I saw “the invention of lying” and while I’d have to watch it a least one more time to really form a serious opinion about it on first impression it did not strike me as anti-religious.
It has a ridiculous, if very clever concept - that there is a world in which nobody ever lies, and basically just blurts out the truth, no matter how hurtful. And it is true that the expression of religious belief (in life after death and the big man in the sky, iirc) is presented as ANOTHER lie told by our lying (but brilliant) protagonist. However, as with most of the lies told in this sort of bizarro world story, this makes people happy, it gives them comfort.
Now, right now I’m realizing I can’t really opine on this movie any futher without another viewing (although there is a sweet joke right at the end, so if you ever watch it don’t give up on it before the very end). But I didn’t see it as mean spirited about relgion at all, no more than it was mean spririted about people in general.
But, like I say, maybe I missed it and others might well see it differently.
OK, now I’m going to blah blah on for a moment...
I also never saw that song “what if God were one of us” as anti-relgious or anti-God either. In fact I saw it as rather religious, because didn’t Jesus become “one of us”?
And I always liked the line that poor, tired God was all alone, with “no one calling on the phone/except the Pope, maybe, from Rome”.
You see, to me this song was not only not anti-Religious, but it was actually pro-Catholic.
But I’ve seen it condemned, so maybe I missed the point, or perhaps these are just differences of opinion.
I know nothing about the group (or person) that did that song, so if I learned more about them (or him or her) perhaps that would change my view.
Anyway TCC, hope I didn’t take your thread too OT.
That song never sat very well with me. I always thought of Jesus, who is God, as actually being one of us. He was tired, beaten beyond recognition for no crime He had committed, but as payment for every single sin we have committed in the past, present and into infinity. Then just as He had endured all the punishment, His Father turned His back on Him.
That song paints a picture of a god I have never seen. It is a picture of a fluffy cloud sort of god that has no clue as to what it is like to be human. The God I know was one of us. He knows exactly what it is like to be human and He paid for every human frailty we have with His life.
So yes, I find that song disturbing because it shows an ignorance of God. That there are so many people who identify with the song makes me aware that there are many people who have no idea about who the Living God is.