'The Invention of Lying' Contains Sinister Anti-God Message
Jeff Field, policy analyst and editor of the Catholic League’s monthly journal, Catalyst, provided Bill Donohue with a review of “The Invention of Lying”; Field saw the movie today in New York City. Here are Donohue’s thoughts on it:
The trailer to the movie gave no indication of its atheistic-themed plot, but there was enough of a buzz about the agenda of screenwriter Ricky Gervais that we decided to check it out. We’re glad we did. “The Invention of Lying” is not the kind of in-your-face assault that Hollywood often serves up, but therein lies its perniciousness: because this anti-religion—make that anti-Christian—film is laced with some romance and humor, the message it sends is all the more sinister.
The movie centers on a world where no one lies. But that changes when the lead character’s mother is dying and the dutiful son finds utility in spinning a tale about a place that resembles heaven, thus saving her from being consigned to an “Eternity of Nothingness.” He subsequently floats the idea that there is a God-like “Man in the Sky,” a belief accepted by most, though some cynics wonder why AIDS exists (it’s never diabetes that Hollywood flags). In mockery, the lead character later shows up looking like a fat Jesus, and an image of him appears on a stained-glass window holding the Two Tablets (of Moses), posing as if on the Cross. In the end, he and his girl are the only two people who haven’t drunk all the moonshine about “The Man in the Sky.”
We at the Catholic League prefer our bigotry straight-up. We don’t like bigotry-lite, which this is not. But we also don’t like it slipped into our drink. It is not for nothing that the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the bishops’ conference slammed the movie as “morally offensive.” But we are pleased to note that the atheists still use our religion as the model, and still portray God as male. There is hope for them yet.
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I'd like to thank "Catholic league" for this nice write-up.
This sounds like a good movie to help inoculate my kids against the irrationality that religion is so infamous for having made respectable in our culture.
The non-existence of 'the supernatural' is not just an opinion; it's a fact. To call this position 'bigotry' is kind of weird.
Pot, meet Kettle. That is what we should be saying to religious organizations like the Catholic League. Centuries of depriving women of their human and civil rights because of the "original sin"; electionizing in the pulpits to effect lawmakers resulting in "conscientious objector" laws which permit pharmacists to REFUSE to fill women's contraceptive prescriptions...one notorious case entailed an 18 yr old rape victim from Lancaster County, PA who was denied access to Plan B (emergency contraception. When half of the human race (women and girls) are denied full autonomy and body integrity as if our uteruses were the property of the church and state (and men, whom will NEVER have to be pregnant), the Catholic League has NO room to whine about anti-Christian bigotry.
god is just something that men made up. man certainly made god in the image of himself. god is not even in the same realm of nature and the health well being and longevity of our species on this beautiful planet. you can believe in god and still believe in and work toward the health well being and longevity of our species and life on this planet or you can not believe in god, it does not matter compared to love god is irrelevent. then we could be capable of beyond light speed and breaking the barrier of time space and matter to become one with the unified field. It will take a collective cooperative effort for biological mammal creatures but I believe…
PL&H ken
As a card carrying member of Freedom from Religion, I can't wait to see this now. Thanks for the heads up!
The author from the Catholic League is a theological imbecile who should be publicly reprimanded by his bishop or other ecclesiastical authority. Christianity has never taught that God has a gender or is sexually differentiated. Such notions are absolutely heretical. God, according to Christian teaching, is totally beyond any creaturely distinction or attribute. To ascribe a gender distinction to God is thus to turn God into a creature, which is idolatry.
In short, this piece is theological trash. The Catholic League should come forward and apologize for undermining their own faith.
So what if the movie contains an anti-religious subtext? Aren't both children and adults subjected to more than an adequate amount of Christian and other religious propaganda? This is what the doctrine of free speech is all about. The producers and actors and promoters of this movie aren't employed by the government , so even if it does contain anti-theistic sentiments it's not a Constitutional or "fairness" issue.
Nope, this is one highly propagandistic organization, the Catholic League, crying foul when someone else MIGHT have created propaganda that MIGHT compete with their own. Get over yourselves and give up this ridiculous I'm-a-victim routine... religion has created far more victims than it has received.
What if there is no Transcendent God? Then the primis of this movie answers a valid question. Did people make up the idea of " god " to feel better about their meaningless existence? Those who start with the assumption there is no Transcendent God, have no better explanation for the phenomenon.
What if there is a Transcendent God? Then the fearful response of the review is just as absurd as the premise of the movie! How would we know anything avout this Transcendent God? The personal and historic power of REAL Christianity is that the Transcendent God pursues the very creatures that hate him and deny his existence, and then makes them better people.
If the God of the Bible is who he claims to be, would he be intimidated by this kind anti-God message? No! So why are the people who claim to worship him trembling? Maybe the critics have proven that the worshippers are not REAL, but they have not settled their arguement with God.
REAL Christianity thrives in the face of this kind of bigotry. Bring it on!
The premise of the movie was that in this alternative world, people could not lie, until Ricky Gervais invented lying. So where do you take that? Why not demonstrate the effect of the biggest lie ever, "The existance of God". I don't see what is so hard to understand about that.
Every year less people are naive enough to believe in a " god ".
This is a good thing.
It stems from our ability to explain more and more.
Eventually we won't need to use fairy tales to make ourselves feel better.
In a few million years there will be no more religious people.
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.