MovieChat Forums > For the Bible Tells Me So (2007) Discussion > This movie misses the point

This movie misses the point

posted 10 years ago by latuman-850-299870
11 replies | jump to latest

While enjoyed the movie and the editing and so on, I was cringing the whole way through.

This movies is NOT for the rational viewer. It expects the target audience to be bible believing christians. Not atheistic secularists at all. Now, I am the latter and can easily spot the massive problem with the movie; The Dude said it very well: "Well, thats just like your opinion man".

What I mean by this is that there is no rational reason why the nasty parts of the bible (like the abomination quote) are somehow taken out of context, but the good parts are not.

This happened constantly. The "progressive" experts interviewed basically outlined that all that sounds bad in the bible is for some reason not to be taken literally, but that all the parts that say "be nice to others" should. It works both ways.

This is simply good old fashioned cherry picking. These interviewees were good people. Some gay, some I think were heterosexual. They were good people, so they only saw the good parts and, being educated, were able to reason around any problems or contradictions. ESPECIALLY when they talked about Sodom and Gomorra. They left out all the fun parts of the story such as: Lot was a drunkard that slept with his daughters yet considered by God the "good man" in Sodom. Or the fact that he tried to compromise by giving away his daughters instead of the angels. Then they went on to say that they maybe wanted to just "know the angels" and failed to explain that "knowing" in the bible means sex.

So thats just what I think. It really weakened the movie for me. I know its baby steps to change people but still. Get rid of false beliefs altogether and you put yourself in less of a risk to make wrong decisions in life.

[–] icyharris-539-169904 10 years ago

This is the 3rd documentary that makes Christians out to be a bunch of hicks swayed by charismatic demagogues. Many of us think and read the Bible for ourselves and wouldn't follow anyone we felt were in error. In fact, because of this movie, I decided to go back to read Leviticus myself because one of the interviewees made a good point. Do we still stone people that commit adultery? Not wear silk and wool together? Not eat pork? Are the edicts in Exodus and Leviticus even supposed to be applicable to all of humanity or was it just for the Hebrews? What was really the sin of Sodom? There are two different explanations in the Bible.

My daughter made an interesting point that so many of the interviewees were devout active members of their churches, often in leadership positions, and it was ironic that their children turned out to be gay.

[–] movie_nazi 9 years ago

My daughter made an interesting point that so many of the interviewees were devout active members of their churches, often in leadership positions, and it was ironic that their children turned out to be gay.

That actually was the underlying point of the film. Many Christians claim that the reason that children become gay is because of immoral upbringing. That because they were not brought up in the Christian way they became susceptible to these "alternative lifestyles" . The film goes out of the way to make a point that these children were brought up VERY Christian and yet still turned out to be gay the point being homosexuality is NOT a lifestyle choice at all for it were these people would in no way choose to be gay. This was very similar to my epiphany that homosexuality was indeed not a choice. I grew up raised Christian and the son of our Pastor was gay. Once I saw that I knew for a fact that there is no way it was a choice.

My Vote history: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur1914996/ratings

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] latuman 9 years ago

If the book was indeed the word of a good god, it would already be at the perfect standard. Obviously, our standards are slightly better. For example, there was never a time when slavery was "OK". It, like many other things, has always been wrong.

The modern day sociopath has more decent morals then the characters judged good in the bible. That tells us something about who wrote the damn book, whether they were bronze age elders or supposedly "good" and "all loving" god person thing.

Society should ditch it already. Haven't it done enough harm?

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] mactach 8 years ago

I'm sure there are still people who smack their kids now and as far as I'm concerned there's nothing wrong with it.

[–] daddie0 9 years ago

Well said.

[–] captkirk_459 8 years ago

The movie shows how theocratic christian fundamentalists are.

[–] CheshireCatsGrin 8 years ago

Meanwhile The Exodus Project, featured in a bulletin board, which was a Christian Organization aimed at 'turning' gays to straight has even admitted they have found the error of their ways

[–] mactach 8 years ago

How does the movie miss the point by targeting bible believing Christians?

[–] KoalaPig 7 years ago

I get what you are saying. I'm an atheist too, but I think we just need to accept that this film isn't aimed at us. Also, I can forgive inconsistencies since the film's goal and point is a good one and may help educate the idly prejudice.

Interesting point, though. I guess one never looks to deeply in to the good stuff because it isn't damaging lives or inspiring hate. Also, much of the etymology around the basics, (i.e. 10 commandments), hasn't evolved. For the bits that have evolved, like in your example, I guess one just has to look at the context of the time in which it happened, (as pointed out in the film). It's still a bit weird to me, though, but I guess women were of little value in those times and I believe many religious texts refer to banging angels, et al, so that must have been 'normal' conduct.

However, as an atheist, it is hard to understand the cherry picking nature of religious beliefs. If one bit is no longer applicable, then why is any of it? I guess, as I say, if it doesn't hurt anyone then sod it, let folk believe it.

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