Hollywood Gets Religion

Dark days for us atheists - Hollywood's string of hits with religious films is becoming a genre. See http://www.deadline.com/2014/03/biblical-and-faith-based-movies-hollywood/ One religious movie after another has earned money, so Hollywood will give us more.

What does it all mean?

Simple religious belief is more widespread than educated skeptics may wish.

The left will probably fail to replace faith in God with faith in the government.

Most people don't care about biblical accuracy or church dogmas because these movies play fast and loose with the details. Most people are deists, no matter their nominal church affiliation.

I'm atheist, but I'll take religion over worship of the state.

 

I see nothing particularly religious about making a stack of cash on religion. Something about the Lord's name in vain.. probably one of the most important 10 commandments. Consider all your problems with religious people and see if they don't stem from those people failing to heed that commandment.

 

Why do people keep saying that if you are not religious you worship the government? I just don't get that line of reasoning at all.

 

The only movie based on the Bible that did very well was Noah (Even know it had a budget of $125,000,000 and has raked in $93,000,000). Even the director said that it was the least Biblical movie in history.

None of the other movies, to my knowledge, did exceptionally well at the box office (Except for Passion of the Christ, but that was released 10 years ago).

 

The movie Noah was written by an atheist and from all accounts (one) entirely trashed the bible story all together. Feel better?

 

I think because human nature abhors a vacuum. If you are tossing religion out of your toolkit, what do you replace it with to satisfy that religious impulse? Something obviously, and given that the major competition with religion for the past century or so is state worship, that's a good guess. Maoist China and the Soviet Union were officially atheistic governments that discouraged or persecuted traditional religion, but they elevated the state to that status.


Basically, if you are not worshiping God or gods, you'll be worshiping something else, even if you don't call it worship. And in our current culture that replacement is usually the State, to provide heaven on earth.

 

I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that humans have this inset need to worship something. Do you have anything to back up this claim? I don't feel the need to worship anything and don't. That's why I find it strange that you would jump to this crazy conclusion. Are people praying to the state? Do they gather in state churches and sing songs to the state? Honestly when I think of state worship I think more of the Republican party who loves to go crazy about America, and they are also religious for the most part.

 

Ah, you are one of those blank slatists huh? And you are asking me for evidence! Ha!

 

What are you talking about?

 

So theocracy over secularism? great, it's the way forward

 

There's nothing religious about making money from people's religiosity. It's the people, not the producers, who are religious. Agree with your statement about socialists.

 

I'm in full agreement with your second paragraph.

Sadly, most people need to believe in some big thing that makes sense of life. People who leave religion usually don't leave it for rationalism; they seek a substitute belief to meet the same emotional need. For most people on the left, the State takes the place of God. That's why they're willing to accept misdeeds by the State - for the same reason Job accepted misdeeds by God. It's only unbounded faith in the State that let's people look the other way.

 

The production companies look at return on investment. A movie cheaply made that returned many times the investment is a bigger (business) success than a movie made for a fortune that made only a small percent of the investment as profit. The producers reason that had they spent more they would have made more.

 

Not much. Six months from now, low-information viewers will assure you the movie's inaccurate story is in the Bible.

- - - Updated - - -

Exactly.

 

That's ok liberals never know the stories in the bible anyway. Then again, neither do i

 

You're exceptional. Most people fear unanswered questions; they're afraid of the dark; they need to feel they understand how things work, even if their knowledge is fiction. My evidence? The history of human deference to religion and to secular authority.

 

I've no love for religion, but at least religions have ethics of one sort or another; religious people are obliged to pay deference to their own rules, even if they don't always obey them. The State, however, believes it can do anything at all. Governments may offer cosmetic rationalizations for what they do, but, claiming to act for all, they feel free to do anything. That makes them deadly.

 

A topic for another thread, but movies too often supplant history and the books they're supposedly based on. Since more people see the movie than read the book or learn the history, the movie becomes a substitute truth.

 

It would be nice if Hollywood went for the lesser known stories,
Gideon for example Judges 6 - 8
or Judges 4, Prophetess Deborah, Barack and Sisera too. Featuring Ja'al - Did she violate laws of hospitality?
or The Book of Ruth, it stands alone.

There are lots of good stories of faith.
It is too bad Hollywood sticks with a few major well known stories.
Even Roma Downey skipped the above referenced examples.



Moi
Israel's enemies would do well to acquaint themselves with the Bible, "Judges" and learn;
it is better to make nice with the Chosen.

No ​

 

I don't disagree with you, and in fact I think this is where a lot of religion came from was that need to find meaning and the need to know how the world works around us. That said today we have the sciences which, while there are still unanswered questions, helps us understand the world around us. Maybe you are right, maybe many people cannot accept "I don't know" as an answer to their questions. In these cases they are likely to turn to religion because it says it has the answers. This also explains why many people mock science because our conclusions change as our understanding grows. I think it takes a weak mind to fall into that trap, but maybe rather than that it is that it takes a strong mind to stay out of that trap. I don't know.

 

I see what you are saying about the left being more likely to say "government is the answer," however I'd hardly call it worship. They see the government as a tool to shape the world in the image they want it to be; same with the right.

 

What rules does Satanism, Wicca and Islam have, that you would like the government to copy?

 

Science takes more intelligence and more learning than most people have. Religion and the state both offer easy platitudes.

 

So what's your solution then?

 

The left really worships power. They see the State as the ultimate power. They may smear a patina of moralism over their power-worship, e.g., "we love the State because it will bring about Program X," but whether the long-sought goals materialize or not, they don't abandon their faith in the power of the State as the source of salvation. They pray that the State is merciful toward their goals, but they magnify the State in every way they can, regardless. There is no part of life they feel couldn't be improved if only the government controlled it. Nothing bad ever happens without their saying increased State power could have prevented it.

The right, and here I speak only of the contemporary American right of conservatism and libertarianism, not the old European right of fascism, abhors the State and seeks to minimize its involvement in life. The issue is confused by Establishment Republicans - the Bushes, Romney, Rove, etc. - who are in bed with the Statists of the left. But they're not the American right - Ronald Reagan, Rand Paul, Kruse, Lee, etc.