As many people are already aware, a movie called God's Not Dead came out in movie theaters. It's about a college student who gets put into a philosophy class where the atheist professor demands that all of his students write that God is dead. It culminates in a debate between the student and the professor, in which the student wins and successfully defends God. The movie grossed around 53 million in the box office on a 2 million dollar budget and was thus quite successful.
When I first heard about the movie I rolled my eyes. I haven't seen the movie myself (although I sort of want to) but from the trailer the characters appear quite stereotypical and the arguments could have been pulled straight from the Theism vs Atheism thread here on ArmorGames for their originality. They even bring in people from Duck Dynasty in the movie as a minor role it seems. The atheist professor especially plays exactly to a caricature of a "militant atheist" and the exact plot is a little ... disturbing. I'll link to the wiki that gives a full synopsis here. It strikes me as revenge-y and angry towards atheists and comes across like a huge pat on the back to Christians.
Now there's another movie coming out called A Matter of Faith which is about a college student (female this time) who goes into a biology course, where the teacher is *GASP* an "Evolutionist." Following the exact same plot line as in God's Not Dead, the atheist/non-Christian teacher engages in a public debate with a Christian defending Creationism/God after protesting that Creationism is not even mentioned as a valid alternative theory in the course. The biology professor presumably "loses" due to the superiority of the Christian's arguments (in this case, the girl's father).
Is this just trying to interest Christians? Or is it intended to be persuasive and to make a point? I'm curious to hear what everyone thinks about these. Are there any other movies that have been made in recent years that follow this same plot device, or is this a new trend?
Where is this quote coming from Xeano? I'm curious about the context because something smells fishy but I can't find who you're responding to.
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That was the same attitude the pilgrim fathers had in the seventeenth(?) century, so no change there then.
The difference is that they were actively being persecuted by the majority group. The reason we've got freedom of and from religion, and separation of church and state, was originally to prevent different Christians from attacking each other through legislation.
This happens frequently in life, but it's by no means a stereotype in my opinion.
Far as i can tell most atheists tend to not accept the claimed existence of a god due to the sheer lack of evidence supporting the claim. It's not usually the result of harboring a hatred toward the deity.
Puritans? Persecuted? Somewhat, perhaps, but they were far worse, as they were religious extremists that violently overthrew the monarchy in England, and the resulting totalitarian military dictatorship (Which put a ban on theaters, sport, christmas, and fun in general.) was so unpopular the monarchy reinstalled itself as soon as the dictator died.
That's harsh. I have personally never attacked someone here on AG, or elsewhere, simply because they expressed their belief in God.
Harsh? How is that harsh? Merely stating my opinion on the reactions I saw. No offense/attack intended.
Where is this quote coming from Xeano? I'm curious about the context because something smells fishy but I can't find who you're responding to.
@Kasic SSTG posted it on the first page. CTRL-F is greatly helpful in these cases considering the small size of the thread.
Far as i can tell most atheists tend to not accept the claimed existence of a god due to the sheer lack of evidence supporting the claim. It's not usually the result of harboring a hatred toward the deity.
By frequently I don't mean by majority. Slight difference, but you can't deny the latter doesn't happen in some cases.
Also, please keep in mind it's a movie. Don't analyse the behaviour of a character and think this is real life.
Only merely giving background to provide clarification. It's very obviously NOT real life.
God's Not Dead is basically a movie that feeds off of the persecution complex many Christians have because they think not being able to smear their beliefs in everyone else's faces without total acceptance and the response they get when they try is unjustified.
Have you actually watched the movie? Because that claim doesn't really fit in with the actual storyline.
By frequently I don't mean by majority. Slight difference, but you can't deny the latter doesn't happen in some cases.
I'm sure it does happen, but I'm also sure it is not that frequent. Personally I know of no such case, but maybe your experience differs in that aspect?
By frequently I don't mean by majority. Slight difference, but you can't deny the latter doesn't happen in some cases.
Had a friend of our point out on facebook something relevant to this point. They said that a negative experience doesn't lead to atheism, but can lead to doubt. That in turn can lead to a re-evaluation of ones position, which could take many different paths. In short it's not as simple as saying the person is just angry and leaving it at just that won't get you an atheist.
im jewish, i believe in god, i think most people who talked to me in this section also know this, yet i was never attacked because of that. in fact, i found myself usually supporting the "atheist side".
havnt watched the movie so i might be totally wrong but from what i got in this thread its like:
"well, more and more people get educated, more and more people believe in science, more and more people accept homosexuality, lets make an emotional movie that shows that people should convert. lets also use high leveled educated people like professors and regular kids that are easy to relate to as main characters to make the point."
it really does seem like its just an attempt to make people convert. how many movies have you watched that influenced you while watching it, then after some alone thinking time you realised they were complete nonsense?
i myself got convinced that i want to join the army during a presentation which is totally the opposite of what i want, wanted and ever will want. i watched ratatouille and thought i should try cooking.
emotional plots, loveable characters that are easy to connect to and such stuff effect us, plain and simple. and this is what this movie probably tried to do.
and lets not forget the fact that probably any extremely religious christian probably went to watch the movie. so easy profit as well.
im gonna guess that this is gonna start a new trend. and i also expect it to eventually cause some big drama. just imagine justin bieber/twilight lovers/haters only add religion to the recipe. gonna be interesting lol
