I did watch the 40-minute or so film.
observations:
the overall film was US-centric, focussing on a threat from "outside". no mention was made that the trigger would be a mad/fool US president going bonkers. ie, threat is from "them", not "us".
Jesus was an Arab Jew. he most likely, as a function of the hot, sunny, middle-eastern climate was brown-skinned, had dark eyes and dark hair, as would be the ethnic mix of that region of the times.
Jesus in the US-centric view is portrayed as a caucasion, with brown hair, and I have seen many modern depictions, with blue eyes.
To be pedantic, modern Christian iconography is idolatory, since they are worshipping graven images/false depictions of the messiah.
I re-assert my contention that Christianity is passive-aggressive. "we hate you, but will let someone else kill you on our behalf".
latter parts of the film:
God comes down and speaks in a thunderous voice:
how will the western, US/Euro land-masses understand him? The God of the Bible is a Hebrew creation, and the original text is, I believe, written in Hebrew, since the scholars who wrote it spoke, you guessed it, Hebrew.
It is a western conceit that God will speak the english language.
He is most likely to speak Hebrew, unless we are to imagine the bizarre image of the Creator of All Things practising english phrases ("could I have a cup of tea and a muffin, please") on a Linguaphone, prior to his coming.
The above maybe rendered obsolete if NORAD decide the Unidentified Diefic Object hurtling towards earth is a threat and decide to nuke the mother to kingdom come.
heaven: (I will gloss over the fire and brimstone descriptions, since they are relatively unimportant, and jump to the perfect heavenly life)
if ALL people, even dead ones are resurrected, and all live in heaven:
does that mean population growth goes exponential?
does aging stop? (apparently, all diseases and disorders will be cured. great. but we must continue to age, surely. or, when a baby is born in heaven, it remains 1-day old for eternity. I pity the heavenly mother who has to change nappies for ever.
do people eat in heaven? and do they visit the bathroom? thats one almighty pile of heavenly crap to process.)
the above paragraph is a strem of consciousness that could go on interminably, so I will stop there.
finally, it occurred to me, that religious people would be the least capable of truly understanding the true God, since their faith prevents them from accepting an alternative scenario, or the humility to accept their errors.
most religious people tend to be defensive about their own views, and only look for weaknesses in others, as a means of denigrating alternatives.
we then have the curious situation, that only humanists, who have made the effort to understand, (or fail to understand) the many different religions from a relatively neutral standpoint, and better placed to accept the true God, from WHEREVER he/she/it may arrive.
on Judgement Day, only we, humanists, could say "Oh God. I got it wrong" in genuine surprise, when all the others around us spend their last breath not accepting the truth in front of the eyes since their imams/priests/rabbis told them that anything that differed from their version was a false god sent to waylay them.
on a personal note: my father became ill recently, and is recovering well. my mother, born and raised in India, thanked God, (I cant remember which one: she was brought up in a Hindu culture), and I rolled my eyes at this. she seemed to ignore the paramedic who took my father to hospital, the A&E doctor who made the initial diagnosis, the nurses sho cared for him and ensured they gave medicines and monitored his progress, and the doctor who oversaw the treatment.
each of the people in the health chain were imperfect. the paramedic could have been in the middle of a divorce for all I knew. the nurse could have been having an affair with a married man. the doctor could have broken the speed limit on his way to hospital.
but, they did an excellent job of ensuring my father got better, in spite of their human failings.
I prefer to believe/have faith in the imperfect, sinful humans around me, because, given a chance, they will do right more often than wrong.
NB: If God is perfect, and He made man in His image, does God have an appendix? If so, why?
