I'm not a religious guy but Maher, Dawkins, and Hitchens are just zealots for atheism. I find their certainty in the non-existence of God just as unsettling as any religion's certainty in God. It's unwavering, unquestioning devotion to a belief system. What makes this whole exercise even sadder is these are the kind of arguments a mopey teenager could come up with. Believing in God is like believing in Santa Claus?

Really?

If Ben Stein's "Expelled" is one side of the spectrum, arguing the persecution of religion at the hands of science (and let's not fucking kid ourselves that "Intelligent Design" isn't back-door creationism), then Maher looks to be going to the other extreme with a complete hatchet job on religion. He's basically going to find really smart people who agree with him and really stupid people who defend religion.

And that's fine. If people are going to find that entertaining, then they should go see it and they should check out this new trailer because it's selling the film for exactly what it is. But as for me, I'd be bored out of my fucking skull with what looks to be a repetitive bore of a movie. But I will anxiously await Bill's follow-up effort where he dismisses westernized medicine (if you've ever wondered what it takes to get Jonah-fucking-Goldberg to look at you like you're nuts, check out the February 8th, 2008 episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher"; Nicole discussed it here.

Check out the trailer below (or here in HD). Religulous opens October 3rd, 2008. And if you need to get a fix of making fun of religion right now, check out their admittedly-clever website at disbeliefnet.com/