A Matter of Faith

... 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.

A poor production pandering to narrow minded views on Creation. A disservice to Christianity itself.

This is most absolute rubbish propaganda film through Regret having paid £4 pounds to watch it, mislead by the resume. It's not a debate it's propaganda AVOID IT

This movie, is very professionally done. Unfortunately, it follows the Hollywood formula of everything and everyone, being materially comfortable, squeaky clean and the ladies"made-up" to glamour standards. I think, that we've grown so habituated to these standards, that it would be difficult for us to watch, if it presented people and situations, as they really are in life. I'm mostly mentioning this due to the fact, that this is a "Christian" film. It is sad to me, that even people of faith feel, that they need to show this glamorized image of life, to find acceptance. I believe, that the film, gives a good representation of both sides of the "Creationism" versus "Evolutionary" debate on life's origins, although it is of course told from a "Christian" perspective, and somewhat heavy-handedly at some times. It shows, the rigidity of those on both sides of this question. I think, that the acting is well done. The script, however, is quite bland and contrived. It is certainly no profound work of art or ideas, which such a topic could lend itself to. I watched it for the ideas, rather, than expecting some "chef d'oeuvre" of cinema. I found it mildly entertaining.

I watched this movie out of pure morbid curiosity, as I watched it I began to question whether this was a Christian film or not... I mean it has to be because the disgusting lack of understanding of evolution, but then again, it portrays Christians as diabolical, manipulative, and ignorant as all get out... It starts out with a girl going to a biology class (why would a evolution denier study biology?), the professor seems warm and charming and respectable. Of course the portrayal of his understanding of evolution is off, but then again it was written by people who deny evolution. The plot then twists and turns for a good long while, with the girl being a typical college student more or less with weird shenanigans and chasing boys. It is peppered with really creepy scenes of the girls parents, and predatory boys just looking to, pardon the expression, "get their dick wet". It starts to get to some substance when the father of the girl looks up the nice professors name and finds him to be an evolutionist, oh the horror. The father decides he should talk to this Kaman guy and give him the once over for teaching his daughter, a BIOLOGY major, evolution. When he approaches the professor he chastises him for leading his daughter astray and questions the professors beliefs. The professor is very nice about it saying that if the bible helps the father then that is all that matters, the professor says that evolution helps in and that is all that matters. The father won't accept this and continues to berate the professor. When the professor comes up with what I think is a fair proposal to have a debate on the subject the Christian father freaks out and backs down. Big surprise. Then it gets weirder, and even more aggressive, with a student journalist creeping on the poor girl who just needs some space to find herself. He becomes aggressive in his pushing Christianity on her, and his bad mouthing of the nice professor. They try to paint the professor in a weird light trying to make him look evil, but actually portrays him as a reasonable and good person.

In the end if you want the run around of this whole movie it could be summed up in one interaction between a random student and the Christian journalist. The random student and the girl are discussing how people came from "apes", which again betrays the authors poor understanding of evolution. The creepy Christian journalist boy, again creepin on the girl stalking her, pushes his way into the conversation and then gives his incredible reasoning as to why we did not come from apes and I quote. Christian Journalist: "Does your mom look like an ape?" Random Student: "What?" CJ, aggressively I might add, "I'll take that as a no, does your grandma look like an ape?" This continues in a really mean way. I mean seriously, are you trying to make christians look like a bunch of ignorant bullies? If this is how you want your religion to be portrayed, that's fine, I guess... but man,I wouldn't want this movie associated with my religion and defending my beliefs.

In the end this movie feels more like a pro-evolution/anti-Christianity (especially with the speech made by the professor at the end) which is why i couldn't give it only 1 star. I mean really, it does a pretty good job of painting a disgusting picture of Christianity, their ignorance and their intolerance.