Comments on: Movies You Have Not Seen But You Should See (Because They Are Good) #12

By: Ken Lowery

Ken Lowery — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:53:00 +0000

Not incompatible, huh? Ok, MGK. If you think the two aren’t incompatible then answer these questions

Man, I remember being 17. Wild times, huh?

Martin Luther, eat your heart out.

You are 83 points short of considering yourself in the same league. But thanks for trying!

By: michael

michael — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:15:22 +0000

whoa! I totally did not notice the obvious nipples. of cause, now it stands out like a sore thumb every time I look.

By: Sofa King

Sofa King — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:00:16 +0000

And I would not be true to myself if I didn’t mention that you can see Mandy Moore’s nipples in that frame up there.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:06:15 +0000

Yeah, this movie was alot of fun, kudos sir, kudos.

By: Andrew W.

Andrew W. — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:48:33 +0000

I think that there’s some pretty good science-based studies showing that humans need something to keep them from lawless cannibalry. You know, the one where people would agree to shock someone to death because some dude in a lab coat, or where the psychogist doing the experiment became personally involved and lost all scientific objectivity and let the participants abuse each other. Religion ain’t perfect in keeping us from lawless cannibalry, but it worked out pretty good in the long run and we shouldn’t try to deny all of the contributions that religion and religious people’ve made to the world. We shouldn’t deny bad stuff either, but that’s a lot different than acting like the only things priests ever did was rape little boys.

By: LurkerWithout

LurkerWithout — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:38:40 +0000

I love these posts. Even if I’ve already seen half of them. Still they serve to remind me to add the ones I’ve seen to my buy list and the ones I haven’t to my Netflix queue…

And Caulkin is just totally awesome in this…

By: MGK

MGK — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:49:39 +0000

I personally find nothing so liberal as the application of the theory of collective guilt.

By: Evan Waters

Evan Waters — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:47:52 +0000

I’ll never understand the motivation behind people who say “No, religion and liberal values can’t co-exist! Irrational belief must be wiped out!”

The theocrats and their supporters, I get. They get to oppress people who aren’t like them and maintain a status quo that gives them the power and the privilege. There’s an advantage there. But why you would want to alienate people who, like you, want tolerance and equality for all and people to be treated humanely just because they have religion is beyond me. Especially if it comes to the point where you have to jump down the throat of anyone who argues that they can co-exist.

I mean, do we WANT a total war between religious and nonreligious people? Do the people advocating this think they’re going to win?

By: Evan

Evan — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:53:28 +0000

This is an excellent film. I’m glad to see it get the love that it deserves.

By: Sage Freehaven

Sage Freehaven — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:40:23 +0000

I saw this a couple of years ago on one of the movie channels; it really is a great film.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:13:02 +0000

It’s not so much that we would be lawless cannibals, though some religions do in fact prescribe cannibalism not the least of which is Catholicism, just that the easiest way for most cultures to communicate a moral base to their people was through religious parables and stories. This goes back as long as man has been communicating orally. It would then naturally follow that those moral tales would make it into common law, which is handed down from culture to culture like corduroy pants in a big family.

Just like we aren’t lawless savages anymore, I don’t need my faith to remind me to not go on a murder spree but, it does help me to remind me that I should be more accepting of the foibles of my fellow man and that I need to control my temper in situations where they piss me off.

By: motteditor

motteditor — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:55:44 +0000

I’m a big fan of the movie and do indeed already own it, though at the same time, I found it a bit disappointing. I think it may just have been I liked the trailer so much that the movie itself kind of failed to live up to it (since I’d seen the best jokes and nothing else quite reached those highs).

By: Nathaniel

Nathaniel — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:43:27 +0000

Zenrage — your comments have nothing whatsoever to do with the film, or the original post, or any of the comments that existed before you provoked them. If you’re looking for a religious fight, there are more appropriate forums on the internet for that.

Regardless of your opinion on the sensibility of religious faith, there’s nothing inherently contradictory between religious faith and liberal values. Indeed, there are many people who would claim that faith *requires* liberal values, but again, that’s a conversation for elsewhere. The mere fact that such people exist shows that there isn’t an inherent contradiction, though, and that’s all MGK’s statement was about.

All that disclaimer out of the way, I hope that Michael doesn’t truly believe that without religion we would be lawless cannibals — I hope that Micheal’s faith isn’t the only thing that keeps him from murdering people on a daily basis. The notion that morality requires religion is just as old and tired as the stuff Zenrage is trotting out.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:53:59 +0000

Irrational philosophies co-exist with rational philosophies all the time, that’s pretty much the essence of what it is to be sentient. how do you explain consciousness without at least in part basing it on the irrational philosophy that you as a sentient human being are special? Whether you believe we evolved from apes or were created by a sun god, or were seeded by intelligent life on other planets isn’t really relevant. You still are coming from an anthropocentric viewpoint which pretty much states that you are special because you have consciousness. You know what though, that’s okay because we’re all pretty much coming from that viewpoint, and will continue to do so until we meet some other species that can communicate with us that we also feel comfortable as labeling sentient. The problem as evidenced here is that a closed minded dogmatic devotion based on science can be just as dangerous and obnoxious as one based on spirituality.

By: Nathaniel

Nathaniel — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:51:11 +0000

I agree completely, this is a gem of a film. Even more impressive since it stars so many people I would prefer to dislike, but they all really stepped up and threw themselves into it.

And for what it’s worth, my very conservative Baptist ex-girlfriend thought it was hilarious, touching, and faith-affirming. But she dealt with some of the same issues years ago when her uncle came out of the closet — she had always been told to hate gays, but all of a sudden, she was faced with the conundrum of being told she was supposed to hate someone in the abstract who she knew she loved in the specific.