posted July 11, 2012 07:16 AM            

Just curious: how do you feel about how religion is portrayed on fictional shows?

How do you feel about religion on TV?

How do you feel about how yours has been portrayed?

If you're atheist/agnostic, do you find religion in shows to be annoying or offensive? Does it depend on the religion or on how it is portrayed?

posted July 11, 2012 09:28 PM            

Ironically Piers Anthony had a scene edited out of a novel of his of a preacher saying a prayer at a climatic scene because his editor believed it would be a turn off to scifi fans. He was angry as that's what preachers do. And he's an atheist himself and he surely didn't mind the scene, he thought it added realism. But I'll try to avoid speaking of novels now.

Generally speaking movies and TVs tend to be shallow, and that includes their depictions of religion. Only rarely does it bother me. Like I recall a scene in Bless the Child where a little girl is told if she prays really hard then her junkie mother will come back to her which infuriated me because I could just see that happening in real life and what happens when the junkie mother doesn't come home? The child feels it's her fault for not praying hard enough. What about giving that message to children who pray for their parents and then one dies in a car wreck? That's just inexcusable, IMO, and while I was ok with the movie overall (had to love the line “after you”) that scene really snapped me out of it because it ticked me off.

I recently saw Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and I was ok with it, found some of the new conceits (that is, how the rules of their world worked) interesting, but it threw me when a vampire tries to convince Lincoln that slavery is inevitable because it's always been around and religion was invented so people could be forgiven for it. No, many religions justify slavery as they were created in a time when slavery was normal. One of the few things the Christian Bible is consistent on is support for slavery. More importantly, the South thought God was on their side because the Bible justified it and thus they saw the North as defying God. So neither a Southerner just before the Civil War nor a vampire from Ancient Egypt would say religion considered slavery a sin. If it did then the history of the Civil War would've been different because I don't think they'd have gone to war over it (let's please keep the other relevant issues out of this as that's beside the point) as they would see God as against them. Sure, many liked their prostitutes and masturbation and the like but they don't go to war over it because they believe God would smack them down for it as the Bible is clearly against that (unlike slavery). So it messed with my brain trying to imagine what the history of the Civil War would've been like if the Bible and other religions were against slavery (seriously, would the Egyptians have even kept the Hebrews as slaves if their religion had been opposed to it? And if not then the Bible probably be a completely different book!). But had they kept that one line out of it I'd have enjoyed it (btw, my advice if you see it is to see it in 3D and leave your brain at the door).

I didn't care that Wicca in the Buffyverse was radically different from real life Wicca. And given that the comics explain that there's a “seed of wonder” that allows for multidimensional energies (and thus allows for magic, vampires, demons walking the earth, etc) then the world religions WOULD be different to reflect that fact. (So would science though I figure that most secret societies work hard to keep the details of magic secret to make their own power greater and the demons wanting to keep the mortals from finding an effective weapon against them, plus there may be “fluctuations” so that the power of magic is like a tide and not always easily detectable with the series of Buffy & Angel at a “high tide” where magic has become the most powerful in over a thousand or so years.) However, I didn't like how magic was reclassified as a drug in season 6 because that wasn't consistent with the storyline (had it been from the beginning, or at least not felt so forced and tacked on, then that would've been ok).

Sometimes it can be amusing to me, however. For example, The Mist had a really crazy Christian who belonged in the dark ages and reviled by the town (especially the other Christians who felt she gave their god a bad name, as one said he believed in God, too, he just felt God wasn't the ******* she made him out to be) but as their entire world is destroyed and they're surrounded by monsters waiting to die she gains more and more power among the panicked and desperate people until she becomes a Jim Jones character. Exploring how civilized humans reverted to savagery and human sacrifice to appease the gods was interesting in itself (and I could see it happening) but the irony that amused me (only because I think it was unintentional by the screenwriters) is SHE WAS RIGHT. EVERYTHING she said (which she claims was inspired by God) turned out to be true (and she was also the only one to have been touched by a monster and left unharmed, the event that made her certain she was chosen of God to lead the people). The last thing she said was the sacrifice of the little boy to God would get rid of the monsters and the boy with his dad escape her and her cult but eventually he runs out of gas and to save him a horrifying death (and keep the promise he made that he wouldn't let the monsters get him) he gives him a relatively painless death with a gunshot. And almost immediately after the military shows up burning away the mist and its monsters showing that once again SHE WAS RIGHT. It would be disgusting to me if they did that on purpose, but because I believe it was unintended I find it funny (though I hate that ending so much that I refused to get a copy of the dvd, even if I HAD hoped the movie's end gave more closure than the story by Stephen King).

Oh, btw, LOVE this scene from Firefly:

quote:

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Book: What are we up to, sweetheart?
River Tam: Fixing your Bible.
Book: I, um...
[alarmed]
Book: What?
River Tam: Bible's broken. Contradictions, false logistics - doesn't make sense.
[she's marked up the bible, crossed out passages and torn out pages]
Book: No, no. You-you-you can't...
River Tam: So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem.
Book: Really?
River Tam: We'll have to call it early quantum state phenomenon. Only way to fit 5000 species of mammal on the same boat.
[rips out page]
Book: River, you don't fix the Bible.
River: It's broken. It doesn't make sense.
Book: It's not about making sense. It's about believing in something, and letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It's about faith. You don't fix faith, River. It fixes you

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I also liked this contrast between 2 Christians in a Disney movie, this first one a humble one with a good heart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEEpavnk7Uw

And then almost immediately after an evil, self-righteous one filled with pride (who is singing about the woman who sang God Help the Outcasts):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmn9iH6bHJc

posted July 12, 2012 07:04 PM            

Now a vampire movie I absolutely LOVE (have seen it repeatedly) is Fright Night (the one that came out last August, IIRC). I loved where Peter Vincent brandishes a Crucifixion nail to a vampire saying such a nail in their heart is deadly to their kind and the vampire is like, "Nice, old school, I like it...but you'd have to get awfully close to me to use it..." (Peter Vincent runs away. )

posted August 07, 2012 07:19 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by PixieJane:
Exploring how civilized humans reverted to savagery and human sacrifice to appease the gods was interesting in itself (and I could see it happening) but the irony that amused me (only because I think it was unintentional by the screenwriters) is SHE WAS RIGHT. EVERYTHING she said (which she claims was inspired by God) turned out to be true (and she was also the only one to have been touched by a monster and left unharmed, the event that made her certain she was chosen of God to lead the people).

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I also hated the ending so much, that my blind fury made me miss what you so cleverly just pointed to LOL

Its got such a wonderful fundamentalist or just plain old mental vibe to it. That had they stayed in the store, sacrificed the boy and had she lived to the end! Oh man, imagine the sort of cult following that could grow up around a person like that... Mrs. Pontifex Mistimus (eh couldnt resist)

posted August 07, 2012 10:07 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Lei_Kuei:
Mrs. Pontifex Mistimus

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Who?

The name sounds familiar (or at least Harry Potter-ish) but when I tried a net search I didn't get any results at all.

posted August 08, 2012 03:20 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by juniperb:
Mrs. Pontifex Mistimus at first glance reminded me of Pontifex Maximus' the high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) in ancient Rome. Mis instead of Max aka female

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Yes, I'm sure that's it, thanks!

With the notable exception of a book by Tacitus I never really found the Romans that interesting, but back when I got interested in Christianity I read a lot about its origins (I found the alternative forms of Christianity especially fascinating and made me wonder just how different the world might be if one of the other types had prevailed rather than the one backed by militant Romans & Greeks) so I probably did get the "pontifex" from that (if not from Tacitus or some documentary about Ancient Rome I watched on the History channel) while Maximus was also a common name among many early Christians, including one of the Greeks that brought Christianity to Russia (and I read some detailed history on that). Anyway, that would explain why it sounds familiar and googling the name made me realize it does fit the context, too, so I'm certain that's it.

posted August 08, 2012 08:40 AM            

As reference to, as you have stated : Pontifex Maximus of the Unconquered Sun, Sol Invictus, who was represented by the emperor according to pagan understanding. The emperor—in this respect he also played the role of the pontifex maximus (high priest) in the state cult—took the central position within the church as well.

Our current Pope is still flouting this rank... lol

I have a few other religious portrayals I like, such as Silent Hill & as previously mentioned, Battlestar Galactica. Ill try post something about them later

posted August 08, 2012 08:51 AM            

quote:

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Our current Pope is still flouting this rank... lol

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Of course he does, he`s the Pope

posted August 08, 2012 02:27 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by PixieJane:
(I found the alternative forms of Christianity especially fascinating and made me wonder just how different the world might be if one of the other types had prevailed rather than the one backed by militant Romans & Greeks)

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Yea, the Marcion of Sinope early christian philosophy was like a Gnostic half breed of Christianity, which had nothing to do with the Old Testament. Too bad they burnt all his writings and co-opted the Marcionite Evangelion into the New Testament we have today -rolls eyes-

Juni@ - I would like to meet this friend of yours with the magic tinfoil, I only have the shiny kind