What a shame… When this movie came out, I really thought that Maher had really, actually located the pulse to this oh so sensitive matter and had proceeded to address it head on. Too bad that Maher had to, instead, use the movie as a platform for his grandstanding and preening; too bad that serious-minded people of deep feeling and great intellect were reduced to objects of ridicule and derision; too bad that movie watchers will laugh the occasional uncomfortable laugh of the smug and not be provoked to actually think….

I, like you all, am not a religious person and prefer to take a spiritual path that proceeds from neither ritual nor creed; but that does not prevent me from having great respect for truly intelligent and well-meaning persons who have taken up a lifestyle that espouses such things. I’ll not lie and say that I am wholly tolerant and that I never make jokes regarding things religious, but I am cognizant of the fact that good-natured kidding and ridicule are two different things. (It sounds as though) in this movie, Maher’s usual well-liked kidding banter slipped, betraying his intent to foist his own agenda—his own religion if you prefer. Pity.

We can say all we want about religious intolerance and the history of bloodshed and violence perpetrated “in the name of God”, but I think such dialog misses the point that religion is simply a codified way of expressing one’s beliefs with people who share a similar point of view. While religion has become a very organized thing in and of itself, working its way into the fabric of our lives with intrusive urgency, I would like to propose that religious things, in true form and essence, could be distilled to matters of faith, not zeal.

Some years ago, I was listening to a Bishop, who told the story of St. Thomas. While the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are held up as the true accounts of Christ and His legacy, the story of St. Thomas is worth considering. Thomas' account is noteworthy not because he believed in Jesus and that He had ascended to God, but because he (Thomas) asked for proof that He did so. If you are He, Thomas said, show me your wounds.

In this, Thomas embodied a deeper faith than that that embraces tenets and credos full on. The story of Thomas shows that faith and religion are, in fact, intellectual and emanate from considered and intense searching. I suspect that any religion in its true form, without all the trappings of the "Divine" can be distilled to these fundamental "Human" beginnings. To mock these things without considered commentary on their own, considerable merit, is condescending and insulting not only to upholders of faith, but to even those of us who view such things with wary—and maybe humorous—skepticism and disdain.