Reaction to "Religulous"

While watching, "Religulous," I realized that I much prefer intellectual explanations as to why humans should give up religion. Although I am an atheist who always enjoys watching religious people be explicitly questioned about the things they believe, I feel more comfortable watching an overzealous religious person be questioned by a scientist than I do a comedian. I feel this way because somehow religion has become a taboo conversation topic in recent years, as if people are afraid of offending someone else's faith. Maybe this is because of the recent examples we have seen around the world where religion is taken so seriously that people are killed for making fun of it. I believe we are at a point in time where we need to talk about religion and find out what it is that people truly believe: if people do not verbalize their beliefs and are never questioned about them, how can they ever be made aware that they believe something crazy? Without this discourse, people can continue to have irrational beliefs that they will act upon because they "believe" so strongly in them. I believe scientists should take on the role of educators when it comes to religion, because a majority of people know so little about science that they are willing to accept any religion that comforts them. This suspension of disbelief allows for people to believe things that make very little logical sense. Bill Maher does a great job of making a mockery of religion, but that only makes religious people defensive about their own faith, as a natural reaction to being made fun of. I think science is the only way to truly convince people that the workings of the universe are far too extraordinary for someone, or something, to create.