Religulous!

I recently saw comedian Bill Maher's hilarious and informative documentary Religulous, which takes a satirical look at the absurdities of religion, especially from a 21st century point of view. I highly recommend this film as it makes a strong case for religious skepticism, a point of view that I fully appreciate, even though, personally, I happen to be a free-thinking Christian baptized in the Episcopal church.

Before heading out to check out this film, however, I was watching a T.V. panel discussion on CNN in which the issue of "culture" came to the forefront. After a few minutes of watching panelists issue strong condemnations on some of the cultural artifacts of modern society, such as violent video games and explicit T.V. shows, and decry the proliferation of pornography in our society thanks to the internet and cell phones (none of which I am personally terribly thrilled about)—all on the grounds of espousing morality in our society—and in the very next moment, proceeding to rationalize and justify the selective use of torture and incarceration based upon racial profiling—it got me wondering—how far do double standards and hypocrisy have to go before they reach the level of the sort of blatant absurdity exposed by Bill Maher in his documentary film, Religulous?

It is an unfortunate reality that, throughout history, the elements of religious fanaticism have been at odds with "art" and "culture"—very often violently so. In fact, you have to look no further than recent times to see how the forces of religious fundamentalism and fanaticism—in the form of the Taliban, the extremist Islamic movement in Afghanistan, which promotes religious zealotry and authoritarianism, narrow-minded provincialism, ignorance, fear, superstition and misogyny—have waged a violent war against art and culture in their own country. In March, 2001, Taliban forces destroyed a pair of monumental statues of the Buddha in the Bamiyan province in Afghanistan, about 150 miles from the Afghan capital, Kabul. Check out this link for further details. This was an outrage against art and culture that was committed only a few months before the Taliban-sponsored Al Quaeda terrorist organization launched their unprecedented and horrific terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.

The forces of religious fanaticism rival only the forces of radical socialism in their blind hatred of "art," "culture" and "civilization." For every "cultural revolution" inspired by some deranged socialist dictator, there is a "witch-hunt" called upon by some radical, puritanical religious sect. History is full of examples of such scenarios, and I don't want to get into a recitative laundry list of historical case studies.

Suffice it to say that the forces of religious fanaticism and the values that they promote of authoritarianism, fear, ignorance, submissiveness and radical misogyny, have nothing in common with the values that Horizon Cybermedia stands for, namely the promotion of civilized values through the appreciation of art and culture.

With regard to the issue of culture vs. morality, let me cite, for the record, Horizon Cybermedia's mission statement, as posted on our website http://www.explorationtheseries.com:

To be a positive voice in the media space; to put artistic integrity above mercenary interests; to make a truthful, meaningful artistic statement.

And let me point out that Horizon Cybermedia has, from the very outset, spoken (in this very blog) about maintaining the highest ethical standards. All we can hope is that the self-appointed agents of "religious morality" in our society—or, should we say, the agents of blind hatred and intolerance who use religion to justify their own ignorance, xenophobia and antipathy for culture and the arts—abide by the same standards of morality that they seek to impose on others!

Meanwhile, Horizon Cybermedia hopes that you will continue to check out our website, http://www.explorationtheseries.com, which is regularly updated with fresh, new content.

Wishing you the very best,

Uday Gunjikar,
Founder and CEO,
Horizon Cybermedia, Inc.