I found this on facebok: (not my work)*********** youtube/watch?v=4FuNrFESVsQ As much as I dont desire to give free publicity to this movie—and I dont—I think its important to show you just exactly the level of sophistication believers have to offer with their arguments. Further, their position requires deception to make any sense, as youll see. The premise of this movie, as I understand it (its not out yet) is that a philosophy professor tells a Christian student, Josh Wheaton, along with the rest of the class, to take notes about Friedrich Nietzsches statement that God is dead. The movie makers, totally missing the point of what Nietzsche was saying about the source of humanitys moral compass, portray the main character as some sort of brave hero for refusing to do this. Absurdly, the philosophy professor, who is known as an atheist (and is of course depicted in the film as the stereotypical angry, closed-minded, and mean anti-theist... for daring to challenge PHILOSOPHY STUDENTS to think critically...), tells the student that if he refuses to write down God is dead, the student will have to defend his position that God isnt dead by—get this—engaging in a formal debate against the professor in front of the entire class. If he fails to convince the class of his position, he will receive a failing grade. First of all, are you kidding me? The premise of this movie is laughably transparent as a way to paint critical thinking, education, and doubt as evil and anti-Christian while exalting poor reasoning, straw-man arguments, and ignorance as virtuous. What really disgusts and disappoints me is that the Christian filmmakers had a chance here to give us their best argument, AND a detailed defense of it! Instead, they went with fallaciously shifting the burden of proof *in order to attack a straw-man.* Im left with two possible conclusions: - Either they knew their best argument couldnt win on its merits, so they intentionally argued fallaciously in order to make Christians feel comforted and secure in their beliefs, with no intention of changing any minds except by deception. - Or, they really *do* perceive this to be their best argument and are unaware of the fallacies! I dont know which is worse. They clearly didnt consult any actual philosophy professors in writing the script. I doubt any legitimate college would allow a professor to base an undergraduate freshmans class grade on whether he was able to persuade his class in a public debate like this, especially if this standard was not applied to all students in the class, and especially if this was a philosophy class and not a speech class. Im stunned that they seem to care so little about what Nietzsche actually meant when he said God is dead, especially considering they based the title of the movie on it. I want you all to understand why they do this. It is more important to them to push their agenda, to keep young Christians from defecting to the side of reasonable, defensible non-belief, than it is to be honest or thorough. In my eyes, that means weve already won. They know it, and thats why they lie. They are afraid of young Christians finding out what real atheist arguments are because their arguments dont stand a chance against them. They *have* to portray us as evil, intolerant, and unfair, because it takes the attention away from the fact that our arguments are better and more sensical. Its dishonest, its dishonorable, its shameful, and its an admission that they know Christianity cant compete in a fair marketplace of ideas.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:13:35 +0000
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