by Tunç Iyriboz
* The Ledge, written and directed by Matthew Chapman, great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, opens July 8 in select theaters in New York City and L.A. Official Selection at Sundance 2011, The Ledge aims to become the “Brokeback Mountain” of freethought. The movie features credible performances by a talented and sexy cast, including Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler, and Patrick Wilson. If you don’t live in New York or L.A., you can see it on SundanceNow.
* New York lawmakers voted 33 to 29 last Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, and Governor Cuomo signed it into law. The law goes into effect in 30 days, making NY the sixth — and the largest — state to adopt such legislation.
* While the NY Senate was working on that, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted policy H-65.973 on Monday, June 20th, stating that the “[...] AMA: (1) recognizes that exclusion from civil marriage contributes to health care disparities affecting same-sex households; (2) will work to reduce health care disparities among members of same-sex households including minor children; and (3) will support measures providing same-sex households with the same rights and privileges to health care, health insurance, and survivor benefits, as afforded opposite-sex households.”
* The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles on Inductive Logic and Decision-Making Capacity have been updated recently.
* NIH Director and “evangelical geneticist” Francis Collins on Richard Dawkins’ “admitting to him” that the most troubling argument for nonbelievers to counter is the fine-tuning of the universe.
* Richard Wiseman’s Paranormality launches today, including a Kindle version.
As an atheist, I was disappointed as I watched the trailer of the movie, "The Ledge," and I do not see how portraying an atheist as an adulterous sinner who lures a "a good Christian woman" into sin (in the eyes of Christians that watch this film) does anything positive to promote atheism. Christians already view atheists as heathens with no moral values, and all this film will do is confirm their suspicions. What this film also illustrates, is how insidious Christian dogma is in society, as even those that are not Christian fall into the trap of believing they are "born sinners" who can't help but to "sin." In this case, it is the atheist who "can't help himself" from having an affair with his neighbor's wife, and she, as a "born sinner" cannot help herself either. The truth is however, that it is all just a matter of choice. The atheist could have chosen not to have an affair--and so could the Christian.
ReplyDeleteI could think of a thousand plot lines in which an atheist could be the hero without being a "sinner" in the minds of Christians. ( I do not believe in sin, but there is such a thing as right and wrong, and I believe in taking responsibility for my own actions.) How sad---that this was the best they could do.