Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Atheist Heros? A response to Thunderf00t



Thunderf00t today put out a really good video, as he often does, and for the most part I agree. America's perception of atheists is changing. No longer does the visions of Madelin Murray O'Hare or the rising tide of communism come to mind when we hear the word Atheist. Of course our image is still far from perfect. Thankfully education and the Internet are having a positive effect on the world by making us less religious.

If you want to stem the tide of fanaticism, you need to educate your citizens and give them access to information so that they can learn for themselves instead of relying on what they are told.

Thunderf00t then concludes his video by mentioning a new movie coming out called "The Ledge" It is touted by Thunderf00t as a movie with an Atheist as the lead hero of the movie. Below is a trailer for the new movie, judge for yourself.



The issue I take with this movie is that it promotes a stereotype of atheists. The stereotype is that we atheists lack morals because we don't believe in a god or judgement in the afterlife. When in reality, atheists get our morals the same way the Christians, Muslims, and everyone else does. We learn our morals first from our parents, later from our friends and teachers. We learn our morals from those around us.

The movie "The Ledge" appears to be about a man who falls in love with a married woman and the two of them have an affair. Call me old fashioned but it is very immoral to cheat on your spouse. I may be wrong about this movie, and to be honest, I don't intend to watch it, however this movie does not show the atheist in a very moral light.

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