"Serenity" and Joss Whedon's take on sin

Not entirely sure this fits here, but it does have a lot to do with morals. This contains some spoilers on the movie "Serenity."

Atheists should take special interest in Joss Whedon's (an atheist) new sci-fi flick Serenity. In it, the atmosphere of an entire planet (called Miranda) is filled with a drug meant to "weed out aggression," and create a subdued, peaceful, serene race of people who do not sin. The result is that 90% of the population lose the will to do anything at all, and end up laying down and dying.

The government seeks to cover-up this failed experiment, and sends out the Operative, an assassin who seeks to destroy all evil and create a "better world," free of sin. He even admits that he has no place in this world; though he believes what he's doing is right, he knows it's evil. He calls himself "a monster."

The really interesting part is when the hero of the movie shows the Operative the truth of Miranda. The hero tells the assassin that he's going to show him "just what [he] wanted, a world without sin." The Operative stares at the horrors of Miranda in complete disillusionment.

The movie might not strike on any profoudly original philosophical ideas, but it's pretty refreshing to see something like this in mainstream cinema.

Joss did similar anti-theist themes in Buffy and Angel....

Aequitas wrote

The government seeks to cover-up this failed experiment, and sends out the Operative, an assassin who seeks to destroy all evil and create a "better world," free of sin.

Utopianism always has been the central justification of the worst crimes against humanity. I'm definately looking forward to this movie.

It's a great movie I've seen it twice already.
Yeah, its sad in a way though. The point is that a world without bad things is only possible if everyone dies.

[PanAtheist]

I am looking forward to seeing the movie when it hits the UK.
Haven't read this thread. Will read it then.

I remember reading somewhere Whedon saying something like realizing that there is no god is a very important thing.

In the light of that view, his famous creative ouput (I am thinking Buffy and Angel here) is remarkable.

Certainly there is no "God" in these tales!
Just lashings and lashings of hell, and hoards and hoards of demons!

I enjoyed season four of Angel.
I am still, to this day, gob-smacked by, what I think is the ONLY on-the-nail representation of the abomination-that-is-Christianity that I have EVER seen ANYWHERE in television and film.

"Angel : Season Four" hit Christianity *right* in the balls!
Youch! :-)

And they slipped it passed the censors by wrapping it all up as demons, demons, demons! :-)

I was so struck by the revelation that Connor knew it was bad from right near the beginning.
"Yes", I thought.
Isn't that true of every Christian!!

I'm still waiting to see this movie, but Orson Scott Card is calling it the best science fiction movie ever made. High praise indeed....and from a Theist!

I'm not surprised Card loves it. Libertarians and other anti-government types have always rallied around Ender's Game, and I expect they'll do the same for Serenity.

I was surprised because Card has gotten pretty religious lately.

Well, I'm sure theists could spin Serenity in such a way so as not to be offended by it. It never blatantly says "God and Christianity are bad for humanity" (though that's a pretty catchy motto), but the message is definitely there.

I saw the movie. Everyone on the planet died because of some experiment, not because they were hyper religious so you can't really use the movie as an attack against christianity. They were trying to make a world without sin using some kind of gas in the atmosphere or something but failed at it... not exactly something you can throw at christian's faces and say "Ha!"

[ghoulslime]

Jennifer wrote

I'm still waiting to see this movie, but Orson Scott Card is calling it the best science fiction movie ever made. High praise indeed....and from a Theist!

Want to go see it with me this weekend or next?

ghoulslime wrote

Want to go see it with me this weekend or next?

That sounds Great!

Aequitas wrote

Well, I'm sure theists could spin Serenity in such a way so as not to be offended by it. It never blatantly says "God and Christianity are bad for humanity" (though that's a pretty catchy motto), but the message is definitely there.

I've seen it three times and was introduced to it by a Christian, so you can't really say Christians will find it offensive. I surely didn't. I think the main message is that people cannot be made better (if it has a message).

ArchyDeluxe wrote

I saw the movie. Everyone on the planet died because of some experiment, not because they were hyper religious so you can't really use the movie as an attack against christianity. They were trying to make a world without sin using some kind of gas in the atmosphere or something but failed at it... not exactly something you can throw at christian's faces and say "Ha!"

No one's using it as evidence that Christianity is bad. Like I said, you can spin it if you want to, but unless you went to buy popcorn during Mal's speech, you're grasping at straws.

Aurorua wrote

I've seen it three times and was introduced to it by a Christian, so you can't really say Christians will find it offensive. I surely didn't. I think the main message is that people cannot be made better (if it has a message).

Didn't I just say Christians wouldn't necessarily find it offensive...?

Plus, a major point of Christianity is that mankind is inherently sinful. Christ is meant to purge us of these sinful urges. Wouldn't that count as making people better...?