Looking for faith in all the wrong places

In order to support their beliefs, Christians often claim to find evidence of the value of their faith where there is no evidence. Take this article in the "On Faith" section of the Washington Post.

When Hollywood gives moviegoers entertaining movies with moral values and inspiring stories full of positive faith, moviegoers flock to the box office. Every year the Annual Movieguide® Report to the Entertainment Industry shows Hollywood's decision makers that movies with faith and values do much better than movies that overtly attack traditional faith and values.

Okay. So let's see the evidence that this is true. After all, movies with violence and sexuality do pretty good business.

Six of the most successful movies of the year -- "Wall-E," "Iron Man," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "Prince Caspian," "Gran Torino," and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" -- contained strong redemptive content with positive Christian references.

Oooookay. I'll give them "Prince Caspian" but Iron Man? Indiana Jones? Wall-E? What the heck are they talking about?

The comic robot hero in "Wall-E" is willing to give up his life and the love of his life to save mankind. In "Iron Man," the capitalist playboy Tony Stark gets a new heart, gives up his life as a cad who doesn't care about his country and battles evildoers.

"Prince Caspian" shows that prideful faith in self has to give way to faith in the Christ figure of Aslan, who saves Narnia at exactly the right moment in time. A priest teaches a gruff atheist that love and sacrifice are better than revenge in Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino," which was unfairly snubbed by the Oscars this year. Finally, in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," Indiana Jones hears the words of Jesus Christ in a church as he finally does the right thing and marries his beloved, the mother of his son.

Now I get it. It's the old "anything with sacrifice and selflessness is automatically a Christian reference" trick. It's a ridiculous argument because self-sacrifice is not an exclusively Christian trait. In fact, it's not even a consistent Christian trait. Some Christians, just like some atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, etc. are self-sacrificing. But despite what they constantly tell us, Christianity does not have a monopoly on morality.

Wall-E has nothing to do with Christianity. Self-sacrifice is a universal human value. Iron Man is also not explicitly or even implicitly Christian. And Indiana Jones? The fact that he gets married in the last five minutes in the film makes it a tribute to Christian faith? Have they forgotten that "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" explicitly validates cult beliefs? I haven't seen Gran Torino but the idea that love and sacrifice are better than revenge is hardly a concept that's unique to Christianity.

It must be nice to be so blind to reality that even things completely unrelated to your belief support your beliefs. Ignorance is bliss, they say.

I'll stick with reality, thank you.