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rug

(82,333 posts)
Sun Apr 9, 2017, 03:26 PM Apr 2017

Renowned atheist is hated, murdered, revived in new Netflix film

Jake Martin
April 04, 2017

The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. This is not just a lyric in a Lumineer’s song, but a universal truth that could be applied to love’s sister in virtue: faith. The opposite of belief in God is not in fact that long despised enemy of godly people everywhere, atheism. The enemy of belief, rather, is run of the mill indifference. This notion is given credence by Tommy O’Haver’s “The Most Hated Woman in America,” a recent film from Netflix. The film goes a long way in arguing that atheism isn’t the converse of theism, but just another shade on the color wheel of belief, with all the pageantry and chaos which that frequently entails.

The film tells the (true) story of Madalyn Murray O’Hair (Melissa Leo), a woman who garnered notoriety in the early 1960s for suing the Baltimore public school system—a move that ultimately led to a Supreme Court decision banning mandatory bible reading in the public school classroom. O’Hair then went on to found American Atheists, a national organization dedicated to advocating for the rights of atheists, while continuing to work toward ensuring the separation of church and state.

In the summer of 1995, O’Hair, along with her youngest son and granddaughter, was kidnapped and murdered by a former employee of American Atheist. Eventually it came to light that the murders were an attempt to seize the substantial amount of money O’Hair had laundered into offshore accounts throughout her time at American Atheists.

The film’s primary thrust is exploring the “what,” the “why” and the “how” of O’Hair’s kidnapping and murder. Outside of the Supreme Court case that first brought O’Hair to the public’s attention, O’Hair’s activism on behalf of the atheist agenda is paid little heed by the filmmakers. The audience is left with a paint-by-numbers look at the seemingly inevitable corruption that bubbles to the surface when a grassroots movement turns into an organized institution.


http://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2017/04/04/renowned-atheist-hated-murdered-revived-new-netflix-film

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Renowned atheist is hated, murdered, revived in new Netflix film (Original Post) rug Apr 2017 OP
I see this as being a controversial and much debated point: guillaumeb Apr 2017 #1
That's because you don't like burden of proof. AtheistCrusader Apr 2017 #2
Burden of proof applies to both. guillaumeb Apr 2017 #4
Here we go again. AtheistCrusader Apr 2017 #5
Amazing. That is my response also. guillaumeb Apr 2017 #6
But one of us is wrong. AtheistCrusader Apr 2017 #7
"The film tells the (true) [Citation Required] story of Madalyn Murray OHair (Melissa Leo)" AtheistCrusader Apr 2017 #3

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
1. I see this as being a controversial and much debated point:
Sun Apr 9, 2017, 04:57 PM
Apr 2017
The film goes a long way in arguing that atheism isn’t the converse of theism, but just another shade on the color wheel of belief, with all the pageantry and chaos which that frequently entails.


I feel that atheism is just as much unprovable, thus a belief, as any theistic system.

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)
2. That's because you don't like burden of proof.
Tue Apr 11, 2017, 03:41 PM
Apr 2017

As an atheist, I have no burden of proof. So whether it's provable or not is irrelevant. I'm not the one claiming something exists.

There are a wide number of believers of various strips desperate to cast atheism as a faith itself, so as to either regain access to the halls of government, or banish 'secularism' from schools/government.

Gambit rejected. Have a nice day.

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)
3. "The film tells the (true) [Citation Required] story of Madalyn Murray OHair (Melissa Leo)"
Tue Apr 11, 2017, 03:42 PM
Apr 2017

"The film goes a long way in arguing that atheism isn’t the converse of theism, but just another shade on the color wheel of belief, with all the pageantry and chaos which that frequently entails."

If the film does all that, I suspect it runs afoul of some Truth in Advertising law somewhere when it claimed 'true'.

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