So Caleb and I went out for dinner and a movie tonight in celebration of our belated 5 1/2 year anniversary (actually on December 2). We went to Applebee's and then went to the movie The Book of Eli.

No spoiler alert here... the whole movie was about Denzel Washington (Eli) protecting the Bible from evil people after some kind of war or fallout or something. But the movie got us thinking about religion, but mostly from its conflicting messages.

In the movie, they have a lot of themes that sounded quite anti-religion (or anti-Christianity), such as, "This is not a book, this is a weapon," and "I can use this book to influence and rule the hopeless and weak-minded" (paraphrased).

But throughout the movie, the main character is completely devout to God and is protected by Him. It makes me think about how different people would view this movie. I feel like many Christians would most likely see how Eli is protected and rewarded for his faith, and ignore the messages the writers give about how dangerous religion can be. Or maybe I just see the latter because of some of the books I've been reading lately.

I've recently read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and am almost done with Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. While I make no statements about my own religious beliefs or lack thereof, these books have been good as eye-openers and a completely different point of view than the ones I've grown up with. I think of it similar to me reading the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. After reading that book, I read the book The Da Vinci Code Decoded by Martin Lunn, which offered the counter point to the religious assumptions made in The Da Vinci Code.

I'm not quite sure where this post is going, other than I've been finding it interesting lately to observe how people view religion. I remain as my version of a Unitarian Universalist for now - accepting all peaceful views on religion, including non-belief.