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Above is a video circulating about how stupid your eyes are. You can’t trust them. Those things would cheat on you in a second.
And you thought you knew your eyes, dumbass.
Part of the religious and scientific conversation is that you can’t trust your eyes. Not you, you, you, and definitely not you in the back with the fluorescent green sweater. What the fuck were you thinking when you bought that?
One validating experience to retire faith for me was a viewing of Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” back in college. I think I’ve talked about this before, but I’m getting older and bound to repeat myself.
“Rashomon” is a movie about a crime with several eyewitnesses. When called to explain what happened, none of the witnesses give the same account of the crime.
Now, don’t get all, “Dude, Jeremy, it’s a movie” on me. I know it was a movie. But the didactic element is that no eyewitness can give the same version of the story.
If you haven’t seen Rashomon, I highly recommend it. It’s one of those movies that influenced American filmmaking, and you probably never knew it. For instance, there are scenes where the camera is moving pointed up at the canopy of treetops with the sun in the frame. From my best knowledge, Kurosawa used that first. And it’s used a lot now.
But that’s beside the point. The movie placed the idea of false eyewitnesses in my head. And it sparked me to look into the dynamic human perception is flawed, which calls into question the Christian argument that Jesus’s resurrection was witnessed by hundreds of followers.
Many things are witnessed by hundreds of people that might not be exactly true.
And if you take into account the amount of times the bible isn’t accurate on other stories, how can a person trust that this idea is true as well?
It might be a stretch to point out this “flaw.” But it resonated with me. And while it wasn’t the only straw that broke this camel’s back, the flaws of eyewitness testimony contributed well.
Great post Jeremy. Yes, seeing is… not really… believing!
Would also second the recommendation for Rashomon–it’s a great movie! As are other Kurosawa movies.
Perhaps we should have a Kurosawa movie night sometime? And bore the girls to tears ; )