Is Religion "Religulous"?

The insufferable twerp Bill Maher has a movie out, "Religulous", in which he makes the point that organized religion is dangerous.

Movie critic Roger Ebert says "The movie is about organized religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormonism, TV evangelism and even Scientology, with detours into pagan cults and ancient Egypt. Bill Maher, host, writer and debater, believes they are all crazy. He fears they could lead us prayerfully into mutual nuclear doom."

Maher's entitled to his opinion, of course, but I'd like to share something from what I saw last weekend.

My local Catholic church (I'm not a member) had its annual International Festival; it's a low-key fundraiser for the church and school. It features food booths with treats from various countries--Jordan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico (of course), Germany, and others.

Looking around, I noticed that it was an event that transcended race, gender, age, income, and any other demographic lines you'd care to name. Everyone had a good time. Parents supervised, boys and girls flirted, little kids played games, and everyone was eating a lot. The unifying factor of this diverse group was Catholicism.

I just have to think--despite Maher's concerns that religion is a negative influence, all I have to say is that it's been the atheistic cultures (Nazism, communism) that have been both the most murderous and the shortest-lived. (Cany anyone name any great culture in the history of the world that has been without worship?)

Of the atheists I've known, I've never seen any of them engage in the kind of simple community pleasures offered by this one parish's event. I've heard a lot of talk from them about tolerance and brotherhood, but frankly, I've never seen them practice the kind of tolerance I saw at this church-sponsored event.

Perhaps religion has a lot to answer for--no doubt, killing others in the name of God isn't much of a recommendation for brotherly love--but it would be a shame only to focus on the negative and ignore the long history of kindness, creativity, and even unity that religion can offer.