Was there any mention of God or theology at all?
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Stev-2 — 9 years ago(November 19, 2016 03:46 PM)
Palmer Joss: [Ellie challenges Palmer to prove the existence of God] Did you love your father?
Ellie Arroway: What?
Palmer Joss: Your dad. Did you love him?
Ellie Arroway: Yes, very much.
Palmer Joss: Prove it.
Should be completed as follows.
Palmer Joss: [Ellie challenges Palmer to prove the existence of God] Did you love your father?
Ellie Arroway: What?
Palmer Joss: Your dad. Did you love him?
Ellie Arroway: Yes, very much.
Palmer Joss: Prove it.
Ellie Arroway: That's sophistry. It's like asking me to prove what my favourite colour is. You have a favourite colour and also can't 'prove' it. But that does't mean I shouldn't treat your claim that that there's an invisible dragon in your garage as pretty obvious nonsense. -
Pineapples101 — 9 years ago(November 18, 2016 04:04 AM)
Thankfully no.
Do it Doug!!!!
http://movie-memorabilia-emporium.blogspot.com/ -
hexawiz — 9 years ago(November 19, 2016 02:42 AM)
Probably not, at least not in the short term.
If the aliens have no religion, it would just reinforce the idea that many people already have that humans are special, and made in God's image. People already disagree over whether animals have souls, even though we know they are intelligent, social creatures. If God revealed himself to us, but not to the aliens, this just makes us more special.
On the other hand, what if they aliens do practice monotheism. Or even have a tradition of God assuming corporeal form and dying to redeem them. If the aliens had a historical tradition that seemed to parallel that of Christ, how would the world react to
that
? -
hexawiz — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 05:18 AM)
Even if it is nonesense, why would the discovery of alien life cause people to abandon religion wholesale, when religious belief has survived in the face of evidence for an old earth, evolution, and a vast universe which appears wholly indifferent to us.
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lubin-freddy — 9 years ago(November 19, 2016 10:36 AM)
No. But there might have been a sighting of the FSM.
And while we're at it, I didn't like the philosophical conversation in
Contact
. She should have had an answer to the "prove it [that she loved her father]". That was a very flawed analogy: human emotions and scientific facts.
What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. -
The_paranoid_android — 9 years ago(November 19, 2016 11:42 AM)
I don't recall
Not at all, which is sad given how much ethical, theologoical, and intellectual discourse there can be when considering the concept of aliens in the face of a person or people who believe in God.
One of my favourite parts of the movie 'Contact' was the theological discussions, of God, and science.
Absolutely, and I think I prefer Contact as a movie over Arrival given how much in depth it goes into the characters, which gives the relevations more meaning.
To answer your question: no. There's no discussion of God or theology, and, unlike some posters on this thread, science and belief are not antithetical to each other (just listen to John Lennox on the matter, and I myself subscribe to both science and religion). The closest there gets is mentioning that a religious cult killed themselves because of the spaceships, which is kind of a really negative association given that that cult is the only religious group that exists in the film. The film has a surprisingly paper-thin thought process and 'blame' for the soldiers attempting to take down the aliens (even more ridiciulous given that they could be starting an interstellar war for no reason other than a thinly-veiled Rush Limbaugh saying "we don't like those aliens, therefore we should destroy them".
Honestly, the film's rational for those humans' actions make so little sense.
"prove it [that she loved her father]".
To this quote, I'd say it's relevant since emotions are not a science. Love cannot be quantified and analayzed. It is a abstract notion of self and others that cannot be scientifically explained (once again, I'd suggest John Lennox discussing at length with Richard Dawkins on many subjects like this). The concept of love is explored FANTASTICALLY in Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion" books, especially in the context of a religious existential discussion. -
Intothenightalone — 9 years ago(November 19, 2016 03:32 PM)
Any great story is about conflict, and a scientist and a 'man of the cloth without the cloth' who like each other but have very conflicting world views made for some very interesting discussions.
The conflict in this movie wasn't as strong. The general was a hard-ass, "I'll be ready in 20." - - - "we're leaving in 10". This sort of conflict is very superficial and almost script-writing 101. -
The_paranoid_android — 9 years ago(November 19, 2016 07:52 PM)
The conflict in this movie wasn't as strong. The general was a hard-ass, "I'll be ready in 20." - - - "we're leaving in 10". This sort of conflict is very superficial and almost script-writing 101.
That's true. And the don't need to bring religion into the discussion, but an actual ethical or intellectual discourse would be nice. -
tallard — 9 years ago(November 19, 2016 04:55 PM)
No mentions were needed, the entire film is a white-washing of Christian colonialism. Gift of universal language from superior beings? Time-travel premonition?
The pods are Chistopher Columbus' vessels
The ink stains are the Bible
Adams is the old Indian sage who sells out her people
Next visit: everyone dead. Thank you nonsense.
*So I've seen 4 movies/wk in theatre for a 1/4 century, call me crazy? -
lubin-freddy — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 04:16 AM)
I thought that the religious discussion in
Contact
was forced, and only detracted from the film.
And, as I wrote before, the central question the Matthew McConaughey asks the Jodie Foster character, basically how can you "prove" your love for your father, can be simply answered within the parameters of science, while she, in the film, is silent facing the power of the argument. But it's a false equivalence.
What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. -
Voting_for_a_Ficus — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 07:04 AM)
There was some news footage of muslims marching/protesting shouting "Alahu Akbar!" and later there was the story about the christian doomsday cult that set their compound on-fire.
So in other words, pretty realistic.