Evan More Bad News

A follow up.

I don't so much care if Evan Almighty stinks (which I'm told it does), or if it's a commercial flop (which it seems to be floating toward). What I care about is if it tells me true things about God and faith and reality. This Slate review sums it up well. Good parts:

If they succeed, it will be tragic, not because Evan Almighty is unfunny (although it certainly is), but because it will validate Hollywood's embarrassingly stupid approach to religion and faith.

And,

...what's disturbing about Evan Almighty is its flaccid approach to faith. All that is compelling, moving, and profound about the Noah story has been systematically excised. In the Bible, God chooses Noah to survive because Noah is a righteous man. But Evan is faithless and stupid, and comes to believe in God only because God hammers him over the head with about 137 miracles.

Well, I won't pretend I'm not faithless and stupid. I suspect I frequently ignore miracles. But the point is valid. Finally,

Evan Almighty also strips away anything Christian (or Jewish) about the story and replaces it with a message of universal hokum. God's entire instruction to his flock? Practice "acts of random kindness." (Look at the initial letters of that phrase.) That's not religion or even morality. It's a coffee mug slogan.

There's the stake in that vampire. You can tell a dumb story, but take out the true parts, and it's a waste of everyone's time.

Okay, I think I've spent enough brain cells on this. As always, thank you for your patience.