Atheist-Friendly Movies

[Shell B]

Most of the time, atheist people value reason and logic. Films on that topic are atheist-friendly in that way. Atheists tend to like them. It doesn't mean that atheism is anything more than an absence of belief. It just means that certain types of people with certain qualities tend to lack that belief. Pro-reason is not anti-religious per se; it simply threatens religion because religion doesn't stand to reason.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

God is not dead.
God is not dead II.
Risen.
The Shack.

The local theaters are running tickets of "movies for the renewal of faith this Easter season".

[Catholic_Lady]

Most of the time, atheist people value reason and logic. Films on that topic are atheist-friendly in that way. Atheists tend to like them. It doesn't mean that atheism is anything more than an absence of belief. It just means that certain types of people with certain qualities tend to lack that belief. Pro-reason is not anti-religious per se; it simply threatens religion because religion doesn't stand to reason.

I would agree with that. Though from what FM has said, it seems the movies he's referring to are actively in opposition to religion or paint religious folks in a negative light, which seems like it would make them anti theist verses just merely atheist friendly.

[mlmooney89]

It's literally the same reason we come to this site to talk. We want to talk to like minded people about things we mostly have to shut up about in day to day life. It's not that we are going 'rah rah rah let's take down religion!' it's more of 'I'm so sick of seeing religious movies can we please see something that I agree with?' The movies that don't mention religion or the lack of it at all are not part of this category at all because they are neutral to both parties. Usually I try to side with you because I do get that some of the things other atheists say are mean but I can't agree that there isn't a crap ton of religion in Hollywood. They get made in a blink of an eye and we just kind of ignore it or shrug it off. The times movies go against religion you have to worry about being politically correct and almost none of them get to the fame of the religious ones. I mean shit look at The Passion of the Christ and God's Not Dead. According to God's Not Dead you'd think atheists were the worst monsters ever with no hearts and pushing Christians down when in reality the ten commandments stand on government property. When Christians make a movie it's them standing up for themselves but when atheists make a movie it's 'seriously? Stop trying to take our religious rights away'.

There are several things here I wanna point out. 

First and foremost, I'm not complaining about ya'll watching whatever you wanna watch or giving you shit for it or saying you're trying to take my religion away lol. So, I'm not sure if you got that impression or what, but none of my posts here have done any of that.

All I have done in this thread is merely pointed out that most movies in Hollywood are vastly non religious related. Lol I don't see how anyone can disagree with that. I've been told over and over again that "atheism" simply means "absence of religion" and not "opposition to religion." It has no principles or topics of its own, to be talked about. In that sense, I figure since most Hollywood movies are a-religious, they would qualify as "atheist friendly movies", per my understanding of the definition of atheism which I've learned here. And then I said the type of movies being described here would more accurately be described as "anti theist movies" rather than simply "atheist."

As far as your claim that movies mostly paint religion in a respectful light when it does get brought up, I don't know about that. I feel there are plenty of movies where they paint religion in a negative light mostly by making the one crazy character of the movie religious or something. And you feel there are plenty of movies which paint religious beliefs in a positive light. Perhaps there are plenty of both and we each only remember the ones that make us roll our eyes. But one thing is true, the vast majority don't mention religion one way or the other, and in that sense, seem to qualify as atheist friendly.      

Now, about God's Not Dead, trust me I agree that movie is shit. It's embarrassing, and I, as a Christian (though not the Evangelical type like in the movie) am embarrassed for it. On the flip side of the coin though, I also watched the movie "The Ledge" where the bad guy is a Christian man who tries to kill his wife while reading the bible to her. Same principle, opposite side. I hated it for the same reasons, though I hated the former more because it is supposed to be representing me as a Christian.

---

In the USA, especially in certain states, we're surrounded by religion all day every day, and the list of movies that even mention that one of the characters is actually an atheist is pretty short. We're allowed to want to see ourselves in movies without people eager for a 'gotcha' re-imagining that as being anti-theist. But we can't have that, even on an atheist forum. We can't even talk about it without having that, apparently.

Why is everyone acting like I said they're not allowed? Lol.

I wasn't thinking that you were doing any of the stuff I had mentioned, it was more of a general information of why we wanted these things. I reckon it could be resaid with Barbies. Sure regular Barbie is child friendly because it doesn't do anything against any particular child but having a black Barbie is a big deal because little black girls feel like they can connect. Non religious movies that don't mention religion at all are indeed atheist friendly in that they don't do anything against us as atheists but having a movie that comes out and says 'hey religion isn't real' is something we feel like we can connect with so those are more of what we are discussing. It is just something where we can say this movie is made from our view point.

I do agree that maybe we are both remembering the movies more that go against our views so that is why we both say there are a lot on the opposite side we are. Statistically that makes the most sense. Thinking about this situation I recall the movie we watched the other night. It was a foreign film so it was based in Spain and only had subtitles but it was about a teenager that called a spirit from hell on accident and it was haunting them. It was actually a pretty decent film and is on Netflix if anyone is interested, it's called Veronica. Anywho point is they go to a Catholic school and there is one nun they call Sister Death or something because she seemed to be crazy. Even though they were all religious she was considered crazy because she took it 'too far' by saying there were shadows and demons. So in a way it is backing you and I both by showing religion as crazy but also showing that there is a hefty amount of religion in the first place that is normal.

[Shell B]

Most of the time, atheist people value reason and logic. Films on that topic are atheist-friendly in that way. Atheists tend to like them. It doesn't mean that atheism is anything more than an absence of belief. It just means that certain types of people with certain qualities tend to lack that belief. Pro-reason is not anti-religious per se; it simply threatens religion because religion doesn't stand to reason.

I would agree with that. Though from what FM has said, it seems the movies he's referring to are actively in opposition to religion or paint religious folks in a negative light, which seems like it would make them anti theist verses just merely atheist friendly.

I've seen a lot of those movies. Most of them are historical or documentaries. James Randi tends to have undertones religious people hate because he exposes spiritual/supernatural fraud very skillfully. I don't recall the docu I saw about him really touching on religion much. Agora was a film about a female scholar murdered by early Christians. If it's anti-Christian, it's because Christians did a shitty thing. It's a really good film.

[Catholic_Lady]

There are several things here I wanna point out. 

First and foremost, I'm not complaining about ya'll watching whatever you wanna watch or giving you shit for it or saying you're trying to take my religion away lol. So, I'm not sure if you got that impression or what, but none of my posts here have done any of that.

All I have done in this thread is merely pointed out that most movies in Hollywood are vastly non religious related. Lol I don't see how anyone can disagree with that. I've been told over and over again that "atheism" simply means "absence of religion" and not "opposition to religion." It has no principles or topics of its own, to be talked about. In that sense, I figure since most Hollywood movies are a-religious, they would qualify as "atheist friendly movies", per my understanding of the definition of atheism which I've learned here. And then I said the type of movies being described here would more accurately be described as "anti theist movies" rather than simply "atheist."

As far as your claim that movies mostly paint religion in a respectful light when it does get brought up, I don't know about that. I feel there are plenty of movies where they paint religion in a negative light mostly by making the one crazy character of the movie religious or something. And you feel there are plenty of movies which paint religious beliefs in a positive light. Perhaps there are plenty of both and we each only remember the ones that make us roll our eyes. But one thing is true, the vast majority don't mention religion one way or the other, and in that sense, seem to qualify as atheist friendly.      

Now, about God's Not Dead, trust me I agree that movie is shit. It's embarrassing, and I, as a Christian (though not the Evangelical type like in the movie) am embarrassed for it. On the flip side of the coin though, I also watched the movie "The Ledge" where the bad guy is a Christian man who tries to kill his wife while reading the bible to her. Same principle, opposite side. I hated it for the same reasons, though I hated the former more because it is supposed to be representing me as a Christian.

---

Why is everyone acting like I said they're not allowed? Lol.

I wasn't thinking that you were doing any of the stuff I had mentioned, it was more of a general information of why we wanted these things. I reckon it could be resaid with Barbies. Sure regular Barbie is child friendly because it doesn't do anything against any particular child but having a black Barbie is a big deal because little black girls feel like they can connect. Non religious movies that don't mention religion at all are indeed atheist friendly in that they don't do anything against us as atheists but having a movie that comes out and says 'hey religion isn't real' is something we feel like we can connect with so those are more of what we are discussing. It is just something where we can say this movie is made from our view point.

I do agree that maybe we are both remembering the movies more that go against our views so that is why we both say there are a lot on the opposite side we are. Statistically that makes the most sense. Thinking about this situation I recall the movie we watched the other night. It was a foreign film so it was based in Spain and only had subtitles but it was about a teenager that called a spirit from hell on accident and it was haunting them. It was actually a pretty decent film and is on Netflix if anyone is interested, it's called Veronica. Anywho point is they go to a Catholic school and there is one nun they call Sister Death or something because she seemed to be crazy. Even though they were all religious she was considered crazy because she took it 'too far' by saying there were shadows and demons. So in a way it is backing you and I both by showing religion as crazy but also showing that there is a hefty amount of religion in the first place that is normal.

Fair enough, fair enough

[Mister Agenda]

In the USA, especially in certain states, we're surrounded by religion all day every day, and the list of movies that even mention that one of the characters is actually an atheist is pretty short. We're allowed to want to see ourselves in movies without people eager for a 'gotcha' re-imagining that as being anti-theist. But we can't have that, even on an atheist forum. We can't even talk about it without having that, apparently.

Why is everyone acting like I said they're not allowed? Lol.

Not allowed to talk about movies we like because they have atheism in them without someone using it as a reason to bring up some nonsense about it being hypocritical because 'atheism is only not believing in a deity'? Whatever gave me that idea, huh? Thin air, that's what it was!

What is acting like you said they're not allowed, btw?

[Catholic_Lady]

Why is everyone acting like I said they're not allowed? Lol.

Not allowed to talk about movies we like because they have atheism in them without someone using it as a reason to bring up some nonsense about it being hypocritical because 'atheism is only not believing in a deity'? Whatever gave me that idea, huh? Thin air, that's what it was!

What is acting like you said they're not allowed, btw?

There's with the "not allowed" again. Also, I didn't say a word about hypocritical, but whatever. Straws are fun, and I don't need to explain myself again.

[Mister Agenda]

Not allowed to talk about movies we like because they have atheism in them without someone using it as a reason to bring up some nonsense about it being hypocritical because 'atheism is only not believing in a deity'? Whatever gave me that idea, huh? Thin air, that's what it was!

What is acting like you said they're not allowed, btw?

There's with the "not allowed" again. Also, I didn't say a word about hypocritical, but whatever. Straws are fun, and I don't need to explain myself again.

It's like you can't read English with your filters on. I never said you said 'not allowed'. I never said you said 'hypocritical'. That didn't keep you from not allowing us to have this conversation without you chiming in and JAQing off about 'I thought atheism was just not believing in God, looks like it's about other things too, huh? (paraphrasing)' All kinds of super literal once you were called on it.

If we were allowed to have this conversation in this place without someone using it as an opportunity to take a crack at our stance, you wouldn't have taken the opportunity about 'is atheism as you've been describing it consistent with these movie lists? (paraphrasing)'

Waiting for a response stating you didn't use the words 'English', 'filters', 'literal', 'conversation', or 'opportunity'.

---

All I have done in this thread is merely pointed out that most movies in Hollywood are vastly non religious related.

So are most plumbing manuals. Does that somehow make them of special relevance to atheists?

[henryp]

The Invention of Lying was always one of my favorite movies that dealt with religion from an atheist perspective.