I went and saw the movie version of a terrible internet meme, God Is Not Dead I'll touch mainly on the message it tries to convey. (a synopsis of the film is here)
This movie is to philosophy what Religulous is to theology (except it isn't funny at all). Both movies are only concerned about winning over people already on their side, by using bad arguments that score "quick points".
God Is Not Dead is set in a world where the News Boys can sell out the Staples Center, but where Christianity is also somehow a minority. This is a common theme amongst evangelical Christians in general, and the film hits that point hard. The Evangelical Christians that see this film will eat up the messages portrayed even (maybe especially) the one's they didn't know where there. The not so hidden themes include racism, sexism, anti-intellectualism and fear/mistrust of anyone not like them.
Every non white character is the epitome of a stereotype. The Chinese student is an emotionless (until he finds Jesus) math major who's father is an uncaring, unloving, demanding figure. The Muslim family is ruled by a violent father. The African missionary is a happy go lucky fella that apparently has magic powers (he diagnoses a dying man by just being near him). Of course it isn't just non whites that get this stereotype characterization, every seemingly smart and attractive female is also a manipulative bitch that must have her way. Every non christian is either morally bankrupt or living an empty hopeless life. These are the (not so) subtle themes of the film the main points might be even more flawed.
The main character is Josh Wheaton who takes a philosophy course given by a (his words) "committed atheist" Professor Raddison. On the first day of class Raddison misinterprets a famous Nietzsche quote "God is dead" (full quote here) because he is apparently the worst philosophy professor ever (but good enough to be considered for chairman). Then like all bad professors do he demanded the students sign a paper that said "God is dead" so they can move on to more important things. Because the one thing you never do in philosophy courses is actual philosophy (I hope the sarcasm is evident). Of course our plucky hero Josh just can't compel himself to sign the paper so instead he is forced to defend his faith in a series of "debates". In which (spoiler alert) HE WINS! (because really Radisson is just mad at God for killing his mom) because again Radisson has never actually learned philosophy (theme here is professors are liars and are not as smart as they say they are). All while this is going on other side plots are being shown like the ministers that can't get to Disney World, a blogger gets cancer and Dean Cain doesn't care, secret christian Muslim girl gets disowned by her family, and Radisson's girlfriend dumbs down for Christ. This all culminates with the characters ending up at a News Boys concert. The now visibly shaken Radisson is also headed there to try and win back his girlfriend when suddenly he is hit by a car (then magically diagnosed as mentioned earlier). Of course like all atheists Radisson converts on his deathbed and everyone is happy!!!
What did we learn? We learned that traumatic life events are a bad reason to become an atheists, but are really good reasons to believe in God. We learned that Christians, especially the white male variety, are the most persecuted people in America. That converting atheists is super easy just yell at them for a bit then either give them cancer or hit them with a car. That beliefs are choice so why won't you just believe in God it's super easy. Lastly that the only people in the world that are truly happy are Christians.
I can't imagine anyone with any sort of knowledge of philosophy has many good things to say about this film regardless of their beliefs about God (as I was writing this I did a search for Christian philosophers reviews)
Chris Attaway
God of evolution (guest post)
This film will probably do more harm then good for the evangelical community because now they are equipped with really really poor arguments for God, but you may be annoyed by the number of texts you start to receive saying "God's Not Dead"
I have a lot more to say about this movie and will probably continue to tweet about it
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Kyle MWU
Thanks for reading this now go read some real philosophy!
