AVATAR! a mockery of Christ?

[Nick]

Nick, I appreciate the fact that you believe that this movie has a pro-enviromental message. Which in a certain sense it has. But the way the message is portrayed is anti-christian. It is when we accept these messages, whether it be entertainment or not, we open our thoughts and emotions to them. There was not Hollywood in the first centuary, yet the entertainment that was provided by the Romans was to put man against man, against beast etc. THAT WAS REAL and it affected those who watched it, making them tender to violence and horrific acts.
People spend years in therapy after being abused or attacked or after they have been witness to things. Just because it happens on the big screen, does not make it not effect you.
When we watch movies, we are subjected to more visuals than ever before. The beliefs of the writers and directors and imprinted on their creation. Do you think it has no effect on you? Its not just the bad that imprints into your mind, its the emotions of certain scenarios and the words and actions.
Avatar has a far deeper meaning than you might realize.

Its anti God. (Our God)

As Christians we know that sin started at the tree of life. It funny that the main life of the Na'vi was within a tree. The planet is called Pandora (What the humans call it) Read my previous meaning to who Pandora was.

Watchman has made some valid points.


Visually it was a great movie and it was entertaining, the message was out of sink with my belief in God. And hopefully yours to. It would be a good idea to relook the enviromental message as watchman has pointed out.

Ed,

I appreciate your thoughts. And In a general sense I agree with them, but not that for me that this applies to Avatar. Yes, some things were anti God, I agree. But I don't feel that that has led me into sin. However you do make some valid points about the Roman violence and the tender hearts towards it.
Was James Cameron setting out to denounce the Christian faith and God and promoting Hinduism or Naturalism or whatever? We cannot say for certain, so lets not be so quick to judge either way.

 

[jasoncran]

i just watched this movie, and it does have a lot of panthestic influence. the trees or collective called ewya is rather close the the pantheistic belief that god is in all and is all, and all things are a god. it is also impersonal.

does this mean that a christian should watch it, up to the individual. is see the ewya thing no worse then the "force" on star wars. both are impersonal and are of the pantheistic influence. if these movies offend you then dont watch them.

 

[Nick]

i just watched this movie, and it does have a lot of panthestic influence. the trees or collective called ewya is rather close the the pantheistic belief that god is in all and is all, and all things are a god. it is also impersonal.

does this mean that a christian should watch it, up to the individual. is see the ewya thing no worse then the "force" on star wars. both are impersonal and are of the pantheistic influence. if these movies offend you then dont watch them.

Completely agree.

As a movie, did you enjoy it, Jason?

 

[jasoncran]

i just watched this movie, and it does have a lot of panthestic influence. the trees or collective called ewya is rather close the the pantheistic belief that god is in all and is all, and all things are a god. it is also impersonal.

does this mean that a christian should watch it, up to the individual. is see the ewya thing no worse then the "force" on star wars. both are impersonal and are of the pantheistic influence. if these movies offend you then dont watch them.

Completely agree.

As a movie, did you enjoy it, Jason?

yes, i could see the anti-iraq war message in it. it looked like some breasts were shown in the beggining when jake sully was sleeping on the leaf, that scene appeared to be that way.

 

[Ed the Ned]

Guys, I do have strong feelings about the movie, but I am not sending out a message not to watch it. I am saying as Christians we must be aware of the message portrayed in the movie and make sure it does not influence our beliefs. I am also stating in my opinion that the religious undertones in the movie were deliberate.
We have as a whole been accepting eastern religion into our churches. We have churches that promote yoga. Yoga is more than just exercise movements. We have churches that are denying Christ as our Saviour. That is reality.
How do you think the thoughts and actions of those churches became acceptable to Christians. It was through information and media and entertainment.
SO AGAIN, ENJOY THE MOVIE BUT BE CAREFUL OF ACCEPTING THE MESSAGE PORTRAYED IN IT.

 

[jasoncran]

yoga, when done without the chanting is no different than martial arts. all martial arts can a religion if taught that way. i was brought up in the martial arts that way.

yes they are churches that are doing that, and thats wrong. i have mixed feelings about yoga in a church unless the yoga is only the excercises not the chanting and the meditation with it.

 

[Slyvena]

I thought they explained the ewya situation in the movie.

That the trees formed a massive organism more complex than the human brain, hence eywa is simply a brain of which the neurons and connections are the trees themselves. The sacred tree place is simply an interface point.

This also infers that eywa probably DID create all the other life on the planet since they all have that weird connecty thing that also interfaces with trees too.

So I think of eywa simply as a super advanced organism.


But even if they movie did take on a whole bunch of weird inspirations, I wouldn't care, just because some else has declared a certain thing to be a symbol of a God or something doesn't mean it is a symbol to me. If kettles become the main object used in modern witchcraft I will still make a coffee in the morning.

 

[Ed the Ned]

I am dumbfounded by the lack of Christian responsibility some people are taking in regards to things of this world. In the old testament when the Jews were given land by God, he told them to remove all other alters and worship places that were put to praise other gods. When this was not done the Jews became corrupt and started worshipping false Gods. Yet people seem to think, What the heck. If it doesn't affect me, why should I care. Well it may not affect you but it may affect someone else. The same person we were told to help grow in Christ and not put a stumbling block in their way. As a Christian I am part of the body of Christ and other Christians are also. So that makes us one. THIS IS WHY WE SHOULD CARE ABOUT WHAT IS BEING PORTRAYED IN MOVIES AND ENTERTAINMENT THAT FELLOW CHRISTIANS ARE WATCHING. Its our responsibility.

 

[jasoncran]

the problem with taking that too far. what about all these things that sinners do and the companies that promote sin sponsor

american football
soccer
basketball
boxing
mma
hockey
racing

when you attend or watch these events, they are sponsored in part by alcohol! some may be drinking too much of it, thus sinning and you are supporting them.

where do we stop with that type of legalism


ed i was a jw

jw's dont play in any school sports, or celebrate holidays or even birthdays.
your choice is not to watch, fine, but others may disagree

my bro sees nothing wrong with that tween vampire thing.(twilight)

i wont watch and i told him why. he has kids and he watches it with them.

 

[RaymondKroft]

Avatar was a good movie, 3D was great. I can't for the life of me see why people always complain about movies like Avatar and Harry Potter or anything that might have a pagan them to it. Have we forgot that Mythrism was a pagan religion and Christianity is based on it. Even the eating of bread and drinking of wine was taken from the Cult of Osiris. I think we need to get over the Mono and Poly debate. We got 12 tribes just like the Greeks had 12 gods, hercules was a man god as was christ. Changing the idea around doesn't mean one is mono and the other is poly, it just proves that these people can't see the forest for the tree's.

 

[jasoncran]

Avatar was a good movie, 3D was great. I can't for the life of me see why people always complain about movies like Avatar and Harry Potter or anything that might have a pagan them to it. Have we forgot that Mythrism was a pagan religion and Christianity is based on it. Even the eating of bread and drinking of wine was taken from the Cult of Osiris. I think we need to get over the Mono and Poly debate. We got 12 tribes just like the Greeks had 12 gods, hercules was a man god as was christ. Changing the idea around doesn't mean one is mono and the other is poly, it just proves that these people can't see the forest for the tree's.

this is a christian forum. we actually take the bible seriously. do you?

 

[RaymondKroft]

The only thing most christians seem to take seriously is that everyone else should agree with them on what it means and where it came from. It seem to me that if a person views god or the bible in a different way they are automatically pointing the finger and screaming heratic! And as far as what i wrote prior to this, every bit of it is factual.

http://www.comereason.org/cmp_rlgn/cmp070.asp

 

[jasoncran]

The only thing most christians seem to take seriously is that everyone else should agree with them on what it means and where it came from. It seem to me that if a person views god or the bible in a different way they are automatically pointing the finger and screaming heratic! And as far as what i wrote prior to this, every bit of it is factual.

http://www.comereason.org/cmp_rlgn/cmp070.asp

no, just because a man thinks that the christianity came from the mithra cult does not make it so. if we accept that we are no longer christians but sinners and jesus was a lunatic and a liar.

he cant be anything but who he is, and you need to accept the bible as its source of validity.

by faith i came to see the bible as the truth, no man convinced me.

 

[RaymondKroft]

Tell it to the history teachers, it was my college history teacher that pointed it out to me. I find it strange how people like Osiris are noted as having rose from the dead yet they are dismissed for the sake of Jesus.

 

[jasoncran]

Tell it to the history teachers, it was my college history teacher that pointed it out to me. I find it strange how people like Osiris are noted as having rose from the dead yet they are dismissed for the sake of Jesus.

just because archeologist say that it is so on the case of this or that in faith. we dont beleive by logic but by faith.

why have a religion then if its that way, thus humanism, the worship of man.

 

[JamesG]

.
RaymondKroft

The New Testament is a record that has certain information that is written in the form of a historic record. Your college history teacher, and you by proxy as his college student, both deny that the New Testament record has any validity as a source of historic information merely because of the type of information that it gives and because of imagined similarities to certain non-Christian religions. That is not a logical reason for denying its validity. You both show that you are biased toward one way of thinking about history. And your bias makes what the two of you are saying merely an opinion that is no more valid than any other.

Why you put a link in one of your posts that basically proves the fallacy of what you are saying is beyond reason.

Since you have come on a Christian forum with the purpose of denying the validity of the Christian religion, the burden of proof is totally on you to prove your point. And since most Christians are already biased against your point of view, you have put yourself in the rather dubious position of attempting an exercise in futility. What you really need to exercise is a little common sense.

And in a further show of brilliance, you have posted in an area that is irrelevant to the subject that you are presenting. Try going over to the section on Apologetics and Theology. There are Atheists over there that you should feel quite at home with. And you will also find many knowledgeable Christians who can give you logical answers to your claims. You can start a special thread about the different ideas that appear to be similar to ideas in Christianity. And be sure to bring up at some point the supposed influence of the Greco-Roman culture and Mithraism on Christianity. That is always good fuel for a discussion of this sort.

JamesG

 

[Lifesong]

I enjoyed the movie after seeing it in 3D, the graphics were amazing although the plot was a little simplistic and rather predictable, it was still enjoyable.

Although I can see why people would find the movie to be anti-christian, I doubt it will be that influential. I mean, after I watched the movie, it didn't make me want to go home, denounce God and start worshipping trees. I did get a weird feeling when they were all chanting around Ewah, as it really did resemble the practices of the Wiccans and Native American Indians, but it didn't make me think the movie was heretical or blasphemous and it certainly did not have a negative effect on my walk with God.

 

[Mike]

I enjoyed the movie after seeing it in 3D, the graphics were amazing although the plot was a little simplistic and rather predictable, it was still enjoyable.

Although I can see why people would find the movie to be anti-christian, I doubt it will be that influential. I mean, after I watched the movie, it didn't make me want to go home, denounce God and start worshipping trees. I did get a weird feeling when they were all chanting around Ewah, as it really did resemble the practices of the Wiccans and Native American Indians, but it didn't make me think the movie was heretical or blasphemous and it certainly did not have a negative effect on my walk with God.

If someone is grounded in their Faith, they could see the Wiccan and NAI inflluence and reject that. But, put yourself in the position of someone who isn't. Do you see the possibility that this person could get drawn into believing in that philosophy? That alone makes this film dangerous. Now consider the record number of people who saw it. How many of them were not grounded? Not all of them would find new interest in this new ageism, but some would. It was very preachy in that respect, and it preached a false doctrine. Not good.

 

[Lifesong]

Good point, and I totally see what you are getting at.

 

[Nick]

Lifesong and mjjcb, I do agree with you. However, then what are the implications from here? That's the question, isn't it. I think the best thing we can do is to warn people that it COULD influence them and to be careful, but honestly it's down to that person.