The Gospel Coalition is running a slightly interesting series called “Reading for worldviews” that I had hoped would prove very insightful. It has, however, been a little bit of a disappointment. The writers seem to reach for more complexity instead of grabbing the book by the horns. The exercise is a good one and one that we as thinking Christians should do as we strive to take every thought captive to Christ and His Lordship. An exercise I have tried to do for years now is watch for worldviews where I will try to keep an eye out for statements and arguments in movies and dissect what the worldview being portrayed is and how to answer the argument from the Christian worldview and push the protagonists worldview to absurdity. It is often great fun to challenge other Christians to look for these things as well and to discuss the movie in respect to what everyone has found afterwards. I personally find it easiest to challenge friends to look for moral arguments in movies as most Christians tend to see these much more than metaphysical or epistemological arguments. Besides, most movies tend to be commentary on the world and current issues with a resolution accomplished (or not) to push some sort of moral agenda (be it Christian or not). Sometimes these arguments are blatant such as:
When I first watched Chronicle I couldn’t help but laugh at the response to Andrew’s argument at the end. I can’t say it was very convincing given the force of Andrew’s argument if evolution is true. What a great couple of scenes to discuss with an unbeliever if they have seen this movie. Questions like “How would you respond to Andrew’s argument?” and pushing them to the end of an evolutionary ethic to see Christianity holds the only answer as to why people wanted Matt to stop Andrew.
Though not specifically a moral argument, this statement is clearly self-refuting and could spurn some discussion about the broader story of Star Wars:
But either way these make for great conversation pieces for both sharpening your Christian brethren in their apologetic and critical thinking skills. Not only that they make for great common ground in the sense of something the unbeliever is familiar with for the believer to push the unbeliever to think through some of these issues. Lastly, this exercise can also help children think critically about the things they see and hear through the guidance of their parents and to be wise to the sometimes blatant, sometimes subtle, worldviews being argued for and against in our entertainment which may just be our modern day areopagus.
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