What To Expect In My Atheist Regime: Atheist Entertainment
From time to time I'll tell you what to expect when I rule the world, if that should happen. The first thing I'll do is step down and institute a democracy where everyone's right to free speech is guaranteed. I'll leave other details of my regime for later, but for now I'd like to talk about supernatural adventures, thrillers, comedy's and such. In tonight's speech before the assembly I want to introduce before the body politic the movie Avatar as an example of something that is a potential threat to my atheist regime. ;-) <-----
I consider the movie Avatar to be great in every way and very entertaining, even though some things were quite a stretch for me to accept (really? there are floating mountains, and Avatars, and locks of hair that can communicate with animals and trees, and...come on now).
But it got me thinking. Should I as an atheist like supernatural type movies like this one at all? If, as an atheist, I do not believe in the supernatural beings, forces or explanations, then why rent such movies (and there are a lot of them, some are pretty gruesome). For good measure let's throw in supernatural based books including best selling ones like the Harry Potter series. Should I refuse to be entertained by them and not buy or rent this kind stuff? And if others in my regime do likewise, which in turn makes it unprofitable to create this kind of entertainment, then how much of a void would that leave? Would atheist entertainment and literature have any fantasies of this type in them? Or, does this kind of entertainment encourage superstitious thinking? Should I cease celebrating Halloween for the same reasons I do the yearly holiday people call Christmas?
I think of these sorts of things. I dunno, because I do.
Now for some answers, right?
Wait! As my first act in my atheist regime I have already stepped down and called upon people to speak their minds freely.
So speak you mind.
I'll go first since I have the floor (metaphorically speaking)
As a thinking educated person I can distinguish between fantasy and reality. I have a great imagination and can dream up worlds I wish existed along with worlds that scare me. For some strange reason I like my imaginative world. I daydream. We all do. It's who we are as human beings. It relaxes, inspires and releases the mind.
So the problem isn't with this kind of entertainment. I love a lot of it. It's in being able to know the difference between fantasyland and reality.
I think Christians live in a fantasy world and cannot make the proper distinction between it and reality, though. They have their own special entertainment and I do not enjoy it at all. Just think of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress or C.S. Lewis's The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and the movies they have inspired. When watching or reading this stuff I argue against it every step along the way in my head. It's not entertaining to me much at all, and it encourages people to live in that fantasyland.
So while supernatural types of entertainment can and do encourage superstitious thinking, there is no reason for people who are grounded in reality from enjoying it. It's just that we need more and more people who embrace evidential reasoning and skepticism. People who are grounded in reality can actually enjoy this entertainment more.
It's like the entertaining value of magic tricks. Magicians dazzle and puzzle me. I must figure out how they do what they do because it know there is an illusion behind it. But if someone thinks, like people probably did in bygone times that the magician was performing miracles, then that's what I would object to. Only people who know that the magician is creating illusions can truly be entertained by it in a rational way. Otherwise, they could be drawn into living in la la land.
What think Ye? I yield my remaining time to you.
I consider the movie Avatar to be great in every way and very entertaining, even though some things were quite a stretch for me to accept (really? there are floating mountains, and Avatars, and locks of hair that can communicate with animals and trees, and...come on now).
But it got me thinking. Should I as an atheist like supernatural type movies like this one at all? If, as an atheist, I do not believe in the supernatural beings, forces or explanations, then why rent such movies (and there are a lot of them, some are pretty gruesome). For good measure let's throw in supernatural based books including best selling ones like the Harry Potter series. Should I refuse to be entertained by them and not buy or rent this kind stuff? And if others in my regime do likewise, which in turn makes it unprofitable to create this kind of entertainment, then how much of a void would that leave? Would atheist entertainment and literature have any fantasies of this type in them? Or, does this kind of entertainment encourage superstitious thinking? Should I cease celebrating Halloween for the same reasons I do the yearly holiday people call Christmas?
I think of these sorts of things. I dunno, because I do.
Now for some answers, right?
Wait! As my first act in my atheist regime I have already stepped down and called upon people to speak their minds freely.
So speak you mind.
I'll go first since I have the floor (metaphorically speaking)
As a thinking educated person I can distinguish between fantasy and reality. I have a great imagination and can dream up worlds I wish existed along with worlds that scare me. For some strange reason I like my imaginative world. I daydream. We all do. It's who we are as human beings. It relaxes, inspires and releases the mind.
So the problem isn't with this kind of entertainment. I love a lot of it. It's in being able to know the difference between fantasyland and reality.
I think Christians live in a fantasy world and cannot make the proper distinction between it and reality, though. They have their own special entertainment and I do not enjoy it at all. Just think of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress or C.S. Lewis's The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and the movies they have inspired. When watching or reading this stuff I argue against it every step along the way in my head. It's not entertaining to me much at all, and it encourages people to live in that fantasyland.
So while supernatural types of entertainment can and do encourage superstitious thinking, there is no reason for people who are grounded in reality from enjoying it. It's just that we need more and more people who embrace evidential reasoning and skepticism. People who are grounded in reality can actually enjoy this entertainment more.
It's like the entertaining value of magic tricks. Magicians dazzle and puzzle me. I must figure out how they do what they do because it know there is an illusion behind it. But if someone thinks, like people probably did in bygone times that the magician was performing miracles, then that's what I would object to. Only people who know that the magician is creating illusions can truly be entertained by it in a rational way. Otherwise, they could be drawn into living in la la land.
What think Ye? I yield my remaining time to you.
11 comments:
Avatar easily fits a materialistic explanation, that is apart from messy mind body issues.
The God of the Na'Vi was a physical being that consisted of a neural network going through the planets plants.
I don't see why there has to be anything mystical and non-material about the floating mountains. We could easily say that they they have a physical force that repels the planet's gravity but not so much that they would continually float away (obviously undiscovered by 20th century physics but that is par for the course in most sci-fi).
The only problems might be the one blue lady's (I tend not to remember movie character's names) claim of seeing a sign from the planet God's floating seeds that fell on the soldier and the planet's supposed rallying of the beasts against the mercenaries. But then again, so many of the animals have that neural interface growing out of their bodies that it could be the case that just like the Na'vi, they too connect with the planets neural network.
Those more typical problems for materialism? There's the issue of information, of consciousness, more interestingly, that consciousness can be transferred from one physical brain to the planet and to another physical brain.
Actually, I thought Avatar made some interesting apologetics for pantheism in many ways. What interests me, John, is none of that irritated you? It was pretty blatant, and pantheism is a belief system many people in the real world carry - this movie could enforce those views for them.
Ryan, every supernatural type of book or movie has some kind of religious background, and that's what I was trying to address. What would atheist entertainment be like for you?
Yeah, Rob, I thought with you that there was an attempt to make is seem materialistic since the planet itself was like a brain.
Recently, I have become quite hardened against all superstition. I have no tolerance for religious intolerance (lol!). I think prayer is the most insidious waste of time ever devised by man.
However, I like Harry Potter and Captain Kirk (both of them). I like Frodo and his crew. I like Avatar.
I know that they are all works of fiction. I enjoy these characters and adventures (Luke Skywalker).
It is entertainment, and I like a good story.
Just because I like far out fictional stories and characters, does not mean that I think they have a place in modern secular society. I prefer my government and society to be fiction free.
I am told that Joss Whedon of Firefly, Buffy and Angel fame is an atheist. The worlds he creates are rich and never have a consistently negative view of religion in general. The preacher in firefly as I recall was generally a voice of reason.
There is a facinating episode of Angel where Angel negotiates to be taken to the head office of Wolfram and Hart, a law firm that is often presented as a primary source of evil and corruption in the world. He steps into an elevator to be taken to the head office and when the door slides open, he is greeted by the street filled with people going about their daily lives, and it is explained to him that the head office of evil is humanity itself strongly taking a cue from the idea of depravity. (this is a paraphrase of that scene and it was probably slightly different).
A friend of mine who is a buffy fanatic told me that two primary sources of inspiration for buffy are greek mythology and scripture.
All that said, given much else, if I had not heard that Wedon was an atheist, I would've assumed that he was a religious pluralist.
"The worlds he creates are rich and never have a consistently negative view of religion in general. The preacher in firefly as I recall was generally a voice of reason."
This makes perfect sense to me, coming from an atheist. As an atheist, I envision a world with a good God, one with infinite wisdom. In this world, I would certainly expect his vassals on the planet to continually be the voices of reason.
I'm absolutely fine with entertainment based on supernatural stories. Greek mythology is one of my favorite subjects, and the stories that make up the Christian/Jewish mythology are generally fascinating.
I wish people didn't believe they were actually records of truth.
Would atheist entertainment and literature have any fantasies of this type in them? Or, does this kind of entertainment encourage superstitious thinking?
Vernor Vinge's 1981 story True Names shows the use of magical and mythological archetypes as interfaces for entering "second lives" in virtual worlds, but based on naturalistic assumptions.
Actually computers raise interesting questions about theism. Theists tend to believe that their god created life; but no theist I know of has argued that his god could create a computer. Apparently that explains why some theists denounce bioengineering as "playing god," but not computer engineering; they implicitly acknowledge that god doesn't operate in that magisterium.
I find it cathartic and uplifting to read / watch modern-day mythology, especially when it's based in Campbell's Hero's Journey (not so much the darker, more gruesome aspects of the fantasy genre). I think enjoying escapist fiction is a basic human trait (perhaps why so many turn to religion?)
If being an atheist meant I had to limit myself to documentaries and news, it would be pretty boring. Not believing in imaginary things doesn't mean not having an imagination, right?
Hey John
"Ryan, every supernatural type of book or movie has some kind of religious background, and that's what I was trying to address. What would atheist entertainment be like for you?"
Hmmm... well, I'm not sure. I'm a fantasy writer myself, so it's a little hard to say!
As a Christian, I could have issues with Avatar and its pantheistic offering, or issues with Harry Potter and its message around magic. Yet I don't. I quite enjoy them, although I thought Avatar's story was generally lacking (Pocahontas in space, as some have called it?)
Looking at 'atheistic' entertainment, I've enjoyed some of Star Trek (more modern adaptations as they include more action!) and, of course, what about the Golden Compass? Although I felt the movie could have done with some better script writing and more film time. I haven't read the books, although I certainly will sometime.
What I found interesting was your statement that you "argue against [The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe] every step along the way in [your] head. It's not entertaining to [you] much at all, and it encourages people to live in that fantasyland."
I've never felt CS Lewis' Narnia books were that easy to spot as a Christian apologetic at all. Perhaps only the last book in the series (The Last Battle) but certainly none of the others. Once you know ahead of time that Lewis means for Aslan to be Jesus then it makes sense that it could, but outside of you knowing that beforehand it wouldn't really be obvious.
Besides that, none of the books make an effort to convert you, and even The Last Battle makes an apologetic for some inclusivism, much to the horror of Christian hyper-fundamentalists.
So I just was wondering if you weren't a little biased at all against some of this entertainment. Pilgrim's Progress, yes, that's pretty blatant - but not Narnia. Please do not mention Left Behind - lets pretend that THAT little piece of (ahem... embarrassing) entertainment doesn't exist! ;)
I have a habit of typing a lot... but anyway, let me say that I do encourage atheistic entertainment and other types of entertainment as it does give people the opportunity to think and be challenged.
In this sense I am grateful for Pullman's contribution to literature. Why not have all sorts of viewpoints coming through in entertainment and literature? As much as we should find some escapism to get a bit of rest, we should also find ourselves challenged to think as much as is healthy. So it's all good.
If you were the great ruler of the world, would you ban Narnia because it promotes Christianity? Would you not ban it for freedom of speech? Or would you welcome it for the sake of its contribution to giving humankind some tools and ideas to think about. See, I would choose the latter, and therefore welcome movies and books etc. with opposing views. We need all sorts of things to challenge our thinking.
Everyone needs to be given the ability to make up their own minds, and if you banned that stuff because it encourages people to live in that fantasy land, you would be working against your own cause, because you would be telling people what to think instead of letting them think for themselves. Surely the latter is what you want? You would be no better than a hyper-fundamentalist religious person.
(PS not saying that that's what you were saying, just adding it for thought.)
Ryan, thanks so much! I liked much of what you wrote. Yes, atheist entertainment does have some good entries. I was just expressing my own personal opinion about some Christian entertainment.
But for the record I would not ban anything in my atheist regime except child porn and snuff films.
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