Bill Maher and Ben Stein facing off with religious docs

With an election on the horizon, films in 2008 seem weirdly apolitical when compared with 2004's Fahrenheit 9/11. That's only at first glance, though, as it seems that two different documentaries later this year will adopt a religious theme in extremely different ways.

Arriving in April, the first of these films will be Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Stein's film focuses on scientists who have been fired or silenced due to religious beliefs or support of intelligent design. Check out the trailer below:

Hitting the U.S. in limited release in June (though releasing in France in April), Bill Maher and Larry Charles (Borat) are coming out with their reaction to the religious establishment. According to IMDB , the film is "Bill Maher's take on the current state of world religion." For anyone not familiar with Maher, his take is that it's a decidedly bad thing. The documentary goes from the Vatican to the Wailing Wall, and it's also a comedy, because, according to Maher, "the topic of religion is so inherently funny." While there is no trailer yet, you can watch Maher speak with Larry King about the film here:

Thanks to /Film for the tip!

Related links:
IMDB: Religulous
ExpelledTheMovie.com
IMDB: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

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