The new Noah movie debuted to a mix of reviews and diverse opinions within christian/atheist circles . I expected my fellow atheists to have a problem with the making of the homicidal bible story into a movie. I found that a great deal of them (myself included) had no issue with, what we would consider a myth anyway. One could argue that these religion based movies promote that worldview but that argument holds up as well as a correlation between committing violence and playing violent video games as an adult. Furthermore people who gather their deeply held beliefs from movies probably will be not be the audience to accept the scientific explanations of why a wooden boat made of gopher wood (whatever that is) could not possibly be built that large, on where all the water went after the flood, animal math problems or how quickly the world was repopulated by inbreeding.
The reaction of many fundamental christians (I would say that a vast majority of christians are sophisticated enough to take the movie as pure entertainment) was to accuse the movie of being inaccurate(even known books 0f fiction change when made into movies) ,to being blasphemous and the National Religious Broadcasters campaign to have a disclaimer put up on its authenticity. While artistic licence has been taken with the numerous translations of the bible and the historicity of the Old Testament only has one source and that is itself (circular logic). If the movie “JFK” includes a unproven conspiracy theory, I think Noah would be presentable without a disclaimer.
I grew up watching the Ten Commandments on TV, every year of my childhood and youth. My family were not church goers but held some unspecific christian beliefs, and we never discussed the realism of the movie. I just thought it was an awesome movie, with an interesting story line. I have not seen Noah but I seriously doubt that one movie will destroy or install a belief system. Religious indoctrination or loss of faith is usually a long term process, with many factor that combine into a conclusion. So enjoy the movie, at least it will be good for a laugh.
Dichotomy Blog 
April 2nd, 2014 at 3:13 pm
And that is what it should be seen as- a work of art. But the best thing I liked about the movie is that it did not let all the people die in the background but showed the flood to be cruel. By the way, when discussing such things I’ve found that some people like to know the religious affiliation first. I’m an atheist. And Noah was a wonderful movie 😀
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April 2nd, 2014 at 6:34 pm
Thanks for your comment. It seems that this movie gets a lot of divisive ratings. Love it/hate it. Our bias and expectations are a big contributor to our feelings about movies in general. When I watch a comic book movie, I am aware that I change my movie ‘standards’ down a little or I wouldn’t enjoy most of them :). It is interesting to know peoples religious views when they present an opinion. I am wary of views expressed stating ‘as a christian/atheist/whatever’ it seems that they are stuck in their ideology and will ‘tow the line’ of their belief no matter what they really feel but stating your belief for context is helpful as long as we can overcome our bias when reading what they say.
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April 3rd, 2014 at 11:03 am
Well, ever since the fantastic comic movies like Ice Age(does it count?) I have been trying to go with a blank mind. Yeah. I hate all bias, whether religious or any other. Kind of goes against the ideas of equality that we supposedly follow.
Oh, and I met a person who said to me, how can you not hate this movie if you are an atheist? That was a funny moment.. Cause, well, afterall, why did not harry potter or lord of the rings or star wars, or for that matter, Thor also. Why did I love those movies?
And on this bias thing, I read an article a while back that said that no matter how much we say we are not biased, in some way or the other we are. Will try to find the link.. It was a nice one.! 🙂
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April 3rd, 2014 at 3:31 pm
Ya, I have read similar articles too, I think half the battle is realizing as much of our bias as possible. I have Sam Harris’s book ‘Free Will’ but I haven’t read it yet (not that I have a choice). 😊
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April 4th, 2014 at 12:18 pm
Hah. The irony.
And then, even if we realize the biases, we’d tell ourselves, “just this time. It doesn’t matter.” or, “Its just a small thing compared to others.” So we justify to our conscience that we aren’t doing anything wrong.
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