What makes it different from others?
Great visuals, story delivers no surprises
Awesome Movie
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
I have a very academically oriented cousin. He knows my points of view and how the intellectually curious mind is so highly prized by me. Because of that he recommends films he finds mostly on Netflix which he thinks I will enjoy.He surely knows me well as he suggested a documentary film gem entitled "The Unbelievers" which threw a strike right over my cerebral plate. It is a wonderful documentary which I would like to distribute on street corners telling electoral ignorance the ever important difference between truth and fiction.The film involves snippets of a variety of world-wide talks and discussions between Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of "The God Delusion" and his colleague Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist and cosmologist author of a "Universe from Nothing." I offer the following quotes from the documentary to whet your appetite for it:"If we live in a world where certain things are not subject to question we live in a world where thinking has stopped""One might think that the religious beliefs of political candidates should remain off limits in public discourse. I don't think so, at least not when candidates wear their religion on their sleeves; then it becomes fair game.""Before Darwin life was a miracle so one could not ask "Where did the diversity of life come from?" What Darwin showed were very simple laws of biological beginnings with NO miracle. Did he prove it? No, but it was plausible. Now there has been 150 years of proof that natural selection and genetic mutation essentially could produce all the complexity of life from very simple beginnings to the most complex over billions of years""How can how the universe works upset people? Instead of being threatened or having our faith threatened by the discoveries of science we should force our beliefs to conform to the evidence of reality instead of the other way around. People shouldn't be threatened by science." I cannot recommend "The Unbelievers" strongly enough. Watch it, learn and know!
View MoreDawkins and Krauss are not that prominent in their respective scientific communities. They are proponents of atheism under the guise that it is more rational than religion. Yet, their "arguments" in this movie are based in their faith that hell doesn't exist, the soul is not immortal, humans descended from fish, etc., despite there being very little scientific evidence for any of those positions.A healthy dose of skepticism is good, but when it leads to ideologies like Dawkins and Krauss are promoting, it becomes just as bad as the other "religions" they like to attack for being violent.For a much better, less biased film on science and religion, see the upcoming film from Rocky Mountain Pictures:The Principle
View MoreRenowned scientists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss cross the globe as they speak publicly about the importance of science and reason in the modern world.The film starts off with some unusual interviews, such as Woody Allen and Cameron Diaz. Ricky Gervais is a bit more well-known for his views. Then we go to Lawrence Krauss on tour, and it is odd to see empty lecture halls (maybe this is normal and it would just be odd for places like Madison).What this film shows is that atheism needs a new face, as Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens are such divisive figures. Lawrence Krauss is an improvement, as he is not nearly as polarizing. This is evident when they share a stage and Krauss is more compromising. The approach, if it is to be successful, ought to be pro-evolution, pro-science and not anti-religion. Religion is not the enemy.Dawkins makes an interesting parallel between the idea of a middle-aged person turning old and a species becoming another: when does one end and another begin? This is, of course, the big question. If a pre-human did not give birth to a modern man, what was the process? To top off the film, the "Rally for Reason" is an incredible sight and must have been one heck of an event, with all the usual faces (like Penn Gillette) plus some special guests like Eddie Izzard, Adam Savage and James Randi. Where else can college professors be treated like rock stars?
View MoreI saw a test screening of this movie at Arizona State University, and it's possible there may be slight changes before the official release. However there is little or nothing I would want to see changed. It's a very well put together movie, fast paced and engrossing. When it was over, I was very surprised that 90 minutes had elapsed - it seemed like less than an hour.From a brief description, it might sound very boring - Dawkins and Krauss criss-crossing the world, giving speeches at atheist conferences, debating religious apologists and so on. But the film is very well edited and has a very fast-paced feel, as well as capturing human moments like Richard Dawkins nodding off to sleep on a train, or sitting in a hotel room holding a phone to his ear, frustratedly trying to get a word in edgewise as an unseen person on the other end lectures him on morality.Most of all, this film captures the passion and intensity of two men at the top of their respective scientific fields, who are awed by the beauty and complexity of nature and have an almost messianic zeal to share that beauty and awe - so much more satisfying and inspiring in my opinion than the petty just-so stories of religion - with the general public.You also get the sense that atheism is a movement whose time has finally come. Even in religion-saturated America, more and more people are coming out of the closet and connecting with each other, turning up at atheism conferences in large numbers though so far ignored by the media.But this is not as much of a religion-bashing film as you might expect. It's basically an intimate portrait of two friends with a shared passion for knowledge, who are driven to share that knowledge with the world. As such, any viewer can enjoy this movie.
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