Really? I happened to glance at the rating for this movie earlier this week, it was around 7 ish... now, it's at around 4 something... wouldn't you know it, about 50 people who probably hadn't even seen the movie give it a 1...
So what the hell do you people care that the CHRISTIANS made a CHRISTIAN movie for CHRISTIANS??? No one is making you watch it. Hell, I haven't even seen any commercials on TV for it, so we're certainly not annoying you by shoving it in your face... SO WHAT IS IT??? What's your excuse now?
People worked hard on this film, and you vote it as low as possible just because you're not religious?
I completely agree with you. Although it wasn't a great movie, it still deserves better than 4. Anti-Christians are unbelievable sometimes. Its not like all the Christians rate all the Atheiest movies out there a 1.
Funny thing about Atheism is YOU have the Added pressure of HAVING TO BE TOTALLY RIGHT! I, as a believer, can be TOTALLY WRONG, and what is my penalty? But If I happen to be right....And I believe I am...Then I get eternal salvation! Seems like a win/win for me, and a Lose/Lose for the Atheists! So if you are atheist, if you dont believe and there is nothing after death, then you get the nothingness you expected. And if you are wrong you get eternal damnation! If I am right as a Christian, I get Eternal Salvation. And If I happen to be wrong, I get the nothing that everyone else would get. So what is the harm in being a Christian? I thought you Atheists were full of logic and reason? It is logical and reasonable to be a Christian, and I just proved it. Get a bible, start praying, read the bible, and hedge your BETS! Because if God really does exist, he is gonna be mighty unhappy with you if you have been talking crap behind his back! And if he doesn't exist? Well, you are out the cost of the bible, but at that point you dont need the money anymore anyway right!! LOL! :-)
How very sad to have to believe in something simply for fear of the consequences. To really hedge your bets, you should just believe in all of the gods - Greek, Roman, Pagan, Celtic, Norse, Native American, Arabic, African, Indian, Asian, Aboriginal, etc., since they all have their various caprices and conceits, they can all choose to punish non-believers and they can all choose to reward their followers.
Why do say that? Based on what? Our response, knowing we are in a decaying, dying world, want to respond in love to the One who loved us first. There is only One God. the only personable God. The rest are in the grave or a picture of a person's imagination.
Can you fly this plane? Surely you can't be serious. I am serious,and don't call me Shirley
Well, they can't all be right. Each one would believe that if you don't believe in their particular religion, everyone else is going to hell, including followers of other religions.
All religion's are human constructions, with their own bias's and cultural prejudices thrown into the mix. You put them under the "logic micro-scope" and religions are exposed for what they are.
You claim to know "One True God". What is that exactly? And back to the age old question, where's the proof? Religious people don't have a shred of solid evidence to back up their claim without reverting to religious beliefs and that's where they trip up, with insufficient evidence and quoting scripture that's mainly due to mental conditioning, so portray a very limited thinking when abusing the "non-believers".
I can't relate to other Atheists, because the reject the thought of a "God" outright and look down on religious people for their beliefs. Believing in a "God" is another way of tapping into the power of the mind. It has tremendous healing abilities for both body and mind that only believing in a higher power or positive thinking can achieve, a concept lost on most Atheists.
And you'll always be a slave of the mind. Mental conditioning has blinded you to reality.
This has become a predictable war of words. An Atheist obviously has an open mind considering he/she chose to get away from the "sheep" of society, while the religious always have one point of view and can't see past any other kind of reality and will never understand an Atheist's point of view.
Neither atheists nor christians have open minds, they are both on far ends of the spectrums and nothing or no one can convince them otherwise. It is us agnostics who have our minds completely open to either possibility. For no one really knows without a reasonable doubt what happens when you die. I like to imagine that I'd go on existing in some form or another, (and frankly, i envy people who have that stubborn belief) though I don't close my mind to the fact that what I know as "me" is just a happenstance of my existence in this world and that it might disappear altogether into nothingness once my heart stops beating. No matter what you believe, respect yourself, and respect each other, and im sure, if there is a God of some sort, It will let you into their....whatever. If God denied GOOD people eternal happiness or salvation or whatever, just because they weren't baptized or didn't entirely believe God existed, I'm not sure that's a god I would choose to worship. And if there is no God or life after, well then at least my family, friends, and everyone else who knew me would remember me as a good person and think back on me fondly. :)
That is a good point. Agnostics are the best placed to make such a judgment, but atheists have experienced both sides and have made the conscience choice to not believe so their mind is much more open than a religious person who have not made any choice.
It's the 'norm' in society to believe in a 'God', so the vast majority of religious people look down on and ridicule atheists and agnostics (to a lesser extent), while the feeling is not mutual in most cases so to throw atheists in the same boat as christians when it comes to having a narrow mind is a little insulting.
Times are changing in western culture. Mental conditioning is not as powerful as it used to be and the number of atheists and agnostics are growing as people are slowly waking up to the narrow mindedness of Christianity and it's "leaders".
All religions are 'Human constructions' and should not be taken too seriously, but it's the basic idea of them is how everybody should live their lives and if people need to believe in some higher power to follow them, that's fine, and it is a nice thing to believe that you will live forever in whatever form and it would be too hard for most people to believe that there is nothing to look forward to after we die.
But I made my peace with that a long time ago, and you are right when you say that we can take comfort in knowing that you will be remembered by family and friends when that time comes and that should be enough for everybody.
No, they haven't. I would say most Atheists have been born into a religious environment where it's almost impossible as kids to escape from and are victims to the mental conditioning we call religion. Atheists have made the choice to break from it while people still practicing their faith have not for whatever reason. Atheists are the only one's making a choice here.
Wow, kind of ironic to say isn't it? Since atheists can't really prove their cases any better than Christians can they?
Atheists do have a leg to stand on when it comes to an argument over the existence of a "God". Just because the argument can't be solidly proven in either direction doesn't mean it's 50/50. Atheists work of evidence (you can dispute that all you want) while Christians rely on beliefs which is no grounds for an argument in my book.
Sorry if what you'll read is slightly long, but you'll know what you're asking for.
Actually, there are very very very many proofs in the pat, present or future. in the past, there were the prophets which were able to talk to God because God called them to be His servants. They believed and obeyed. For example is Saul: he was known for killing all the Christians in their place. But then when God opened the heavens to Him, he saw a bright shining light that blinded him. He obeyed God from then on, and the only way to regain his sight is to be healed by one whom God called. Paul was his name from then on and he went to diff. places just to tell God's good news. today: Why are there many branches of Christianity, like Catholic, Seven Day Adventist, Protestant, Born Again, Baptist, etc..? Bec. the past was true...PLEASE SEARCH FOR EMMANUEL ENI'S BOOK. He'll tell you all about what the devil is doing and about their leader Satan. in the Future: The signs are happening now. Examples are the war, the typhoons, the storms, the death of many people, the microchips (which is the mark of the beast), etc... To know more about the future, read REVELATIONS at the very back of the Bible.
See baz??? There are many many many proofs and signs about Him who is the Author and he Finisher, the Beginning and the End, The Almighty Father.
I don't think you fully understand the concept of proof because what you posted was pure fantasy, and trying to pass it off as the truth which is a common trait with the religious.
I have to feel sorry for someone who has been so "mentally conditioned" to believe in something so illogical. People were gullible enough in the past to believe in the man-made construction we call religion but who could blame them. They had nothing else. But what's your defense?
Well, you're a "slave" of the mind and you choose to believe in what you were told rather than making up your own mind. You can quote bible versus all you want but I'm fully aware that that book is as fantastical as a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings Novel, so don't bother.
I'm fully aware that as soon as you read this, you will deride all I have said just as I did yours (probably worse seeing as the religious tend to be fanatical about their beliefs), but you do know that a recent study has shown that Atheism and Agnostic beliefs are on the rise (wish I had the proof but hey, you believe in bible stories), and they expect that to be the most common belief system in western culture by 2050. It's a comforting thought that people are waking up from this "slavery" but I feel your most certainly lost.
None. There's no true religion. Religion can never give you fulfilment or peace of mind because whatever the manner it takes, it is a FORM OF PRACTICE INITIATED BY MAN. For a true Christian, Christianity is NOT a religion - it is a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, based on a faith-filled understanding that He gave His only Son up to death, to give me life eternal. To be a Christian simply means - to live a Christ-like life - living my life based on the teachings and examples set by Jesus Christ.
Not saying what I do or don't believe, but if you go by the Bible, then when man created the Tower of Babel, God destroyed it for their arrogance and spread man to the four corners of the world creating all the races and cultures. Since He created all the cultures and all the different religious beliefs are culturally based, then all different religions are the true religion since they all spawned from the same source. Therefore Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and all other religions that worship a diety are the same religion, just using different rites and rituals in the course of worship.
I believe christianity is correct because of the evidence, not in spite of it. Most folks have their minds made up and won't change for anything; atheists/agnostics being glowing examples. www.reasonablefaith.org www.tektonics.org If anyone is willing to look at the evidence, it's certainly there. But like operating a radio, you can tune it out also if you want to. Just like a court room, it's not a mathematic equation, it's inference to the best explanation.
The evidence being...? If there were evidence, why would one need to "believe" in it? There is evidence for photosynthesis - so there is no reason to believe or disbelieve in it. There is no evidence for Christianity, or any other religion, which is why you need faith. Confusing faith and evidence certainly shows a pretty strong commitment to your religion, but it is also intellectually retarded.
OK, what's wrong with this picture? Jesus loves you and God loves you, too. But if you ain't lovin' 'em back you're gonna burn in hell, for-evah. =)
Wow. What was that about fear-mongering? It works pretty well, doesn't it?
I believe in Sting. If you love someone SET THEM FREE. If they don't come back, don't hate and condemn them, remember free will? Love can't be forced, too many fake believers out there who are not praticing what they preach but think they sneak through the pearly gates when their time's up based on church attendance records.
I'm not an atheist but I'm also not into fear-driven mass brain-washing.
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." - Buddha
Yes, we have free will, but remember, there are consequences to one's actions. Just because you're free to make your own choices, doesn't mean you won't have to pay for the wrong ones.
If You're SomeBlueDevil(or a real devil/demon) then you also believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit because the devil is the one who becme jealous of God in the very Beginning and is the one who causes all this confusion of beliefs. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is One. That's why it's called Holy TRINITY. TRIO. 3 in 1. It's not that i'm calling you a devil but why did you choose that name?
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn. 20:29)
This means you don't have to read the bible and pray in order to believe and worship God.
2nd: Don't lump all atheists together.
3rd: What makes you think that all atheists believe there is nothing after death? They simply don't believe that there is a unified conscious force who stands outside of creation, having created it, and guides, intervenes or in some other way is directly interested in our little existence and somehow accessible by those who "believe".
God through his creation allowed me to be created. I am therefore a creation of God. Hence i live thanks to God's exertion of Will. So if i am a pedophile mass murderer, i am still in existence only because God willed it.
In other words get off your high horse and learn something about the history of religion. The New Testament is not a bad place to start.
I see you can research scripture. But there is a difference in reading scripture and letting it go deep into your heart, your mind. responding in love, in wanting to be transformed like Christ, to be holy, set apart from a dying world that has no hope. God can not create evil. God is good. He is pure. God only creates the possibility through His gift of free will. You make the choice. Good or evil. A Christin responds in good. Even to evil. It isn't about religion. Too many use catch words such as religion. Religion is the human's way of trying to reach God and falling short. Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The rest of religion's icons are in the grave or are a picture in someone's imagination.
Can you fly this plane? Surely you can't be serious. I am serious,and don't call me Shirley
3rd: What makes you think that all atheists believe there is nothing after death? They simply don't believe that there is a unified conscious force who stands outside of creation, having created it, and guides, intervenes or in some other way is directly interested in our little existence and somehow accessible by those who "believe".
That's Deism. Don't go into something misrepresenting what you're trying to defend. You're giving Atheists a bad name.
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1. You are using the scripture out of context. This is the problem when people don't exegete the passage correctly; you get bad theology.
2. Don't lump all Christians together.
3. Do YOU think there is something after death besides God and Heaven? Most atheists I’ve met, pretty much believe life just ends; OR, in the words of Dane Cook, they will come back as a tree, which, if you think about it, means that they DO have some form of “religiousness” because reincarnation is a Hindu belief.
4. Your statement about pedophilia and being a mass murder, if used in the context that God created everyone so He allowed you (figuratively) to be that way, is not a very good argument. The reason why people become pedophiles and mass murders is because they choose to; whether it be due to the way they were conditioned or simply a mental issue. It all goes back to free will and accepting the consequences for what we do. Since your statement is in the context of God existing, I will explain it in a biblical way. Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve fell from grace by making the CHOICE to disobey God. Sin is the reason, Biblically speaking, why rape, murder, pedophilia, and every other horrible thing or disease happens. It was like a poison that entered our world. God did not make us robots and wanted us to choose and love Him freely, thus giving us the freedom to choose between right and wrong. And as we all know, every action has a reaction. You make good decisions, good things happen; you make bad decisions, bad things happen; that’s just how it works. So why did God create us, even though He knew we were going to screw up? Because He still wanted to have communion and relationship with those who would do so freely.
5. You may think Christians are idiots, naïve, or just plain stubborn; but, really, is it hurting you? If you are so open minded, why do you feel the need to CONVINCE us we are wrong? Just let us believe as we do. It is a very closed minded person who tries to change another’s way of thinking to suit their “comfortability”. Would I, as a Christian, like you to come to know Christ? Yes. But if I knew you in person I would never try to shove my beliefs down your throat. If you attacked my beliefs, however, I might explain my side, as I have done here; but, that is not “shoving it down your throat,” it is defending my world view. If I knew you, I would simply let my lifestyle show who I am in Christ.
This was not meant to be offensive in any way, but your post was just too interesting to ignore.
Anyhoo, have a wonderful day and God bless you, even if you do not believe in Him.
1. There is no way to "exegete the passage correctly". We are talking about contradictory, elliptical texts handed down by an oral tradition (Jesus spoke to crowds of illiterate men), written down a generation or two later by men with this agenda or that, and edited, re-edited, translated and re-translated and reinterpreted over two millennia. I studied scripture (both Jewish and Christian) in graduate school for two years and can only agree with William Blake, who said that religion is simply the choosing of forms of worship from poetic tales. We choose what is convenient. If it is not convenient (a few parts of the Sermon on the Mount come to mind), it is relegated to the realm of metaphor.
2. While I realize that there are various sects of Christianity, what aggravates people like me is what they all share in common (and what they share in common with Islam) - the looking down on people of other faiths, or those without faith, as people who need help, people who are damned. So, in the most significant sense, it is only natural for us to lump all forms of Christianity together. They all equally batter at our humanity, even if their intentions are good. It doesn't "hurt me" per se, but I'm constantly baffled that there are 2 billion people in the world (Christians and Muslims) who can walk around believing 4 billion of their fellow brothers and sisters are going to hell. I find it personally barbaric. The fact that the vast majority of our elected officials believe it as well is also baffling. But, America being the paragon of secular democracy, it does me no tangible harm.
Skipping to 5. Maybe the poster you were replying to does feel the need to convince you that you're wrong, but I've long ago learned that it's not a very profitable use of time. That's why it's called "faith". Evidence is not needed to support it. It's a great feat of imagination when you think about it, but some of us simply choose to direct our imaginations elsewhere.
That is the difference between being a real Christian and a religious Christian. Religious Christians are scared into faith and are trained to think that mere belief will grant them access to Heaven. Sorry. You're wrong. Mere belief is barely a step up from disbelief.
You have to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. That means acting out of love, charity, compassion, forgiveness, peace making, understanding towards all of God's creation and humility towards yourself.
Religious Christians are only concerned with proselytizing, political influence, division, self-aggrandizing, judging people, and other generally anti-christ type behavior.
If there really were a ton of true Christians in the United States, there wouldn't be any homeless people.
These are all noble traits, but I don't see how they can be classified under "the teachings of Jesus Christ". Love, charity, compassion, forgiveness, etc. are certainly not unique to Christianity. If I practice or even embody all of these noble characteristics but reject Christ as a messiah, why do I still go to hell?
I didn't say it was an either or proposition. I simply stated that belief is not enough. There's lots of "bad" people that believe. Do you think they are saved just because they believe? If one believes and still do bad that seems far worse because they are acting defiantly. Belief means nothing without following Jesus as a role model.
This is the most ridiculous reason to believe in God I've ever seen, and God being omnipotent would surely see through your ruse. Also, you think that my not going to church or reading the bible or saying prayers will grant me a space in hell? even though in everyday I life I strive to be honest and kind to all (especially elderly) people, and abhor violence and thievery. If there is God (of whom I believe and subscribe to no particular religion) then I doubt he'll send people to hell for such minor misdemeanors, when according to your Bible even a murderer will be granted a place in heaven assuming he repents before his death.
Sorry but a book written by people who murdered anyone different or anyone belonging to an opposing religion is quite probably a work fiction.
what are these atheist movies you speak of? First I can't even think of any to name , compared to the many LISTS of crap christian movies.
second , I have a hard time believing christians aren't flocking in in droves with 1s for movies they hate. they did it with harry potter and the golden compass or whatever.
christians have EMBRACED the anonymity of the internet to spread their hate. i hardly believe they wouldn't go so far as to give a movie a 1 on imdb.
I'm Christian and I loved The Golden Compass and all the Harry Potter movies. Not to mention countless other movies. Though it does bother me that Hollywood seems to want to put at least one person saying "God D*mn" in all their movies...
Sometimes I wonder if it's even possible for a film to be made without someone saying those words...
I admit that the movie is not like one of other great Christian movies. But I enjoyed it nevertheless. The message is quite clear and I'm accepting them. Making a screeplay like this is not a simple task. It's not a mission, and it's not a propaganda. It's for those who wanted to see and believe what it says. There's not much sense to argue who's right or wrong but to respect each other's opinion.
The movie is not about pain, it's about love and believing. That's how I see it.
I gave up hoping to live in an ideal world. But I will not give up my faith.
I didn't vote. A lot of the criticism and low ratings seem valid - it's being compared to disastrous, yet hilariously bad Left Behind films. The rating is NOT very bad for this kind of movie's quality. Keep in mind that this is IMDB where practically no movies make it above an 8.
Christianity and religion, however, are pushed on people daily, and this is listed on the front page of IMDB. You needn't look further.
And you can't have looked at many secular/atheistic/skeptical movies on IMDB if you don't think it's much of anything but reactionary.
I'm an atheist but I didn't vote on this film because I didn't see it. I'm an atheist but I loved Passion of the Christ and other movies similar because I enjoy Christian mythology.
Anyway, this is only 10% fresh right now at RottenTomatoes.com so it's the critics too.
And just for clarification, I have not seen this so I cannot say whether it's good or not, but it IS possible that this IS a bad movie.
Oh no, it wasn't the 4.something rating that got to me, it was the overwhelming number of "1"s. I mean surely it couldn't have been THAT bad! If there were more 2's and 3's I wouldn't be arguing this. It just seems to me that if the people who rated actually gave it a fair shake, there would be more 2's and 3's... In my experience, you'd only rate a movie a 1 if you HATED it beyond anything imaginable, (like Alone in the Dark for example).
I agree - Christian themed movies "can be good." The problem lies in the fact that Christians think a Christian movie has to have a deliberate, obvious salvation message. This is why so many non-Christians don't watch Christian movies. Atheists have figured it out; if you want to make an impact, be subtle, therefore Christians watch non-Christian movies. Christians need to understand this fact. In the Bible, Jesus used subtle stories to make a point - even his disciples couldn't understand the message, and had to have it "translated." When will Christians learn?
That being said, even movies that don't claim to be Christian many times have very Christian themes, such as your example - the Matrix. It's just the really blatant Christian movies that get the brunt of the bad reviews. I haven't seen this movie, but I've seen quite a few Christian movies - some bad, some good. This definitely could deserve its review, or it could not. I'll have to watch it and see what I think (although I am by no means an expert). :)
Wow, retarded Christian troll meter is off the *beep* charts!
Look, it's a bad movie. No one liked it. Therefore they give it a bad review. They didn't complain to you saying "I WAS FORCED TO WATCH IT". They watched it, thinking it WOULD BE good, it WASN"T, so they rated it 1. Now go pray or sumfin.