Well... I probably could have fit this all into a single post but it felt like it was getting a bit long. I am going to continue what is completely my own views (though I doubt they are completely unique I mean surely somebody else watched it and thought of this? was even written with the intent) of the Invention of Lying's religion scene. In my last post I spoke of the interesting social response to the Man in The Sky being responsible for EVERYTHING that happens. Once again I must WARN that I will recount the movie when I see fit.
Now I don't remember all of the 10 things he had to say about this Man in The Sky. I remember the general gist of them though and a couple more quite specifically. The first one is what started it all. I swear that the people were less interested in the fact that after death it wasn't nothingness then they were interested in the fact that there was a MANSION for every person.
I thought this was very weird. I mean I got all of the other Christian basis. But when have we ever said that we each get a mansion? I mean that is very materialistic... very human... very earthly... Surely that is something thrown in for the materialistic humanity relevance. I mean I know we get that we get to go live with God in His house and that most of the references to heaven are well and truly extravagant and sort of give you the impression better than the most extravagant of this world.
The actual relevance of this one I can not take the credit for. But rather a Christian blog I follow posted an interesting article... Strangely enough specifically on the use of the word mansion and its biblical relevance. The blog The Sola Panel is pretty interesting and I recommend a read of the Mansions article if your interested http://solapanel.org/article/mansions_a_wordwatch/. Basically mansion was a word used explicitly in the bible... in the KJV (King James Version (the one with the thou's and shalt's and thine's)) at least. John 14:2: “In my Father's house are many mansions”(KJV).
There isn't much more to that particular story but just the fact that that... which is such a big deal in the movie... is actually stemmed from biblical text I find fascinating. The writer of Invention Of Lying knew a bit or cared enough to do a fair bit of research I must say. The other random thing is that nowhere in that blog article is there any mention of The Invention of Lying and yet it was there at quite an opportune time to cover the mansion issue for me.
Much of the rest of what I remember of his 10 things that I can remember relate to heaven and getting to heaven and I think there was one which covered the existence of a hell as well. Now the heaven one for me. The was a both a positive and a negative to it. The negative though was quite large and I can honestly say for it and it alone I was quite irritated by the scene as a whole.
He introduced the concept of sin, yes we can all agree on that one. There are bad things that people do. From here however it took a terrible down turn. Bad stuff was only terrible CRIMES by the world... you know like killing a person on purpose or rape... hitting another person in anger or... i'd say a little white lie here but I realise that is the equivalent of an oxymoron considering the context of this lie-less world...
A couple of particularly strategic audience member start testing various actions... seeing if they constitute a major badness... whether or not they could get away with it. One or two nervous people realise they want a list, need a list, of every SINGLE major bad thing so that they can avoid doing them. Afterall you can't do more than 3 things and go to heaven and get your mansion.
The three things is interesting. The fact that there are chances leaves it just open enough to get out question about the fact that you'll be sharing heaven with "BAD" people. There something people don't like. What do you mean they can do a bedside/gaol cell conversion and go to heaven? How is that fair? (those are real life question not the movie - sorry to be confusing)
In a lot of conversations I struggle against this magic world 'fair'. The fair rules are yet to work on anything in this world.... why should they work on God? Maybe when things don't seem fair its because we apply a word with a particular meaning to a series of concepts which are completely different to the word meaning. Who knows? Life's not fair. Life doesn't make sense. Might as well hope on the best band wagon going don't you think?
Back however to the negative of all of this. I HATE this part of the religion scene beyond any incrimination that perhaps Christianity is just a lie in our world same as theirs. The fact that they taken my religion and inserted a high jump bar. Admittedly it is more a low jump bar - I mean it isn't exactly hard to avoid killing 3 people in a lifetime. But in Christianity... in Jesus... It is what he has done, not anything we could do/could avoid doing. Everybody is stuffed basically and by believing (an issue which didn't ARISE in Invention of Lying - but how could it? - these people have to believe cause they can't conceive that maybe... it isnt?...) you get to heaven... There is NOTHING YOU CAN DO.
That I know to be the most essential part of my beliefs. It seperates Christianity out a little from the other religions. I mean a lot of Christians are very religious in both the good and bad forms of it. When it is just ritual without belief... is it any good at all? In Christianity you don't need to do anything. You choose to do things, show that you are thankful for the fact that Jesus bares your sin. But just because you attempt to make yours a 'light' load for Him doesn't make it any less of a load. Its like exchanging a lead balloon in for a hot air balloon... doesn't matter what kind of lead balloon you've got... it still isn't going to work so great.
Chances I agree. But I don't agree that God has a number on it. As terrible as it may seem that some 'bad' people will go to heaven and others, good people, will not. It is the way of things... AND in that I don't think the movie portrayed that particularly well at all... Reducing Christianity down to a religion where you place a foot wrong and die... That's just disgusting... What can I say though... In a movie for the general public these things will happen... It could be worse... It could be good deeds get you to heaven...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Relevant Lies? The Good and The Bad Of It
The other day I watched The Invention of Lying. I'd been looking forward to it. So much so that on discovering that for some completely bizarre reason it was not being shown at the first cinema I visited I got into my car and drove to another. It wasn't like I had anything better to do with my day. The movie in all... Well I think it is the type that would have made a good bit of literature, a theorised culture almost utopian - I mean without lying the world would be perfect right? As a movie it was quirky and interesting but not the greatest movie I've seen.
However by removing lying it gave the occasional reference to regular culture which was often intellectually funny. Now I think about it... The problem with the movie? It is based in English humour but pitched at an American audience. I think had I thought of that sooner I may have been able to appreciate it a bit better. Slapstick goes subtle... the two humour styles are quite mutually exclusive. That is an observation I made post movie rather than during so it is probably a little exaggerated never the less...
Anyhow apparently from thinking it would make a better book than a movie. The 'reinvention' of the Christian religion was quite interesting. Firstly I am against any implications that Christianity is some grand lie. For a work of fiction I do not object to religion being invented. In fact I found the writers knowledge of how Christianity gets interpreted to be quite intellectual. I can't tell whether he sits as an atheist or a Christian but any way the relational stuff between the main character and his crowd is quite an accurate response of how I feel many people actually respond to Christianity... if they don't reject it for being 'unreal' without listening.
This is a Spoiler WARNING. I am going to talk through the scene. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE INVENTION OF LYING. You may not want to read it. Not that it gives away the ending - but I mean its a chick flick is that even possible?
Ok in the movie he tells a lie about the existence of any form of afterlife to his dying mother. Which of course others overhear, news spreads and uproar at his place. He is very distressed. So he puts in a substantial amount of effort into these ten things? Yes rather like 10 commandments you could say. He even goes to the trouble of making them 'tablets' to add significance.
As far as the 10 commandments go there isn't too much similarities between them and his 10 things. Number 1 is where it is truly interesting. That there is a 'Man in the Sky', this man just created the existance of God basically. However it his next statement that I found to be one of the most interesting.
The Man in The Sky is responsible for everything that happens on earth. Or basically something to that effect. Fair enough. That is a fairly well Christian belief. I believe that God is responsible for everything that happens. Most importantly the Good and the Bad. A distinction his crowd (these purely factual humans are very curious) makes quickly. You watch as members of the crowd digest the fact that this Man in The Sky is responsible for the BAD things (nobody has asked yet about the good things). One by one hands go up.
Did he give my mum cancer? Did he cause that earthquake that killed thousands of people? Is he why my cat died last summer? The main character (can you tell i can't remember his name?) answers truthfully... well consistently within the limits of his created lie... YES. The crowd gets more and more restless. Until it is practically a riot. People out to TAKE DOWN the Man in The Sky. Regretting this God person. He after all caused all this BAD stuff to happen.
I think this is something that Christians have to confront in modern society. It is an area of huge debate. It is one of those token objections that non-Christians pull out to explain why Christianity is stupid, why God isn't right. People don't like the fact that a God, particularly the God (i mean if you have multiple you might as well throw in a bad one right?) could do bad things.
And Christians, just like the main character, have to say yes. Yes he causes that to happen. This is the kind of thing that stonewalls a Christian. People aren't willing to consider that something exhibits control of the good AND the bad. So as soon as it controls the bad, its bad, even people that basically figure there probably is a God don't like this concept. They do the crowd thing and REJECT REJECT REJECT. Unfortunate for the Christian.
This is the suffering debate. Beyond even the debate Christian to non. The whole concept of the suffering stuffs with the heads of Christians new and old alike. Coming to grips that God is the reason for it. Its hard. So explaining it to a non-Christian? Its pretty close to impossible. You have to accept so many other things to accept that He does that to and that it is for the grand scheme good if not for the momentary inconvenience (on that compare your life to the age of the universe I mean... there's no beating it) it is in your life.
Back to the movie the crowd make the critical next realisation. Some bright fellow works out that the main has said that the Man in The Sky controls everything, he never explicitly said bad. Maybe... He is responsible for the good things? The main with quite some relief (he really would like the crowd not to tear his yard apart in revolt against the Man in The Sky) says 'YES'. So then he cured my mum's cancer? He saved my daughter from being hit by that car? He helped that person in the diving accident to be recover fully? YES YES YES. Now there is something that these people managed to think about that others often don't.
Just as is our culture people let the minority bad ruin it for the majority good. How many times have you felt ripped off because somebody did this last time and got hurt so now you only get to watch it get done. That's probably something you see more of as a young person but any way you look at it. Humans are pessimists by trade. We want to get the most dreary version of something possible. The trick is to remember than everything is from God... The good, the bad... the inbetween...
However by removing lying it gave the occasional reference to regular culture which was often intellectually funny. Now I think about it... The problem with the movie? It is based in English humour but pitched at an American audience. I think had I thought of that sooner I may have been able to appreciate it a bit better. Slapstick goes subtle... the two humour styles are quite mutually exclusive. That is an observation I made post movie rather than during so it is probably a little exaggerated never the less...
Anyhow apparently from thinking it would make a better book than a movie. The 'reinvention' of the Christian religion was quite interesting. Firstly I am against any implications that Christianity is some grand lie. For a work of fiction I do not object to religion being invented. In fact I found the writers knowledge of how Christianity gets interpreted to be quite intellectual. I can't tell whether he sits as an atheist or a Christian but any way the relational stuff between the main character and his crowd is quite an accurate response of how I feel many people actually respond to Christianity... if they don't reject it for being 'unreal' without listening.
This is a Spoiler WARNING. I am going to talk through the scene. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE INVENTION OF LYING. You may not want to read it. Not that it gives away the ending - but I mean its a chick flick is that even possible?
Ok in the movie he tells a lie about the existence of any form of afterlife to his dying mother. Which of course others overhear, news spreads and uproar at his place. He is very distressed. So he puts in a substantial amount of effort into these ten things? Yes rather like 10 commandments you could say. He even goes to the trouble of making them 'tablets' to add significance.
As far as the 10 commandments go there isn't too much similarities between them and his 10 things. Number 1 is where it is truly interesting. That there is a 'Man in the Sky', this man just created the existance of God basically. However it his next statement that I found to be one of the most interesting.
The Man in The Sky is responsible for everything that happens on earth. Or basically something to that effect. Fair enough. That is a fairly well Christian belief. I believe that God is responsible for everything that happens. Most importantly the Good and the Bad. A distinction his crowd (these purely factual humans are very curious) makes quickly. You watch as members of the crowd digest the fact that this Man in The Sky is responsible for the BAD things (nobody has asked yet about the good things). One by one hands go up.
Did he give my mum cancer? Did he cause that earthquake that killed thousands of people? Is he why my cat died last summer? The main character (can you tell i can't remember his name?) answers truthfully... well consistently within the limits of his created lie... YES. The crowd gets more and more restless. Until it is practically a riot. People out to TAKE DOWN the Man in The Sky. Regretting this God person. He after all caused all this BAD stuff to happen.
I think this is something that Christians have to confront in modern society. It is an area of huge debate. It is one of those token objections that non-Christians pull out to explain why Christianity is stupid, why God isn't right. People don't like the fact that a God, particularly the God (i mean if you have multiple you might as well throw in a bad one right?) could do bad things.
And Christians, just like the main character, have to say yes. Yes he causes that to happen. This is the kind of thing that stonewalls a Christian. People aren't willing to consider that something exhibits control of the good AND the bad. So as soon as it controls the bad, its bad, even people that basically figure there probably is a God don't like this concept. They do the crowd thing and REJECT REJECT REJECT. Unfortunate for the Christian.
This is the suffering debate. Beyond even the debate Christian to non. The whole concept of the suffering stuffs with the heads of Christians new and old alike. Coming to grips that God is the reason for it. Its hard. So explaining it to a non-Christian? Its pretty close to impossible. You have to accept so many other things to accept that He does that to and that it is for the grand scheme good if not for the momentary inconvenience (on that compare your life to the age of the universe I mean... there's no beating it) it is in your life.
Back to the movie the crowd make the critical next realisation. Some bright fellow works out that the main has said that the Man in The Sky controls everything, he never explicitly said bad. Maybe... He is responsible for the good things? The main with quite some relief (he really would like the crowd not to tear his yard apart in revolt against the Man in The Sky) says 'YES'. So then he cured my mum's cancer? He saved my daughter from being hit by that car? He helped that person in the diving accident to be recover fully? YES YES YES. Now there is something that these people managed to think about that others often don't.
Just as is our culture people let the minority bad ruin it for the majority good. How many times have you felt ripped off because somebody did this last time and got hurt so now you only get to watch it get done. That's probably something you see more of as a young person but any way you look at it. Humans are pessimists by trade. We want to get the most dreary version of something possible. The trick is to remember than everything is from God... The good, the bad... the inbetween...
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