Expelled and the Non-Believers

So this movie Expelled is getting some interesting attention. Some positive, some not so positive. I haven't see it yet, so I'll reserve judgement on the film, the info, and message, etc. I did see the preview and was uninspired - but then Ben Stein hasn't ever inspired me. I do have some friends who've seen it and I'm hopeful they'll comment on it. Was it filled with facts and valid data, or hype and fluff? Do the non-Christian reviewers treat it fairly, or is it being bashed for no good reason? Here is a response I got when I asked some friends if they'd seen it and if they were watching with an open mind - in case it was filled with fluff (I asked them to be cautious and not sheep!):

I went to see this movie today because I knew I would be asked about it. After reading a blazing review in the Gazette about how full of garbage it was, I went expecting it to be a “You must Believe” film made by Fundamentalists. I was both wrong and moved to think deeeeeply about the freedoms we have or don’t have in this country. I have begun to wonder over the last couple of years whether America is truly the free-est country on earth. Stein makes it a point to say that regarding science, Poland is freer than we are! Ugh!

Whereas the reviewer had made the part about Nazi Germany out to be hogwash, I found it very interesting and even frightening.

I used to be more open to the idea of Darwinism than I am today. When I viewed another Intelligent Design film that detailed what a single cell contains, it shook the evolutionary theory to the bones.

After seeing the film “Expelled”, I went to see that Yahoo reviewers had to say. After noticing that Yahoo won’t even let their reviewers review the film, I read 20-30 user reviews and found them very balanced and including agnostics, atheists and Christians, are more upset about what they deem a lack of freedom or “being told” what to think, than about the issues of evolution.

I think Ben Stein might have put his finger on something that is bothering the American people but they haven’t known how to articulate it up until now. I think we are nervous about being told what to think. I think we are fearful that we might be losing freedoms we have held dear. I could imagine that a movie like this and a follow up, could be a movie(s) that could shape the American mindset in years to come. I definitely think Ben has the potential for a “cult classic” on his hands.

I am considering having our church go to see this movie. It strikes at the heart of what I stand for, questions! I WANT PEOPLE TO THINK! I DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO SHUT OFF THEIR MINDS JUST BECAUSE THEY MIGHT BELIEVE IN JESUS OR IN GOD!

I came away from this movie being challenged to really think.

Greg

Wow - good insight and perspective. What do the rest of you think? What do Muslim's think? Jews? Hindus? Is this just a Christian topic, or do other faiths struggle with creation vs evolution?

Can’t we just agree to disagree?

No! That’s the resounding answer I tend to get from friends, family (oh man do I get it from the family), newscasters, religious leaders, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindu’s, Scientologists, sports fans, etc. We can’t both have an opinion that’s valid. I’m right and you’re wrong! Bill O’Reilly thinks so. Keith Olberman thinks so. Sean Hannity thinks so. Pat Robertson thinks so. Mugabe thinks so. Al-Sadr thinks so. Kim Jong-il thinks so. Red Sox fans, Yankees fans, Red State / Blue State people, Obama, Clinton, McCain – they all think so. They’re right and if you don’t agree you’re wrong. There is no dialogue – just debate.

In America, at some point during this century, we went from being able to have healthy dialogues to having debates. People feel the need to have to prove themselves right, many times by beating someone down. If I hear someone’s opinion it’s not just good enough for me to understand it, I have to agree with them. If I don’t agree I’m not intelligent. Or I’m close minded. Or I’m uninformed. Maybe they turn up the decibel levels of the conversation. Maybe they get emotional with me. Maybe they decide to talk about me behind my back. When did this happen? Why can’t opinions be different and both be correct? They are opinions after all.

I started this blog as a way to get dialogue going about my brother the Atheists book. Some of the anecdotal feedback has been good: “thanks for letting me know about your brother the Atheists book”; “interesting questions your brother the Atheist is raising”; “good insight into the wackiness that is organized religion – thanks for posting it”. However some has been confusing: “Why are you so angry about your brother the Atheists book?”; “why is your brother the Atheist so angry with your blog?”; “why can’t you see that’s he’s right and you’re wrong?”

Lets get this down in print right now – I’m not angry about the book! I’m not angry with my brother the Atheist! Heck – I want him to sell a million copies, write another book, sell another million copies, get on Oprah and decide to share some of the wealth with me (if he doesn’t share the wealth I’ll be forced to tell all of those embarrassing stories related to bed wetting, fear of spiders, experimentation with cross dressing, etc…. whoops, maybe I just did!). He and I are great friends – at least from my point of view. We travel together, our wives are close friends, we do business together, we make each other laugh, we talk regularly. I don’t think our relationship has changed at all over the past several months/years. The book was not a surprise to me, nor was it a surprise that my brother is an Atheist. He and I have talked about this since we were teens. And for all of my close minded readers, I’m not going to have an issue with his beliefs – sorry. It’s his decision to believe what he wants to. It’s a well informed decision.

Now, hopefully everyone is on the same page here. It’s ok to be different, to like different things, to believe differently. Here are some of the things I believe:

I believe in global warming (sorry Dad) and that it’s our responsibility to help the planet. I believe that Obama would make a better president than either McCain or Clinton. I think Rush, O’Reilly, Hannity, etc are all full of crap and tend to lie or embellish to get their points across. The same goes for Al Franken who’s the same as Rush only left leaning. I think Pat Robertson and Dr. Dobson should retire before they open their mouths the next time. I don’t believe there’s any news agency that’s not biased, and therefore everyone should watch / read multiple sources (not all conservative or all liberal) to get a true picture of what’s going on out there. I disagree with the war in Iraq. I don’t think we should have gone to war in Vietnam. I think ice cream is disgusting. New born puppies smell nicer than new born babies. U2 and REM are the greatest bands of this and most other generations. Dave Mathews Band is overrated. Tequila is the greatest drink invented, next to a Flaming Moe. Baseball on TV sucks. The NCAA tournament is the greatest sporting event in the world. Popeye’s fried chicken is proof of a god. Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino are mailing it in during the late stages of their careers. The Office is currently the best show on TV. Reality TV sucks (all of it) and dumbs’ down all of us. The electric car was a great idea killed by big auto and the government. Frank Caliendo is not funny. The band of gold in the song is a wedding ring.

If you don’t agree with my opinion, ok. Tell me why. Post a comment. I won’t get mad. I might not agree with you… and that’s OK. So what? It’s just my opinion, right?

Ape shall not kill Abe!

I digress from the standard entries to take a moment to remember Charlton Heston. A favorite actor of mine and my brother the Atheist, we'll miss him. Of course we loved him in all apocalyptic movies he made: Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, Soylent Green. Quotes from these movies and others permiate our communications and have for years. "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!" Just sitting around some days one of us will pop off with some reference that our wives will cringe over.
And he was the voice of God. We grew up watching the Ten Commandments every Easter - it was how we learned a lot about the bible, watching Chuck transform from a pretty boy Egyptian to a studly yet dirty Jewish slave. My brother the Atheist personalized my copy of his book with quote from Planet of the Apes, and he refers to the Ten Commandments in the text. If you haven't seen these movies you should buy them today at Amazon.com or get them from Netflix! Is it interesting that he was both a man who made all of those movies related to God and scripture, and he also was the face of how humans will be destroying the earth during the 60's and 70's? Of course he also was the face of the NRA for a lot of years, which was very sad to me - I couldn't ever get on board with his "we should all be allowed to own guns" rhetoric. Yes people, I'm a Christian who believes the NRA is a waste of time and that the gun lobby is evil. Write it down, print it out, and of course feel free to send me hate mail. Guns are bad, people with guns can be bad, and mixing the two together is not a good idea!!

We'll miss you Chucky - and I guess they will have to pry that gun from your cold dead hands!

The Devil made you do it

Chapter 3 of my brother the Atheists book starts with a discussion of the cop out a lot of people in the world take when it comes to personal responsibility. “I sinned because Satan deceived me”; “I killed that group of Jewish people to fulfill my jihad as outlined by Mohammed”; “I shot at those Muslim’s because they’re on land given to me by God”; “I decided to molest those boys because that’s what I learned in Catholic school”. Ok, that last one was a cheap shot – I might want to leave the cheap shots to my brother the Atheist. But you get the point. Do we really do things without knowing we’re doing it? When I lie, is it really a surprise to me? What about when I commit another sin? If someone cheats on their diet is it because they didn’t have self control, or did some other worldly being temp them? I’m one who believes people make their own decisions – right or wrong. For Christians it’s called free will. For everyone it’s called having a brain and thinking for yourself. Even if someone tells you to do something, you still have to act. His chapter on this starts light and funny, and then gets into a scary story related to why he wrote the book in the first place. It’s an awesome example of misguided Christianity, or a person deciding to justify their behavior by blaming Satan. C’mon, do these people really still exist? I guess so. When I think about it we all probably do it to some degree – it’s a form of self defense so we don’t have to admit that we’re basically evil beings on this planet with our own agenda’s. No matter how hard we try we’re still sinful beings.

Where have I been?

Sorry faithful readers – travel took me away from the blog for a little while. But I’m back and better than ever! I got a chance to reread the book, and I've decided that while my brother the Atheist is angry towards organized religion, and organized Christian religion in particular, he’s really quite funny. When you pull back the layers and emotion, he’s a crack up! I talked to a friend the other day in the grocery store about the book and she commented that parts made her laugh so hard she “wet herself” a little bit! This bit of information is important for two reasons:

1. It made me realize that she not only is a good enough friend to tell be she peed in her pants when reading the book, but also that it’s really quite funny.
2. The book is growing in popularity – she’s not someone who I gave a copy of the book to. Rather she heard about it through another friend, ordered the book and has been reading it.

So we've got some good momentum going on with word of mouth communications. My friend has been reading the book in church which will lead to more readers as she’s asked questions about it. And as more people read and respond I’m hopeful the world will take notice of this first publish work of art from my brother the atheist. Have you purchased your copy yet? If not get to Amazon and get one today!

Why No Cartoons of Mohammad or Allah?

In my brother the Atheist’s book, “the why do I have toenails?” he’s got several pithy comments about Christianity. He’s got quite a few cartoons about old and new testament historical figures and stories. But in all of his discussions he doesn't bother to take on Islam – not even one cartoon making light of the extremists he’s concerned about. I find it interesting that while he’s railing on all things Christian, he skips Muslim’s completely. Heck, the Dane’s published a cartoon of Mohammad (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=12146&offer=&hidebodyad=true), and several newspapers got together to defend the artist. If all religions are dangerous, as stated in his book, then why not take on the Muslim’s that are touting fear and killing based on their religious beliefs? Mock Mohammad! Question the church leaders in Muslim countries for not stopping the madness! Ask hard questions about why they believe that Mohammad had a vision, the way he asks how anyone can believe that Joseph Smith had a vision. Why leave this large (and growing) religion off the table? I’m OK with asking questions, questioning beliefs, and disagreeing with my beliefs. But the more I dig into this book the more I think the subtitle should be “How to be the best non-Christian you can be”, vs “How to be the best Atheist you can be”.

And since we’re asking the question about Muslim’s, what about Scientologist's and L. Ron Hubbard? He was a wacky sci-fi writer who came up with a religion on his own. Something about space ships coming to earth and dropping people off near a volcano (sorry to paraphrase, but you can visit http://www.holysmoke.org/cos/what-cos.htm or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology for more details). Doesn't this sound like something you can really make fun of? South Park mocked them quite a bit (one of my brother the Atheists favorite shows). I’m sure other people have taken shots at them. But not this book. Why?

So after rereading the first couple of chapters I'm starting to conclude that my brother the Atheist might not believe in any supreme being, but he's really mad at Christianity. I'll need to look deeper into this as I read and talk to him, to gauge what this is all about. Although it's reminding me of the anger some people felt when George Bush was elected last time - there was this weird anger at all republicans and people who voted for him. Not disappointment in not having John Kerry win, or frustration with the process, but an out and out anger at people (including little George) over the results. Is there a link here, or is this a coincidence?

How did organized religion begin?

There's a great song from the '80's by XTC called 'Dear God' (it's been covered by Sarah McLachlan and others). It starts as a rant about humankind and how we've let the world go to pot. Then it changes course and becomes a rant at God - ending with the singer singing that he doesn't believe in God. In the chorus there's a line that has always struck me as very poignant - Did you make mankind after we made you? Interesting question, especially for a non-believer (like my brother the Atheist). Before I was a believer it's something I pondered quite often. When you look at all of the wacky religions out there that are clearly man made (Scientology comes to mind, along with any religion that asks you to cut off your own genitalia, kill your parents, eat garbage from a dumpster, live under the sea, etc), so many are easy to define as having a Deity that was created by the worshipers. But for the big 3 (Christianity, Judaism and Islam), how did they originate? Of course I believe that Christianity and Judaism are real in the sense that God communicated with man after creating the world. And I know the roots of Islam are in the old testament with Mohamed having a revelation from God. But somehow we all got organized and moved our beliefs forward, while Greeks and Romans, Norse and Egyptians all lost their faith... why? Why did these 3 take off? I know I'm leaving off Hinduism and a few others. But focusing on these 3 you've got 5000+ years of history - what the heck else has lasted some statically for 5000 years? It's almost a basic part of society. Doesn't that help (logically) with the relevance of Judeo-Christian beliefs? Surely if it was all made up people wouldn't be as passionate over the years to keep them alive and thriving. Whole empires have risen and fallen during the centuries, yet these 3 religions stay strong... it's interesting to me.