Movies that support atheism
Offline Atheist movies, movies about atheism.
This thread contains mainstream Hollywood films that support/cover atheism.
This atheist movie list is also being worked on at the Atheism United Wiki.
The Wizard of Oz - The classic Wizard of Oz is a tremendously pro-Atheist movie. Wandering people with no brain, courage, home or heart seek out heaven at the Emerald City. When God is revealed to be nothing more than a man behind the curtain people are granted their brain, heart, home and courage because they didn't need religion but got it when they lost their superstition.
Inherit the Wind - A school teacher gets arrested, and must stand trail for teaching the theory of evolution in school.
Contact: Jodie Foster plays an agnostic atheist scientist looking for signs of alien life. The religious counterpart is viewed as anti-science because of ideology.
Straw Dogs (the remake) - An open Atheist and his wife from L.A. move to a small southern town in the bible belt and face harassment.
Monty Python's Life of Brian - Parody of the birth of Christianity. On a Midnight Clear 2000 years ago, three wise men enter a manger where a babe is wrapped in swaddling clothes. It is an infant called Brian...and the three wise men are in the wrong manger. For the rest of his life, Brian (Graham Chapman) finds himself regarded as something of a Messiah, yet he's always in the shadow of this Other Guy from Galilee. Brian is witness to the Sermon of the Mount, but his seat is in such a bad location that he can't hear any of it. Ultimately he is brought before Pontius Pilate and sentenced to crucifixion, which takes place at that crowded, non-exclusive execution site a few blocks shy of Calvary. Rather than utter the Last Six Words, Brian leads his fellow crucifixees in a spirited rendition of a British music hall cheer-up song "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life." The whole Monty Python gang (Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam) are on hand in multiple roles, playing such sacred characters as Stan Called Loretta, Deadly Dirk, Casts the First Stone, and Intensely Dull Youth; also showing up are Goon Show veteran Spike Milligan and a Liverpool musician named George Harrison.
300 - a freethinking theme in: "This day we rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny and usher in a world brighter than anything we can imagine..." Retelling the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, it depicts the titanic clash in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his massive Persian army.
The God Who Wasn't There - A documentary by Brian Flemming about the lack of evidence for Jesus Christ. In the movie you learn about the long gap between when Jesus lived and when he was written about. The movie was distributed for free in a Blasphemy Challenge that asked users to commit an unforgivable sin in exchange.
Religulous - Bill Maher incurs the wrath of multiple religious zealots of myriad faiths in Religulous, a snarky but unexpectedly powerful documentary. Maher bluntly disputes the value of religion in a world made increasingly dangerous, on the one hand, by fanaticism of all kinds and the human race's environmental self-destructiveness on the other. No one is immune from Maher's dogged questions about the illogic and negative fallout of doctrines that advocate violence or shun scientific evidence or marginalize minorities or punish anyone who disagrees with any religion's extreme tenets. Maher takes his inquiries to the Vatican; to small, evangelical Christian churches; to Jerusalem; to Amsterdam (where elements of an increasingly vocal Muslim community have shown violence toward critics); to a large, African-American church in a big city; and to several bizarre theme parks celebrating creationism and the life of Jesus. Wherever he goes, Maher seeks to demonstrate that many of the world's major religions are rife with hypocrisy, completely self-referential, and destructive to the collective good. The fast-moving, globe-trotting film is full of highlights, including a great scene where Maher, in disguise, argues for the core beliefs of Scientology to a bemused crowd at Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park. There's also a wonderful moment where Maher, just having been thrown out of the Vatican, gets a terrific interview with a maverick priest. Raised Catholic but in reality half-Jewish, Maher also spends time with his mother and sister trying to reconcile the role of religion in his childhood. Everything is really leading toward Maher's major point that atheists and agnostics are in a sizable minority but are afraid to speak out in these days of zealotry. If that minority stays in the background, Maher says, we may very well be heading toward catastrophe. --Tom Keogh
Planet of the Apes (The original) - Turns the scopes monkey trial upside down, and explores the relationship between man and ape in a very dark and twisted way. Makes subtle references to religion and evolution. A bewildered astronaut (Charlton Heston) crash-lands on a strange planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport.
Serenity - based on the Firefly TV series. I wouldn't say it's pro-atheist, but it definitely paints a universe in which religion has changed, and to a large degree, been marginalized. The main hero is an ex-Christian who has become self reliant and now opposes the oppressive "thought police" style government. His non-Christian status is not thrown at you all the time, but you can't watch the movie or the series without noticing it.
Red State - Three teenaged boys are lured to the town of Cooper’s Dell with the promise of a party. But instead of enjoying the night of their dreams, the teens are plunged into the nightmarish world of Pastor Abin Cooper and the Five Points Trinity, a fundamentalist group with a stockpile of weaponry and a deadly moral agenda. When word of the teens’ disappearance reaches the authorities, a military task force is mobilized. With Cooper’s Dell teetering between salvation and damnation, the ATF braces for a furious gun battle with Cooper and his heavily armed followers in this fever-pitched action thriller from writer-director Kevin Smith.
Blade Runner – The replicants come to earth to seek out their creator.
The Crucible – The Salem witch hunts are given a new and nasty perspective when a vengeful teenage girl uses superstition and repression to her advantage, creating a killing machine that becomes a force unto itself. Pulsating with seductive energy, this provocative drama is as visually arresting as it is intellectually engrossing. Arthur Miller based his classic 1953 play on the actual Salem witch trials of 1692, creating what has since become a durable fixture of school drama courses. It may look like a historical drama, but Miller also meant the work as a parable for the misery created by the McCarthy anti-Communist hearings of the 1950s. This searing version of his drama delves into matters of conscience with concise accuracy and emotional honesty. Three passionate cheers for Miller, director Nicholas Hytner, and costars Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. --Rochelle O'Gorman
The Magdalene Sisters - based upon the real story of women who were enslaved by the Catholic church in the late 20th century. It reveals that only the power of the church was able to keep these women enslaved and for the community to accept it.
A movie guaranteed to make the blood boil, The Magdalene Sisters gives a lacerating account of life inside a Magdalene Laundry, one of the dismal asylums for "wayward women" run by the Catholic Church in Ireland. Director Peter Mullan, inspired by a TV documentary on the same subject, follows the miserable fates of three young women who are institutionalized in the 1960s for flimsy reasons; their lives are at the mercy of sadistic nuns (Geraldine McEwan is superb as the head of the place). The film sounds tortuous, but its rich sense of outrage and excellent performances--Nora-Jane Noone is a real discovery--make it consistently gripping. The movie won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and went on to become a box-office hit in Ireland, where the Magdalene system was still a fresh memory. It had been abolished only in 1996. --Robert Horton
Deliver us From Evil – A devastating investigation into the pedophilia scandals tearing apart the Catholic Church, Deliver Us From Evil begins by looking into one priest, Father Oliver O'Grady, who agreed to be interviewed by journalist/filmmaker Amy Berg. O'Grady's genial calm is at first ingratiating, until he begins to describe his crimes with an unsettling sociopathic detachment. But O'Grady's blithe interview is only half of the story, as the documentary also unveils how church superiors covered up O'Grady's crimes and shuffled him from diocese to diocese in northern California, finally placing him in an unsupervised position of authority in a small town, where he sexually assaulted dozens of children; the video deposition of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney is a grotesque portrait in brittle denial. What makes Deliver Us From Evil crucial viewing, however, are the remarkable interviews with a few of the victims (now adults) and their parents, whose stories are wrenching and riveting. With the support of a priest seeking to reform the church, two of the victims actually go to the Pope, seeking some form of help in addressing O'Grady's crimes. This stunningly potent documentary combines raw feeling with lucid and persuasive discussions of the reasons for--and disturbing breadth of--this crisis within the Church. --Bret Fetzer
Elmer Gantry -- Tells the story of a fast talking salesman turned into a con man preacher. Burt Lancaster earned his only Oscar as the wide-smiling, glad-handing, soul-saving charlatan Elmer Gantry, a salesman who turns his gift for preaching into a career at the pulpit. Climbing on board the barnstorming evangelical tour of revivalist Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), a true believer in the Aimee Semple McPherson mold, Gantry declaims, invokes, and sermonizes his way to the top until a former flame-turned-prostitute (Shirley Jones in an Oscar-winning performance) threatens to reveal his dark past as a womanizer and con man. Lancaster harnesses all his physical vigor and natural charisma for this role, literally throwing himself into his preaching with the vigor of an acrobat and the sing-song delivery of a gospel singer--he even brays like a hound to show the Holy Spirit within him. Gantry is a showman, pure and simple, and while he doesn't fool true-believer Sister Sharon, he gives her a few object lessons in playing the crowd.
Altered States - William Hurt, in his screen debut, plays the mad scientist who develops a kind of think tank that regresses him to a primal state. In other words, he enters a meek scientist, but emerges a hairy ape. The film's pacing is part of the problem, as it talks us to death in the beginning, than lapses into more typical fare, disregarding the intellectual aspects of the original material. This film marks the screen debut of Drew Barrymore
2001 A Space Odyssey - A space mission that could reveal man's destiny is jeopardized by a malfunctioning shipboard computer. A dazzling journey that tops them all -- and showed the way for other effects-packed films that followed.
Heart of the Beholder - a 2005 drama film that was written and directed by Ken Tipton. It is based on Tipton's own experience as the owner of a chain of videocassette rental stores in the 1980s. Tipton and his family had opened the first videocassette rental stores in St. Louis in 1980. Their business was largely destroyed by a campaign of the National Federation for Decency, who objected to the chain's carrying the film The Last Temptation of Christ for rental. http://www.beholder.com/
The Handmaid's Tale – Following a war where WMD have rendered most women sterile, the USA has become the theistic Republic of Gilead. The few women believed to be fertile are forced into sexual slavery for the nation's elite in an attempt to restart the population.
The Truman Show – The director will go to any length, including impersonating god to keep the protagonist in the dark over what is really going on.
The Wicker Man – A police officer goes to a remote island to investigate a case of a missing girl. When he gets there he finds that the island has reinvented an ancient religion. Do not get the Nick Cage version. Watch the 1973 version starring Christopher Lee.
The Invention of Lying staring Ricky Gervavis was a good comedy and highlights the stupidity and gullibility of unquestioning masses.
A War on Science (BBC horizon): The theory of evolution is under attack from a controversial new idea called intelligent design. But is it science? creationsim conservative right wing fundametalism documentary God creator biology Phillip Johnson Professor Richard Dawkins Sir David Attenborough science controversy pseudoscience Edwards vs. Aguillard supreme court Dover religion science illusion of God atheism secular extremism
Chocolat: based on a fable set in a small French village in 1959, Chocolat proudly boasts an atheist heroine. The plot, based on a novel by Joanne Harris, revolves around the disruptions and transformations that occur when Vianne blasphemously opens a "chocolaterie" during Lent. It's full of great supporting performances by Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Leslie Caron, and Lena Olin. The film, with a definite anticlerical bent, is directed by Lasse Hallstrom.
Bounce: features an atheist character. Ben Affleck's atheism is briefly revealed when the recovering alcoholic criticizes AA's higher-power routine. The movie portrays the redemption of this atheist.
Dogma - This Kevin Smith movie pokes fun at religion in an hilarious manner. When two banished angels find a loophole that will allow them back into heaven at the cost of humankind an unsuspecting mortal woman two prophets and the thirteenth apostle are the only ones who can stop them.
Contender: Joan Allen is a U.S. Senator nominated for the vice presidency, she admits her atheism and support for the separation of church and state at a confirmation hearing.
Richard Dawkins "The Root of all Evil?": He explores the state of the three Abrahamic religions in the world today, from the political influence of rich and powerful Christian fundamentalist institutions in America to the deadly clash of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Middle East. He describes the Holy Land as the least enlightened place in the world, a microcosm of the threat to rational values and civilisation posed by religion, whose irrational roots, he says, are nourishing intolerance and murder.
The Enemies of Reason: a two-part television documentary, written and presented by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, in which he seeks to expose "those areas of belief that exist without scientific proof, yet manage to hold the nation under their spell", including mediumship, acupuncture and psychokinesis. It includes interviews with Steve Fuller, Deepak Chopra, Satish Kumar, and Derren Brown.
Agora: Set in ancient Egypt under Roman rule, AGORA follows the brilliant and beautiful astronomer Hypatia (Weisz) who leads a group of disciples fighting to save the wisdom of the Ancient World, as violent religious upheaval spills into the streets of Alexandria. Among these disciples are two men competing for her heart: the witty, privileged Orestes (Isaac) and Davus (Minghella), Hypatia’s young slave, who is torn between his secret love for her and the freedom he knows can be his if he chooses to join the unstoppable surge of the Christians.
The stoning of Soraya M: A chilling true story. Academy Award® nominee Shorheh Aghdashloo stars as Zahra, a woman with a burning secret. When a journalist (Jim Caviezel) is stranded in her remote village, Zahra takes a bold chance to reveal what the villagers will stop at nothing to hide. Thus begins the story of Soraya (Mozhan Marnò
, a kind woman whose cruel, divorce- seeking husband trumps up false charges of infidelity against her, which carry an unimaginable penalty. Soraya and Zahra attempt to navigate the villagers’ scheming, lies and deceit to prove her innocence. But when all else fails, Zahra must risk everything to use the only weapon she has left – her voice – to share Soraya's shocking story with the world.
Creation (Charles Darwin movie): More than 150 years after its publication, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and its theory of natural selection remain the subject of much debate; the divide between those who accept Darwin's ideas as incontrovertible science and those who consider them blasphemous may be wider now than ever. Released in 2009, director Jon Amiel's Creation goes right to the heart of the matter--indeed, right to the heart of Darwin himself. As portrayed by Paul Bettany, the Darwin who has returned to England following his voyage aboard HMS Beagle is a man for whom "deeply conflicted" is a barely adequate description. Well aware his theory is "perhaps the most powerful idea ever to occur to a human mind," he is caught between the scientists who insist that he has "killed God" and the religious conservatives, including his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly), who counter that his very soul will be in peril if he finishes and publishes his book. What's more, he is haunted, sometimes literally, by the death of his favorite child, Annie (seen in frequent flashbacks), and its effect on his marriage--in fact, it is this personal angle that dominates the film. But while the toll his work has taken on his health, his faith, his family, and his very sanity is obvious, he also knows that it is far too important to ignore. Creation is not a documentary; liberties have been taken, and there are multiple sequences, including Darwin's nightmarish fever dreams, that are clearly the invention of the filmmakers. But Bettany and Connelly, who are a real-life couple, are both superb; the cinematography is gorgeous; and various scenes illustrating the notion of "survival of the fittest" in nature are riveting (there won't be a dry eye in the house when Darwin tells his dying daughter about the fate of an orangutan captured in Borneo). And while the tone of the film would seem to favor science over religion, the DVD includes numerous bonus features in which both sides have their say. This one is not to be missed. -- Sam Graham
8: the Mormon Proposition: A searing indictment of the Mormon Church's historic involvement in the promotion and passage of California s Proposition 8, and the Mormon religion s secretive, decades-long campaign against gay rights.
A Jihad for Love: In a time when Islam is under tremendous attack from within and without, A JIHAD FOR LOVE is a daring documentary filmed in twelve countries and nine languages. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma has gone where the silence is loudest, filming with great risk in nations where government permission to make this film was not an option. A JIHAD FOR LOVE is the world's first feature documentary to explore the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality. Parvez enters the many worlds of Islam by illuminating multiple stories as diverse as Islam itself. The film travels a wide geographic arc presenting us lives from India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa and France. Always filming in secret and as a Muslim, Parvez makes the film from within the faith, depicting Islam with the same respect that the film's characters show for it.
For the Bible tells me so: Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Seattle Interntional Film Festival, Dan Karslake's provocative, entertaining documentary brilliantly reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture, and in the process reveals that Church-sanctioned anti-gay bias is based solely upon a significant (and often malicious) misinterpretation of the Bible. As the film notes, most Christians live their lives today without feeling obliged to kil anyone who works on the Sabbath or eats shrimp.
Through the experience of five very normal, very Christian , very American families - including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson - we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. With commentary by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harvard's Peter Gomes, Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg and Reverend Jimmy Creech, For The Bible Tells Me So offers healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.
Marjoe: The Academy-Award®-winning MARJOE is the ferocious and extraordinary chronicle of a firebrand evangelical preacher who wholeheartedly and humorously exposes himself as a fraud. An evangelist prodigy at the age of four, the film captures an adult Marjoe as he recounts how he discovered the seductions of the 60s counterculture and dropped out of preaching, only to return later, using his swaggering bravado, to woo Pentecostal audiences out of their offerings. Directors Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan follow Marjoe as he embarks on his "farewell to the faith tour," revealing the secrets of religious hucksterism. MARJOE is both a fiery baptism in the cynical waters of faith healing and evangelical fervor and a fascinating profile of a man who went from hellfire to hellraising.
Constantine's Sword: Constantine's Sword is an astonishing exploration of the dark side of Christianity, following acclaimed author and former priest James Carrol on a journey of rememberance and reckoning. Warning of what happens when military power and religious fervor are joined, this new film from Oscar-nominated director Oren Jacoby asks: Is the fanaticism that threatens the world today fueled by our own deeply held beliefs?
Generation Jihad
-Amen (2002)
-Priest (1995)
-The Name of the Rose (1986)
-Wise Blood (1979)
-The Most Hated Family in America (2008) [Really hard to sit through]
-BBC Panorama: British Schools, Islamic Rules
BBC: Vatican, The hidden world
Judgement Day: Intelligent design on trial (Nova documentary)
'Through the wormhole' first episode, 'Is there a God' Other episodes are also very interesting.
'Penn & Teller - Bullshit' S1 E1 - Talking to the dead, S1 E8 - Creationism, S2 E6 - The Bible, S3 E6 - Holier than thou, S3 E12 - Signs from heaven, S5 E5 - Exorcism, S7 E2 - Astrology, S7 E10 - The Vatican.
Dirty Pictures
Moolaade
Ken Miller on Intelligent Design
Sam Harris - Believing the unbelievable
Any of the Intelligence Squared Debates on the subject
"The four horsemen" - discussion between the four most prominent atheists of the moment: Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet and Sam Harris
This post was taken over by RRS moderation to create a database for atheist movies. Please feel free to post suggestions.
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Yes, and oddly enough, it is, in part, based on Inherit the Wind, although not everyone picks up on that right away...
Planet of the Apes. The original.
I've always found it the most crushing attack on christian theism in film history, made rather ironic given Heston's religiuos stance. It turns the scopes monkey trial upside down by having the 'monkeys' put man on trial, and by putting him on trial, his religion.
What amazes me about it is that fundies watch it all the time, without complaint.... the symbolism is rather bare, but it goes over their head.
"Hitler burned people like Anne Frank, for that we call him evil.
"God" burns Anne Frank eternally. For that, theists call him 'good.'
Contact is also about as in-your-face as Hollywood is likely to get anytime soon. While it doesn't answer the question of whether god exists, the atheist is the hero and the religious are seen as anti-science because of ideology.
Jody Foster, by the way, is an atheist, and quite open about it.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Oh, also...
Serenity, based on the Firefly TV series. I wouldn't say it's pro-atheist, but it definitely paints a universe in which religion has changed, and to a large degree, been marginalized. The main hero is an ex-Christian who has become self reliant and now opposes the oppressive "thought police" style government. His non-Christian status is not thrown at you all the time, but you can't watch the movie or the series without noticing it.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Altered States
2001 is another one....at least the start of it is.
I don't know if you'd call it "mainstream", but of course there's always The God Who Wasn't There that includes interviews with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Robert Price and Richard Carrier. (Dawkins is in the DVD extras)
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I know two good ones that you can view online:
Heart of the Beholder - http://www.beholder.com/
Zeitgeist - it's on google video. Type that in to find it. There are 3 parts, and the first deals with religion. There's a topic floating around here about it too.
JESUS SAVES!!! .... and takes only half damage!
Dude, that was a tight movie - I haven't seen it in awhile though. I'll have to go rent it now.
I hope that when the world comes to an end I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.
The classic Wizard of Oz is a tremendously pro-Atheist movie. Wandering people with no brain, courage, home or heart seek out heaven at the Emerald City. When God is revealed to be nothing more than a man behind the curtain people are granted their brain, heart, home and courage because they didn't need religion but got it when they lost their superstition.
The Magdaline Sisters was based upon the real story of women who were enslaved by the Catholic church in the late 20th century. It reveals that only the power of the church was able to keep these women enslaved and for the community to accept it.
Monty Python's Life of Brian which parodies the birth of Christianity.
I think the problem is this assessment is that while the symbolism clearly allows for your interpretation, it also allows for other vastly different interpretations. I say this because I have already demonstrated how the Wizard of Oz makes for a great symbolization of cognitive therapy!
http://www.candleinthedark.com/oz.html
One could also argue, contra your view, that 'divine providence' is behind everyone in the movie (I.e. Dorothy survives the tornado, only the evil people die, etc.)
But otherwise, I must confess that your interpretation is a good one!
Good one.
"Hitler burned people like Anne Frank, for that we call him evil.
"God" burns Anne Frank eternally. For that, theists call him 'good.'
And speaking of Monty Python, the Meaning of Life, while it is not exactly pro-atheist, definitely highlights many of the absurdities of Christianity, especially Catholicism.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I also think the movie "300" has a freethinking theme.
What better motto than: "This day we rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny and usher in a world brighter than anything we can imagine..."
A mystic is someone who wants to understand the universe, but is too lazy to study physics.
Link with a couple of atheist movies: http://www.atheistempire.com/entertainment/movies.php
Hi silentseba and welcome.
When you get a chance, we'd love it if you'd hop over to General Conversation, Introductions and Humor and introduce yourself.
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That link is dead, but I'm constantly updating the first post now to keep it exhaustive.
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Excuse me Brian, but would you mind just removing that first post all together? I have since seen many older films that are wonderful, and I don't like the anti-older film vibe of my post. I'm totally ashamed I ever typed that.
I'm using that first post as a wiki. I'll remove your information though and change it to my text only.
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In The Life of Brian you see Brians life in parallel with the actual events of Jesus' life.
The 3 wise men inadvertently visit Brian's birthplace and the film shows them realising their mistake and hurrying off to Jesus' nativity.
Thats almost the entire basis of the films humor/irony - hes not The actual Messiah,
he's just a..........
Oh yeah, and didnt the apes in Planet of the Apes have their own religion?
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There was one brief line to the effect that any suggestion that humans were ever anything other than wild animals would be met with a charge of heresy. Apart from that, the matter was not covered.
However, in the second movie, we find that there is another group of humans living in tunnels dug through the now buried New York City. They appear to worship a nuclear doomsday weapon.
=
Planet of the Apes 2011?
Maybe I'm thinking of Avatar.
The new Planet of the Apes did not have any religion in it at all. It was the story of how the apes became intelligent.
Now Avatar did have a weird religion thing going on throught the whole movie though.
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What was interesting about Avatar and religion is that Avatar showed what things like a "higher power" and "life after death" might look like if they could be made real. This contrast makes the religion that we are familiar with look all the more feeble in comparison.
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. ..." -- Thomas Jefferson
Thanks Brian. Here's another to add to the list -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey_Suit
"The Monkey Suit" is the 21st episode of The Simpsons seventeenth season.
"When the Flanders family visit a local museum, Ned Flanders is disturbed when seeing the museum promotes evolution, which leads to a comical debate among the townspeople."
Here's a description for 2001: "The beginning of the film shows what life was like during the early years of mankind before there were human beings, and only apes. We witness how as time goes by, the apes slowly become smarter and smarter."
i think it's funny that wise blood is listed, since it's based on the novel by flannery o'connor, who was very strongly and openly catholic and whose avowed purpose in writing all of her fiction was to shock the modern reader into an existential encounter with the divine and thus prepare them to eventually accept the salvation offered exclusively by the catholic church.
not that i mind. i'm a huge o'connor fan and i've read everything by her at least twice. never seen any films though. i'd be interested to see this one. wise blood is a difficult novel and i can't imagine how one would adapt it into a film effectively. the only more difficult adaptation i can imagine would be finnegan's wake.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
What a brilliant idea! Check this out: Atheism movies on the AU wiki
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I have just watched the movie Black Death (2010) and even though it was entirely set against a religious and superstitious background it was one of the best anti religious movies I have seen in a while.
Here's a link to where you can see the movie
http://www.icefilms.info/ip.php?v=111781&
"Don't seek these laws to understand. Only the mad can comprehend..." -- George Cosbuc
Would anyone be able or willing to write small descriptions for the leftover movies at the bottom? We need a few sentences for each one about how it relates to atheism. I'll edit it in if you write it.
If you have edit privs you can wiki in my first post, make sure to uncheck auto url .
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