Friday, April 9, 2010

Faith goes to the movies but can't see past itself


"Clash of the Titans" involves obviously made-up supernatural beings and powers in order to tell a story. How would religious believers take this? A chance to look at a religion as an outsider, an opportunity to see parallels in the stories and beliefs, and a call to understand your own religion as ancient tales of thrills and might?
No. Once the story establishes that there are gods, the characters are obligated to obey:

For example, "Titans" builds itself on the premise that the gods actually need human prayers, that they feed on faith, from which they get their powers, prompting humankind to cry out, "The Gods need us, need our worship. But what do we need of them?"

Thus begins the humanism, as the people rebel against the "tyranny" of the gods declaring, "A new era has begun, the era of man. … We are the gods now."

Full text

No comments:

Post a Comment