Christ Centered Gamer

I just saw this movie with my Mom and sister. I think it was courageous for Josh to stand up for God. The sound track was great too. The ending was hard to watch (I do not want to spoil it for those who have not seen the movie) though. If you saw this movie, what did you think?

I enjoyed the movie, tried to think what I would do if I wer ein the same scenario. The arguments were really good, wish more time was spent on that instead of making atheists look like bad people. I did like the conversions and how they did not promise an easy life and in some cases made their lives more challenging.

Is it anything like the trailer?

pretty much

Yeah, because that trailer was just the worst.

I just saw "God's Not Dead" just recently with my family it was really courageous for Josh to stand up for God and I cried at a certain spot in the movie which touched my heart greatly and I don't want to give out any big details
for people who haven't seen the movie but it is really good and you should definitely see it!
Qshop

It was a great movie! However it was VERY poorly done. Quite a few of the camera angles were not well done and it made me feel like I was on the set, not on a college campus. But I liked the arguments, and I have to side with you CCGR it made Atheists look like total jerks who are out to trip up all Christians. When MANY atheists are just friendly people who live and act in a moral way but will burn forever in the fires of hell.

I liked it.

3 stars

It's beyond that, it's a complete misrepresentation. It's Strawman Argument: the movie.
Either the writers has never had a real relationship with an Atheist, or they are maliciously lying. Probably the former. The trailer plays off like a Christian's fantasy on how they stick it to what they think the Atheist is like. Actually, I don't think I'd like it as a Christian, either. It just seems so patronizing.
I mean, you guys here are 10 times more reasonable than those who wrote that movie.

HankTheCowdog wrote:When MANY atheists are just friendly people who live and act in a moral way but will burn forever in the fires of hell.

I liked it.

How. Why. How.

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

Lazarus wrote:

HankTheCowdog wrote:When MANY atheists are just friendly people who live and act in a moral way but will burn forever in the fires of hell.

I liked it.

How. Why. How.

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

My thoughts exactly...

HankTheCowdog wrote:When MANY atheists are just friendly people who live and act in a moral way but will burn forever in the fires of hell.

haha, wow.

This movie is awful. They make Atheists seem like cartoon villains. As if Atheists are Atheists because they hate God. Just..ugh. People shouldn't support Preaching to the Choir crap like this.

ArchAngel wrote:It's beyond that, it's a complete misrepresentation. It's Strawman Argument: the movie.
Either the writers has never had a real relationship with an Atheist, or they are maliciously lying. Probably the former. The trailer plays off like a Christian's fantasy on how they stick it to what they think the Atheist is like. Actually, I don't think I'd like it as a Christian, either. It just seems so patronizing.
I mean, you guys here are 10 times more reasonable than those who wrote that movie.

Pretty much have to echo what Arch said.

A friend of mine wrote a great blog post about the movie that tells much better than I could why it's so offensive.

In the end the central injustice of this movie is its failure to fairly represent a class of people whom Christians purport to love. But it’s not loving people well to misrepresent them this badly. This movie caricatures, dehumanizes, and depersonalizes people like me, portraying us in the worst possible light. How could I not find this movie disgustingly offensive? Every single atheist in this film is a spineless, uncaring jerk. This is how you love someone like me? You made atheists the bad guys! And not even complex bad guys. You made us two-dimensional cartoon villains who rub our hands together menacingly, tweaking our pencil-thin moustaches above our sinister grins. Children should be afraid to come near us. Employers should think twice before hiring us. And clearly women should steer clear of dating us because obviously we lack hearts.

This is not love. You cannot love people while ignoring everything they tell you about themselves. You are not loving people when you refuse to listen to their stories. You are not loving them well when you decide before hearing them that you already know all that you need to know about them, overruling their own self-descriptions and self-identifications because you are convinced you know better than they do what’s going on inside of them. When you continually speak of people in terms to which they cannot agree, you are not showing them respect or validating them as real people. This movie represents a grievous failure to love people like me. If you watch this and then beg me to go watch it as well, it tells me that in some way you accept its presentation of what I am like even though I’m telling you it’s not accurate. If you say you are to be known by how you love, then this should upset you. The words may be there, but the thing your words promise is not.

(By the way, the author of that blog is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet anywhere. He's the real deal.)

And just for fun, here's a couple of articles by an actual atheist philosophy professor about all the problems with God's Not Dead. They're a little wordy, but well worth a read.

How "God's Not Dead" Makes Christians Look Even Worse Than Atheists

A Philosophy Professor Analyzes God’s Not Dead’s Case For God

... You made us two-dimensional cartoon villains who rub our hands together menacingly, tweaking our pencil-thin moustaches above our sinister grins. Children should be afraid to come near us. Employers should think twice before hiring us. And clearly women should steer clear of dating us because obviously we lack hearts.

Wow... this is almost as bad as depicting Christians as bigoted, humorless prudes who villainously adhere to outdated traditions and run their households with a tyrannical fist.

You know... pretty much the way Christians are depicted in nearly any form of media.

Unless it's a Catholic priest. Then he's also a child molester.

Now, I haven't seen the movie, so take my thoughts for what they're worth. But from what I've read and heard, it seems to me that the creators of "God's Not Dead" are doing a bit of payback with how Christian characters - if they're depicted in anything more than a cursory, background role - are stereotyped in media these days. If you take a look at movies, TV shows, or even books (outside the margins of "Christian fiction" or attempts to adapt stories from real events, that is), if Christians appear at all, you would be hard-pressed to find examples that don't fit into the mold I presented above.

In fact, that image has become so commonplace that it's almost as if those outside the Christian faith(s) do picture Christians in that light - the straw man has become the stereotype, in their eyes. And given how divided the nation has become these past few years, I'm sure the opposite is true as well - some Christians view those who don't believe in Christ to be God-hating fundamentalists who want to remove all religion from the public eye (it doesn't help that some of the more vocal atheists in the media actually come off this way. And before you get all defensive, remember that us Christians have to try and distance ourselves from the Westboro Baptists any time they make their appearances, so we tend to have the same issues there!)

If anything, this movie might at least spark an intellectual dialogue. As can be seen, atheists don't like being depicted as flat, two-dimensional cartoon villains... which is exactly how Christians have been depicted pretty much since the '70s. Maybe before - I haven't exactly researched this topic extensively.... But perhaps it might encourage writers to put more thought and effort into developing characters from different ideologies than their own, rather than using token, stock depictions while weaving their narratives.

So fighting fire with fire; totally what Jesus would do.

And while that is mostly snark, on a serious note: Why does this seem like a good idea? Jesus said "Turn the other cheek", and this certainly isn't doing that... Plus, if Hollywood is as bad as you say (Though I am less sure of that), then why should we stoop to their level? It makes people who do have malicious intents (However common they may or may not be) feel justified because they got a rise out of you.


Also.

Sstavix wrote:Unless it's a Catholic priest. Then he's also a child molester.

Dan Brown disagrees. Catholics are obviously illuminati-esque supervillains conspiring to control the world from the shadows.

Which frankly is kind of an awesome way to be fictionalized. If I ever get depicted, make me the conspiring, string-pulling, shadow-working type.

And before any of you go on a Dan Brown rant, let me head you off with a rant of my own: Anyone who thinks The Da Vinci code has basis in reality is ignorant. The Priory of Sion was a confirmed hoax, and the evidence the book and movie cite are largely circumstantial. Ian McKellen, who played Leigh Teabing in the movie, said of the book:

"While I was reading the book I believed it entirely. Clever Dan Brown twisted my mind convincingly. But when I put it down I thought, 'What a load of [pause] potential codswallop.'"

I actually take bigger issue with Angels & Demons, because of just how bad it is when it comes to science. If Dan Brown's history is bad, his science is worse. Antimatter is neither producible in large quantities, nor is it an efficient source of energy given how much it requires to create.


Welp. That drifted off topic...