Una questione di fede

... but won't change any opinions of any atheist who has studied even a slight bit of evolution.

I decided to see a Christian movie, even though I'm atheist, to test my convictions. Would this be the movie to change my life? To convert me? Well, no. Frankly, I was completely disgusted by the intellectual dishonesty and emotional manipulation displayed throughout the movie.

Let's start with dishonesty; humans come from monkeys? No self- respecting 3rd grade biology teacher would teach that, never mind those at college level. Then that whole debate; the biology teacher sucked and staved off into abiogenesis and Big Bang and even Freud (everyone who has read even a bit on psychology knows Freud, while an interesting guy, was wrong on lots of topics) - all of which are not part of the debate topic which was about EVOLUTION vs. creationism; I could come up with better arguments than the biology teacher and I dropped biology from my high school course. Really, where was the debate leader to steer the father, the teacher and the ex-teacher back on topic? Because he sucked too! Then we have the emotional manipulation. The movie consistently portrays Christians as the good versus atheists as the evil. The girl was hardworking and studious, while her roommate and most of the students in this non-Christian environment were portrayed as party-goer slackers. The Christian boyfriend was protective of her, notifying her of the other explicitly non-religious dude who just wanted to get into her pants. Then there is the perfect family of concerned father and supportive diligent wifely mother. Contrast with the egotistical self-absorbed attitude of the aforementioned biology teacher. Even the ex-teacher is portrayed as a sympathetic guy who only became embittered because the evil atheist biology teacher got him fired. Apparently, in this movie you cannot be a decent person unless you're Christian.

Now, if you're a fundamental hardcore Christian, I'm sure you will lick up every drop of this feel-good movie. Because it DOES have all those warm fuzzy feelings of a family reunited in the end, an ex- teacher who gets over his bitterness, and a tentative romance. But everyone else can see the falseness behind that sugar-coat, not to mention the -at times- cringe worthy lines the actors spoke (I mean, at times I thought 'No real person speaks like that!').

So, all in all, it does its job pandering to its fundamentalist audience, but I think that, instead of a flick aimed at attacking the evil atheists, Christian propaganda might have been better served with a movie that is more polished, more honest, and intelllectually more engaging than this, if it seriously wants to win new souls.