Can you be an atheist, and this be your favorite movie of all time? - The Ten Commandments (1956) Discussion

This movie is dope af. Of course it can be your, err... your atheist friend's... favorite movie!

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[–] TylerAArse (2657) 3 years ago

I agree! I'll be sure and mention your opinion to my......ummmm.......friend.

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Of course not.

I enjoy religious movies but don't believe it religion.

I enjoy movies about tge supernatural, ghosts etc but don't believe in any of that nonsense for one minute.

I also enjoy movies about aliens, sci fi, fantasy etc. But again I don't believe in any of it.

Though I will add the caveat that I do believe in the possibility of life elsewhere.

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[–] Ace_Spade (9356) 3 years ago

Possibility of life elsewhere? Like Pittsburgh?

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[–] Roguemail (1565) 3 years ago

Stranger things have happened...

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[–] TrentnQuarantino (8456) 3 years ago

To find you would have to find out - that is, actually find a person. What are the chances that there is someone whose favorite movie is "The Ten Commandments", and what are the chances that that person is an atheist? I'd estimate it is such a vanishingly small probability as to be an impossibility like drawing royal flush after royal flush poker hands 100 times in the row. Another way of looking at it would be if an atheist had a religious movie as their favorite movie the would be a combination of crazy and stupid ... so if a person was crazy and stupid to that extent, if there is such a person, maybe they would crazy and stupid enough to have "The Ten Commandments" as their favorite movie. Of maybe it is Charlton Heston ( before he died ) - if he was secretly an atheist, and he was also crazy with dementia, and in the movie, so perhaps the content of the movie is secondary ... so who knows?

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[–] thingmakersback (1184) 3 years ago

So, I take it that you really don't care for "The Ten Commandments"... I am an atheist and it is one of my favorite movies. I first saw it in the '60s when there was a big reissue with nifty illustrated "program" books on sale in the lobby - I still have mine. I've seen it once again on the big screen and once or twice on TV (back when that was a thing). I've seen my HD version a couple of times and will watch it again. My favorite movie in the world, "@001: A Space Odyssey", I have only seen three times in theater and five times on video.
The score to "The Ten Commandments" is my favorite by Elmer Bernstein and one of my favorite scores ever.
I place the movie in the category of "Religious Fantasy" and in that category it is my favorite. I prefer Old Testament films, so #2 is the somewhat shabby "Sodom and Gomorrah".

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[–] TrentnQuarantino (8456) 3 years ago

I was raised Christian, Protestant. I am not religious any more for a long time, but the mythology still means a lot to me, and I appreciate it. As such, I do like this movie, and "The Robe", and a while ago they had an animated ... Moses movie that I thought was very good.

You might like "The Story of Ruth". You can see it in HD on YouTube for free if you search for it.

My interpretation of the original question was "favorite movie". When someone says something is their "favorite movie" it implies a kind of obsession with it that excludes other movies ... which is why I can't really say I have favorite movie, though 2001, or @001 as you call it is a very important movie to me. As was "Forbidden Planet", "The Thing From Another World" ... there are just so many good movies that I can't single one out as a favorite.

But that is why I think it is virtually impossible that there would be an atheist so obsessed with any religious movie with a religious theme.

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[–] thingmakersback (1184) 2 years ago

I finally did see The Story of Ruth, and I do appreciate it. Among other things it has an unusually modernistic score from Franz Waxman.

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[–] zaq123 (2389) 3 years ago

NO sayith the Lord NO

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[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

Sure! I'm an agnostic with no religious background, and I love this movie.

Of course I love it because it's cheesy and camp, not because I think it's good, but love is love.

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[–] Boromir (9712) 3 years ago

My favorite movie is The Godfather and I am not a gangster :)

Now I be serious. One can appreciate the writing, the depth, historical importance, the universal messages in Bible stories, the New Testament, Greek mythology and other unscientific sources and at the same time not believe in their correctness.

And from a cinematic point of view, you can love a movie even without believing in the story.

Also some atheist seen the 'historical bookcase' of their countries as something worthy to preservation, although they didn't believe in god, they understand that the nationality of a country rests on these historical sources. Many believe that forgetting the past leads to the degeneration of society (like many studies indicate). As Winston Churchill said: “A nation that forgets its past has no future".

In other words, An atheist who completely dislikes any religious symbol is just one persona from a variety of personality types.

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[–] liscarkat (16552) 3 years ago

Sure, why not? Taken for what it is--pure fiction--it can be enjoyed by anyone.

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[–] PaladinNJ (20310) 3 years ago

Religion should not effect one's love for Great Movies.

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[–] liscarkat (16552) 2 years ago

It's an entertaining movie, so why not? I like Tarzan movies and ghost stories, too, without believing any of them represent reality.

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