Friday, August 05, 2005

Chasing God (1)

I watched the film Chasing God last night, and it was really provocative. This film tackles the eternal question: Why do humans believe in a higher power / God?

The documentary includes interviews and opinions from the Athiest (Australia's Phillip Adams), the Sikh, the Buddhist, the Pastor, the Scientist, the Muslim, the Rabbi, the Guru, the Sufi, the Researcher(America's award-winning author Richard Heinberg), the Spiritual Elder and the Cardinal (The Vatican's Cardinal Francis Arinze).

The film also points out that humanity is being threatened, especially by war. In times of extreme upheaval, people seek solace in a higher power.Well over three-quarters of the world do. Could they be wrong?And if they're right, who is this higher power?

"IS THIS BEING A BEARDED OLD MANOR A SPARK OF LIGHT?"
"WITHIN US OR OUTSIDE OF US?"
"THE ONE OR THE MANY?"
"AN EMOTION OR AN ENTITY?"
"SOMEONE TO LOVE OR TO FEAR?"

I really enjoyed the movie personally. "Chasing God" really took me on a journey of reflection (similar to the subject "World Religions" that I did at Tabor). It showed the landmark of the Vatican & the Ganges, The Wailing Wall & The Dome of the Rock Mosque, The Golden Temple & the Dalai Lama Temple in the Himalayas - followed by daring and provocative scenes of a world out of balance. It was both disturbing and facinating at the same time.

I will post more about my reflections on the film in the coming days.

2 comments:

Kel said...

So, how was the discussion panel after the movie? I had hoped to get to the Thurs night launch, but didn't get into town until Sat night.

Four of us saw the movie together and most felt it was too short and didn't delve deep enough.

I imagine the discussion panel on Thurs night would have added an extra dimension.

The movie reminded me of a much shorter veresion of Bill Moyer's series of interviews with Joseph Campbell. The exchange between Moyers (of Southern Baptist background) and Campbell (of Roman Catholic background, but who later called himself a spiritual man not a religious one) was fascinating to observe. I was left with much more to think about after that series than the Chasing God movie.

Kitty Cheng said...

Bill Moyer's series sound interesting. Wonder if they are on videos or something. The discussion panel after the movie was quite interesting. I'll post more about that later too.