Sign up
Search
Advanced search settings

Search only in certain items:

Search results
All (512)
Content
People
Apps
Books
Orbs
Movies
Music
Podcasts
Shows
Tabletop Games
Tech
TV
Video Games
YouTube Channels
Videos
40x40

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Saved! (2004) in Movies

Sep 21, 2020  
Saved! (2004)
Saved! (2004)
2004 | Comedy, Drama
9
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Absolutely delightful, not only seismically subversive for its day - but not even a percentile less so even today. A black-as-night religious comedy/satire that's able to present the flaws of Christianity to light without making the claim to outright judge it nor be obnoxiously Ricky Gervais about its criticisms. Beyond that its just fucking hilarious, and insanely clever (even down to the briefest of sidegags ["I'm a rollerskate"]) - not to mention it has a huge heart and deeply impassioned, authentic care for its characters wants (*all* of whom are excellent, and are juggled together perfectly with an economy of which is sadly not seen frequently enough in teen comedies) with an uncommon narrative sensitivity. Never overstays its welcome and has a note-perfect tonal balance, as well as a roundhouse kick of memorably consummate performances (between this, those "DRYVRS" videos, and the similarly outstanding 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 I'm convinced Macaulay Culkin should *only* act in sardonic depravity). Mainly just have to applaud this for its application of more than just the easy targets which many films of the genre today fall victim to again and again. Love it.
  
40x40

BookblogbyCari (345 KP) rated God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction in Books

Oct 16, 2018  
God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction
God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction
Dan Barker | 2018 | Reference, Religion
6
3.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A striking book designed to hit Christianity in the heart.
(Please note: It is beyond the scope of this book review to go into whether or not there is a God, or if God is good.)

This book is written by Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher. The inspiration for this book comes from a single paragraph in Richard Dawkin’s God Delusion, which goes as follows:

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomanical, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Now that’s quite a statement! And it’s also what Barker’s book is centred around. In Part 1, Barker sets out examples of these 19 characteristics within the Christian bible.

Sadly for Christianity, not only had barker found examples of every single one of these 19 characteristics, but he usually found several examples in every case. In fact, the reason I haven’t given it a higher rating is because it was so repetitive, with so many examples of remarkably similar and disturbing passages. A whole chapter is dedicated to each of the descriptors in turn, and the whereabouts of each of the passages are clearly noted in bold before being presented underneath.

In Part 2, Barker takes the argument further still:
“He [Dawkins] forgot to mention that the God of the Old Testament is also a pyromaniacal, angry, merciless, curse-hurling, vaccicdal, aborticidal, cannibalistic slavemonger.”
Again, the following chapters are full of examples of these characteristics.

The book is predominantly a laundry list of evil requests and doings of the God of the Old Testament, but Chapter 28 asks “What About Jesus?” And here Barker even manages to find evidence that Jesus endorsed invasion and bloodshed (Deuteronomy 6.15-19), and encouraged the beating of slaves (Luke 12:47-48). Barker also sites a lot of Jesus’ bad advice

Several passages may be unpleasant for even strong atheists to read. I couldn’t get over how many times “fingers dripping with blood” comes up in the Bible.

Overall, Barker has little comments around and between the examples he sights, but I would suggest that this makes for a stronger argument, handing the role of jury to the reader. Obviously this book will upset just about any Christian who attempts to read it, and for those who do read it may feel better to recall that the analysis is only of how God is presented in the Bible, and not an analysis of any effect (if any) of God in their daily lives.