An interesting "survey"

[Midwest88]

I don’t believe this breaks any of the sub-forum rules …

imdb.com/board/bd0000005/nest/225781926?p=1

It’s been my experience that those who have a strong interest in film, as this survey points at, are mostly atheists if not agnostic. Why is that? Can it be that movies, in terms of a materialistic world, fills a certain ‘void’? Or does it attract a certain personality? Maybe it’s due to fascination of movies “being a mirror to society” that that’s where they find “truth.” I find this interesting.

 

[christofirst]

I don’t believe this breaks any of the sub-forum rules …

imdb.com/board/bd0000005/nest/225781926?p=1

It’s been my experience that those who have a strong interest in film, as this survey points at, are mostly atheists if not agnostic. Why is that? Can it be that movies, in terms of a materialistic world, fills a certain ‘void’? Or does it attract a certain personality? Maybe it’s due to fascination of movies “being a mirror to society” that that’s where they find “truth.” I find this interesting.

I’m not sure if the topic is breaking rules either, but if it is, I’m sure the thread will soon disappear .

Not wanting to overgeneralize, but I think the reason might be the same as why so many professors and people in academia are also agnostic/atheist. There seems to sometimes be a sense of superiority or advanced sophistication that comes with being very creative or intellectual, which perhaps leads to a sort of pride and feeling of self-sufficiency - which can then lead to agnosticism or atheism. Also the “Hollywood lifestyle” (again, a stereotype, but real enough) of immorality - certainly the values that come out of Hollywood in most major films - might be a contributing factor. “You can not serve two masters”.

Are films really a mirror of society, or is it the other way around? (Film producers promoting their idea of what society is or should be like)

 

[Joe_5859]

I wouldn’t take one thread on the imdb forum and extrapolate any useful data from it. All it really says is that the majority of people that chose to post on that thread don’t believe in God.

I like movies, I believe in God, but I’ve never been to the imdb forum before I clicked on your link.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Paging through those, I see that they illustrate how many whacky beliefs can entertain if they don’t believe in God.

I have never seen a survey on religious belief among people who actually make and act in films in the U.S. Might be interesting. You have lots of talented Catholic film makers, of course, like John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, etc., etc.

 

[NeedsMercy]

I wouldn’t take one thread on the imdb forum and extrapolate any useful data from it. All it really says is that the majority of people that chose to post on that thread don’t believe in God.

I like movies, I believe in God, but I’ve never been to the imdb forum before I clicked on your link.

Exactly. I have a fairly healthy interest in film, but I’m not one of the crowd on that forum. I’ll go so far as to say that people believing in God didn’t post because they didn’t want to hear all the flack from the atheists. Really, who needs it?

 

[Tenofovir]

I don’t believe this breaks any of the sub-forum rules …

imdb.com/board/bd0000005/nest/225781926?p=1

It’s been my experience that those who have a strong interest in film, as this survey points at, are mostly atheists if not agnostic. Why is that? Can it be that movies, in terms of a materialistic world, fills a certain ‘void’? Or does it attract a certain personality? Maybe it’s due to fascination of movies “being a mirror to society” that that’s where they find “truth.” I find this interesting.

It’s a subforum. Most dedicated film fans are unlikely to have time to post nonsense on forums, especially imdb forums. So I’m not sure how likely these are dedicated film watchers or just a bunch of guys who are regular posters on IMDB forums.

I watch a variety of films. I’ve seen controversial films. I’ve seen some very nasty films. I’ve seen films by atheist/agnostic directors and non-atheist/agnostics. Most of these films did not deal directly with God and most were either historical or dealt with the human condition. I’m not atheist or agnostic. Do I believe in UFOs? I doubt UFOs are real. Ghosts? I doubt them too. Afterlife. Well sure.

I’ve lost faith in peoples’ intellectuality. In the past I believed intelligent and educated people were not petty and made decisions based on reasoned approaches. This however seems to be false in most cases. It’s quite likely to get educated and intelligent atheists who are film fans but cannot provide valid reasons for their atheism, well beyond, argument from evil or some “Bible is made up/wishful thinking stuff”. No-one I’ve met has yet refuted any of the serious arguments for God and it seems their atheism is either because of culture, upbringing or misunderstanding. In the last case it’s something akin of “God did not give me X when I prayed really hard, ergo God does not exist.”

It seems that atheist solipsism is a major force for many of these people. And they are petty too often enough. Hang ups over child abuse scandals and false outrage and bigotry all the while denying bigotry and squirming as much as possible when confronted with other areas where more children are abused, and demonstrably no interest from them that there is a problem there.

Thanks.

 

[Tenofovir]

I had a look at that survey and there are some gems there.

One guy said that ridiculous beliefs should be ridiculed. I guess he exempted himself because “ridiculing ridiculous beliefs” seems to me to be giving them some sort of recognition. But surely ridiculous things should not bring us down to their level. We should surely ignore them and point out that they’re ridiculous and leave it at that. Ridiculing the ridiculous is doing too much. It’s like beating up a cripped, blind, midget. I think ridiculing ridiculous beliefs is ridiculous in itself. I however won’t ridicule such a person, as I would then be a hypocrite.

Some guy said that God does not exist, but aliens may exist because there may be many universes out there. This idea usually goes with many universes where anything logically possible can happen. So in one of these universes a powerful alien with almost infinite power could come to existence. Such an alien, and it/he/she surely is able to become a UFO in our universe, could extend its power beyond its universe and become god like to us. So it’s not God of Aquinas or the Catholic Church, but it would be a god sufficiently omnipotent to be likely difficult to distinguish from any other. Calling such a creature or such a civilisation a god would not be incorrect.

Haha, and someone who does not believe in God, added, I guess he/she thought it made the point stronger, that even in childhood, when attending church the idea was incorrect for him or he did not get it. Few of us would appeal to our childhood logic when we deal with any important matters. We don’t for example continue in the naive belief that ATMs print money for free or that shops give away products for free and that Mommy is just being spiteful because she won’t let me fill the grocery basket with LEGO.

Many atheists or at least atheists who comment online have this same idea. Even in childhood this or even in childhood that… but we all know that as children we are usually naive idiots. We believe all sorts of weird things. Such as the gentleman in the suit on TV always tells the truth and that a policeman can break the law anytime or that cops don’t need search warrants if they just look tough enough.

Appealing to that is crazy.

There is a website called Shadow To Light where the blogger who is a non-Catholic Christian has documented some of the reasons why members of the elite class (intellectuals) reject theism. And most of these are not elite reasons at all. They’re the sort of thing your low church atheist is likely to say.