Is This A “Christian Film”?
I don’t know. It is, and it isn’t.
I used to think “I don’t know” was a cop-out, but now I believe it may be one of the most truthful things you can say.
For example, what caused the Big Bang? (Which, by the way, HAPPENED.)
God? Or does ”I don’t know” pretty-much sum it up?
And isn’t this exactly the same answer?
As for me, I was raised a Catholic, but I don’t consider myself a Christian because I don’t believe in metaphysical stuff. As I like to say, “Where’s Heaven? Hang a left at Jupiter?”
And isn’t Heaven, really, just another “I don’t know”?
Do you think The Master Plan is a Christian movie? That’s what matters.
Something weird did happen about two years into editing, which had never happened to me on a video project before. I don’t have kids yet, but it must be like when your first child tells you “no”, and means it.
That is, I suddenly realized that something I thought was my creation turned out to have its own will, and didn’t particularly care about what I wanted. The movie was making itself, assembling itself in a way that I hadn’t planned, making itself different, and better. The Master Plan had its own mind.
Our movie is about evangelical Christianity, and science, and certain aspects of New Age philosophy, and conspiracy theory. I think Sarah is a Christian, and I know Nicole is an evangelical Christian. Most people involved in the movie (who are not Jewish) probably consider themselves Christians in a philosophical “I consider myself a good person” kind-of-way.
By traditional definition, I’m not a Christian, but I’m absolutely fascinated by religious belief. For me, the motivations behind why people choose to believe things are as profound as what they believe.
And isn’t that the same thing?
Aron Campisano
No…because God is different. Being Christian is different. Being Catholic…is altogether different.
When I asked God to show me if HE is real, He ansswered me. Slowly, wisely, lovingly He showed me Himself in ways that have allowed me to love Him in return. My motives were to know God in a personal way. To stop being afraid and or angry, to make sense out of chaos.
To look at ABSOLUTE TRUTHS…truths children have little difficulty with because these objective truths give an order to the disordered. A straight line etched through an extremely circuitous path.
My faith is an answer to a request for faith…with all of my imperfections and weakness and uncertaaintiee, a wisdom arises that is not mine but belongs to something higher…someONE higher.
It is a certain, yet inexplicable, hope where there was once dispair and a trust in a plan beyond my limited vision.
It is freedom from arrogance and an embrace of humility with all the beauty of a good God and the joy that comes with surrendering myself and all of my failings into a potter’s hands.
It is the reception of sacraments beyond my understanding…that have given me light.
Yay for honest, non-delusional, not-really-Christian movies! Sounds interesting.
Hey David, thanks for your comment a while back. A sneak preview of The Master Plan, is now online:
http://www.alchemistic.com/themasterplan/
Traditional film distribution hasn’t made sense for the movie yet, so I hope to create a groundswell of interest in it on the Internet.
If you like it, please share and tweet!
- Aron
If “I don’t know what caused the Big Bang” equals “God did it”, does (for example) “I don’t know who stole the cake” also equal “God did it”?
No response to Barbara? Ferocity like that scares people. Personally I don’t care what someone believes as long as they don’t A) want to force others to believe the same way and B) are not harming “non believers”. Pretty much all religions preach the same message “don’t kill each other, and try to do good”. It’s others that interpret that message and turn it into KILL the non believers. Beliefs and the BIG questions are fascinating. Some of the best quotes on the mix are from Peter O’Tool in the film CREATOR. The gist is that the deeper into the science you get the closer it gets to religion. And having a basic understanding of some advanced physics I agree. Can’t wait to watch the film, maybe tonight!
Freaky. I was rapt. What a sad ending. I know people like Kristi. Barbara has drunk the Kool-aid for sure. It’s so sad… what a terrible vision of a ‘good god’. I want nothing to do with it. It’s even spookier than those who are caught up in ‘alternative’ medicines and other completely bogus beliefs. But thank you for making this stunning and beautiful horror film. Seriously.
It is very acceptable to use “I don’t know” for the cause of the Big Bang (though using cause and big bang in the same sentence does shows a little ignorance of both concepts)
But “I don’t know” for heaven is a whole other level, all science shows “we” stop existing when our brain stops functioning.
We do KNOW some things, replacing god with “I don’t know” isn’t progress.
However we might want or need there to be an afterlife it is just ignorance to give any plausibility to heaven more than the plausibility of leprechauns existing and feeding magical diamonds to the giant purple dragon in my garage.
Oh and I think the ending makes the film a Christian film, some good points were raised but I guess you wanted to show what happens most of the time instead of a story of the few times that people escape from the clutches of religion.
Actually it is very correct to speak of the cause of the BigBang. It’s a big question in Physics. The simplified layman’s version is that gravity pulls everything together but it’s actually much more complicated and there are a lot of forces involved. One theory, the only one I know that accounts for all the discrepancies, has four “universes” expanding and contracting.
On the flip side we don’t know about “heaven”. There are plenty of things that science hasn’t found an answer for and it’s quite possible that a “life force” or your “electrical essence” does exist and that it goes into another state/ dimension etc. Not exactly what most folks talk about when they talk about heaven but…
It’s also quite possible that there isn’t any “life force” and when your heart stops that’s it. If you go deep into String Theory we (and everything else) are made up of tiny vibrating bit’s of energy. In that case we are just a mass of energy that to us looks solid. Since energy doesn’t just go away, everything that you were in life is still there in death. The ability of you as a collection of energy to interact with us as other balls of energy has ended but all of your energy is still there. So on a very fundamental level there is an “after life” the only real question is does your energy maintain any self awareness. Personally I doubt it but we have no hard evidence one way or the other.
I take my statement back I was trying to be gentle but see that there is no need, your statements show complete ignorance of science.
The big bang is considered to be the origin of both time and space thus cause and words like before and after are not the correct language, while it may not satisfy the majority of humanity there are no simple catch phrases to describe theories at the Planck epoch.
Now you can state that you’re very correct and that you know the theory that accounts for ALL the discrepancies that will not make it true, I have not seen your name on a Nobel nomination or even discussed on science blogs.
As for your “life force”, how much energy are you speaking of exactly, how is it measured? It doesn’t help your case that you end on that whimper “we have no hard evidence”, no the correct statement is you have NO evidence, science has an abundance of evidence that when someone’s neurons stop firing that person stops existing, it doesn’t even have to be all your neurons, there are enough cases where only a part of someone’s brain is damaged or altered for them to become different persons, do those people have 2 “life forces”?
No need to be gentle Hugo but you might try reading some Physics. I was a physics major and have a strong science background, but no Nobel prizes. Do you? Probably not, but then I don’t think that is a prerequisite for posting, maybe I missed some rule. There are a number of theories on the Big Bang and some or all are cyclical, actually they would have to be to make any sense. Because if you don’t believe “god did it” then you have the situation at the end that you started with and if it had to explode the first time it has to explode again. Hard evidence is exactly that. You are speaking beliefs and passing them off as facts which isn’t the same thing. There is a tremendous amount of energy in a human body, but most of it is tied up looking solid, but it doesn’t really matter. One of the founding principals of modern physics is conservation of energy. It doesn’t cease to exist. So in a fundamental way a “person” doesn’t cease to exist. Now all that we think of as the person may be gone and lost forever, it would certainly seem so. But just because something seems so doesn’t make it true. People seem solid, but they are mostly empty space. Actual particles take up a shockingly small amount of the volume your body occupies. It seems like the Sun goes around the Earth, but it doesn’t. One paradox I always liked was the rather simple question of If the Big Bang is the start and end of time and the universe then where does it happen? If in fact nothing exists before the Big Bang then your left with some creation explanation that starts to sound like religion. If the universe was created poof and nothing existed before that then you have to chuck all of modern physics because you cannot create something from nothing. So right now it’s explained with multidimensional theories and anti universes so you can balance it all out and get a total inhalation. But there isn’t “hard evidence” for a lot of it. There are strong mathematical models. So it looks like the right direction but? A couple of years ago the managed to get a communication to travel faster than the speed of light. That of course should not be possible. But it is and it’s repeatable.
Anyway the point is we don’t actually know most of the answers And if you claim you do your delusional or ignorant.
Scott, may I refine your two conditions on religion to:
1. Believe whatever you want but apply it only to yourself.
2. Keep it away from children, let them decide for themselves.
No I don’t think that accurately reflects what I said. Children are brought up by adults (mostly) and are going to submerged in their beliefs. There are good and bad parents, and the bad ones are not limited to those with strong religious beliefs. , nor are the good. I also don’t nec. think people should have to keep their religious beliefs “to them selves”. I think people have gotten WAY too over sensitive about such things. And you left off the biggest on, Don’t harm others. That could mean the children but I was thinking more along the lines of Northern Ireland, The Crusades, the Inquisition, which trials, stoning people, bombing abortion clinics etc.
Just saw the film. And coming from an atheist perspective, I saw it as being fairly anti-religious. The grandfather, who’s the scientist and rationalist, seemed like the only character who seemed to genuinely have her best interests in mind. And the friend who was into the chemtrail conspiracy theories managed to be a good friend even though Kristy didn’t seem to necessarily share her weird beliefs. And ultimately, the family environment had all the hallmarks of a cult with her father’s disconnection policies, curtailing of her freedoms, and attempts to stamp out anything that makes her an individual. It seemed like it was practically a horror movie and the ending reminded me of Winston’s surrender in 1984.
REsponse to Scott – I grew up in an evangelical christian home – dad was a preacher. All of us were extremely dysfunctional, and it was a terrible way to grow up. Then, in my 30’s, I started reading the bible. This explained a lot. I had grown up in a religion that is all about violence, mysogeny, hierarchy, and fear. I started on a personal quest to find “truth”. I’m still looking, but at least I know that the bible isn’t true, and that christianity is essentially an enormous fraud (as are all religions). I have become much more healthy and balance as I moved toward atheism, but I still struggle with the demons of my past. Most religions teach violence and intolerance. If you think
“god is love”, crack open your bible.
Well now I didn’t say “god is love”. But most religions DON’T teach violence and intolerance. That can not be said for religious leaders. I’m sorry you had a dysfunctional family but don’t blame it on a book that is A) incomplete, and B) was basically a collection history tales of the tribes of the middle east that got warped by three different groups of Rabies and then badly translated into latin and that was then badly translated into english and is constantly misread by preachers. Many parts of the Bible are true, well close anyway. It is a history book. As an example Moses and the Red Sea. A more accurate translation has him lead his folks into the upper part of the Red Sea and through the reeds. The upper end then was a massive reed swamp. He parted the reeds and lead the people through, the pursuers got lost and didn’t catch them. It’s the fire and brimstone interpretation that is a Lie.
A more current example of the later is the whacko who shot the doctor at an abortion clinic because it was necessary because of his religious beliefs. So I’m not sure what part of the Bible he got that from but there is part that was so important they used bullet points and right up at the top it says Do Not Kill. There is no “unlesses” or “excepts”, just Don’t do it. So how do you claim to following a religion by breaking one of the fundamental principals?
Good film. Very thought provoking as an Evangelical Christian… My background was much like this girls and through it all, I ended up on a similar road as the end of this film… Love God. The need to know “why” you believe what you believe is great… and I have taken that journey myself as well. We don’t have to check our brains at the door of Christianity. We can, in fact, love the Lord with all our heart, sould, strenght and MIND.
This film does makes you think, as a Christian, about how you are accurately portraying the love of Jesus to others.
Thanks for a neutral vantage point on the film!