Movie: Noah

Russell Crowe's new biblical epic is in theatres.  Reviews call it dark, apocalyptic and depressing, portraying a god who is vengeful and spiteful.

Sounds about right.

There was a "discussion" about it on "On Point" last night which I'm putting in quotes because the two people Tom Ashbrook brought in to discuss it were a Jewish biblical scholar and a Christian biblical scholar.  They spent the whole time arguing about how faithful the movie was to the biblical text -- nary a word about the science of a worldwide flood or the biology of all animals being decended from one pair or the logic of keeping that many carnivores on a boat or the impossibility of rounding up all species.  No, this "discussion" was all about literalcy -- as brain-dead as the movie.

Made me wanna scream.

The reader comments are more cogent than the film:

Ashley Yoshida wrote:

I felt like I could finally put my finger on what drives me crazy about Christianity when the guests were trying to explain the old testament God.

It just became so obvious that the elephant in the room is modern day humans trying to take comfort from, make sense of, and find wisdom in stories created by primitive people. It's not different than taking the theories cave people may have invented to explain their existence and place in the world, or the cannibals of Papua new Guinea as historical fact.

We have the ability to theorize ourselves, and come to our own conclusions. Why would we reach back to a time when people knew so much less about the world for wisdom?

My great-grandmother truly believed that being black was the mark of Cain. She used this (as so many others did in her time) to justify her racism. This idea that our elders are all-knowing is ridiculous. My great-grandmother had acquired some very practical wisdom in her ninety-two years of life on earth. She knew about planting seasons, and how to make soap. She understood the phases of the moon, and knew when to expect rain, or a frost. She could make clothes, she understood the value of patience, and was wonderful with children, but her biblical beliefs were absurd and damaging.

Even as a very small child I intuitively knew this. I knew that there was no such thing as "a race of people that was bad."

When I meet someone who takes the bible literally I feel like I am talking to a crazy person, and yet, modern people still engage in these conversations as if they are rational. Are they being polite? Why are people who claim to have been abducted by UFO's considered nutty, and people who believe that a personified creator of all things who decides to stop destroying mankind when he smells BBQ are teaching at Harvard?
It makes no sense, and it makes me crazy. It is one of the real annoyances of life as a human being on this planet.

Quote :

My great-grandmother truly believed that being black was the mark of Cain.

This is one of the biblical items that made me realize that religious people have a problem with story continuity. Unless I remember incorrectly, only Noah's family was on the ark. Where, then, did today's black people come from after everyone except that family was drowned? Was there someone in Noah's family who was descended from Cain? I don't recall that being mentioned, and I'm almost positive that the writers of that silliness were not conversant with the concept of recessive genes.

You don't dare start picking at the science. For one thing you wouldn't know where to begin, for another there's no telling where it would end.