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[Movie Recommendation] Spiritual / Religious themes from a scientific perspective
Dangerbird
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So yeah, what the thread title says.
Do such movies even exist?
Being someone raised in a non religious household, I find the prospect of god proven through science to be an interesting concept.
I'm open to any genre of movie.
Do such movies even exist?
Being someone raised in a non religious household, I find the prospect of god proven through science to be an interesting concept.
I'm open to any genre of movie.
Dangerbird on
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Ben Stein had a documentary out a couple years back about the fallout of being open to "God" within the scientific community.
I guess there aren't many movies on this subject matter.
I'm not picky when it comes to genre or critical acclaim.
Event Horizon sorta had this going with its, "OMG GUYS! HELL IS REAL!" thing.
/edit
Documentaries would be welcome too actually. Just anything on the subject matter.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Well, Stein's movie was "Expelled" ... he went around and interviewed people who had been fired and excommunicated from the scientific community who claimed the cause was their willingness to entertain the idea of Intelligent Design. Basically the whole thing was pointing out that America isn't so free for you to believe as you choose any more ... with some interesting ID stuff thrown in.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
If I remember right, it was described as a "dimension of pure chaos", which could mean anything. I interpreted it simply as it being the completely natural order of a dimension that is completely different from ours on a fundamental level. So less Hell in the classical sense and more a completely normal dimension being interpreted by people who have absolutely no frame of reference for it and were therefor driven mad.
I guess that would put the Event Horizon and the Buick 8 in the same league?
Of course, that is only one interpretation. The Latin being spoken in the recording definitely implies some sort of religious Hell, but it could also just be the Captain's insane ranting (if I remember correctly, the Captain speaks Latin in the recording that shows the crew right before they leave).
Expelled seems interesting, but this is coming from a person who feels that God has no place in science.
I'm not really looking for concrete evidence that God exists, but just the subject touched upon from a scientific perspective.
Anyways, usually movies of this type offer no real explanation by the conclusion and you end up with more questions than answers.
The protagonists will be left scratching their heads and be all like, "Well, I guess we'll never know..." and the credits roll.
If such films exist, OP, then this is the great grand-daddy of them all
I found it to be more amusing and respectful of all sides involved than, say, anything by Michael Moore.
And Stein did succeed in getting Richard Dawkins to admit that life might have been seeded on earth by aliens, so...
I don't have any movies recommendations that would meet your criteria, but if you are interested in reading something along those lines, you might check out Thomas Aquinas.
Same goes for What the Bleep Do We Know? Though that one has a much better veneer. And it's more New Age garbage than God, and is also dumb and a little boring.
Difficult request. Most movies are so bad with science to begin with, and they usually handwave God as a running theme or a 3rd act get out of jail free card. I guess you could try Angels and Demons, but it's kind of dumb as well. I'm basing my opinion on the book, I've never seen the movie.
You might be better off trying to hunt down some old X-Files episodes or something.
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Premise sounds kind of silly - a man that doesn't age reveals to his friends that he's been alive since cave man times - but this movie is truly a hidden gem.
Touches on so many great topics and really makes you think the whole way through, including of course a bit on faith, religion, and god.
I know Netflix has it on instant stream, but perhaps you can find it elsewhere. The acting is kind of off at times, but it's completely engrossing.
Expelled was terrible and utterly dishonest. What the fuck is wrong with the people recommending it?
The only things that spring to my mind are:
Stigmata (Gabriel Burn is a priest who debunks miracles, until...)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (This one isn't so much about Maybe God, but Maybe Satan, afterall. And I suppose it's more legal than scientific)
I don't know... Signs?
There's not a lot that approaches the question from a strictly scientific sense, because that would feel incredibly clunky and be so obviously contrived because that isn't how the world is. But the movies I mentioned are sort of an incidental, relatively rational "Religion is the case, woo" bits within them (except since, which is in now way rational).
EDIT: March of the Penguins also has a distinctly ID* bent to it.
*Read, nonsensical
Is this a joke? This is terrible, you're terrible. And doesn't even slightly address the original question.
EDIT: Sorry, saw the edit. I suppose it's on topic, but it's just such a travesty you still cannot, in good faith, recommend it.
1. Attempt to explain the same observable phenomena in different ways, or
2. attempt to enrich humanity through completely different avenues, and therefore do not compete. "
There are a fair number of books exploring that idea. You could try this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dancing_Wu_Li_Masters
(Aside: I'm just trying to help answer your H/A question here. My personal beliefs/experiences are not addressed in this post.)
3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
I'll ignore the "religious" comment for a few moments, seeing as how religion - at least for me - evokes the more rigid, dogmatic faiths. If you're looking for science and religion being reconciled, I think you'll have trouble finding that. Science has tended to do the exact oppose - expose the falsehoods of and change religious dogma.
So, setting religion aside, I'll focus on the spiritual. Now, for me at least, when I think of science and spirituality, I think of that sort of awe you get when you learn something new about the world. It's that feeling you get when confronted with the breadth of universe's vastness, or the beauty of evolution, or the counter-intuitive discoveries about human memory, priming, and other aspects of our psychology.
If you're interested in learning more about scientific discoveries and being totally blown away by it, I'd recommend:
- PBS' Nova documentaries. The Edge of the Universe two-parter is pretty good, as is the one on the genes of flies.
- Richard Dawkins "The Greatest Show on Earth" - a new book he wrote on evolution that I'm reading now which is pretty awesome.
- This video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVjF_7ensg
- Carl Sagan's television series, which is available on Hulu (just go to hulu and type in Carl Sagan)
- The entire "Radio Lab" podcast series, which you can download from iTunes (this is probably the best recommendation I can give you)
The Fountain
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Jacob's Ladder
Pan's Labyrinth
Suspect Zero
From early footage I saw I thought it was going to take a more pro religious bent, but the movie is set around the basic premise: Evolution is a scientifically accepted theory that is taught in every American high school, yet a majority of Americans don't believe in it. Why?
Worth a watch if you ever get the chance.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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The Fountain might be up the OP's alley. I wasn't a giant fan but I remember it following similar themes to the ones he's after.
I just watched this movie!
While some of the conversations came across as written dialog from a script rather than natural, for the most part it was an awesome movie.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Not sure if that helps?
What connections did you make, watching the movie?
But anyways Mr. Krubick I have to say I agree with you, and top of that
I already totally recommended it on page one.
OP: Spiritual/Religiosity ought to be tasted in the widest of flavours, so don't just focus on the west. The best experiences come from Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, French, Italian and Spanish films as well. Diversify. (Y)
Now that I think about it, the ending definitely had me scratching my head.
Maybe I should rewatched this movie. I might see it in a completely different light now.
Either that Monolith or a different one then waits beneath the surface of the moon, for the creatures it helped to finally come to the point in their evolutionary path that they would be capable of discovering and analyzing it, proving themselves to be at the very beginnings of space travel. After that it's a lot of neon colors and giant starchild fetuses, so I got sort of lost (it would probably help if I saw or read 2010). All I understood from the ending was that it seemed to be some form of rebirth for Dave, and potentially the entire species, into the knowledge of the Monolith.
So evolution would have been shaped or guided (or maybe just kickstarted) by this Monolith millions of years ago, and then it would sit and wait for the time when humanity would be capable of finding it again for some new event to occur (a rapture?).
Anyway, my take was that it could have been hinted that the Monolith was essentially the beginning of religion among the apes of Earth, being an object from the sky that brought knowledge that changed mankind and the way it interacted with the world on a fundamental level. I saw parallels between the apes touching the Monolith and gaining knowledge and the myth of Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Life. Since the original tale of the Death and Resurrection of Christ has turned into a giant bunny who lays eggs filled with candy that we have to find over a period of (presumably) around two thousand years, I think it would be fair to think that the original appearance of the Monolith could have eventually turned into the story of the Garden of Eden or some other ancient Biblical happening.
But that is just my understanding. I'm sure it's been discussed before by people much smarter and more eloquent than I, and it is probably explained somewhere in the books (there are four of them total).
I should read those.
It was nonsense propaganda and shitty logic.
Also, he blamed the Holocaust on Darwin.
Yeah, it's scifi, but if god was real and actively intervening in things. And also functionally retarded.
watch those movies
and sign this waiver form excusing my culpability for any and all harms you endure as a direct result of my advice
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
I nominate
It's a wonderful life
and
Angels In America
but the only awesome angel is in the first one. There are no awesome or even great angels in the latter.