When I went to check on the showtimes for the Ricky Gervais film "The Invention of Lying" on Yahoo movies, I was surprised to see that the general public's grade of the film was lower than the critics. Usually this is the other way around, as people don't tend to go to films they don't expect to like, whereas critics have to see them all.
What was the problem? If you've seen the coming attractions, you expect a story about a guy who tells the first lies ever, mostly to get women. What the coming attractions don't cover is that the big lie in the film is that there is an "invisible man in the sky", and that after we die we go to this wonderful place and get a mansion. Understandably, most of the very negative reviews on Yahoo were the result of people seeing the film and being pissed that their faith in the invisible man in the sky was being challenged and mocked.
I found the film mostly witty and clever, and very enjoyable....but then, I am in the 12% of Americans who already know that the "invisible man in the sky" is a lie. But I do understand that 1) the marketers of this film did not advertise this story line, as questioning God in a religious society like ours is not the path to boffo box office and 2) that religious people were upset that they found out after paying their $9 that they were being mocked.
That said, I would ask the question to the religious: If you are afraid to have your faith questioned, how true can your beliefs be?
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