I recently went to the cinema to watch Angels and demons. I enjoyed reading the book, which was a fantastic thriller, and enjoyed the movie, which is no less of a thriller than the book.
Cinematic emotions aside, I found it intriguing when Tom Hanks' character, Robert Langdon, gets asked by a priest "Do you believe in God, Mr. Langdon?"
His very diplomatic answer was "I am an academic... My mind tells me that I will never understand God." The priest then asks "And what does your heart say?" to which Langdon responds "My heart tells me I am not meant to...
In these days of personal domestic turmoil, my Angels and demons is stashed in a box out of reach so I could not inmmediately reference the dialog. But it seems that Langdon never uttered those words. Rather, it was CERN's scientist Vittoria Vetra who has a similar dialog in the book as you can see in this link. According to this article, Dan Brown is a believer which may be the reason his "atheist" characters are so reluctant to admit their lack of belief.
What Brown and the author of the article I am linking do not realize is that non-believers are many and are everywhere. As Richard Dawkins indicates in his http://www.outcampaign.org/ site "... atheists come in all shapes, sizes, colours and personalities. We are labourers and professionals. We are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers and grandparents. We are human (we are primates) and we are good friends and good citizens. We are good people who have no need to cling to the supernatural."
Given the current state of affairs, I can understand why so many atheists can be so reluctant to admit their non-belief. We are demonized every week in church by the priesthoood and are, very unjustly, blamed for the crime and evil in our world.
Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, religion may be the real culprit.
I place a strong emphasis on good friends, good citizens and good people. And it looks like popular media is now begining to portrait atheists in a more favorable manner - check the popular TV series House and Bones, where the main characters are very strong atheists.
Like the Gay movement did many years ago, non-believers need to begin working on our image to change the perception that we eat babies for breakfast. We are good people. And we are many.
Join the Out Campaign. Or, if you are a believer, don't hold it against us.
3 comments:
Hum, that was interesting in a disturbing way... Do you think this guy does this for a living or is this his side gig?
Regardless although clever, it is unoriginal, after all it is based in the oldest and most followed franchise in the world.
But all an all I do respect freedom of speech and I do choose to read your blog, so thanks for sharing.
I think Dawkins' main activity is militant atheism. But I believe he is a university professor. Let me check
I meant to post the previous comment on the Mr. Deity post... Upps.
Now, commenting on this post. I agree that being an Atheist does not make you a bad person by any means. I also think that there are many "academics" (educated people) that are beginning to be embarrassed to say they believe.
For the record I want to say I do believe in God, I believe in love and I love everyone believer or not.
Oh, and regarding the movie, I enjoyed the Da Vinci code tremendously I have not yet gotten the chance to see this movie I am waiting for the DVD.
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