God and Movies – a New Geeks Without God post
I have a new blog entry up on the Geeks Without God page. In it, I talk about theism in film and specifically my response to theistic themes in Flight and The Life of Pi.
Molly has also posted a couple of blogs about memes that have pissed her off.
Enjoy our thoughtful atheistic rantiness!
Also, please donate to Camp Quest Minnesota! Our fundraiser has stalled out at $310 and we’d really like to reach our $500 goal!
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 12/14
This week will probably be pretty light as I was out of town for much of it and, as a result, not really following the news. A few things, as always, did manage to catch my eye.
Texas Man Carves a Pentagram into his 6 Year Old Son Because he’s a Fucking Loon
You just know that a lot of people are freaking about this guy because they think he did this because he’s a satanist or pagan or something. I’m unfamiliar with the religion that celebrates the holy day of 12-12-12 but I’m pretty sure that no matter what religion the guy follows, cutting up a 6 year old is not in the holy book.
The guy did it because he’s got a screw loose. Actually, he has a whole erector set full of loose screws. He’s the kind of crazy person who exists so other crazy people can think they are normal.
Is this a pagan symbol or a Japanese throwing star with the safety on?
Normal people don’t carve pentagrams into their children’s backs. Normal people make their kids dinner and give them a hug and kiss before bed. I wish this guy had chosen to carve something less iconic (like a zebra) into his kid’s back. Then the comversation would be on how crazy he is – which is where we should be focused.
Breakfast in Austin is Different
Maybe I could have had this experience anywhere in the world. I could be romanticizing a bit.
But I think not. I think I could what happened could only have happened in Austin.
I should be writing up my summary of the films we saw at this year’s Butt-Numb-a-Thon but I’ll tell you, I like writing about the things that make Butt-Numb-a-Thon about so much more than 24 hours in a movie theatre. If all you do is spend 24 hours in a movie theatre, you don’t get it. I read comments from folks who see a particular line up and complain that it is lame. They don’t get it. The movies we watch are a big deal. But they aren’t everything.
Raiders of the Lost Ark – The Adaptation
This last weekend, I attended Butt-Numb-a-Thon (BNAT) in Autstin. I’m going to do a write-up on the movies I saw at the festival but because I’m a Raiders of the Lost Ark geek, I’m starting with a post about the movie we watched the night before Butt-Numb-a-Thon because it isn’t all that often you wait ten years to see something.
I begin with a flash back to Butt-Numb-a-Thon 4. In the early years there was typically a breakfast break at around 7:00 in the morning that lasted about an hour. We’d just watched House of 100 Corpses and Tiptoes and neither film had gone over well. In fact, for long time BNAT attendees, Tiptoes is frequently cited as the single worst film ever screened. We were all quite certain that the festival was going to end with The Two Towers so while the last two films had been something of an ordeal, we were all but positive what was coming next was going to be amazing.
At the Alamo Drafthouse, they play video in the background between movies. It is usually really messed up stuff that will catch your attention at least once – if only long enough for you to say “what the fuck is that?” One year, we realized we were watching a Hentai version of Star Wars.
At BNAT 4 we were eating breakfast and slowly we noticed that what was playing on the screen looked like a remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark featuring a bunch of teenagers. It was obviously an amateur production but these kids are doing every scene. They light their set on fire for the bar fight scene. They drive a truck into a tree and set it on fire for the Cairo street scene. They couldn’t get a monkey so they used a dog. A really cute dog.
Geeks Without God is Here! Again!
This week Geeks Without God is all about our December Geeky Boners. I talked about going to Butt-Numb-a-Thon and speculated on a lot of stuff I thought we’d see. I’ll probably do my write up of the event in the next day or two (it takes a while) but you can listen to some of the reasons that I love the event so much. We also got to read off a reader’s answers that were sent to us from Malta! How awesome is that???
As always, I have a blast recording Geeks Without God so please have a listen!
And hey, our fundraiser for camp quest is going great! We are over $300 but our goal is $500 so please help us meet and exceed that goal by clicking here!
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week, 12/7
Bill O’Reilly says Anyone who Thinks Christianity is a Religion is “Stone-Cold Dumb”
In his latest tirade against the “war on Christmas” he insists that the biggest problem is all of us idiots who think that Christianity is a religion instead of a philosophy. We are, in fact, “so stupid, it’s painful.”
Well I’m sorry to cause Mr. O’Reilly so much pain but I’m going to have to ask him in what way Christianity does not meet the following definition:
The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods.
Now perhaps Mr. O’Reilly thinks that Christianity is also a philosophy. That is a different conversation but it isn’t what he said.
The problem, in fact, is not what he said but the fact that when he says it, thousands of people adopt his position as truth. Instead of saying to themselves “holy shit – that is the most fucked up description of Christianity I’ve ever heard,” which they should because most of them are Christians, they are instead saying “he’s right! I don’t accept the divinity of Jesus Christ as part of a religion! It’s my philosophy!!!!”
However, let them believe that because if they want to argue that Christianity is a philosophy, then their churches need to start paying taxes because they are no longer exempt. And they can’t get all pissed off about people saying “Happy Holidays” either because we aren’t attacking their religion any longer. Since they don’t have one. They also can’t demand freedom of religion either. The first amendment doesn’t provide freedom of philosophy.
Let’s all celebrate Rene Descartes day! We’ll all spend the whole day thinking and therefore being! Thanks for opening the door to making it a Federal holiday, Bill!
You keep going with this one Bill. I hope you convince everyone who is watching your show that you are right.
Note: He backed off that claim a little bit when a Catholic Priest corrected him. Damn! I really wanted him to re-define Christianity as a philosophy.
Alphabetical Movie – King Kong (1933) and King Kong (2005)
The first time I saw King Kong was at Butt-Numb-a-Thon 3 in 2001. I know, I’m a movie geek and it is ridicoulous I’d never seen the film. As I’m fond of saying, there are way more films that I haven’t seen than films that I have.
Now, if you are going to have a first experience watching King Kong, seeing a newly struck print of the film projected on the big screen is pretty much the best way to go. I was in love with the movie from the moment the title hit the screen. I knew that new print of King Kong was out there and eventually would be available on DVD. When that DVD finally hit the market, I bought it the same day.
The first time I saw Peter Jackson’s re-make of King Kong was at Butt-Numb-a-Thon 7 in 2005. I liked it a lot. But as I mentioned in my blog about Kick-Ass, when you watch a movie at Butt-Numb-a-Thon, it can be difficult to determine how good or bad it is outside the context of Butt-Numb-a-Thon.
Alphabetical Movie – The King and I
Two characters, separated by over forty years. Both of them are characters who died tragically – perhaps before their time. Both died for the same reason. Both of them leave their audiences asking the same question.
“Wait – what did they die of again?”
I’m talking, of course, of the King of Siam and Padme Amidala.
Think about it now. Why do they die? Both of them die because they lost the will to live. Amidala loses the will to live because her husband crossed over to the dark side and force choked her. The King of Siam lost the will to live because the woman he secretly loved convinced him to show compassion.
The horror.
Geeks Without God Gets Charitable
This week’s Geeks Without God is live and it features an interview with fellow Atheist Voices of Minnesota contributor, Norm Barrett Wiik. In the weird conincidence category, Norm also wrote an essay on summer camp and “Wiik” is prounounced “Wick.” I can confirm we are not the same person, however, because we were both in a room together. Also, he said on the podcast that he was too young to remember the Iranian hostage crisis and I was most definitely not.
Norm is also on the board of directors for Camp Quest Minnesota, which is a super cool secular summer camp. The aim of the camp is to teach kids about critical thinking, which is something that is lacking in our school cirruculum. It is not “Jesus Camp for atheists.
Nick, Molly and I are really interested in helping Camp Quest Minnesota so in addition to having Norm on our podcast this week, we are doing a holiday fundraiser for them! If you click through to our website, you will see a widget to donate directly to Camp Quest! You could also just click here and it will take you directly to the donation page. Our goal is to raise $500 or more in the next month, which will be enough for us to provide a scholarship for one child to attend camp.*
So if you are like me and you don’t want to give your charity dollars to the salvation army this year, think about givng a few bucks to Camp Quest instead. Help us reach (and exceed) our goal.
*Note – $500 is enough to provide a scholarship. That doesn’t mean Camp Quest Minnesota will use the funds for that purpose. That is up to them. There are no strings attatched to our donation. We’d like them to use the funds for whatever purpose they think is best.
Alphabetical Movie – Kim Possible: So the Drama
You know, I really didn’t think I was going to have to watch this movie. I was pretty sure it was straight to video and the rules clearly state that I’m only watching films that received a theatrical release. I figured I’d be skipping right over this one.
Unfortunately, my wife had to tell me that she was pretty sure at least one Kim Possible movie was in movie theatres and because she told me that, I was forced to look it up. Once I looked it up, I discovered that I was, in fact, going to have to watch the film.
Movies like this one can prove to be a rather major obstacle for the Alphabetical Movie Project because I really don’t want to watch them. The movie isn’t awful but it is pretty banal. Sure, you say, I could have skipped it. There is nothing forcing me to watch it except an arbitrary set of rules that I put in place because I decided that I should really watch every movie we own at least once.
Grail Diary 