The night before I was to have surgery to remove the tumor on my ovaries, we had Chinese food and watched "Ghost Town" which was pretty funny and the perfect movie to watch before an operation :-) So, when I saw that Ricky Gervais was in "The Invention of Lying" I was thinking about seeing it. The trailers made it look like a fantasy movie about a universe where lying doesn't exist until Gervais introduces it:
But over the weekend I read the reviews for "The Invention of Lying" and was stunned to find out that the movie was anti-Christian (the reviewer is an atheist, not a hyper-sensitive Christian). Why in the world would they try to hide that fact from the movie goer? Do they actually think they had to trick us into seeing this movie? And did they think we'd drop our belief under the sheer weight of their smug condescension?
I have no problem watching movies written by atheists, I went to see the "Golden Compass." I have no problem watching movies that mock or excoriate Christians, I thought "The Big Kahuna" was brilliant. So, if they had been honest about the intent of the film, I might have been tempted to see it. Knowing that I'll be mocked is one thing but being duped into paying to see a movie that insults me as a gullible sap is another. It's a good thing I'm not gullible enough to go see a movie without reading a review first.
To all those atheists who want to convince us using Gervais' tactics, I say: ridiculing Christianity by treating us like we're gullible dupes who would believe anything we're told isn't a way to demonstrate that Christianity is false. Our faith is reasonable and we know it even though atheists have convinced themselves it is not. Ridicule doesn't work because we're used to it.The Roman soldiers and the Jews mocked Jesus when he was flogged and crucified. And Paul warned us that the intellectuals of the world consider us foolish:
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (1Co 1:18-31 ESV)When we're mocked it just proves the truthfulness of this passage.
And if this movie was Gervais' attempt, not to convince Christians that they are foolish, but just to laugh at the gulliable saps, I suggest he might want to mediate on the words of Keith Haring:
I don't think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.And those of the atheist movie reviewer, Kyle Smith (linked to above):
The nice thing about atheism is that it isn't (or shouldn't be) a creed. Those of us who don't believe see ourselves as liberated. The principal mystery of Genesis, to us, is how to reconcile "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" with "Invisible Touch." We don't have to stand on street corners proselytizing, telling people they're idiots -- which is what Gervais is doing.
Update: For those interested, I've updated this post here.
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Ironically the film is quite spiritual in that it is set in a world without God (that is the conceit of the film) and someone discovers that religion is something worth having because it gives us hope and meaning and a point. ie that even in a world without God it is necessary to invent Him.
If you want to form a real opinion why not see it first instead of making people think that Christians just go around judging everyone based on something they over heard someone else say. (if you really are a Christian)
RICKY GERVAIS HAS TEN TIMES THE INTELLECT AND TALENT THAN YOU!! HOW CAN YOU REVIEW A FILM YOU HAVNT BOTHERED TO SEE YOU PRESUMPTIOUS IDIOT!!! GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE AND GET A GRIP WOMAN!!!
KARL PILKINGTON HAS A HEAD LIKE A
F U C K I N G O R A N G E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...monkey news
You gave an opinion about something you didn't see, hear, or touch, taste or smell. Yours was a refelection of someone else's opinion, carried forward and told here. If my Faith in God and the Bible was based on that kind of tripe, I wouldn't know the truth and have the blood of Jesus running through my veins.
You're very much entitled to your opinions and beliefs. But, unfortunately, you have shot yourself in the foot here. You have sat and written a blog entry discussing your disgust about The Invention Of Lying, a movie you admit to not having seen. Yes, the trailers don't tell you everything, because that ruins the movie and plus, if it were all in the trailer, why would anyone bother to go to the movie at all?
I would never morally judge a religious movie because I wasn't religious. I would never assume or attack the intentions of those people who believe other than me. Why do you think that YOU have that right? You believe in god, well, didn't he give everyone free will to think and believe what we will? This movie may not be for you, but please don't automatically see it as an attack on you because it doesn't align with you and your beliefs. I think former commenter Dan Cupid made a very good point about in a world without God, he needed to be created anyway. This is a movie written by atheists, yes (and I don't like how you write about atheists as if they are diseased but it's okay, you will still live on this earth with them) and it explores the concept of even if you don't believe in faith and religion, and even if it isn't true, we need it to be happy and move forward. So no, it isn't a God-Bashing film. Are there pointed jokes at God? Yup, there sure are. It's written by Ricky Gervais who makes light of everything, because that’s what he does. He is a comedian. Heck, he spends most of the time taking the piss out of himself. His jibes are evenly spread across many topics.
I would recommend that before you judge something, you form your own opinion. And also, learn to respect the views of others. No one is asking you to agree, but what makes this world so great is all of our differences. I truly hope, for your sake, that you relax and stop finding atheists to crucify in your blogs. (Yeah, ok, low blow but kind of deserved are your rant)
Over and out. By your friendly local atheist.
I guess Christians are either the biggest group of idiots ever, or there is validity to our claim about Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said it best:
1 Corinthians 15:12 - 19
12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
Christians are beaten, killed, blown up, cut in two, raped, and tortured on a daily basis in most countries around the world. If there is nothing rational about our faith, then we really are the biggest fools on earth because we willing suffer such agony in hopes that even one person might come to see and believe that Jesus Christ is the Glorious Lord and Savior He claimed to be.
We are a group of people who have become convinced that Jesus's claims about Himself are true. God's one and only begotten Son sent to bear the sins and punishment of all of those who have and will ever put their trust in Him.
So call me stupid, ignorant, retarded and whatever insulting names you can come up with because I am unashamed to proclaim Jesus Christ as the ONLY way a human being will ever be made right with God.
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