Instability and the vulnerability of Iraq and increasingly Pakistan and the fact Iran has been licking its chops at the possibility of destabilizing and destroying Israel. On that front, yes, they are a threat. But on a global scale, it's the pockets of extremism and the looming potential that such a domineering and tyrannical religion could even be the catalyst for those not involved to be influenced into a fight for power.

Like I said, it might be reaching, but it's also not entirely unrealistic either. This isn't "the terrorists" this is something much, much larger and much more devastating to the world at-large and we're all powerless to stop it because of the aforementioned examples.
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Another facet of this film which was incredible, was the mentality that so many shared in their responses to question of dinosaurs, the age of the world, evolution. There are others, but I will stick to those for the sake of brevity.

So many of the responses were just as ignorant and narrow-minded as you could ever imagine; the rationale, the absolute certainty, the defensive manner in which some responded to serious questions and counter-points. That is my biggest quarrel with religion in general, the inhibition of free-thought, the way in which people believe so firmly and unwaveringly in a book, a compilation of doctrines which span millennia and bow to a man, Jesus, who never even set out to create another religion. Paul, some 60 years later, created the Pauline Church. The blind devotion and unwillingness to compromise on almost any level, is unfathomable. The absolute refutation of anything which, equally refutes by either conceptualization or empirical proof, their beliefs, their book or their god, imprisons the mind and has inhibited America from progressing in more ways than we can imagine. Say what you will, but 8 years of George W. Bush, can almost certainly be attributed to the ignorance and infectiousness of religiosity and the ultimate goal of imposing their beliefs on the entire nation as a whole.

The creationist museum is easily the best example used in the movie, this is a museum which outright repudiates evolution and despite hard-line empirical proof of the contrary, depicts man sharing the Earth with dinosaurs. People actually believe this, simply because the bible makes no reference to the contrary and there is some kind of loose reference to dinosaurs on Noah's Arc. Meanwhile, even Pope John Paul II supported evolution much to the chagrin of Christians, whom still did not accept it (as evidenced by a multi-million dollar museum dedicated to strongly suggest otherwise).

Beyond all of my frustrations with religion and my utter disdain for it all, it's truly disheartening that people are so bound by it, especially when it comes to the actual answers to the questions we have. The most important point both implicit and partially explicit in the film is probably what makes it greatest of all: doubt. So many of these people have no doubts, they don't care to question but merely follow these concepts, beliefs and ideas, never thinking or wanting to hear otherwise. To limit yourself to a single school of thought is to deprive yourself, for a lifetime, of the true fruits in the wealthy garden of knowledge that this life affords us from the Earth we inhabit, to the night skies of endless possibilities and not necessarily any right answers.

If you want to be religious, if you want to believe in god, that's your prerogative and your unalienable, natural right as an intelligent being. But the emphasis here is intelligent. We don't have to agree on the existence of god because to each his/her own, but religion does nothing but enslave humanity to a book (or books) and wastes a lifetime in its constraints, instead of allowing people to ask their own questions and find the answers for themselves, defining themselves, their lives, their perceptions and not being handed a prescription for instant retardation.

I shouldn't care, but people's complete stupidity and ignorance appalls me to a point that I can't help but talk about it.

Reading between the lines a little bit...

Well, now that our lovely recession is really in full-swing and countless dollars are being whipped at the criminals at various institutions, lets take a moment to simplify things a little bit:

First and foremost, why are we in this mess to begin with? You can look at it a few different ways, but ultimately you can break it all down to the simple fact of human nature. Yes, human nature. The inherent greed of humanity has ultimately prevailed and allowed for all of this to come to the surface. Although simple, the bigger picture here is not so much, because what you have is one long, vicious cycle of shit that ultimately floated to the top as soon as one of major factors of the 'game' changed.

You see, when business was booming they had tons and tons of money to just throw around in order to make more profit, which is why most of the major players today are in the situation they are in now. Much of the current situation has to do with quite plainly: bad investments. What bad investments? Well, the truth is there are a plethora of them, but what my focus here is high-risk mortgages, otherwise known as Subprime Mortgages. Now, it is a little perplexing as to why these institutions would go and risk millions upon millions of dollars on such high-risk, low-success investments, but quite like credit cards, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the bank(s), but not so much for the borrowers.

In this instance the lenders are almost counting on the failure of the borrowers, because before the market shifted drastically, it was a seller's market: demand was high, prices were high and business was booming. But as this all began to materialize it shifted into a buyers market, things were not selling as well and the values depreciated at a staggering rate. So instead of being able to seize foreclosed properties and re-sell them to salvage some profit and still keeping a debt to the failed borrower it essentially became a profitable practice.

Admittedly this type of thing isn't my forte, but that's the gist of it.

Now, a lot of people like to sit back and point the finger at those who borrowed the money, despite not being fiscally stable enough to sustain, but this again goes back to the human nature aspect and moreover the capitalistic climate in the United States of "buy now worry about it later" evidenced by the concept of credit cards. I mean what is the ultimate point of a credit card? You don't have the cash right now and you want to purchase things in order to repay them later.

Although a home is a lot more serious than splurging on a new laptop, clothes, movies, etc. It doesn't change the fact that, the same mentality can be had in this instance as well, ESPECIALLY when it comes to people who may be, in some ways, desperate to own a home. Credit reports and their overall standing have a great importance when it comes to these things and generally speaking, a lot of people screw up their credit and it hurts them down the line. So in swoops in the swift, fast-talking, always smiling, enthusiastic mortgage broker who ear fucks you with the dream of owning and living in that house. They can make it happen, your poor credit score: No problem, they have just the thing for people like you. And oh, did we tell you that this will help your credit score and give you the opportunity to refinance at a lower rate after a few years?

When people look at this situation on the macro level and foot some of the blame on those who recklessly borrowed, it's not that they're wrong either, but they simply cannot account for the swindling that occurs to a lot of people and the more uncertain you are, the more wavering you do, the more they pitch a sale to you in order to get you on board. We're talking about a commission business here, they want money and as much of it as possible and they don't really give a shit if you sink or swim because they're getting paid up front just like the property owner is (assuming it's not already the same bank). Maybe the weakness of people is to blame, but the system itself is still more to blame. It has created this atmosphere of consumerism and buying beyond your means to fulfill the Freudian ID. They don't tell you about the balloon payment in 7 months where your already high mortgage suddenly has a payment of twice it's typical amount or more, but it's in the fine print on the paperwork they rush you through so that you can go ahead and move your entire life into their perfectly constructed path to failure.

Some question why there aren't regulations in place to thwart this kind of thing. Well, there are, in some ways, but mostly "big brother" both federally and locally often concede to the concept that "We don't have the right to tell banks how to invest their money." It is a very slippery slope, without a doubt.

So the housing market inevitably tanks, banks are left with countless bad investments and no income because houses aren't selling almost at all anymore and they're losing millions and in some cases billions. The effects reverberate throughout almost all markets and it all goes downhill from there.

In the end what happens? The exact people out to fuck you just to make a buck now want your money AGAIN, are basically putting you and future generations in debt for them, because they failed. Saddest of all is, the reason it's so imperative that we keep these major banks afloat is the simple fact that if they completely tank, so does everything and quite frankly I think they knew that all along, too.

But hey, capitalism and the good ol' US of A is great. Speaking of which, next I think I'll take on Globalism - the proverbial bullet in the foot of the United States.