The "new" "Amazing" "Spiderman"

Last year, there was a Spiderman reboot. Did you hear about it? Maybe not, because the Broadway Spidermusical was still grabbing headlines with its string of unfortunately disasters and general crappiness. This new movie has that cute girl from 21 Jumpstreet, and Dennis Leary, and some kid I'd never seen before. There was also a fun appearance by C Thomas "Ponyboy" "The Reaper" Howell. That was unexpected.

This movie was not too sucky. I wouldn't say it was great, but I've surely seen worse comic book movies. Daredevil, GhostRider, Green Lantern, and Catwoman all come to mind. The Lizard was the main bad guy, and was played by Xenophilius Lovegood. Neat, eh? He was like Doc Ock, in that his own technology ran away with him. Gwen Stacy is smart in addition to being pretty. Aunt May was Sally Field, and Uncle Ben is Martin Sheen. And he never actually says that stupid line the other Spiderman movies say over and over.

Stan Lee did cameo, but didn't appear to have much other involvement. In the Tobey MacGuire series, Lee gave them drawings of all the important, memorable Spiderman poses to make sure they all made it in to the movies. That clearly did not happen here. I'm not sure I saw any of the Spiderman poses I remember--not that I was ever a giant fan of the comics. But I was WAY into the cartoons when I was a kid.

There's a sequel coming wherein Chris Cooper will be playing Norman Osborne. That should be wicked cool. I won't quite agree that it was Amazing, but it was entertaining enough.

Cray to the craziest of crays

Been rewatching HBO's The Newsroom in preparation for it to start back up. Such a great show. Helps make a lot of what goes on in the American political theatre a little more manageable. It also makes me miss Keith Olbermann. A lot. Okay, new topic.

Like most of you, I have a few enthusiastic Christians on my various social media feeds. Myself, I have reasoned my way out of most beliefs. Anything I do that can be described as "religious" involves doing things I would do anyway--because I like them. Things like affirmations or remembering quotes, lighting candles and incense, and trying to live according to my own beliefs about what a good person is and how they should act. I find myself getting frustrated with so-called believers who use their religions to justify hurting other people. It's an old, tired dance that most of the people reading this will not need explained to them. At the same time, people like Bill Maher piss me off, because they are not just hostile to religion, but smug as fuck in their disdain for anyone who DOES practice a faith. And yet, I think even Bill Maher might agree that compassion is a worthwhile thing to develop if it doesn't come naturally.

I heard a fundamentalist Baptist recently talking about how Mormonism is a cult. Their argument boiled down to there being no proof that Jesus ever came to America. I mean, if THAT's your argument, what proof is there that Jesus was born of a virgin, or rose again after he was murdered? Why it is considered blasphemous to even call what happened to Jesus a murder? Moreover, this particular Baptist believes that America is God's chosen country, that he loves us best, and wants us to win every war.
Which leads me to ask, why is it MORE ridiculous to think that a god who loves us best--would never actually visit or send a delegate? I'm not saying any of that is true, only that it doesn't hold up to logic. Most religious beliefs don't. That's why we use words like Faith and Belief to describe things people are SO certain of, that they are willing to kill or die for it despite an overwhelming lack of evidence.

So what's my point? Getting rid of preprogrammed shit like that is HARD, even impossible for some. But Wednes, people say, it's just not reasonable, not logical, it's dangerous, and it hurts people. Yes, that's all true. But that doesn't make it feasible to expect people to just forget about religious beliefs they were taught when they were children. But Wednes, you may be thinking, when we become adults, we have to put away childish things. We don't still believe in Santa or the tooth fairy, do we? That's a great analogy, I'm glad you used it.

How many of you had super critical parents, or know someone who did? How many of you grew up believing that you were worthless, ugly, stupid, and deserving of every shitty thing that came your way? How many things did you NOT attempt because of that. How many stories not written, how much art not created or shared? How many fucked up relationships, missed job opportunities and general good times has the fallout from bad parenting caused?
Now, everyone who said Yes to the first question: how many of you are completely, 100% over that? That not only do you emphatically deny the awful things your parents said, but that you don't even fear for an instant that they might have been on to something? That those voices NEVER play in your head, or come up in your dreams, or haunt you to some degree as you're out there working and raising kids and getting flipped off in traffic? I'm gonna guess that it's right around 0% of you that feel COMPLETELY and utterly free of that crap--and I know at least a few of you have gone through therapy, sometimes multiple times. You've read books and consulted and tried to surround yourself with positive people and have even accomplished things any normal parent would be proud of. And yet...it's still there. Does that make you an idiot? No...it makes you human.

When you're a kid, and hear about the big guy in the sky who you can't see, but created everything...well, that stays with you. It lets you feel safe in your home when the facts say you may not be. It helps you feel less devastated by all the things you're powerless to fix. I know people personally who refrained from suicide because they were afraid to end up in hell. Is that a good thing? I can't say for everyone, but it gave this guy enough time to figure some shit out and go on to have kids of his own and life a full life.
At some point, Santa and the Easter Bunny are revealed as fake. In fact, you're considered a big stupid baby if you still believe in Santa for too long after your peers have stopped. But god? If you suddenly stopped believing in god, your grandmother might cry, your mom might innundate you with Emails, your extended fam or community might ostracize you, and in the back of your mind--you probably think they might be right for doing so. And even if you don't believe it outright--you probably fear it. When something is deeply ingrained in your psyche, not everyone is capable of challenging it, let alone overcoming it completely. That's not stupidity, or naivety, or sheep moving through life on auto-pilot. There are plenty of religious people out there who utilize their faith to improve their world and the way they relate to other people. To tell them they are wrong for doing so is not just shitty--but it claims superior knowledge of absolutely everyone--which is one of the things that pisses me off about the concept of an omnipotent god in the first place...but I digress.

Am I saying we should coddle people who use their faith to hurt others? Should we be silent in the face of science deniers? Of course not. But when regular people are just doing their thing and minding their own business...but also have a religion, let's all try to keep the self-righteous sneering to a minimum if we can.
After all, isn't that what Jesus would do?
*snerk*