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Tag Archives: religion
Day of Wrath
Day of Wrath (1943) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer Day of Wrath, a movie about 17th Century women accused and condemned of witchcraft, was made during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, and released just months after the Nazis dissolved the Protectorate … Continue reading
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Tagged Carl Theodor Dreyer, Christianity, Day of Wrath, Denmark, Nazis, religion, Vredens dag, witchcraft
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Modern and Postmodern Jesus Films
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini “Could these also be reasons why God has given us two creation stories and four versions of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus?” - Merold Westphal Pasolini, a dedicated Marxist, … Continue reading
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Tagged Bible, Christianity, film, Italian neorealism, Jesus, Martin Scorsese, Matthew, Mel Gibson, Merold Westphal, modern, movies, neorealism, Pasolini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, postmodernism, religion, TSPDT
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7th Heaven (1927)
7th Heaven (1927) dir. Frank Borzage Charles Farrell is a Parisian sewer rat who has given up on God, and Janet Gaynor is a prostitute who is regularly abused by her sister. Through a strange series of events, they agree … Continue reading
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Tagged 7th Heaven, Academy Awards, Charles Farrell, Frank Borzage, Janet Gaynor, movie reviews, movies, religion, romance, Seventh Heaven, silent film, TSPDT, World War I
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Sansho the Bailiff – Liberal, Japanese Values
Zushiô’s father is an anachronistic Lockean, telling his son “Men are created equal. Everyone is entitled to their happiness.” His commitment to Enlightenment ideals doesn’t play over well in 11th Century Japan, and his family is exiled. They don’t even … Continue reading
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Tagged Buddhism, film, Japan, Kenji Mizoguchi, Legend of Bailiff Sansho, liberalism, movies, politics, religion, Sansho the Bailiff, TSPDT, World War II
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Viridiana – Mocking Charity
The idea that the poor are just as sinful as the rich doesn’t seem too revolutionary, until you look at the majority of Western art and literature. Usually we get the Charles Dickens trope. If only the mean rich people were to leave and the poor people were put in charge, things would run more smoothly.
Viridiana in contrast, might have been written by Ayn Rand. It’s about as anti-populist as you can get. Rand however, would have tossed in a Prometheus or two. Buñuel’s Calvinistic misanthropy allows for no heroes. Continue reading
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Tagged charity, Christianity, communism, fascism, film, Franco, Luis Buñuel, movies, parody, politics, religion, satire, TSPDT, Viridiana
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How To Tell If You’re In A Dream
How do we know we’re in the “real reality” and not in a dreamlike state, in someone else’s dream, in Tommy Westphall’s snow globe, in The Matrix, a brain in a vat, in Plato’s Cave, on The Truman Show or creations in The Sims 12? As Nolan demonstrates in Inception, we can’t.
Last month, director Errol Morris wrote a New York Times series on ‘The Anosognosic’s Dilemma.’ It’s about Rumsfeld’s “unknown unknowns.” We simply don’t know when we don’t know the limits of our own knowledge, either individually or collectively. Continue reading
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Tagged Christopher Nolan, dreams, epistemology, film, Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio, movies, philosophy, religion, science, science fiction
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The Bible as a Description of God’s Love
God creates human beings who rebel and turn paradise into terror. They murder, rape, lie, cheat, steal and commit every atrocity imaginable. God tells them not to, and asks them to change. When they screw things up, he makes things … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, Bible, Christianity, exegesis, fundamentalism, God, religion
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It’s Not ‘Reason vs. Faith’
Jewish and Christian theology contains a history spanning thousands of years of people arguing, debating and researching. Dawkins’ straw theology that states “faith is immune to criticism and critique” probably does apply to some particular sects at particular times in history, but it does not reflect theology as actually practiced by actual people.
Once again, I’m not arguing that theism is true. What I am arguing is simply that the disagreement isn’t between Reason vs. Faith but rather what some people think are the results of reason and what other people are the results of reason. Continue reading
Science and Religion are like jealous spouses
How do we navigate the differences between science and religion? What are the limits of rational human comprehension? What is faith and does it play a role in gaining knowledge? None of these questions are addressed in a typical modern … Continue reading
