Girl Meets Belief

While Disney is typically predictable for its tween audience, I was pleasantly surprised and admired its attempt to tackle the difficult subject of spiritual faith. Although the plot could have been further developed, and many issues about faith were left unaddressed because of the episode is only 30 min, it gave a fair case for having faith. This is already distinct in that the general and popular media, from what I have experienced, more often lean towards criticizing faith or promoting no faith at all. The main characters include those who have spiritual faith and those who do not, and some continue to believe in God while others do not - thus, neither side is minimized by the episode.

A particular line, and a message of open-mindedness that I believe is worth spreading, is that friends should share why they do or do not believe, and should listen to each other and understand the others' perspective. Ultimately, one's faith or lack thereof is one's own choice. But, the possibility of neither being the "truth" should not be written off without sincere, respectful discussion.

As always, I was expecting another important life lesson, another emotional chapter in the lives of these four friends (where the hell was Zay by the way?), and at first that's what it seemed like that was what it was setting up to be only for me to realize how god- friggin' wrong I was. I was surprised. And not in a good way. If felt exactly like I was watching a TBN special. This episode was nothing more than a pandering tool, a blurb of religious blah-blah, one-sided philosophies ad faulty science. At face value the episode might be trying to say things like "Listen to one another's differences" and "Just because you can see something doesn't mean its not there." The first one I agree with, but the second one... I cannot see air, but i can feel it, not in a spiritual sense, I can actually feel. Why? Because air is a friggin surface. You want to prove that gravity exists even though you can't see it, then go jump of a rooftop. There's your proof. Energy, though invisible to the human eye in some accounts, can become vision if viewed under the right circumstances. What I'm trying to say is, this episode was severely disappointing with its on the nose, in your face religious bias, and its deep dip in quality. I never thought i would feel this about a show, but I think I would like to watch it anymore. If the creative team wanted to be more inclusive, they should have gone about it in a better way than to pander to the already egotistical and overly-sensitive religious majority.

They talked all about religious freedom at the end of the episode and the right not to be persecuted. But spent the whole episode persecuting Maya and Farkle for not believing. Religious freedom doesn't just mean you can be a Hindu, or Muslim or Christian, it also means you have the freedom not to believe in a higher power, and believe in science and the self-determination of humans instead. I am disappointed that Disney would alienate and/or attempt to indoctrinate so many of their young viewers. I hope that the writers actually go on these discussion boards and see the responses. Also, the fact that Cory is teaching the students about religion in a public school is what is wrong with the American education system. The education system should study the historical and cultural impact of religion, as to exclude these would be to exclude a huge aspect of our history and society, but they should not try to convince students what to believe.

I am a agnostic. That means that I do not believe in the existence of any god or gods. We could argue till the sun goes cold about this. Some say I'm "an atheist who lacks conviction/pride.", some think my opinion simply isn't worth anything because I "don't have the right and proper belief in gawd!" Let me just say that as I see it based on the definition. An agnostic is a person who holds a personal view of lack of specific belief on a topic. This is simply how it is defined. On the other hand Atheist as defined is a belief there is/are no god(s). This is a subtle distinction. Most agnostics and theists alike can't see the difference which is why 99% of atheists more properly fit the definition of agnostic rather than atheist but still call themselves the latter. And with that out of the way lets address this show.

As a long time BMW fan I felt it was a forgone conclusion that the Mathewes in GMW were sure to be non-denominational Christian just as they were in BMW. This is not a problem. Christians are just as human as any other homo sapiens on this spinning rock (sorry young earth creationists and flat-earthers, I respect Christians but you guys are idiots.) In fact a great many of my favorite people in history, alive today or in fiction are so-called believers.

For me the problem presents itself in the course of this episode the obvious thread that the writers wanted to convey two mutually exclusive ideas. In telling that religion is a personal choice they speak to it being a story of understanding, tolerance and co- habitation with those who disagree with us about such matters. But they then proceed to make it a conversion story that conveys to our children that people are worth more for believing.

This is honestly the most egregious thing you could do in an episode that holds up Jefferson as one of the great historical role-models. A man who not only believed in freedom OF religion but more importantly freedom FROM religion. It is our inalienable right to believe in a god or not to. To believe in Yaweh or the Shiva. To believe in Jesus or not. Far too often in our modern society is the establishment clause of the first amendment overlooked. But it is, in my opinion, by far the most important right secured by the first amendment. If Kim Davis the Christian can tell Adam & Steve Jones they are not allowed to be married because of her personal religion then what is to stop Mohamed the Muslim from telling her she is not allowed to buy ham because it is against his belief? Or Hakaku the Buddhist from telling her she can not hunt because killing is against his religion?

If we give any one religion the power to rule we give away all that freedom is. As a red blooded Patriot I can not abide the idea of a Christian nation any more than I can an Atheistic nation. We must be secularists as the founders intended. We must embrace the fundamental rights of all citizens regardless of belief or disbelief.

We are all of equal worth is what I'm trying to get at.

My daughter loves this show. She's rewatched it time and again, and I've been a fan, because I love the life lessons and perspective. Unfortunately, I've been unnerved twice now, and I'm done. I expected more from a modern show and the Disney Channel.

Setting Maya up as the non-believer who has no morals and takes money that's not hers and then to make her give in to PRAYING by the end of the episode completely missed the mark. I'm all for religious freedom. As an atheist, I would never want forced atheism. People should be left alone to believe what they want. However, let me give the producers some facts:

Less than 1% of the prison population is atheist. Meaning, we aren't the ones committing crimes. We KNOW there's no one to forgive us our sins and we have to live with what we make of the world. We KNOW that what we put out there, we get back. When we do bad, we feel bad. When we do good, we feel good. It's called a conscience, not God. Maya stealing money because "no one" is watching to take note of her bad behavior is completely unrealistic.

And to say that Atheists don't believe in anything is also far off the mark. We don't believe in God. That's it. There have been about 1,500 gods throughout history, and you don't believe in 1,499 of them. You're almost as atheist as me. We believe in a lot.

On the surface, this episode looks like it's trying to promote acceptance of differences, but it sets Farkle and Maya up as the belligerent ones who need to be educated. Not once, do Riley and Lucas have to be schooled (because they're believers, I guess?).

Keep on making your show. If you had gave a more equal representation of agnostics and atheists, I would continue watching. But this was insulting. Especially to an eight year old child who's being raised by freethinkers and wants to see representation of our way of life, not some one-sided nonsense that is set to make non-believers inferior.