Nothing to do with sex, but just came across this. Unbelievable in 2009. And the U.S. is the leader of the free world. God help us.

http://crooksandliars.com/david- ... -charles-darwin-mov

Umm...
That report sounds VERY one-sided.
I can't think of anyone that I know of in the U.S. that doesn't believe in evolution.
Heck, it was even taught when I was in private school (12 years of "Roman Catholic" grade/high school)
So I doubt there is any "controversy" except for what "controversy" the filmmakers made for themselves.


There's only one true god in the U.S..... and that's the almighty dollar.... (just joking.... well... kind of joking... )  

If a distributor sees that this movie will make money, they WILL pick it up in an instant.

My guess is that the movie is mediocre at best... and the only thing driving it, is this made up hoopla about "the controversy of creationism vs. evolution" that pretty much no one cares about anymore....

Let's make a list of what makes a typical blockbuster movie make money:
1) explosions (wait... that's supposed to be EXPLOSIONS!!!!)   
2) hot stars   
3) comedy     
4) drama/suspense     


What does this movie have...
1) doubt it
2) Jennifer Connelly is HOT, but not in those period piece costumes... bleh.  Now Jennifer Connelly in Requiem for a Dream on the other hand...
3) I doubt this is a funny movie
4) Possible.... should he publish the book? shouldn't he? should he? shouldn't he?

The only things that people in America know about Darwin are:
"theory of evolution"
"survival of the fittest"
"Darwin Awards"
Anything else most people don't care about....

So it brings the question of:
Why would an American Distributor pick up a film:
a) not locally made?
b) about someone no one cares to know about, except to use his name as a punchline for people doing stupid things?

They're just not going to put up 10's of millions of dollars to distribute this movie, unless it does REALLLLLLLLLLY well around the world first.

Just look at all the other Independent/Foreign films that are released in the U.S.
It takes forever to be release there, because if it flops, too much money is lost.
The market is just too big in the U.S...

There are two America's, and if you live in a big city on the east or west coast, it's very possible you've had no contact whatsoever with the Christian Taliban. I don't personally know anyone who doubts evolution - hell, most of my friends are atheists - but then I don't know anyone who ever voted for Bush either, yet roughly one out of every two Americans cast a ballot voted for him in the first election, and a clear majority voted for him in the second.

A large majority of Americans are Christian and a very sizable percentage of those are fundamentalists. The later believe the Bible is the literal word of God, and are seriously ignorant about everything else as well. The American elite is the best of the best, but the bottom 30~40 % of the population are knuckle-walking morons. Those on the bottom make up the core support of the Republican party, and even today, after all the shit with the economy and Iraq and now Afghanistan, these people still believe Bush was a great president. They are too stupid to see that the powers behind the Republican party don't give a shit about gun control, Jesus, gay marriage, or abortion. The Republican party's core concern has always been 'More Money for the Rich". All the rest is just smoke and mirrors to convince small-town America to elect the conservative candidates necessary to push the no-tax, small-government agenda that harms the very people dumb enough to vote Republican. Those town-hall demonstrators and tea-party fanatics don't understand that they're being manipulated to support the very people who tirelessly work to erode their economic well being.

But even I'm surprised that no one had the stones to pick up distribution rights for this film for large liberal centers like NYC, Seattle, San Fran, Boston, LA.

Here are some stats from:

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1187 ... econd-coming-timing

[ Last edited by  Marsupial at 31-10-2009 15:56 ]

That's interesting, but contrary to everything I've read. Polls consistently show that 30 - 40% of people in the USA don't believe in evoilution.

Yes, I've read the same statistics. Many American Christians accept evolution - even the Pope has said he sees no contradiction between evolution and Church doctrine - it's the fundamentalist segment of the US Christian population that rejects evolution.

But that part of my post that you quoted above merely indicates that I personally have no friends that fall into the anti-evolution crowd. I don't hang with the knuckle-walkers.

Nowadays the anti-evolution crowd have started to say that they believe in "micro evolution" and not "macro evolution".

Micro evolution is about species making adaptations to the local environment, often based on survival of the fittest.  Macro evolution, on the other hand, deals with entire species evolving from parent species, which includes the whole monkey-to-man thing.

They say that micro-evolution is proven science, whereas macro-evolution is fanciful nonsense without any evidence.

The simple fact is, the Christian Taliban realised that any farmer, vet, or observant guy on the street can see micro-evolution in our daily lives.  It's too hard for them to argue against because they know that they will lose.

On the other hand, they can argue about macro-evolution, because no-one is old enough to "prove" that they are wrong by witnessing it in their lifetime.

I have respect for most religious people, but I have very little respect for these closed-minded individuals who say that there is no evidence to support macro-evolution, and then use scripture as "evidence" of intelligent design.

- Related Reading -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6216788.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/4757357.stm

[ Last edited by  princeandnpg at 18-9-2009 01:52 ]

There is ample fossil evidence for macroevolution.

You know that
I know that

But those guys do the same thing that wives do when having arguments, they just believe what they want to believe, and choose to ignore everything else.  Evidence doesn't mean anything to them.

I've tried arguing the fossil record with some of these guys.  They say that dinosaurs walked with man.  They'd probably argue that dinosaurs didn't exist if it wasn't for the huge bone fossils that people keep digging up.

You can't even argue radiocarbon dating, which is accurate up to 40,000 years, with them.  They just say that the technology is flawed, and anything that says that the universe existed before 10,000 years ago is either wrong or a test of our faith, set by the almighty.

[ Last edited by  princeandnpg at 18-9-2009 02:35 ]

Homo Sap is not a rational creature. We all have cherished beliefs that mean so much to us we would rather distort or ignore facts than question those beliefs. I have argued religion in countless blog posts in the Comment is Free (CIF) section of The Guardian, and the believers and the doubters might as well be speaking different languages so unlikely is it that the faithful will acknowledge anything that contradicts what they want to be true. Their need for a cosmic daddy to offer hope, to make sense of life, is so great that they refuse to acknowledge anything that threatens to frustrate that need. Surprisingly, intelligence has nothing to do with the side one takes in this argument; those with one type of personality will believe, those with another will not.

You see the same thing in our own forums whenever ethical issues are discussed.

Richard Dawkins writes in his book 'The God Delusion' about the case of Kurt Wise, the Harvard trained Geologist who has declared that "if all the evidence in the universe turns against creationism, I would be the first to admit it, but I would still be a creationist because that is what the Word of God seems to indicate." When asked if the Bible should determine our scientific conclusions, Wise answered that "science has never been closed to people who had ideas they wouldn't change. Every scientist has a set of presuppositions and assumptions that he never questions."

Fair enough...
I lived mostly in Orange County, California.
And rarely do I venture to the south. But it's mostly because they rarely see asians... and look at me funny....
Though to be fair, everyone was very courteous.... I just happened to stick out....


Hit the nail right on the head...     
But they won't agree to disagree....   


As for the Catholic Church...
don't even get me started on that....
I'm living in the Philippines now....
Here's a country that's worse off than the U.S. when it comes to "rational thinking" vs. "religious beliefs"....
My head pretty much ass-plodes everytime a religious conversation pops up here....   

Your're right and this is the strangest thing. If it's some dumb-ass redneck talking, that's one thing, but when it's an intelligent, well-educated, otherwise-rational guy, I just can't understand it.