[_____V_____]

The second reply, came from Finalist Zero.

"We all know I'm a Christian AND a lover of horror films. I've gotten a lot of grief from fellow Christians for my love of horror, i.e., I'm tempting the devil and whatnot. Give me your opinion of why they think this way and I don't."


"Boy - I feel your pain on this one. As a person who still considers himself a christian and has been in and around churches my whole life, I have also heard the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the 'true believers' - in college someone left a note on my dorm room door saying they would 'pray for my soul' because I had a Dawn of the Dead poster! uggh!

My theory on this is that some christians suffer from what I call "Extreme (Selective) Literalism". Many of our more evangelical bretheren hav embraced the 'literal' doctrine as a way of saying that everything written in the Bible actually happened. Now, I am personally not such a literalist - I'm not sure that the universe was created in 7 days (or for that matter what a 'day' was before the creation of time, etc.). But, if someone wants to believe that the world was LITERALLY destroyed by a flood and that Noah saved animals, etc. then that's cool with me.

Extreme Literalism is an affliction that makes some christians believe that any story can be/is literally true. So, by watching a movie about the devil you are LITERALLY invoking the devil. They seem to have lost the ability to discern stories from accounts (where stories are made-up and accounts are reports of actual events). This strikes me as odd since the Bible is full of stories-as-stories (Jesus seemed to spend a lot of time telling stories in which the point had almost nothing to do with the 'literal' elements of the story).

People like you and me recognize that there are stories that entertain and that horror films are such stories. Indeed, for 99.9% of horror films (and most of the ones that I like) the moral of the story is actually uplifting (purity survives, people bond, love conquers, etc). But if you believe that every story is literal then even mentioning the bogeyman is invoking the REAL satan and we're all doomed (which, in fairness, is probably true anyway).

Now, as a political sidenote, I added the parenthetical word "Selective" because most conservative fundamentalist evangelicals are remarkably selective for 'literalists' who claim EVERY WORD OF THE BIBLE IS TRUE! For instance, in a town near mine there was a preacher who put up a cross in the front of the church with the phrase "HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN" and a series of vague biblical references as evidence. Some of my friends suggested during a drunken night that we go tear it down. But I said, 'no, we should add signs like 'anyone eatching shrimp should be stoned - also in the bible - or any man cutting the hair at his temples should be killed - also in the Bible." So it always strikes me as odd that EXTREME LITERALIST always end up selecting only the LITERAL parts that suit them and forget things like "give up all your posessions and help the poor" which was OBVIOUSLY meant only in jest by Jesus."



This is what esteemed Judge Hammerfan had to say in her verdict...

"Excellent answer. Very well thought out. I give him an 8. Please reward him, V.

P.S. Um, Zero? According to the Bible, the earth was created in 6 days, and the Lord took the 7th day to rest."


Congrats, Zero!! You win a AK-47 Assault Rifle, complete with a 10-cartridge box!! (to go alongwith TWO bonus HPs you win for the 08 points)


Very well done...