Comments on Mooselet Musings: Scary Movie - UPDATED

Tors, I would respectfully disagree with you. Whi...

2008-02-04T00:39:00.000+10:00

Tors, I would respectfully disagree with you. While religion has as it's core message peace and love, few of them live up to that message. The history of Christianity is littered with tales of torture, hatred, and killing. Various sects have turned on each other - witness the burnings in 16th century England of Catholics and Protestants, for example, or the "troubles" in Ireland last century. I get your point that men do these things in the name of religion, but those men have used various texts from their religion to justify their actions. An eye for an eye is not exactly a peaceful message.

It may be a small minority who the "bad things" but that minority is growing in the US as, IMO, the country becomes more polarized. Some 80 million Americans identify themselves as Evangelical and if even 5% of them fall into this extreme category, that's (wait, I need the calculator) 4 million people. That's a lot of people. The subjects of this film were very adamant on how their faith was obtaining increased support, especially at a federal level. I really have no problem with people being religious - even if it disturbs me to see their children indoctrinated in such a manner as this film portrayed - but these folks are not content to respect my rights to not follow their faith. They want everyone to conform to their views, and are willing to become politically active to do so. This is easy in the US where there is such a high level of apathy to the political process and an increasing level of support of such views by all branches of federal government. This is what frightens me and makes me so angry. When good people sit and do nothing - and being ignorant is no excuse - then bad things happen. Or words to that effect.

Getting off my soapbox now and putting it next to yours so we can go have a drink together...

Once again, it is 0.1% of a religion's followers d...

2008-02-03T09:10:00.000+10:00

Once again, it is 0.1% of a religion's followers doing 99.9% of the bad things, and here we are giving them exactly what they crave: attention. As the saying goes, "Any publicity is good publicity" The more extreme you are, the more people are going to sit up and take notice. That's the whole point.

Forget watching this movie. Instead, educate yourself on what Christianity and Islam really teach - I mean, the core teachings, not what other people or the mainstream media tells you. Read the Koran, it's a beautiful book.

There should be a very important distinction here. Religion itself is not responsible for the suffering in this world. No religion teaches hatred, killing, prejudice, etc. These are things that man does, man invented, in the name of religion. Read the real teachings.

Getting off my soapbox now...

I have seen clips on news stories up here in the f...

2008-02-01T13:04:00.000+10:00

I have seen clips on news stories up here in the frigid north, but not the actual movie.
Things like this make me sick.
It is fundamentally brain washing of young children.

This movie is all of those things and more, but I ...

2008-02-01T09:57:00.000+10:00

This movie is all of those things and more, but I would still say to anyone who hasn't seen it to rent a copy and do so. Vent, take it in chunks, watch it in horrified fascination, whatever you have to do... But moderate thinking people - and I do believe most people are - need to know this stuff is happening in order to prevent the scales from tipping too far in any one direction.

And for the record - I consider myself spiritual, for lack of a better term. I believe there is a power higher than ourselves, and for simplicity's sake I refer to that power as God. But I don't follow organized religions, feeling that as Jason said they are responsible for the majority of human suffering & killing in our history as a modern species.

I've watched it. Had to do it in 10 minute segment...

2008-02-01T09:39:00.000+10:00

I've watched it. Had to do it in 10 minute segments though and then go away and vent a little so I didn't punch the TV and the stupid people in it.

I will openly say that I'm an agnostic.... Until you can prove God does or doesn't exist to me, I'll abstain from voting but these folks make me believe more and more that there isn't. They're just freaky! If you haven't watched it, don't. It's haunting and frustrating and sick.

I detest fanaticism of any kind - religious where ...

2008-02-01T07:54:00.000+10:00

I detest fanaticism of any kind - religious where My God is better than your God, political where My Conservatives are better than the Liberals, Nationalists where My country is better than your country. No human being has the right to think they are any better than another regardless of birth or beleif.
I sometimes wish that an alien race would attack the earth because it would be the best way to hammer that into our tiny little brains.
I am extremely glad that I missed this movie.

Sounds absolutely frightening. Sick really. With f...

2008-02-01T02:33:00.000+10:00

Sounds absolutely frightening. Sick really.

With fanatics such as these folks teaching (brainwashing) young children in extreme ideology, it's no wonder that throughout human history, and continuing today, religion has been responsible for the majority of human suffering and death.

Very, very scary.