My best guess? They're the kind of propaganda that's not designed to convert outsiders to your cause, but to reassure those who already believe in it that the worldview they have adopted is 100% correct and they need not listen to any dissent because all outsiders are immoral cartoon villains, simultaneously a grave threat to all that is Good and Right and not worthy of being taken seriously. These Christploitation flicks have this particular rhetoric down to an art..
If I came upon a book called "Aborting God" in a bookstore, my initial reaction would probably be the assumption that it was written by a religious person decrying anti-religious influences in society, or something similar.
Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if an atheist wrote it as satire lmao. As someone who’s read so many books concerning these topics. It is kind of funny lmao lol. But still, I do think that this film is wrong, I also think that there is a bit of truth in the main character itself. Some of his actions are surprisingly similar to some of the more prominent new atheists during the prime of the movement. Although obvious still a hyperbolic, and obvious oversimplification of real people. But still partially true lol. Either way this was still an awesome video though.
The "I am atheist because most of my party aren't and that must mean they're smart" kind of atheist or the "I have intimately seen what religion has become and seemingly always was and I cannot reconcile their morals with modern morals" variety?
It makes sense, if JP and Shapiro are regularly presented to them as famous debate bros. The intended audience likely hasn’t got any other model for what a “public intellectual” even looks like.
It's funny, before I saw this post I was thinking that "Aborting God" was exactly the type of name one of those conservative shock jocks would name a book.
What, Keven didn't like that his character died at the end of "God's Not Dead", so he played the same character again? Geeze, he just cannot give atheists a single likable characteristic.
It's a "spiritual prequel", heh... Lame joke, but I had to type it once it popped into my brain. I actually believe that Sorboner is just capitalizing on the popularity and fame, from the Christian film community, that he garnered with God's Not Dead. He's starred in quite a number of these movies produced by some of the same folks, and nearly all have a Christian message. Their is a community of theaters and large churches, that show these movies on near full size screens, and some on giant oversized ones, with small, festival sized crowds.
By attacking a starwman of atheism, Christian films are arguably just setting young believers up to question their faith when they someday encounter the real thing and find they've been lied to. But the attitude I was taught when I was young was pretty much 'don't learn about atheism, other religions, or the people who believe those things because that's how Satan tempts you and corrupts you'. From that perspective, these films make prefect sense. Obviously not all Christians are like that, many are not. But many are.
It's like DARE, but for religion. Some kid is going to read a book on evolution, and when his teeth don't fall out overnight, he's going to think "Hey wait a minute, everything they ever said is a lie!" Then pretty soon he'll be worshipping Belial, with a baphomet necklace and sage incense, transcending the boundaries of the human ego And his psychic blood will be on YOUR hands, Sorbo!
4 года назад
@@potaterjim "God knows the past, the present and the future". Also "God planted the tree of knowledge"... So... God knew Adam and Eve will bite the fruit. Therefore God WANTED them to do so and PLANTED A TRAP. And God is "the good guy"...
Plot twist: I have atheists to thank for helping me see past bigotry and ignorance, and for eventually me working harder to become a better christian. Not their intended effect, but it happened nonetheless and I'm grateful for them.
I grew up in a Christian family and every Sunday we would have a “movie” night and it was basically Christian Propaganda because of that I’m now an atheist
When I left the faith I heard SO MANY of these ideas. It was very demoralizing. They kept saying I hated God and I kept trying to explain I COULDN’T. It was crazy-making.
One of the things that people are regularly told in fundamentalist churches is that everyone instinctively knows that God exists and anyone who says otherwise has to be lying. They tell themselves the same thing about believing their morality. This becomes foundational because it makes many of their other beliefs less problematic if the gay person knows instinctively that being gay is immoral and the atheist is just lying to everyone. After all, you can't question why God would punish someone for not believing what they do if the person really does believe it and is simply "rebelling.". The other option, in my opinion, is to follow a Christianity based in what the bible says rather than what the religious right says. But that would require things like helping the poor, the sick and the outcasts. It would mean forgiving people who do things to hurt you and showing them true altruism, like giving your shirt to someone who steals your coat. And since Christians are supposed to be loving it would require them to be patient, kind not demand their own way and keep no record of sin. And none of that fits with how they want to live their lives or run their government.
_" They kept saying I hated God and I kept trying to explain I COULDN’T. It was crazy-making."_ Very, but that's a feature, not a bug. Think back about the "arguments" and threats believers are constantly barraged with, the image of someone who has left the faith, their empty souls and lives with no meaning or purpose, as if god gives any purpose or could possibly care if it's an all-powerful god that can simply remake everything in an instant and thus is unable to lose anything and making everything as ununique as every other thing the god can simply replicate infinite times, making everything equally worthless. None of those threats, arguments, or images are true. It's just another form of the gaslighting and emotional abuse to keep people in the faith and keeping up appearances even if they don't believe. There is no version of harmless religion. Religion poisons everything, always.
My favorite part of this video is hearing Shaun Hannity say "That's a fair point." And Leon's response with "IS it!? IS it Hannity!?" I get a solid chuckle every time.
These movies are not interested in creating any sort of dialogue or discussion: They are only made to make their creators a quick buck by telling their audience precisely what they want to hear, much like Sorbo's character in the "debate". They also have the unfortunate consequence of radicalizing that same audience. I will not mince words: I am an atheist, and the hypocrisy of these films is both staggering and insulting. Whenever I hear the argument that Atheists are inherently immoral, it makes my blood boil. I do not need a cloistered, tax-dodging homophobe as my moral compass, and when I help others as part of my job (Social worker), I do so out of a genuine interest in helping others. I do no need the promise of an eternal reward or the threat of eternal punishment to do my job well or go above and beyond to help a needy family. And yet someone like Joel Osteen closed the doors and church to the people in Houston during a Hurricane, and his brainwashed dupes still send him tax-free donations every week. What angers me the most is how religious people are so willingly duped into acting against their own best interests just because some snake oil salesmen knows exactly how to manipulate them. In this political climate, we all suffer for it.
I'm just going to go say it; this prosperity gospel ideology must be destroyed. But how do we destroy an idea? That's the real question... EDIT: Just corrected my grammar.
They do it to their own donors too! Can't explain how many stories Ive read of people being sucked in by televangelism and never getting help back from the church a day in their lives even as they face eviction or similar issues!
My faith was shaken when my best friend, who was 13 at the time, died of cancer, and when not even a year later my father was diagnosed with cancer, but it didn’t make me an atheist. It made me want to know god better, frankly, so I started to research. I wanted to be a theologian, in fact. But the more I researched the more I realized the Bible couldn’t be the word of God at minimum. My atheism came years later, after even more exploration.
Same here. My family tells me i gave up on god because i hit a rough patch but in reality that rough patch had me feeling closer to god than ever. Seeking a way to convert my atheist roommate led me down the rabbit hole that painfully and very much against my will stripped me of my faith that i held dear. It took a lot of courage and i dont envy anyone who starts down that path, but in the end ots worth it to be free
I think it's because religion is entangled with conservatism. The "Protestant Evangelical persecution complex" is great for voter turnout.(I say Protestant, because Catholics are much more diverse and therefore differ in the political Spectrum). I always found it strange because conservatism in America isn't kind to the poor or the sick. It often relies on antagonism, nationalism and fear-mongering, Concepts that should be antithetical to Christianity. The reason why it doesn't make sense is because it's almost never about religion-- it's about politics. The irony of it is that this whole thing is bad for Christianity. Christians could be taking part in a positive future, but instead insist on antagonizing everyone else. But these are just my thoughts. Thanks for reading.
Thank you. A pet peeve of mine is how people are quick to lump catholics together with other die hard jesus freaks. Like yeah yeah, catholics have a dark history, blah blah I get it. So thanks for pointing that detail out. Appreciate it lol.
It is strange indeed. But then again, modern Christianity, especially as practised in the US, has very little Christianity left in it. Sure, they pray to God, but they do it while sitting in a megachurch, donating for the pastor's third private jet, and waiting patiently for God to shower them with money. And yes, it's all about politics now. The Republicans have spend a long time pandering to the Christian right-wing audience, and now politic and religion has merged together to the point where it's not entirely wrong to call America "The Western Saudi Arabia".
I think Christianity is just a cult that profits the leaders more than the scammed at the bottom. The more people who believe it, the more 'social power' that the Church has, in old times, rivaling the monarchs. Today, I am glad it is dying, it is never soon enough that a cult goes out.
When I was a believer I was dumbfounded why atheists couldn't see the "obvious", that there has to be a God. But now, on the other side of that fence, I see that the default position is actually non-belief and the burden of proof is on the ones making the extraordinary claims.
As you and other reviewers who dislike these types of films have pointed out, the "logic" of atheism causing people not to be decent and good is ridiculous. Atheism being a creed of the irresponsible couldn't be further from the truth, because an atheist doing good deeds is based on the simple logic of how it's just better to be good, as opposed to Christians who are being good for the sake of going to heaven. Good deeds being done out of an expectation of a reward is childish, and also in the case of the film's homophobia, self important. "That person is going to hell but I'M not because I'M doing more reward-garnering things than they are with their weird mannerisms and yucky bedroom habits. So that means I'M morally superior!" (I would hope it goes without saying that this is a very specific group in the religious community, not all of them)
there are entire schools of philosophy dedicated to learning how to be moral and good. of course, your average Pureflix watcher doesn't know philosophy is a thing, much less understand why anyone would give a shit. they think philosophy is a useless degree bleeding-heart liberals get in college. they really don't get that we are capable of being moral without the threat of hell. it's not their fault. most of them are just hella stupid.
Do you think Kevin Sorbo prays to good every night, to forgive him for playing a Demi-God? I mean, without Hercules he’d have no career now to stand on his soap box and rally the poor persecuted Christians. Must feel like a catch 22 to him. LoL
Mike Cat if he was a normal Christian, I wouldn't think so. It's no different than playing any other fictional character. They didn't present it as real. But that could indeed be a concern for his type of Christianity. That said, he'd only need to ask forgiveness once. And he can still argue his past sins were still a part of God's plan. I do suspect that Sorbo was involved with making Aeolis (sp?) one of the Magi, though.
@@BitchofRome There was also a sexual misconduct claim about Sorbo that got swept under the rug. As far as I know, nobody even knows who he had allegedly, sexually harassed. Only that it was someone during the time of the filming of Hercules and Xena, and definitely a woman...
While wasn't a dedicated watcher, I do recall Christian elements making their way into Xena/Hercules during the last part of their run, at the time didn't think much of it but defiantly have started to wonder if it was Sorbo behind the scenes.
I really feel like it's massively disingenuous on the part of a lot of the conservative media (And a lot of atheists as well) to act like ISIS is purely just a byproduct of Islam and not a complicated mess of other equally important factors like the history of foreign interests exploiting the resources in the region and a lot of the negative impacts that said exploitation has had on the populace at large in the area. That's not to say that the religion of Islam is beyond reproach and has no issues, it has a lot of the same issues as most of the Abrahamic Faiths and a lot of issues unique to Islam specifically, but that being/becoming a muslim doesn't automatically mean you're going to go around sparta-kicking gay people off of rooftops or strapping on suicide vests for Allah. Edit: Also just to sort of clarify a point I made, there are plenty of atheists who do make good/specific criticism of islamic scripture and a lot of the real-life application of said scripture, that's the sort of criticism we need more of, not just vague allusion to how bad ISIS or other extremist groups are and acting like their behavior is perfectly a 1/1 representation of your typical muslim living in places like New York, Berlin, Toronto, etc. Yeah it's a minority of atheists who make that sort of argument, I will grant that, but they a VOCAL minority who often get signal boosted by christian conservatives or other similar groups.
Calinas the Necromancer It definitely is, because our anti-Islam tactics in 2001 are a large part of why ISIS exists. One has only to look at all the peaceful Muslims all over the world to see that Islam alone is not enough to create jihadists. There are complicated factors that are in play. I say what I said above not to lay blame, but to acknowledge that everyone plays a part. I believe part of the reason that there is so much focus on Islam is to absolve the "Christian" US involvement. This isn't a justification for ISIS, either. You can recognize causes while still saying what they are doing is morally wrong.
@@RumchugMusic more UK than US, the cleaving of Arabian Peninsula by England during Versailles did more harm to the region than what the US could do with fire and bullet.
Sooo is it me or is Kevin Sorbo just playing the same role that he played in God's Not Dead only he's an author instead of a college professor? :/ Very informative and well made video. Keep up the great work. :)
My path to atheism was that of doubt and struggling with those doubts. I was likely an atheist before I even knew there was a word for it. Being born in 1981 and having spent the majority of my life residing in rural Mississippi, I had no one to influence me, no online "atheistic propaganda" to steer me; it was simply curiosity and intellectual honesty.
The faith-proof thing drives me mad with supernatural movies. They invariably present worlds where the supernatural is literally and indisputably, demonstrably real and wind up making a hash of the theme.
This idea of absolutism regardless of whether it’s explicitly religious or not is about as tired and over used as any general lack of faith based movie.
Ugh gross. This movie sounds somehow even worse than "God's Not Dead." I didn't even think that was possible. Seriously, I'm a Christian, and I really wish the people who make movies like this could be shipped off to another planet. Not only are they making all Christians (and religious people in general) look terrible, they are reinforcing a toxic, hateful tribalism within Christianity that is completely opposite of Christ's actual teachings. Instead of being a "light" to the world, it just makes the world a worse place to live in for everyone. Please, Christian filmmakers, just _stop._
I'll just say it.The sitcom "Facts of Life" handled faith way better in a 2 parter when Blair objects to a step-relative becoming a nun and it stems from her own loss of faith after her parents divorced despite her prayers.
It seems to me people are just lacking in well-informed civil discourse these days (namely fundamentalists of any religion). That, and propaganda with hate sprinkled all over.
Let's just say SOME of those teachings could sure have tried HARDER, than say, Jude 1:4, 2 Timothy 1:9, Romans 8:29, and Paul's limp Romans 1:20, too...
The ironic thing with Kevin Sorbo is that in real life he is the exact polar opposite of the atheist caricatures he portrays. Where he is the angry, far left atheist in his movies, he is the angry far right Christian on in real life.
The fact that these people see themselves as self righteous for hating “the right things” proves they aren’t really Christian as they are just hateful people.
As someone born to atheist parents, thanks for mentioning I exist, haha. It's pretty common here in France I think, but I feel like people don't realize we exist in the US, I guess it sounds too farfetched? :P
I find it absolutely hilarious that the only reason these evangelicals can think of for someone becoming an atheist, agnostic, nontheist, etc. is "something tragic happened". It's like they don't want to admit that there's a variety of reasons as to why people choose their spiritual beliefs. And why is it always atheism in their minds that these people switch to? Why not Buddhism? It's like "we can't have people thinking about stuff and coming to their own conclusions- we need to have people regurgitate platitudes and mindless drivel instead!"
My tragedy was reading the bible cover to cover. Tragic, indeed. One can hate the concept, or fictional character of god - I mean, the god of the bible is a monster that behaves like a spoiled preschooler.
Religion is fine until you end up demonizing someone else’s beliefs even if they believe in nothing like atheists. My best friend is super Christian, goes to church every week and goes on ministry trips but I don’t care because he doesn’t harass me for not believing and doesn’t shove Jesus down my throat.
And what's totally unbelievably nuts is that Jesus, Bro was released WAY BEFORE Let There Be Light. Like he even said "It's Llke if Airplane! came out before Zero Hour."
The funny thing is I have always attributed Kevin Sorbo, who played Hercules, as having a large influence in making me question my religion as a kid. It made me ask, what was the difference between Zeus and the Judaeo Christian god, why believe one and not in the other?
They know an Atheist can't hate God so by making him hate God feels like an inside joke. So for them an Atheist secretly believes in God even though they can't admit it to themselves.
There is an idea in Christianity, it’s not in the Bible, it’ not in Church Doctrine, it’s not officially part of Christian mythology, but it does explain a few things. It’s canon in the Discworld novels, Atheists sometimes joke about it and fanatical christians seem to be so convinced of it that they assume it’s the entire motivation of unbelievers. And that idea is; You can hurt God by saying he doesn’t exist. Gods and faries are the only mythological creatures who are like that. Vampires like it if you deny they’re vampires, ghosts don’t care, trolls don’t care, mermaids don’t care, but pixies dies if you say ‘I don’t believe in faries” and gods have egos so fragile you can you can deny them as a form of revenge. Sorbo’s character openly blamed God for killing his kid, in front of Atheists, and NO ONE called him out on it. He is in fact a misotheist not an Atheist. Also, while I have no doubt he’s supposed to be Dawkins, I don’t think Sorbo has actually read one thing Dawkins actually said. Dawkins NEVER said “Party on!” In fact, Dawkins believes that altruism is an evolutionary trait that helps the survival of the entire pack, and the majority of his criticism of religion are about how people like Sorbo use religion as an excuse to justify bad things. ...Oh! Also Santa. Gods, faries and Santa.
Kevin Sorbo was at a local convention a few years ago and I considered telling him that Hercules was an early positive male role model and helped give me the courage to transition. I sincerely wish I had.
that hardest thing for me about being an Athesist is the fact that I am requested not to reveal I am athesist because it makes everyone else feel uncomfortable. The fact that I get told "your a good person even though your a athesist". I just find it unfair.
So fuck them, just be who you are. If they have problems with it, that is their fault... not yours. If they can't accept you for who you are, they aren't worth being around.
"extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" is exactly why I became an agnostic/atheist/amazing sex machine in the first place. My dad passed away - - - > started questioning my long-held beliefs - - - > read up on many different worldviews and faiths - - - > realised a lot of them made big claims but provided small proof - - - > realised there's not much reason to have faith in any of them, so didn't. After not turning into a rampaging Hitlerstalin like my aunt always warned us atheists were I simply went about my life and feel just fine 👍🏻
Can you _imagine_ if, out of the thousands of religions, and hell, out of the hundreds of interpretations of the judeo-christian God, _this_ was the right one? It's almost exactly like walking around with a lottery ticket, and everyone has their own ticket, but you're quite assured that _your_ ticket has the winning numbers, because the guy who sold them to you assured you of it
Great video. Although I would disagree on the meaning of anti-theism. I don't think anti-theists hate God but rather they want to eradicate religion from the world. Anti-theists think religion is harmful and isn't conducive to a good society and that we need to remove religion from society so to build a society based on reality.
Everytime I see Kevin Sorbo in these movies I remember Kratos busting Heracle's face in in God of War 3. Who Sorbo voiced as a reference to Hercules. "THIS! IS! FOR! BEING! IN! GOD'S! NOT! DEAD!
This film is a just Gods Not Dead remake, down to the Atheist who is only atheist because of a personal tragedy and the female Muslim Christian convert . Kevin sorboro literally just wanted to produce his Gods Not Dead Fan fiction.
God's Not Dead made me lose all my respect for Sorbo. How the heck did this movie make me lose even more respect for him? He was already at zero! How do you have negative respect?
It’s mostly those who are high on their own sense of pride and perceived superiority over others that make religious types look bad. It’s always the worst of any demographic or minority that gets the most attention or stands out the most.
Kevin Sorbo has fallen into what I like to call, "Kirk Cameron Syndrome". The means that if you can't get into the spotlight in a good tv show role cause your typecast, get into the mainstream belief and go out of the way as possible!
Just a quick point: agnosticism refers to a knowledge claim, atheism points at a lack of belief in a god or gods. You can be a gnostic (arguably) or agnostic theist as you can be a gnostic(arguably) or agnostic atheist.
I am an atheist, I was bought up in a non-religious household in London, however my current partner is a believing Christian. We get on very well together, her faith does not create a barrier between us, she understands that I find the Bible and the whole idea of God and his eternal kingdom literally beyond belief. She, on the other hand, has a strong faith that God and Jesus are real and there will be some kind of eternal afterlife. We both have different views, thankfully neither of us are sufficiently rabid in our views for it to affect our relationship.
Just the way it's meant to be. We're just going to tear ourselves apart if we keep up the tribalism. You don't need to agree with everyone on everything, if we did the world would be a sad, boring place. I hope your relationship holds and keeps both of you happy for many years to come!
Stellar work once again. And I think it's always weird when movies will have a real life tv personality or news anchor portray themselves within the limited reality of the movie. Especially if it's a Hannity type.
I am so, so happy that the jerkbag atheist as seen here and in people like Brian Griffin are fictional, and that I've never met anyone talking like that in real life. They exist, no doubt, but every atheist I've met have been more-or-less "Let's agree to disagree" when I, for one good-ish reason or another have brought up my faith. I hope they stop making movies like this someday. It's talking to people of Christian faith as if they were completely isolated from world news, and, if American, didn't have perfectly peaceful Muslims living in their midst. ~ TDG
Yeah, people need to understand there are jackasses on both sides. I can admit that debating with theists frustrates me often, but it's nice to read someone's (your) comment that isn't about deliberately trying to misinterpret us. :)
The thing is Brian Griffin made I feel, one of the best cases for atheism in the episode where he confesses to being an atheist "I dont see any evidence."
yeah, I couldn't tell if he was making a clever reference to that or if it's just hinting at how gullible your average Pureflix devotee is (like they'd believe they should only ever eat at Chik-Fil-A)
It's not whole verses, just a reference to a verse, like "John 3:16" At least, that's what I had on my soda cup last time I went. Caitlyn Conboy Also, they are open on Sundays, so they are even more not godly enough.
As much as I hate to admit it, I am the stereotypical Atheist. Raised Christian and once I went to college and had a space where I was allowed to think for myself, I had heavy doubts. Then my mom tragically passed away on top of other revelations about emotional manipulation and other tools of various faiths, it just came together and I knew my doubts were well placed. And I am very angry at god (if we were to assume a loving caring god exists), beyond livid in fact. Not just for what happened to my mom but for all the countless tragedies that occur daily. I'd rather spend eternity in hell than a moment near a being who could've made existence painless but chose not to full well knowing what that would entail. More realistically, since I am an atheist after all, I am upset and angry at the amount of pain this fairy tale has caused me and many of my fellow ex believers. Religion and belief are far from harmless.
"IS IT?" Oh wow, we said that at the same time. As life-long Christian and former Sunday School teacher, I could never stand these movies. They show the worst of Christianity and Christians by acting like all non-Christians (ESPECIALLY atheists) are awful people, and instead of spreading love and the benefits of the faith, take such a holier than thou approach that it's a wonder than anyone would enjoy the movie, let alone want to be Christian if they weren't already. It also perpetuates the myth of the God-hating athiest which, as you clairified, makes no sense by definition. I think the best Christian movie I saw was one where an atheist side character eventually becomes Christian at the end or at least agnostic, but it's because the main character Christians in the movie are kind to him and his dying daughter. He never has to explain why he's an atheist, and he's hesitant at first when the main sick girl gives his daughter a cross because he doesn't want his kid to be hurt by unanswered hope. At the end, he is appreciative of the comfort his then-dead daughter received before she died, as hope for heaven helped her pass in peace. It also has some of the Christians being cruel to the main Christian family, and acting like the reason their daughter is sick is because they weren't good enough Christians, making the movie more balanced than most when it comes to depicting people of faith.
Nah, I hate God in the same manner as I hate any other self-fulling Mary Sue that hopes to make themselves seem better than I am by proxy. Almost like people suck ass in reality, but, "at least I can imagine someone who could beat u" with a snuffle in their mouth.
People who fall into college equals atheist would probably be stumped by my story. I am pretty sure that because I went to a christian college I was accelerated towards agnosticism.
"Sorbo endorsed Donald Trump for President, claiming that "Jesus would have voted for Trump." - Wikipedia - Annnd there goes the last shred of respect for the man.
I find most people don't know In and Out is just as Christian as Chick-fil-A. They have Bible references on all their packaging. I appreciate a joke that makes people think
It’s honestly movies like this one that have nearly made me leave my faith entirely. I grew up Catholic and remain a Christian (somewhere between Catholic and Protestant, long story), and I grew up in the South where these views are unfortunately fairly mainstream within the Church. It makes one feel they have to be a hateful bigot or a non-christian. They think they’re preaching the Gospel but all they do is destroy the most sacred and beautiful teachings of our faith: to love others as Christ loved us, to lay down our lives for others (whatever form that may take).
Clicked this as I got confused of whether there was a 4th God's Not Dead movie featuring the atheist professor guy. Saw it and just ugh these movies really just all mesh together as one big stereotypical blob of nonsense and victimization. I could probably sleep half way through one, have it switched with another and not instantly notice its a different movie.
Is it just me, or does Kevin Sorbo look like he's about to burst into tears in every single frame of this movie to anyone else? Like, is that just what his face looks like nowadays?
I know what you mean about the myth about people becoming Atheists because of tragedy. I remember watching the 700 Club a while back where this Christian woman wrote to Pat Robertson because she was trying to witness to an Atheist woman and the Atheist gets hostile at the mere mention of God. Pat assumed that the Atheist woman was sexually assaulted by her father. How could he assume that if he never met the Atheist woman?
I haven't seen "Let There Be Light". I can address some fallacies brought up in this well done video essay. * What we consider good behavior is not 100% tied to religious belief or lack of it. What we consider bad behavior is not dependent on religion or lack of it. Religious believers or non believers can act in good ways or terrible ways. * What makes people act in good ways is a dedication to act in those positive ways. Religious belief alone will not stop hate, or harming others.
This and God's Not Dead become much better movies if you imagine that one night of drinking and driving, Kevin Sorbo's character from this movie ends up being the guy running over his character in GND
Religion had so little impact on my family’s every day life that I didn’t even realize that my parents had been „basically atheists“ all along until I was in my 30s. They weren‘t actively hiding it, it just wasn‘t an issue whatsoever. Being raised in an otherwise „mildly Christian“ environment that acknowledged the existence of other religions and, albeit being confident in „ours“ to be the right one, wasn‘t too judgemental about them and was even relatively encouraging in regards to thinking about „the details“ for oneself. In fact and ironically, it was this „relative open-mindedness“ that kept the mere idea of the very concept of not being religious at all from occuring to me for very long time (it only was dawning on me when I kinda stumbled across a TED talk by Richard Dawkins about what he called „militant atheism“...), and I guess that‘s why I instead spent many years trying to figure out a way to make sense of the contradictions between all the different religions (including historical and/or tribal natural religions), trying to find the common ground, the „true core“ which I believed most of, if not all, religions to be flawed projections of, distorted by natural and cultural environments. I just didn‘t realize the elephant in the room, being that all religions I had ever heard of, including the one I was raised in, were simply unconvincing not only in the details, but fundamentally. But after that, for a second I was still terrified of how my parents would react when it somehow slipped out in the middle of an otherwise everyday conversation. I can‘t imagine how hard it must be to come out as an atheist to devout Christian parents in a devout Christian community.
The reality of atheism is I became an atheist when I realized we had better explanations for stuff now than "God did it.". As far as what I think and feel about God... Well, I really don't. Not until I am forced into discussing the concept. Usually by religious people.
The thing about morality isn't exactly on their side. One of the things that drove me away from the church was all the evil it committed, condoned, or downplayed. I'm an atheist by way of reason, but it was certainly helped by finding people who wouldn't toe the church line.
When I was a child, I believed in god in the sense, that I accepted the narrative of a creator and the whole testament thing. I mean, it's shown everywhere, there are books and movies and they teach stuff in (german) school (I never really understood why they separate the lessons in catholic and protestant, but whatever) Then, I heard the word "atheist" and asked my parents what that word means. They answered truthfully with "Someone that does not believe that god exists" and I was like "WAIT, that's a legit standpoint you can hold and there is even a word for it?". After that, I was an atheist :D
I turned agnostic rather than atheist, but it basically amounted from a whole life time of people shit talking going to church and being like, "Just pray at home or whatever. God's everywhere, right?" And that was the stuff that made me go, "Yeah, maybe this whole place of worship thing is a scam." I'm not going to say there is or isn't a god, I don't think that's a question we can, or are supposed to, answer, but I will say that churches do more harm than good in most places.
Sorbo called that Jesus would have been a Trump supporter. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Sorbo's knowledge of Christianity.
It's funny how this character supposedly goes atheist because of losing a loved one, but in reality it's often the other way. People turn to god or other addictions because of a traumatic life event.
It’s just the narrow idiotic way the makers of these movies try to rationalize the world and justify their hatred towards everything that isn’t their specific viewpoint.
