The topic of religion has always been a prickly one in Singaporean everyday conversation.

If you disagree, consider this: when's the last time you had a robust debate with your friends about religion, over lunch or dinner? (You don't remember? Never? It ended in an awkward silence all round? Yeah, we thought so.)

Four Singapore documentary filmmakers of different beliefs decided to throw themselves headfirst into it, though — asking one another the awkward questions like "Why do you pray to a human?" and "If your god is the one true God, are all the other gods from the devil and everyone else going to hell?"

Their efforts, as part of their final-year project with the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), culminated in a 25-minute documentary called "The Longest-Distance Relationship".

We took the half-hour out to watch it, and found that it made some very interesting points and asked some very interesting questions (that risk making people upset), like:

1. Why can't I eat beef, just because I pray to the Goddess of Mercy?

A girl on the street near a temple said she asked her mum this once because she doesn't know, and her mum didn't give her a response.

One of the group mates, atheist producer Tan Wei Ting, appears in a scene with her Buddhist/Taoist mother and two brothers, who asked the following questions:

2. On the fact that the Goddess of Mercy has multiple birthdays

and

3. What is the purpose of offering incense sticks to the gods before an exam?

There were also moments where the group took turns (in threes, because the fourth group member would have to record the others) to step out and reflect:

4. On why people have religions in the first place

5. And on how sometimes, the things you believe simply conflict with what others do:

The Christian in the group, Lim Zhee Yan, was confronted with a harsh reality about the absolute nature of her faith that deems all others "of Satan", because they are not "of God".

And these were her friends' reactions to that declaration:

It wasn't just about asking awkward-turtle questions/making difficult-to-say-out-loud points though. They also did some proper research, like

1. Approaching temple aunties to ask about who they should pray to and for what purpose;

2. Consulting a monk about Buddhism:

3. And also a Christian pastor, who said this pretty shocking thing:

Which resulted in that awkward discussion from point 5, above.

But perhaps it all comes down to their closing chat about what the end of their lives would be like:

But that said, it is lacking in coverage of several other important religions in Singapore — Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Catholicism, to name a few. And one should also consider the lesser known and official religions in Singapore such as Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and the Bahai faith

Although it is long enough, so perhaps a part two for a group with a different religious make-up.

We've spoiled enough of it for you, so if you've got 24 and a half minutes to spare, you can watch the full documentary here:

Top photo: Screenshot from documentary.

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