Abandons his faith because his wife died in a legit freak accident? He's never had to provide comfort to a member of his congregation after losing a loved one? Besides preaching, that's something priests do, pretty commonplace. Lazy lazy writing.
I think you're the opposite of paranoid, I think you walk around with the delusion people like you.
Shyamalan has never written a character that behaves like any real person would behave. It's his auteur's mark, it's the main part of his charm and genius.
WARNING!
Objects under T-shirt are larger than they appear!
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Actually this kind of thing happens to religious people all the time priests an people in general can loose there faith at any time with something like this an it dose
shareFirstly, he's not a priest. He's a pastor. You're letting the collar confuse you (do some research). Secondly, there are countless stories similar to what you just described, even with religious leaders doing something as extreme as committing suicide, and less extreme abandoning their faith and church etc., due to tragedy, getting caught committing adultery, or any variety of hard-hitting circumstances that overwhelm them.
Religious leaders are just people, and most of them aren't fully convicted. They're putting on a show (often fooling themselves along with a congregation), having felt "called" to that path for emotional and selfish reasons. It's all poppycock in my view. It's all a scam that a very large number of people have fallen for.
It’s much easier to be the shepherd guiding a flock through heartbreak. It’s much different when it happens to that shepherd and he has to deal with it personally. Not only is it very plausible for a pastor, priest or other type of religious leader to abandon his faith due to the death of his wife, it happens in reality all the time.
If you want to legitimately suggest something you disliked about the film, rail on why/how the aliens possessed no technology whatsoever or about the everything-happens-for-a-reason/God works in mysterious ways premise. But what you honed in on isn't lazy writing at all (while the contrived nature of the story could be called as such, although I'd disagree since it’s a fable-like parable). It's real life. Humans are fickle by nature.
All you have to do is read the Bible itself for numerous examples.
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I'm something new entirely. With my own set of rules. I'm Dexter. Boo.
That's not lazy writing, that's actually pretty understandable. I admit there are quite a few things about this movie that don't really work, but Gibson's dilemma in the movie is actually quite effective. Losing a loved one often makes people question their faith, its extremely common. Pastors aren't except from this. He couldn't, in good conscious, preach something he was struggling to believe.
Split Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spm2AxsfPSA