Brother Jeff Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Excellent review of the movie by an atheist: http://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/09/04/aetheists-god-movie-dvd/15067209/ Given what I know now about that movie, I will likely not see it. It's sad that many Christians will love this movie and think that it accurately portrays atheists. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Christians love their propaganda. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Jeff Posted September 8, 2014 Author Share Posted September 8, 2014 My thoughts on this subject are posted here: http://religionisbullshit.me/god-dead-movie-offers-disturbing-portrayal-atheists/ Glory! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Jeff Posted September 8, 2014 Author Share Posted September 8, 2014 Christians love their propaganda. Yes, indeed they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themonkeyman Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Actually like Christians there are two forms of Athiests E.g. Wee old woman Christian who keeps herself to her self. West Bro Baptist Church vs Athiest who keeps himself to himself (Stephen Hawking) Militiant Athiest - Richard Dawkins So its obvious that the Movie coming from the standpoint of 'Old Woman' would view Atheist as 'Militant Atheist' After reading and studying the History of Alexandria my view is that Most Christians are Militiant (e.g. West Bro) and Athiests are those who keep themselves to themselves. Bottom line is - Christians can afford to produce these horrendus works because their Churches act on a Punishment beating racket e.g. You pay us or something bad *might* happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExCBooster Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Interestingly, this movie is a great example of how the propaganda bubble of wishful thinking keeps Christians hamstrung in actual debates. As long as their only contacts with "atheists" are strawmen like God is Not Dead provides, they don't have the chance to see actual, well-thought out arguments against their own position. This keeps uncomfortable questions from coming up, but it also provides absolutely zero practice dealing with said uncomfortable questions - when they actually get into it with someone who's nice, polite, and whose argument has actual teeth, it can become a disaster. It turns out, the atheist isn't the rampaging, knuckle-dragging tool-shed they'd been led to expect (could it be that somebody's been lying?). Maybe, you've known this person for a long time, and you thought they were sweet and generous, and you didn't even know they were an atheist, until you brought it up. Suddenly, Christian arguments aren't working the instant-conversion magic you've always been told they were. ...Yeah, it can go really, really badly, if you have no idea what the opposing side in an argument actually is, yet you assume that you have all the answers. As weird as it is, here's a quote from Sun Zi that sums it up nicely: "know yourself, know your enemies, victorious in a hundred battles. Do not know yourself or your enemy, disaster in every battle." But, I doubt they give much credence to a war manual that's been around for longer than the New Testament - older than most of the Bible, really. It was written and revised by non-Christians, after all... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 It was funny how when I went to college my number one concern was that some professor would try to kill my faith. There were some fellow students who would smirk or giggle whenever I would play the roll of a Bible thumper. If I wore my faith on my sleeve that would get a few responses but never from a teacher. No professor ever expressed the slightest interest in my faith. The closest thing was an English teacher who said we could not write about theology because students who did thought their English mistakes were graded based on their religion. So she simply forbid the entire topic. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orbit Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Professors get a bad rap in America. The straw man is that they are evangelical atheists who use the classroom as a pulpit. Nothing could be further from the truth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ Fuego ♦ Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 I did actually have a very loud-mouthed atheist sociology prof. I dropped his class because I wasn't learning anything about sociology, just his latest opinions on Christians. Occasionally the caricature fits. But through the past 30 years, he's the only atheist I've encountered like that. Mostly I've seen loud mouthed believers just certain if they can fling out enough Bible verses (Sword of the spirit) that Satan will be defeated and people will be convicted of sin and repent. Lots and lots of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themonkeyman Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 In the UK in my Religious Education class e.g. which basically was only Christianity back then all we studied was Noah and then watched American Pie. There was a teacher who was a member of the Scripture Union and he loved to play 'koom by ah' lol Obviously the girls loved him and eventually he was sacked for having a relationship with a Girl. Intrestingly he is now the Principal of an All Girls School. Funny how God succeeds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdparker520 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 I was a Christian while in undergrad, and had a Humanist philosophy professor. I engaged in quite a lot of pointed questioning and debate while taking the class, and often stayed after to continue our discussions. Not once did I feel disrespected or marginalized even though he completely disagreed with me and I was taking up class time with my Christian perspectives. This stands in sharp contrast to the depiction in the movie. I think that Christian parents feel the need for an explanation of why their children leave the faith when they go to college and get an education. They can't accept the fact that better education and critical thinking tends to lead to loss of faith, so they have to blame it on the evil professors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentLoner Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Kevin Sorbo is a POS. Not much more to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentLoner Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Just for fun: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
directionless Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 It was funny how when I went to college my number one concern was that some professor would try to kill my faith. There were some fellow students who would smirk or giggle whenever I would play the roll of a Bible thumper. If I wore my faith on my sleeve that would get a few responses but never from a teacher. No professor ever expressed the slightest interest in my faith. The closest thing was an English teacher who said we could not write about theology because students who did thought their English mistakes were graded based on their religion. So she simply forbid the entire topic. I did actually have a very loud-mouthed atheist sociology prof. I dropped his class because I wasn't learning anything about sociology, just his latest opinions on Christians. Occasionally the caricature fits. But through the past 30 years, he's the only atheist I've encountered like that. Mostly I've seen loud mouthed believers just certain if they can fling out enough Bible verses (Sword of the spirit) that Satan will be defeated and people will be convicted of sin and repent. Lots and lots of those. It sounds like humanities and social sciences professors are more likely to have these kinds of discussions about atheism that challenge Christian students? It's interesting that they don't seem to happen in science classes that would present concepts that contradict fundamentalist beliefs. I never experienced any animosity towards Christianity when I was in college. I remember going around one Sunday asking if any of the other students wanted to go to church. Nobody made fun of me even though I'm sure they were mostly atheists. The same was true of the professors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orbit Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 I wanted to give an insider's view of the whole "professor pushing their opinions on students" thing. I'm currently a sociology professor at a state university in the US. One of things I teach is sociology of religion. It is actually quite easy to go about my job the same way a biologist goes about their job. I simply present the facts, encourage critical thinking, and present the state of current scholarship in the field. None of my students would ever guess I was an atheist. Why? Because my personal opinions don't belong in the classroom. Most professors were trained into this way of thinking. When a professor does give their opinion in the classroom, I guarantee that they won't be doing it very long. Why? Doesn't tenure protect them? Tenure only protects you from being fired without due process. That's it. In practice, the universal practice of using student course evaluations alerts the university to problems along these lines. If a professor is using the classroom as a soapbox, the students will mention it on the evaluations and it will be stopped. In addition, many universities, like mine have an item on the evaluation form that asks students to rate professors on this: "Professor created an unbiased learning atmosphere?". So there are checks and balances. Does it happen? Occasionally. Does it happen for long? No. The real danger comes in when fundies want to argue that a fact is an opinion, as is done with evolution. I eat lunch with the science profs and asked them about it today. They said it's never come up. I was glad to hear that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VacuumFlux Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 I was raised with the idea that secular universities were full of god-hating professors denying the Plain Truth, and that you'd be persecuted for standing up for your beliefs. Then I got there, and both my advisors, in the hard sciences, turned out to be devout christians who were free to be open about their faith. I mean, they didn't bring it up in the classroom because it was irrelevant, but one had fliers on his door for one for something like the faculty and staff christian club, and both were quite talkative about it in office hours if I brought it up. And they both accepted evolution and global warming and psychiatric treatment as valid. (One of the conversations was pretty much the cheesy boat story, but about begging god to rescue them from depression instead of a flood, and god saying "look, I gave you doctors, why haven't you made an appointment yet?" Having been raised in the type of fundy that demonizes psychiatric treatment even more than the general populus does, that was a good conversation for me to have.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeExChristian Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 It makes me sick knowing that my friends and family are buying this garbage. I cannot stand my minority being straw-manned in this way. Around the time the movie was more popular, I was sure to tell my friends that this movie is not a good depiction of atheists. While I just hoped that my family would simply not buy into it. How come there can't be an anti-religious equivalent to this film? One that shows off all the insecurities and loop-holes in Christianitty? How it destroys morality and self esteem? Creates unhealthy and arbitrary standards? Religious sheeple would bust an eye nerve and cry persecution. I have nothing personal against Christians themselves, I am remorseful of their loss. I personally only see brainwashed victims of indoctrination. But Christianity itself... I cannot stand Christianity. Fucking Christianity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentLoner Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 How come there can't be an anti-religious equivalent to this film? One that shows off all the insecurities and loop-holes in Christianitty? How it destroys morality and self esteem? Creates unhealthy and arbitrary standards? Religious sheeple would bust an eye nerve and cry persecution. "The God Who Wasn't There" was pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilith666 Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 I thought it sounded kind of funny....like in an unintentionally cheesy way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilith666 Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 It was funny how when I went to college my number one concern was that some professor would try to kill my faith. There were some fellow students who would smirk or giggle whenever I would play the roll of a Bible thumper. If I wore my faith on my sleeve that would get a few responses but never from a teacher. No professor ever expressed the slightest interest in my faith. The closest thing was an English teacher who said we could not write about theology because students who did thought their English mistakes were graded based on their religion. So she simply forbid the entire topic. Awww....it's too bad that Xians are still telling their kids that secular colleges declare open season on poor, little, innocent Xian children of Gawd. I had that attitude in middle school--that every time a teacher mentioned evolution, s/he was trying to attack the lord and was probably being used by Satan. I still cringe when I recall trying to declare war on the seventh-grade science teacher. I read an article somewhere that tried to reinforce this stereotype. Wish I could remember what it was called. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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