I watched this movie for the 1st time out of the blue. I laughed in several parts out loud becoz it was so fairy tale- ish. God is going to save u BS.
It was not laughable at all. In fact it was quite telling. while many religious beliefs are irrational, there are many aspects that are beneficial and positive. And don't think I am getting all religious on you, I am agnostic. But to be so self-righteous in hating on others beliefs is just as bad as the religious crowd and how they act.
Throughout the whole movie I was thinking this shed a really irrational and down right stupid projection of believing in god. I couldn't figure out why she believed, believed and then doubted.
Again, you are hating on others belief systems. This film actually did pretty decent job of showing the mentality of humankind and how we search for meaning. I minored in human geography. Many of my studies concerned the beliefs of humans and how and why those beliefs came into being. People are always searching for meaning. Why do you think so many who do not believe in god throw their belief system into the science ring? Science is a god to many who do not choose religion. They want to know where we came from and how we got here. The processes involved and where they will lead us.
Shooting her daughter was f."'! ridiculuos then not shooting herself becoz that's suicide. I was raised catholic btw and certainly am not that now.
Of course it was ridiculous. That was the whole point. That was showing the side of religion that is absurd. Like one of my favorite songs says, "do it in the name of heaven and you can justify it in the end." The song is called, "One Tin Soldier," and is about how we treat other people. People use their religion, whether that religion be chrisianity, islam, or science, to justify all sorts of atrocities. And often times these people are hypocritical and make little sense. She killed her daughter because she had the idea her god wanted her to. However, you are incorrect about why she did not kill herself. She did not kill herself because she was too afraid to do it. She never said she did not kill herself because suicide means you go to hell. That is strictly a catholic belief, not something you find in evangelicals. But the point here is that she allowed her belief system to justify her doing something irrational and horrendous.
Ok, so is this film pro or anti religion. While I believe the film did show a good side to religion, in that she and her husband actually were able to utilize religion to help them get out of a very destructive lifestyle, it also showed how irrational religion can be. Thus you saw the destructive side of religion. In the end you saw her not being able to justify loving a god who wanted her to love him/her but would allow her to murder her daughter. Honestly I took the ending of the movie as if it were really happening. It could be that she had gone insane and imagined the whole thing. But if it really happened then we actually see an interesting take on what could happen if any of us were put in the situation of having a god tell us that we simply had to love him. The film is obvious fantasy. However, when we suspend our believe system to view this film we can put ourselves in the place of the character dealing with this situation. I know I have always questioned a god who supposedly says we are ALL his children, yet allows all the pain and suffering we see in the world. How could any being allow their children to be tortured, starved, abused, and everything else we see in our world? How could her god allow her to take her own child's life believing she was doing so in his name? Once she got as close as she could to confronting god, without accepting him into her heart again, she could not justify or honestly love him/her. So I see the film as not truly being anti-religion, I do see it showing the absurdity that can spring from religion. It also tackles how one might deal with their god while trying to logically justify loving their god.
I really need to watch the film again. I found it profound. Most Christians I know hate the film. the scene where she kills her daughter haunts me. But it shows how religion can be such a horrible thing. Remember Abraham was willing to murder his son, or so the bible says, in the name of his god. And every believer will tell you what wonderful faith Abraham had and how great he was. You will hear the believers tell you they wish they had faith like Abraham. What you should be hearing is people saying how horrible it is that a person would be willing to kill their child because a voice told them to. That is called mental illness. But religion teaches us it is faith and a good thing. I think when she killed her daughter she had an epiphany, albeit to late, about how wrong it was for god to want us to love him/her, while allowing these things to occur.
reply
share