Sunday, September 13, 2009

What In Creation Is This?

Here's a story I don't get. The claim is a film about Darwin can't find a distributor in America because the subject is too controversial.

If this is true, it's an embarrassment. But I honestly don't understand it. First, for all the crazy anti-Darwin feeling in this country, there are still plenty of people who understand Darwin, and plenty of others who at least aren't offended.

What's doubly strange is if the film is that controversial, couldn't that be used as a selling point?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's a small film that doesn't look like a moneymaker. That's the real reason.

4:20 PM, September 13, 2009  
Anonymous Lawrence King said...

I'm very skeptical: any time someone's project doesn't get funded, it's appealing to cry "Persecution!" instead of "I failed to create a product that enough of the public would want."

Suppose that the article is correct that only 39% of Americans believe in evolution. (I have many problems with that claim, and it would be good to see exactly what question was asked in the survey, but I'll concede that point for now.) Since when is a movie not profitable if only 39% of Americans are interested in it? Far less than 39% of Americans agree with the politics of Michael Moore or of the guys who made Team America. Far less than 39% of Americans are Catholic, or Jewish, or football players, or Greek brides-to-be, and yet movies that highlight the perspectives of these groups routinely get made and make a profit.

Oddly, from the brief description of the film in the SMH article, it sounds as if the film comes from a perspective very akin to that of the creationists. The creationists claim that Darwin's theory is incompatible with faith, and that Darwin's own loss of faith proves this. The movie, from the SMH description, seems to affirm exactly that.

12:07 PM, September 14, 2009  

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