⁂Krafty⁂ #NoKings"One thing about trains: It doesn't matter where they're going. What matters is deciding to get on." - The Conductor in The Polar Express
That's about the wrongest statement I've ever heard about trains
Alright, who's ready for an ex-christian rant about The Polar Express?
I think the reason I dislike The Polar Express so much while liking Rise of the Guardians (another movie centered around believing in mythical beings) is that each movie puts the responsibility of belief onto completely opposite parties.
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In RotG, the responsibility rests on the aforementioned Guardians to do their job so that kids believe in them. When kids wake up with no money under their pillows (due to sabatoge) they stop believing. When the Easter Bunny fails to put all the eggs out on Easter (again, sabatoge), they stop believing.
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On the other hand, in The Polar Express, the kids are supposed to just believe. Even though the main character has ample evidence not to at the start of the movie, his disbelief is treated as something weird or nonsensical by most of the other characters.
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When Billy is singing a song about how Christmas never works out for him (his family is poor and/or fractured in some way), the girl sings to him about how great Christmas while listing off a bunch of good things about it; things that Billy doesn't actually experience. Christmas sucks for him but because it's great for her he's supposed to just believe.
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The moral takeaway is a vague sense of "just believe" that falls flat when you grow up and realize that kind of thinking simply doesn't work. I don't "just believe", and neither should you. Demand more from your ideas. Put the responsibility on the unproven claim and not on yourself.
#atheist #ThePolarExpress #Religion #atheism #rant #christianity #ExChristian