Poll: Does God Ruin The Message?

[LikeDustInTheWind]

Add a "sometimes" option for the poll and that will be the majority. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Bantarific]

The same can, and I know how this is going to sound, with Richard Dawkins. Love the guy, enjoy the science he's done, but too often does he stray into a realm and territory where his knowledge falters completely. Great scientist, brilliant mind...but it's horrible how ignorant he is over the concept of religion.

Dawkins is so full of himself it's a wonder he can talk. That's not so much a flaw in atheism as it is a flaw in many humans, many of which are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other monotheistic believers. Arrogance and self-love are not atheist traits. They're human traits.

Therein lies the insinuation of the overall problem though: That Christianity deserves to be heavily criticized but these othe faiths, beliefs, etc...don't. At all. Under any notion.

And that, my friend, is a strawman you're currently knocking down.

I don't see how it's a strawman given the fact that it's one of the more prevailing thoughts throughout the general disagreeance with Christianity specifically speaking. Either that or it's the easiest one to attack, but overall people do exhibit that mentality towards "religion" and the "power struggle" portion of it to denote the immorality of it.

As an athiest, the main problem I have with christianity is not that of the faith itself, (if everyone was an actual christian that acutally followed christian beliefs there would be total world peace and kindness.) But that'd I'd that a large amount of christians don't follow any of the teachings of Christ or the Bible, are arrogant, intolerant and petty and yet are so disillusioned that they still think they're devout. Another problem is specifically with what you originally said, that you have a problem with people being non-christian or athiest or "pagans." How less christian can you get from after that statement right there? "I am christian, I believe in treating others how I wish to be treated, and kindness and love, but people who don't believe like me make me sick and have no moral center because of course christianity is the true moral center."

ot: God being involved in a story doesn't ruin it for me, neither does the story being centered around religion. If it's pseudo-christianity/islam/hinduism etc showing that, that religion is somehow superior in the world it makes me stop there.

 

[Rockchimp69]

I don't like art that explores "who god is" or the "nature of god" because it's like their assuming they exist and then making up a bunch of pointless "ooo wouldn't it be cool if?" scenarios for it.

Although I don't mind if God is "real" in a story because it's just another part of the world the writer is showing you.

 

[Brandon237]

It's not a total deal-breaker, but I can honestly say that I become less interested in things when I realize they're a metaphor for god. It the book/movie is very well written I don't mind it as much, but if the god-being is all that holds it together I'd really rather not bother with it.

And yes, my objection is almost entirely with the Judea-Christian God, because other gods, like Zeus, were portrayed as a more human character that had humility. God apologized for one thing in the whole bible and some of the things he rained hellfire down for were silly.

This and uh... this to the second paragraph as well.
I did enjoy Book of Eli very much, but the whole god aspect did make me like the ending a bit less. Although your purpose point there was also very important, god was just a catalyst for the story, a driving mechanism, but not the subject of it. Had it been the other way around... problems...

As to the second paragraph, so true, turning people to salt for turning their heads?! Making people give sacrifices?! And then still trying to act as an unquestionable morale judge?! But with the other gods, they had a human aspect and were never meant to be portrayed as morally superior, so one bad deed did not condemn them to being complete hypocrites who I do not like hearing about.

That was... aggressive of me =/ Point stands regardless though.

 

[kickyourass]

Not necessarily no, for me the inclusion of God (any god really) can actually work in a movies favor. Bruce Almighty for example, that was an awesome movie and God was more or less the entire point (Though the kinda shy away from naming any specific god, which I liked).
Other times however it can break a movie for me, to use your example of Book of Eli, unless it's some kind of battle between gods or something, putting God in an action movie takes ALL tension out of it. I mean to paraphrase the man himself "Once God (As in capital G God) enters the picture you immediately know who's gonna win."

 

[the spud]

If they want to shove it down our throats then yes it ruins it for me, but if it is used only as a plot devise then it can potentially work.

 

[Hagi]

There are different ways to depict god in stories.

Some depict god as something that's purely in that story, no judgments are made outside of the story. That's fine, no problems at all.

Others depict god as basically an evangelistic message, implying that I'm a bad person that will go to hell because I don't go to church and do not believe in Jesus Christ (or whatever applies most closely for other religions). That isn't fine, the author is basically continually insulting me. Which really pulls me out of the story and robs it from any enjoyment.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

You know what? I don't necessarily have a problem with at as long as their not trying to shove it down my throat, but a story that features an existing religion's interperatation of God just seems rather dull. I'd like to see the writer get more creative with it, try to give a perspective of a deity that people might not have considered before, something that may cause the reader to think about things in a new light.

 

[Vhite]

If it's my God - Yay!
If it's not - Yay! Mythology!
Actually I can even enjoy stuff that goes against my religion (lika kinda His Dark Materials).

 

[GigaHz]

Peoples perception of God ruins the message.

When most people think of God, they think of the stereotypical religious definition of an invisible being floating in the clouds, watching over all of creation. I do not. I like to think that the nature of God is infinitely complex and more likely to be a measure of force, time, or energy. So to someone like myself, any mention of God doesn't bother me.

However, if you think of God in a religious sense and you find the notion ridiculous, I can understand where you're coming from. My only advice to you is to either look at it from a purely fictional standpoint or if the interpretation of God is open ended, create a scenario in which that view of God is acceptable to your beliefs.