Aliens, God and the movie Contact

08-13-2006, 11:03 PM

If you have ever seen the soso movie contact with jodie foster then you know what seen i hate.

to qoute from wiki

"Arroway appears before the international selection committee, and although she gives excellent answers to the questions asked and appears to be a prime candidate, her performance is shattered when Palmer Joss himself deliberately trips her up by forcing her to reveal her agnosticism. The committee rejects her application, explaining that they cannot choose someone who does not represent humanity's belief in a higher deity."

I hated this scene so much. To be specific they used occums razor argument very badly and the fact that they then chose to send someone who supposedly represented humanitites best ignorant "oops i ment interest, silly me." How can they say that sending a christinian represents humanites belief in a higher being. Argh....

Kill SHoott.... Murder.....

Ok i fell better..
Comments?

Victus · 08-14-2006, 12:38 AM

Good movie, good ending (where she has had an amazing experience but has no evidence to back it up and she admits that there is absolutely no reason for them to believe her). Let's face it, the theist thing to do would be to sit there and say "damn you, believe me or I'll fucking cut ya!".

While frustrating, one could argue that the commission's decision not to send a non-theist as their representative is appropriate, given that the vast majority of the world's population does believe in a higher power of one sort or another. I'm sure they wouldn't want to send someone who, as they put it, "thinks that the other 99% of humanity is delusional".

GodlessHeathen · 08-14-2006, 05:31 AM

I liked that movie a lot. Yes, that scene bothered me, but I took schadenfreudic (is that even a word?) satisfaction in the irony of the theist candidate getting blown up by other theists who couldn't square their fairy tales with the idea of intelligent life on another planet.

08-14-2006, 05:59 AM

She should have just lied. Fuck them. It would be better than sending an evangelical to try and convert the aliens.

Christian: Jesus died so that all life could be forgiven.

Alien: So I need to accept your god because of a mistake that your species made? And if I don't accept him, then I will burn in a lake of fire for all eternity?

Christian: Well I'm not god to answer that for you but... yes.

Aliens: So you're threatening our world!? We are kind enough to send you here and you repay us by threatening to destroy us?

Christian: I'm not threatening-

Aliens: Have it your way! This is war!

Jahrta · 08-14-2006, 09:40 AM

Meh - I wouldn't worry too much about that flick - not only is it over a decade old, but it's relatively boring and plodding storyline, coupled with its 14 hour running time makes it virtually unviewable anyway. I rarely run into someone who remembers that movie, and even fewer who liked it.

Tenspace · 08-14-2006, 09:53 AM

"I waited two hours to see the alien and it turned out to be her goddamned father!" - Mr. Garrison

08-14-2006, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Tenspace wrote

"I waited two hours to see the alien and it turned out to be her goddamned father!" - Mr. Garrison

Yeah I kinda hated the movie for that exact reason, too. Also I expected her to come back and have all her loved ones gone.

Someone once pointed out that this movie tries to show how science and faith are related because "one has to have faith in science" and honestly, that's just bullshit. Science is not a belief, it's a process that is testable and recordable, not a religion...

Eva · 08-14-2006, 10:03 AM

i was very dissapointed with the movie (but parts of it were filmed in PR) because it was not atheistic enough somehow. the atheist message was somewhat lame, imho...
and the end was "blah" even though i thought it meant that the supernatural can be anything you most desire and in arroway's case, it was to see her father...

GodlessHeathen · 08-14-2006, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Tenspace wrote

"I waited two hours to see the alien and it turned out to be her goddamned father!" - Mr. Garrison

:lol::lol:

Yeah, that kind of pissed me off, too.

08-14-2006, 12:03 PM

Quote:

GodlessHeathen wrote

Quote:

Tenspace wrote

"I waited two hours to see the alien and it turned out to be her goddamned father!" - Mr. Garrison

:lol::lol:

Yeah, that kind of pissed me off, too.

I think the ET should have been a Predator, that would have been pretty fun to watch.

Sternwallow · 08-14-2006, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Victus wrote

Good movie, good ending (where she has had an amazing experience but has no evidence to back it up and she admits that there is absolutely no reason for them to believe her). Let's face it, the theist thing to do would be to sit there and say "damn you, believe me or I'll fucking cut ya!".

While frustrating, one could argue that the commission's decision not to send a non-theist as their representative is appropriate, given that the vast majority of the world's population does believe in a higher power of one sort or another. I'm sure they wouldn't want to send someone who, as they put it, "thinks that the other 99% of humanity is delusional".

But any one they sent would think the other xx% of humanity was delusional. If she had said she believed in Manatou, do you think they would have given her the slot? Not on your tintype. They were not looking for someone who would represent the spiritual nature of mankind, they wanted a Christian and would accept no less. I wish she had pointed that out in the hearing. She could also have asked if they wanted a Republican too.

08-14-2006, 05:38 PM

Quote:

GodlessHeathen wrote

schadenfreudic (is that even a word?)

It's german for malicious.

Choobus · 08-14-2006, 05:45 PM

that movie was shit. However, you can't claim to represent humanity without being a godidiot since most humans are. I'm sure all the aliens in our galaxy think we're assclowns and would probably tell us to fuck off. I know I would.

08-14-2006, 05:50 PM

Contact is actually one of my favorite movies. However, the father visit was absolutely ludicrous. It seems rather far-fetched to postulate that aliens (no matter how advanced) could so easily read our thoughts. They may be far more evolved then us and with a much greater amount of knowledge, but the human mind is too complex for them to understand it so comprehensively.

I did enjoy how it wasn't afriad to have a non-believing protagonist. I can't recall many movies in mainstream Hollywood that have done this. And of course, because its mainstream, the true nature of atheism (strong atheism as seen on this forum) can not be depicted.

All in all, I really liked it because of the basic premise. I can't imagine this vast (naturalistic) universe not overflowing with life.

08-14-2006, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Choobus wrote

that movie was shit. However, you can't claim to represent humanity without being a godidiot since most humans are. I'm sure all the aliens in our galaxy think we're assclowns and would probably tell us to fuck off. I know I would.

Yea I can't help but think how conceited and idiotic human's view is of themselves. We think that a supreme being created the fucking enormous universe and actually gives a shit about us. As atheists, we're kind of the aliens in the above scenario. We observe from outside the pyschotic majority, as aleins would too. I've always wondered whether aliens would be stupid enough to have religion as well. Is religion simply an accident or a virus polluting all evovled populations?