While this movie didn't deal with religion in any way, it presented an interesting thought experiment: if you had a way to guarantee somebody is the ideal relationship match for you, would you use that method instead of your personal judgement? 

The movie depicts a world where a larger and larger percentage of the population signs up for the sanitary, pre-packaged absolute love and illustrates some of the problems this creates.

The most glaring difference is that people in the world seem to think that there is only one person you can fall in love with. People don't really understand what love is anymore because the word has been stripped of its emotional element and simply means the person you match with on the highest level.

There are some interesting problems: since the matching is done by timer countdowns until the day you meet your match and the countdown only begins once that most ideal match also has a TiMER installed, there are people with blank timers, and others with timers which indicate they have over a decade to wait. The movie's plot centers around the question: what if you're still waiting for that absolute best match, but you find somebody good enough? Would you not even give that relationship a chance? Would you ignore all the close-second place potential matches just to hold out for that absolute highest match?

We asked the attendees of the movie night whether they would get a TiMER installed if it was available, and why; the responses were mixed, and the reasons were good on both sides. Some said they would not get a TiMER because it would spoil the fun or mystery of finding out about a person. It would remove the romance from courtship. Others said that- assuming this was a flawless love oracle- they would trust their love life to the optimum matching device. They cited their preference to be with the most compatible mate, some of them jokingly referencing their dating history as reason why they can't trust themselves to that task.

Some said they wouldn't get a TiMER until they were already in a relationship. After dating for a while, they'd both get TiMERs to confirm what they'd already know by that point. (It seemed a little bit like having it both ways: keeping the mystery, but also having the guarantee- ignoring the scenario that they turn out not to be the idealized match)

Personally, I said I'd abstain from sterilizing and pre-packaging relationships. Romance is a messy thing, love is tricky and difficult, but that doesn't mean I want to give up and have something else tell me whether I'm right. I could put my morning Sudoku into a program and have it solved in milliseconds, but where is the fun, the risk, the enjoyment in that? Of course, relationships are orders of magnitude more complex than a sudoku, I'm merely trying to illustrate my point that dating isn't about getting it right on the first try.

With each relationship mistake you learn more about yourself and others, and I think removing those mistakes from your life would only be to your detriment. You would not be forced to grow or learn how to cope with breakups. Certainly that's not the rational, pragmatic decision, but nothing about love or emotion has ever been rational or pragmatic. I know some of my bettors disagree, but if I'm happy in a relationship with somebody, I'm alright not knowing if there's somebody else out there who is a better match for me- by a teensy bit or more. To me, it's about the journey rather than the goal.

I really enjoyed watching this movie, and I highly recommend you do so as well. Despite its status as a "chick flick", it has humor which everyone can enjoy. The plot isn't as predictable as you might expect, and the window into a universe where it seems like love has been tamed provides an interesting mirror with which we can examine our own world.