Jay_Schweikert comments on Non-theist cinema? - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Jay_Schweikert 08 January 2012 07:54AM

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Comment author: Jay_Schweikert 08 January 2012 06:06:15PM 4 points [-]

I'm not familiar with all of these, so I'll definitely try to look into some of them. I certainly didn't mean to imply that the movies I mentioned were the only explicitly atheist movies out there -- just that it was quite rare in major motion pictures. The Golden Compass is a good example that simply slipped my mind, and perhaps There Will Be Blood and Watchmen -- the latter two at least have prominent characters who are atheists, even if atheism isn't really part of the story itself. But the point is well-taken -- there's more out there than I mentioned.

However, I would question why some of these are on the list. Saved pretty clearly comes away with the message that God is real, but that he wants us to tolerate and appreciate our differences. Contact (at least the movie) suggests that Occam's Razor isn't all it's cracked up to be, and seems to liken belief in God to belief in Ellie's trip (which is sympathetic). And while I confess that I haven't seen all of the original The Wicker Man, isn't the protagonist a sympathetic Christian?

Anyway, maybe I'm just missing something, but these ones confused me. Otherwise, I appreciate the examples!

Comment author: [deleted] 08 January 2012 07:08:13PM *  0 points [-]

isn't the protagonist a sympathetic Christian?

Christian? Yes. Sympathetic? Debatable. His beliefs don't work in his favor, to say the least.

Comment author: lukeprog 08 January 2012 06:44:41PM 0 points [-]

Yeah, I might be remembering some of these wrongly.

Another atheist flick is Begotten. And maybe Gummo.