Posted by Rolando at student-02rrg.williams.edu on November 16, 1999 at 18:23:26:
Kevin,
Here are some thoughts I've had on Dogma and I'd loved to hear your comments on them. They are taken from an E-mail I sent a friend at 5:30am which explains why it is a bit on the jumbled side and why you are referred to in the third person (is that the correct tense?). Here goes:
Well, on the way back I put a lot of thought into the theological aspects of Dogma and thought I should share them with you. I also want to get them down in writing so it serves a dual purpose.
First of all, I don't see how this movie can be taken as an insult to Christianity or any religious beliefs. It is fairly self evident from anyone who watches the movie that Kevin Smith has a great deal of faith and truly believes in a God and in Christ. This is made clearer and clearer in the dialogue between his characters. Just had a new thought: All those speeches Loki gives, like the one to the nun, where he says God, etc is bullshit, seem to serve two purposes: 1) They poke fun at most arguments against God and 2) Like he said after the speech he gave to the nun, after they realize the arguments are indeed bullshit, they have had to think about it instead of just believing. Well, he doesn't say that exactly but his words (which I don't remember right now), imply it.
And how about his shots at the Catholic church? I don't think he's condeming it or its ideas. I think he is commenting on how the church has boiled down to a bunch of "beliefs" which people follow blindly even if they don't care about God. Which explains all the bored people at church. They do it without thinking about it anymore. And that, I think, is what he's trying to say is really bad. By making it a concrete belief and no longer an "idea" they aren't forced to consider the thoughts anymore and hence their belief comes to a stand still. The church even says that you can never really completely understand God but you get closer by modifying your thoughts. He's right when he says you can't modify a belief. It makes the whole church-going experience and the whole idea of any organized religion a set of beliefs that one follows, much like you would follow the rules of a game, to get into Paradise without ever really understanding anything. On the way back I was thinking he might be flawed in his argument because he obviously believes in God and wouldn't that contradict his whole argument against believes? Then I realized there is a difference between having faith that their is a God, Jesus, etc and in a series of beliefs based after them. I can have faith that their is God but still change my ideas as to what he/she/it is and what they stand for. Hmmm... the terminology is a bit confusing I must say.
I think his arguments are definitely augmented by the black apostle. For a while I thought that was just a clever joke. Then I realized something interesting. Through that character he showed how history can be manipulated by someone's own point of view and how then that can be taken to be confused as what we should believe and then follow it blindly. The writings in the bible can give us a good idea as to what is true but we have to be willing to change those ideas as new information is presented to us and we come up with new thoughts. Belief can lead us to do the wrong things (ie: Fight worthless wars) whereas the sharing of ideas can help us come to a better understand of what God really is.
So I guess it wasn't bashing the Catholic church's ideas but rather the belief structure that it has built around a good idea. It gives people something they can believe in without thinking as opposed to ideas they can work with themselves. I mean, come on, he showed even God Him(Her)self has changed from the wrathful God of old to a more human one, so why don't we also mature instead of trying to get people to follow one strict set of beliefs that won't change with more information and though? Especially beliefs that have very well been altered by certain people's (the people who wrote the bible) interpretation.
I'm glad my high school was a very liberal Catholic school that actually forced me to look at things critically instead of telling me this is what we belief and not the reasons.
Well, this E-mail is kind of jumbled as are many of the thoughts in my head. I'm still having trouble with the terminology he uses (belief/faith/idea) but I think I'm coming closer to understanding it. I'm also not sure how strong my argument as to how the movie is not saying Catholicism is bad is, althought I know it's not trying to say that because he himself if pro-Catholic and attends mass regularly. Maybe he's not critcizing so much the church's ideas as he is the fact that it is an easy outlet for people to say they "belief" while not really knowing why and not really showing any love for God.
-Rolando