Throughout God’s Not Dead, one sees what is intended to be the slow realization of Josh’s philosophy class that God is, in fact, alive. Solomon incorporates a slow progression of clear visual cues to indicate that Josh is convincing his fellow classmates. For example, the class begins to nod their heads enthusiastically and sit up straighter in their chairs. They initiate side glares towards Radisson. All of this culminates into the pivotal climax of the film: everyone in the class standing, and proudly declaring that ‘God is not dead’. However, the class and their visual progression point towards an increase in confident defiance. In the event that the student’s were truly beginning to welcome God into their lives and convert to Christianity, …show more content…
The filmmakers just want him to convince the class… that reason is inconclusive. Why? Because, again, the filmmakers know most people already do, and want to, believe in God. So, the pretense at doing philosophy or engaging with science is half-hearted. It’s just presenting the appearance of some smart reasons to doubt atheists. A lot of Christians feel pressured to conform to atheist pressure for fear of being called stupid. That’s the only anxiety here. The [class] is assumed not to really care about being sure they’re right. They just want permission to believe without worrying they’re dumb to do so. (Fincke …show more content…
Dr. Radisson even begs the question: “Why would I want to empower [the students]” (Cronk 2014). When Josh dares to challenge Dr. Radisson, he represents not only a break in the regulated norms of educational society, but also a figurehead for authoritative revolution. This idea is further perpetuated when Radisson indulges Josh and allows him to take over the class for twenty minutes each period. Josh’s philosophy class not only watches as he stands up to the powers that be, but as Radisson submits, they see him defending against the totalitarian control successfully. It is scientifically supported through analysis of the “bystander effect” that once one person takes a radical action, others are likely to follow suit, if it is safe and logical to do so. As an example, near the beginning of the film, during Josh’s first lecture, Radisson quotes Stephen Hawking, and effectively undermines Josh’s entire argument that day. Instead of celebrating the atheist dominance that they are presumed to embody, they seem dejected and disappointed. The only possible accountancy for this is that they are all hoping for Radisson to fail on some level. In an educational world where is it engrained in student’s minds that following their administration blindly is the correct way, it becomes obvious why any student would be willing to agree with any source of rebellion; regardless of their
Then he goes on to conclude by saying that, “The lessons learned from observing people and their beliefs support the position that I have defended: rational people may rationally believe in God without evidence or argument” (Feinberg 142). In schools today, students grow up listening to lectures that are subjective and then later are tested on what the teacher thinks and believes. Whether or not the taught perspective is factual or not, it teaches students from a young age to just take what the teachers, adults, and any authority says as truth, as a way to respecting authority. In the same way that it is reasonable to believe respectable authority, it is rational to have belief in God without specific evidence because we are created with the inclination that a higher being exists and God has shown Himself to be true to every generation. Furthermore, God has placed in every human the inkling to believe what is right or wrong, so when it comes to deciding whether to act a certain way, we can rely on our gut feeling if it is a good action or not. It is a very common and suggested thing to trust one's gut feeling when making a decision, even though it does not require any evidence to see if it is actually the right decision to
In this article “The Pearls of Obedience”, Stanley Milgram asserts that obedience to authority is a common response for many people in today’s society, often diminishing an individuals beliefs or ideals. Stanley Milgram designs an experiment to understand how strong a person’s tendency to obey authority is, even though it is amoral or destructive. Stanley Milgram bases his experiment on three people: a learner, teacher, and experimenter. The experimenter is simply an overseer of the experiment, and is concerned with the outcome of punishing the learner. The teacher, who is the subject of the experiment, is made to believe the electrical shocks are real; he is responsible for obeying the experimenter and punishing the learner for incorrect answers by electrocuting him from an electric shock panel that increases from 15 to 450 volts.
... More people followed their direct orders and continued shocking the learners to the very highest voltage. Stanley Milgram’s experiment shows societies that more people abide by the rules of an authority figure under any circumstances rather than follow their own natural instincts. With the use of his well-organized article that appeals to the general public, direct quotes and real world examples, Milgram’s idea is very well-supported. The results of the experiment were in Milgram’s favor and show that people are obedient to authority figures.
The occurrence and prominence of secularization has become a prevalent feature of contemporary Western society. Steve Bruce’s Book titled ‘God is Dead’, as it may be controversial outlines the debate of surrounding secularization and its occurrence. His argument is put forward in an academically stimulating and compelling way in his exploration of secularization; by building on the work of key sociological thinkers mainly Durkheim, Marx and Weber to looking at contemporary sociological thinkers such as David Martin, Abercrombie and Turner. By examining their explanations and theories of secularization and also exploring his own views I feel
amazed how when giving power and superiority to a certain set of students caused them to turn
In the previous two posts, we have gone over the importance of the apostles ' martyrdom for the resurrection argument, as well as a summary of Sean McDowell 's findings concerning their martyrdom. Now the question arises, is this evidence enough? The short answer is, yes. All the resurrection argument requires is that some apostles who claimed to have experiences of the resurrected Jesus were martyred for their faith. The idea is that if the apostles had invented the story of the resurrection they wouldn 't be willing to die for it. If they were martyred then they truly believed that they had experienced encounters of the resurrected Jesus, adding credence to the resurrection argument and disproving the possibility that
In 1961, Stanley Milgram, a Yale University Psychologist conducted a variety of social psychology experiments on obedience to authority figures. His experiments involved three individuals, one of them was a volunteer who played the role of the teacher, one was an actor who played the role of the student, and one was the experimenter who played the role of the authority. The teacher was instructed by the authority to administrate shocks to the student (who claimed to have a heart condition) whenever they answered a question incorrectly. The voltage of the shock would go up after every wrong answer. The experimenter would then instruct the teacher to administrate higher voltages even though pain was being imposed. The teacher would then have to make a choice between his morals and values or the choice of the authority figure. The point of the experiment was to try to comprehend just how far an individual would continue when being ordered by an individual in a trench coat to electrically shock another human being for getting questions incorrect. The experiment consisted of administrating pain to different people and proved that ordinary people will obey people with authority. Some of the various reasons are that the experimenter was wearing a trench coat, fear of the consequences for not cooperating, the experiments were conducted in Yale University a place of prestige, and the authority f...
Milgram, Stanley. “The Perils of Obedience.” From Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Tenth edition. Edited by Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman Publishers, pp.358-371, 2008.
Power is a key issue in separating the educated from the uneducated. One of the reasons that society is able to dictate the way people in mainstream society lives is through power. Society practically has power over every aspect of daily life. Society derives this power from the people whom make up mainstream America. Mainstream America has been trained over the years tha...
They are not only its inert or consenting target; they are always also the elements of its articulation” (Foucault, “Two Lectures” 34). Power may take various forms, all of which are employed and exercised by individualsand unto individuals in the institutions of society. In all institutions, there is political and judicial power, as certain individuals claim the right to give orders, establish rules, and so forth as well as the right to punish and award. For example, in school, the professor not only teaches, but also dictates, evaluates, as well as punishes and rewards.
Hooks, Bell. "Chapter 1 Engaged Pedagogy." Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994. N. pag. Print.
Zuckerman, M. B. (2005, October 10). Classroom Revolution. U.S. News & World Report. p. 68. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
This book, Dare The School Build a New Social Order by George Counts, is an examination of teachers, the Progressive Education Movement, democracy and his idea on how to reform the American economy. The book is divided into 5 different sections. The first section is all about the Progressive Education Movement. Through this, George Counts points out many downsides and weaknesses of this ideal. He also talks about how he wants teachers to lead society instead of following it. In the second section, he examines 10 widespread fallacies. These fallacies were that man is born free, that children are born free, they live in a separate world of their own, education remains unchanged, education should have no bias, the object of education is to produce professors, school is an all-powerful educational agency, ignorance rather than knowledge is the way of wisdom, and education is made to prepare an individual for social change.
University of Michigan. “Religion in Schools: A look at how religious practices influence education.” .
This cycle of obedience and passive acceptance can spill over into other aspects of life where learners conform to beliefs and values without critically evaluating them. Brian Crittenden (1972: 146) speaks about “mis-education” which occurs when the content the teacher presents is a “violation of a ‘critical inquiry”. In other words the teacher presents information is such a way as to exclude any opportunity for enquiry.