Atheists and Horror Films

[KentuckySkeptic224]

Okay, so I recently saw, The Babadook and it freaked the everloving shit out of me. For the past week or so I've been barring my closet with a chair, looking under my bed, and sleeping with the light on. So, I'm just wondering, even though I'm an atheist and I don't believe in the supernatural, am I being hypocritical in my nonbelief by being spooked by a horror film?

[Chad32]

This is like when people start praying to god in foxholes, on their deathbeds, or when they're on drugs. People in irrational mindsets do irrational things. It doesn't make you a hypocrite. It just means your fight/flight response is working.

[Esquilax]

Okay, so I recently saw, The Babadook and it freaked the everloving shit out of me. For the past week or so I've been barring my closet with a chair, looking under my bed, and sleeping with the light on. So, I'm just wondering, even though I'm an atheist and I don't believe in the supernatural, am I being hypocritical in my nonbelief by being spooked by a horror film?

No: human psychology is filled with magical thinking and blind spots, which effective horror understands and preys upon. Being an atheist just means that you don't believe in gods, not that you're this perfectly rational clockwork brain that doesn't afraid of anything. I myself am actually a huge pussy when it comes to horror movies, and so I generally avoid them like the plague, barring a few exceptions; doesn't mean I'm betraying my free thinking roots.

Hell, you could even literally believe that the Babadook is a real entity; just so long as you don't believe he's a god, you'd still be an atheist who is being entirely consistent with the tenets of that label.

[KentuckySkeptic224]

Okay, so I recently saw, The Babadook and it freaked the everloving shit out of me. For the past week or so I've been barring my closet with a chair, looking under my bed, and sleeping with the light on. So, I'm just wondering, even though I'm an atheist and I don't believe in the supernatural, am I being hypocritical in my nonbelief by being spooked by a horror film?

No: human psychology is filled with magical thinking and blind spots, which effective horror understands and preys upon. Being an atheist just means that you don't believe in gods, not that you're this perfectly rational clockwork brain that doesn't afraid of anything. I myself am actually a huge pussy when it comes to horror movies, and so I generally avoid them like the plague, barring a few exceptions; doesn't mean I'm betraying my free thinking roots.

Hell, you could even literally believe that the Babadook is a real entity; just so long as you don't believe he's a god, you'd still be an atheist who is being entirely consistent with the tenets of that label.

Thank's for the reassurance. What bothered me wasn't whether I believed that it was a god or not, it was the fact that I was afraid of this thing despite the fact that there is no evidence for existence, almost like I have faith in its existence.

[JuliaL]

I think we get a kind of psychological kick after escaping from danger even when it is imaginary.
Scary movies just hijack this mechanism to sell popcorn.
I listen to American religious radio broadcasts specifically for their "you're going to hell" moments.
It feels so good to not believe them.

[Minimalist]

Um...it's a movie.


If you watch a porn flick are you concerned about getting a blowjob in the middle of the night?

[vorlon13]

Hmmm, uh, er,

WHAT !!! (sorry, wasn't paying attention to thread)

[Saxmoof]

Okay, so I recently saw, The Babadook and it freaked the everloving shit out of me. For the past week or so I've been barring my closet with a chair, looking under my bed, and sleeping with the light on. So, I'm just wondering, even though I'm an atheist and I don't believe in the supernatural, am I being hypocritical in my nonbelief by being spooked by a horror film?

I watched the same film recently (it's amazing) and was scared to sleep with the lights off for a couple of days, and when I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep i was scared to turn away from the door in case it came in while i wasn't looking - what difference it would make whether i was looking or not i have absolutely no idea

I never seriously believed it was real, but still couldn't stop imagining it for some reason, i think some horror films can just be very unnerving and make you feel more vulnerable than usual, probably a sign of an over-active imagination rather than any hypocrisy, i'm not sure it could be hypocrisy anyway unless you really thought it was real and had a rationale for believing so.

The Babadook is a metaphor for some non-specified mental illness, maybe you picked up on that on some level and that's what you're afraid of? In that case it would be a perfectly rational fear, albeit not one you can get rid of by barring your closet shut

[KentuckySkeptic224]

Um...it's a movie.


If you watch a porn flick are you concerned about getting a blowjob in the middle of the night?

Or worse, I see a seltzerberg movie and life becomes a series of unfunny pop-culture references! 

[Exian]

I don't find horror movies entertaining, so when I saw the film being reviewed on another thread and that Netflix was pushing it, I gave it a shot. It ended up not being entertaining.

I don't know why I'm able to suspend my disbelief for fantasy movies like Avengers or Intersteller, but can't lend myself to horror flicks the same way. Movies about serial killers usually do the trick, though. That slow stabbing scene in Zodiak comes to mind.