Episode #29: Follow Your Heart And Other Hollywood Lies
In the twenty-ninth episode of The Babylon Bee podcast, editor-in-chief Kyle Mann and creative director Ethan Nicolle welcome back recurring guest and film expert Brian Godawa. They discuss the recurring existentialist theme in film of "just follow your heart" which always works out okay because our hearts are not idol factories or anything. In the subscriber portion, they go through the best all-time pro-life films (whether they intended to be or not). Brian Godawa is an award-winning Hollywood screenwriter (To End All Wars), a movie and culture blogger specializing in God, Movies, and Worldviews, author of a textbook, Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment as well as an Amazon best-selling author of Biblical fiction (Chronicles of the Nephilim/Chronicles of the Apocalypse). Movies/Shows Mentioned Veggietales In The House episode: Laura At Bat Joe Vs. The Volcano Stranger Than Fiction The Truman Show Groundhog Day City Slickers 13 Conversations About 1 Thing Titanic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind I Heart Huckabees Unstrung Heroes Box of Moonlight Forrest Gump Shopgirl Synechdoche, New York The Fault in Our Stars Boyhood Frozen Also mentioned: Mike Rowe on Don't Follow Your Passion Ben Shapiro Interviewing Neil Degrasse Tyson Paid-subscriber portion: Brian Godawa gives us his list of the most pro-life movies, whether it was intentional or not. Pro-life movies mentioned: Juno Bella The Island Knocked Up Three Extremes Waitress 17 Again August Rush (adoption) October Baby Room Into the Forest Unplanned Gosnell Become a paid subscriber at https://babylonbee.com/plans
But we decided to release another one of our movie episodes that we had on the back burner with old Mr. Brian Gadawa.
So what we have here is an episode we did about the theme of following your heart.
A lot of the Christmas movies you've watched over the holiday season probably had this theme in them, follow your heart, follow your dreams.
So we get into that.
We look at a bunch of movies, some good, some bad.
We hope you enjoy this little side episode.
And a quick reminder to check our store out and check out our book, which is on pre-order right now for the Babylon B Best of coffee table book.
And forgive me for recording this audio on my phone.
Merry Christmas, and we'll see you in the new year.
In a world where fake news rules over all, 1B arises.
Wielding the stinger of satire.
Driving into the unsmokable heart of people.
While eating the Chunk-filt Sandwich.
This summer.
Seek is about to get old.
Big time.
Starring Kurt Cameron as Joel Osty.
Living large, hanging out with the beautiful people, making lots of money.
Heather Solo as Bernie Sanders.
Thank you, Payday, French.
John McArthur as himself.
Wicked people.
And Carl Mann and Ethan Nicole.
From Hell Man, I'm Ethan Colt.
With a special guest appearance by Brian Gannella.
I'm a Deus.
The Blockbuster Event of the New Millennium.
The Babylon Bee Movies.
Podcast episode.
Yeah, it's just a podcast episode about these.
Hello, podcast people.
I've got my popcorn all popped.
Upwards pop.
3D glasses are on.
Settling in.
The big movie.
Ah, me too.
And here we have Brian Goddawa with us.
We're shushing.
We're shushing the people behind us that are kicking our seats.
Have you ever been spat on in a movie theater?
Never been spat on.
Had ice thrown at you.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah, I've had stuff thrown at me before.
Just kids being little jerks.
And how does that make you feel, Ethan?
Oh, man.
Those kids, you know what?
I think of them.
He's trying to get a soundclip.
Total.
He's trying to stall till you get a sound clip ready.
I can't find it.
Why is this so hard?
Oh, I know what you're going to do.
I can't find it.
I get it up here.
Flowerbed.
There are flowerbeds.
This is very slick.
So this week, we're going to talk about the recurring theme in much entertainment, especially family films, that if you just follow your heart, be yourself.
The dreams that you wish.
Wish and make, you know, you just wish and wish and wish, and your dreams will all come true if you just wish really hard and just follow your dreams.
Yeah.
So we completely agree with that.
Yeah.
Isn't that the truth?
Yeah, it's the truth.
You just need to let it go.
Let it go.
Because there's no holding back anymore.
Yeah.
I pointed out to my kids that that song, if you imagine that whole song, is about a girl who decided to fart in a house and then lock everybody in and then go outside.
Almost all the lyrics work.
Almost every single lyric.
We laugh our heads off every time we listen.
The wind is howling.
Yeah, everything about the wind sounds like it's about farts and like it's awesome.
Man, having you as a dad must be great.
Couldn't keep it in.
Heaven knows I try.
So you must have kids too?
Yes.
You don't even have daughters, though.
My sons all liked frozen.
That's weird.
Really?
I don't think kids at that age.
Disney does a pretty good job now of, like, they know that the boys need, like, so there's always, like, the heroic boy character.
Yeah.
Even though he's kind of always a goofball.
Yeah, always a goofball.
Anybody's got the, he's got the animal friend.
They did that in Tangled and in Frozen.
And I think they know that.
They're falling into traditional ginger roles.
It's very sad.
There you go.
I'm going to dress up my kids as Elsa, my boys as Elsa for Halloween.
I'm just joking.
I'm not.
Oh.
Well, I'll use my Veggie Tales episode to launch this because I think it's a good setup.
Sure.
So back in our early, our first season of The Veggie Tales that I worked on that everybody hates on Netflix, we did an episode that I really liked.
It was actually outlined by Mike Nelson of Rift Tracks, Mystery Science Theater 2000.
And then I wrote the script and then Doug Tnaple punched it up.
So it was like the most, yeah.
Name drop.
Yeah, name drop.
Name drop.
It was one that was really kind of organically written by everybody.
I really like how it turned out, but it was also the most sarcastic episode because it's about this theme in kids entertainment that just follow your dreams and whatever you wish will definitely come true and your life will be perfect.
And very almost like Ostinian.
I don't know if that's the right way to put it, but people want to hear.
So this is a scene from that.
Laura Carrot, she's on a baseball team and she just dreams that she'll hit a game-winning home run, but she doesn't want to do any practicing or anything.
Because she sees this movie that's kind of a spoof called Air Corgi of like Disney films.
And this dog is, he decides he can fly an airplane just because he dreams big and he can fly.
Now dogs can fly airplanes because he just wants to.
Here we go.
You know what's true about dreams, kids.
If you dream really hard, whatever you want will definitely happen.
Is that Trump?
Sounds like a good one.
My dream is to hit a game-winning home run.
And I know that if I dream hard enough, I can do it just like Air Corgi.
And those are huge voice actors, man.
That's Rob Paulson, aka Raphael from Ninja Turtles.
Wow.
No kidding.
And Pinky Pinky.
More importantly, Pinky.
Yeah, Pinky and the Brain.
From Pinky and the Brain.
That was Bab's Bunny.
Anyway, they're amazing.
Amazing to work with those voice actors.
These geniuses.
Name drop.
You know, I've got something to add to that.
Okay, let's go.
Let's pick it up.
Brian's been awful quiet this episode.
Not into the movies yet, but it reminds me of, and you should put this link on the podcast.
And it's not my book, but it is a fantastic video that really means a lot to me in my life.
Made by Mike Rowe.
And Mike Rowe.
Yeah, it's a little five-minute Prager U video.
Uh-oh, Prager U. That's the Dennis Prager who was called a Nazi by Google.
Yes.
What?
How dare you.
You gotta take that thing away from me.
We need common sense soundboard control.
That's what we need.
But Mike Rowe does this thing about following your dreams, literally, you know, and he starts it off by saying, you know, so much damage has been done to people's lives because of this belief, you know, and every year on the Oscars, you see some actress come up there and say, I can do it so you can too.
Follow your dreams.
And the tragedy is that so many people have bought that to such an extent that they miss their opportunities and then they end up, can oftentimes lose both, most of the time lose both.
And I say that because it really is a Hollywood mentality and it seeps into so many movies, you know, and that's why Hollywood is called the Boulevard of Broken Dreams because they believe this notion of following your dream is the ultimate value of all or following your heart, following your dreams, that kind of thing.
And of course, I'm not against following your dreams.
Obviously, I have dreams.
I've pursued them.
But there's this thing of where you cling onto it so idolatrously that when other opportunities come and say, no, that's not my dream.
That's not my heart.
And you miss out on something that could actually make your life better and go down a different path than you realized.
Well, I think it's also the sense that you deserve that.
You are owed that.
The world owes you that dream.
And it's your mental energy of thinking about it and believing it that makes it happen rather than going out and actually doing something.
And it's no surprise that that is a dominant theme in a lot of Hollywood movies because Hollywood is the, you know, it's the, I mean, as much as I love movies, but they are.
They're the dream factory, right?
And so it doesn't surprise me in some ways that those who are writing those stories have been able to achieve to a certain amount of their dreams.
And so, you know, some of that's real.
It's kind of the positive flip side of there is no God, there is no meaning outside of yourself.
So you create your own meaning and you be your own God.
Yes.
That's really what it's getting at, right?
Yes, absolutely.
So this is also a very important point.
Good point.
One point.
Yeah, good point.
Seriously, we want to get to that because we got to talk about Ed Astra.
Sorry, I jumped a gun here.
We got to talk about Ed Astra eventually.
Ed Astra.
Ed Astra.
The movie with Brad Pitt.
So sci-fi?
Sci-fi, but we'll talk about it.
It's kind of relevant.
It's like Fight Club in Space.
I'm just kidding.
I'm never saying.
I haven't heard of it, apparently.
So let's talk a little bit about worldview, worldview, worldview.
One of my big words along with transcendent.
And the crowd goes wild.
He said the word.
Worldview.
He said the world.
Yeah.
All our Gadawa fans are screaming.
So this notion of follow your dreams, notion of follow your heart, it's connected to a bigger way of seeing things as well.
It's not always just that simple.
And it's connected to what is called the worldview of existentialism.
What is existentialism?
Existentialism is a, you know, it is a philosophy of life that has actual historical people, philosophers who've supported it from Jean-Paul Sartre to Camus, etc.
But if I could boil it down, it's kind of, it's a worldview that might say there is no God, existence precedes essence, which means a lot of us run around seeking transcendence, meaning, purpose in life.
And what that, what that desire for meaning and purpose is a pursuit of transcendence.
And existentialism denies transcendence.
It says there is no God, there's no creator, there's nothing that creates us.
We just exist.
And then we create our own essence because there is, if you say there's an essence, something we have to find, then that means there's something outside of us.
And that implies God.
That implies transcendence.
So existentialism really does deny transcendence.
And therefore, it concludes, we just exist.
And so we have to make our own essence.
And that's going to touch on what you said.
But it also is a belief that then concludes, therefore, if that is all there is to this reality, then it makes sense to just pursue your, just pursue experience, just pursue experiencing all that this life has, because there's no real meaning beyond it, that kind of thing.
So those are some elements of the worldview.
Now, obviously, it gets more technical.
Would you say that existentialism is a tradition of philosophical inquiry, which takes as its starting point the experience of the human subject?
Like not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual?
Yeah, that's a good internet definition.
Was that website?
That was Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
No, that's actually, oh, why?
You don't use Wikipedia.
That's just the first thing that came up.
Well, just okay, for no political things though.
Absolutely.
No, and that's why, you know, in a sense, whenever you see this sort of like, you know, focus on the personal subjective, the feelings, the heart, that is an expression of existentialism.
Think of it this way.
The word, it's a big word, but existence, existentialism.
So it's a focus on my existence, existing, experiencing that kind of a thing.
So it's very subjective.
It's very personal.
It's very, I make my own way.
I create my own values.
I am my own, you know, captain of my own ship, that type of thinking, that type of thinking.
And so one of the consequences of that is, therefore, I follow your heart.
And, you know, in my book, Hollywood Worldviews by Brian Gadawa, I literally do examine existentialism and humanism and various other worldviews, post-modernism.
And I talk about specific movies.
But one of the things that I bring out in the book is that I, whoa, Stranger.
What are you going to say?
You need to create your own purpose.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Kind of.
It got me back on, but got me back on.
Don't start be funny.
Oh, but so my point was, was I give actual examples where they literally use that phrase, follow your heart.
There's movies like Joe versus Volcano.
These are some older ones, but they're classics, The Truman Show, this kind of stuff.
We'll talk about those specifically.
But the idea there is that, so you follow your heart because your heart is the one thing you trust.
Don't trust anything, but trust your own heart.
And whether it's Frozen or any of these movies where they often pit the world, the people, the community versus the individual.
And this is a common theme in a lot of stories.
It's fine.
There's nothing wrong with it.
There's not right or wrong because the individual versus the community.
You need both.
But there are also problems with both.
But the existentialist tends to stress the individual to the extreme.
It's the supreme.
Why?
Because there is no external reality that you are accountable to.
It is just you and you create your own reality, so to speak.
So follow your heart.
That's what is the, because if you follow what other people tell you to do, like the movie Zelig, Zelig by Woody Allen, you know, the story of the guy who basically he was others directed.
Everyone he was around, he became like them.
So when he was around Adolf Hitler, he started to look like Adolf Hitler.
When he was around Winston Churchill, he started to look like Winston Churchill.
So it was this silly comedy that, but the point of it was he needed to define himself by his own self.
And there's, of course, some truth in this.
I'm not denying that.
But existentialism takes that to the extreme.
And so what happens is then follow your heart becomes the goal of your life and to the exclusion of all others.
And then that's where you can make it look like it works perfectly in a movie, but in real life, it destroys many lives.
So, you know, one example might be, oh, well, we mentioned this earlier, Joe versus a Volcano.
That's the one with Tom Hanks.
And Stranger Than Fiction is another one with, what's his name?
Will Farrell.
Emma Thompson.
Yeah.
And so Stranger Fiction is a good one because that's one that focuses on following your own heart and where it leads you.
But basically, it's the story of this guy.
And I forgot his name in the movie, but he basically starts to discover, he starts to hear a narrator's voice who's narrating his life.
And It's like the narrator is defining what his life is to be.
And then it turns out that the narrator is an actual woman in real life, and that's Emma Thompson.
So he's trying to track down the narrator so he can take control back from, you know, of his own life, you know.
And so, you know, there it's obvious.
Don't let others define your life.
Don't let others write your story.
You've got to write your own follow your own heart.
The Truman show is another classic with Jim Carrey.
And that's one where he Jim Carrey is this guy who's a simple-minded person who has a very happy, happy, happy life.
And one day he starts to learn there's weird things going on.
And he basically discovers his whole life, he was born and raised in an artificial environment that's a TV reality show and he didn't know it.
And that it's being controlled by this producer called Christoph, and he's a symbol of God.
And so it's Truman's journey as he seeks to realize his life has been controlled by others and he wants to go out and see the world, but he can't because it's a TV set.
It's a lot, right?
Let's go to the clip.
Oh, you got a clip.
Okay.
Well, hold on, let's do it otherwise, correct.
Let's go to the clip.
You're coming up.
You can speak.
Well, this is when he's like.
At the very end, he's facing the producer who's God, who's a representative.
I am the creator.
Who are you?
I am the creator of a television show that tells hope and joy and inspiration to millions.
He's crying.
Oh, am I?
You're the star.
He's saying God's doing was nothing real.
What?
You were real.
Is God a TV producer?
Listen to me, Truman.
There's no more truth out there than there is in the world I created for you.
Same lies.
The same deceit.
But in my world, you have nothing to fear.
I know you better than you know yourself.
Whoa.
Yeah, actually, I really like that movie.
It's an amazing movie.
I love it.
Yeah, and there's part of me that is existentialist.
I mean, I really am.
I'm certainly, I wouldn't take it.
Oh, it just converted us all.
Only in the sense of there's another element of existentialism that says, look, if there is no God, no purpose beyond yourself, then life is ultimately despair.
And that's why it, and therefore it concludes, therefore, create your own meaning, your own purpose.
Of course, I say no, then you should kill yourself because if there's no meaning, no purpose, it doesn't matter.
You're dead forever anyway.
So just hurry up and get it done with.
But nevertheless, I like the impulse.
I like the impulse.
So Truman Show is one of my favorites for existentialism in expressing it because you have this individual Truman and he's a simplistic person.
His life is taken care of and protected.
And the God figure, the producer, is a symbol of God because he controls everything, makes it all work, but it's all for his entertainment, to the entertainment of the people.
But Truman gets to the point where the end where he was facing that God character.
And basically, it's a question of, do you want to have God in control of your life or do you want to be in control of your life?
And that's really ultimately against religion itself because it's all about, you know, stop having some fairy tale God figure control your life and take control of your own life.
Take responsibility.
And that's a very existentialist notion.
And therefore, so he would rather walk off the set of protection into the dangerous world and be free than to stay protected and controlled.
Now, there's actually, like I say, there's some truth to that if you understand in certain contexts.
Like, you know, I think of that with government, like, you know, if the government controls your life and protects you and takes care of you, but then you have no freedom.
But if you're free, the more free you are in a country, the more dangerous it is and you can get hurt.
But yeah, I prefer freedom more.
So there's a sense of that which I agree with.
But then when you take it to the philosophical level of and apply it to God, then what you're saying is, well, I don't want to have God.
I want to be on my own.
I want to be my own God and take care of my own life.
And at that level, I think it becomes philosophical and spiritual, and I think it fails.
It seems like at the heart of this philosophy is the idea that we're all unique and we have something to offer, that we have the ability in us to actually create a story that's better than what anybody else could do.
me that points to creator the idea that we're just because we just had lunch I'm like belching up having a horrible sound.
Did you hear the gurgle in my throat?
That was a gurgle in my throat.
That was a throat gurgle, not a stomach.
That was yours or mine.
That was my throat.
Oh, that was mine.
Because I took a sip of this.
We're like in the fire swamp here.
What's going on?
Glad it wasn't me.
That's a good lunch, astrami.
But yeah, just the, I lost track.
You said that we have an author.
Yes.
Yeah, just that idea that.
With a capital A.
To me, this is the dividing line between so much.
It's either there's a meaning to be found in the world or we make it ourselves.
Like that is the dividing line on most of the culture war, I think.
The whole, you know, the argument about, the highest ideal of our culture is you make your own path.
Yeah.
And that makes it the greatest thing you can do.
Yeah.
Instead of there literally being greatest things you can do, like an actual, like, you know, if somebody goes off and they want to go just be a part of as many orgies as possible in their life and get drunk as much as possible.
And if that gives them their meaning, then that's just as good as if they went off and had a family and one wife and had some kids.
And to me, no, like factually, like we were like, God authored it so that you couldn't find anything more meaningful than the things he's already set up for us to find.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's so funny.
I mean, Strange in Fiction, Truman Show, Groundhog Day, City Suckers, there's a lot of them.
Those are a lot of older classics, but they express this desire and this contrast, like what you're saying of author versus not.
And, you know, the other day I was listening to Neil deGrasse Tyson, that scientist, and he was being interviewed, you know, and he was actually being interviewed by Ben Shapiro, and Ben was asking him about.
Do you mean owned by Ben Shapiro?
No, no, actually, on this interview show, Ben does not attack people.
He lets them talk, and he throws out challenging questions, but he's very, he's not debating them.
He's characterized like that, but he almost never is.
He almost never is.
He's very polite.
Oh, in fact, yeah, and Neil had a great time, but I bring it up because he was talking and Ben's saying, you know, well, if science is all there is, and, you know, then where do you get meaning, purpose, and all that kind of stuff.
And Neil deGrasse Tyson said what is common in all most of these scientists, famous ones, the evolutionists and stuff, they always say, you know, well, look, there is no transcendent meaning.
There is no transcendent purpose.
There's only these material processes.
And so there is no meaning to discover, which is what the transcendent or the religious person says.
We discover it.
Why?
Because it's outside of us.
But they say there is nothing outside of us, therefore we create it.
But the problem is, if you say that and you don't think it through, what you're saying is, if I created and I'm a serial killer, that's just as valuable as if I'm Mother Teresa.
I think we said that in the last time you were here.
He said, Hitler, you do you.
Yeah, exactly.
And that's the problem with all of these things.
Kyle said it.
It was funny, Kyle.
Thank you.
So you had one good joke back then.
I'm very optimal with my words.
I only see a few things.
Optimized?
I'm very optimized with your words.
Optical.
Optical.
With my words.
I see them.
He's the optimist prime of jokes.
But I think this is the lie of it all.
And the lie of it all is that the people who say, well, there is no meaning, purpose, therefore you create your own, but then they create meaning and purpose of their own that matches up with the notion that there is a transcendent God.
I don't like the thought of it.
So what it is, is they don't want to have a God over them telling them what to do, but they want the benefits of the morality of that God and the system that that God creates.
Like don't steal, don't murder, don't do stuff like that.
Because of course that's wrong.
But of course, it's not wrong if there's no transcendent meaning or purpose.
And so a lot of these movies that I would say, like you, I like them.
I love Strange in the Fiction, Truman Show, City Slickers, Groundhog's Day, Forrest Gump.
You know, Forrest Gump was another existentialist movie where the whole question was, are we all just like a feather floating in the wind?
Or is it all?
Oh, now.
Don't you be afraid, sweetheart.
Sorry.
Death is just a part of life.
Something we're all destined to do.
I thought it was a box of chocolates.
I didn't know it.
But I was destined to be your mama.
Destiny.
I did the best I could.
This is from Forrest Gump.
You did good, Mom.
It is your destiny.
I happen to believe you make your own destiny.
Oh, there it is.
Make your own destiny.
You have to do the best with what God gave you.
Wait, but God gave you.
What's my destiny, Mom?
You're going to have to figure that out for yourself.
Life is a box of chocolates, Forest.
Oh, I don't know what you're going to get.
Oh, that's a classic.
Forrest Gump's one of my favorite movies, but it's great.
And by the way, I went up to the writer of the movie when it first came out, and I asked him personally, I said, were you standing?
Like at a Wendy's?
No, it was at the WGA meeting.
He talked and stuff, and I went up and I said, you know, were you deliberately writing existentialist?
And he said, yeah, he goes, no, I mean, he was like, yeah, yeah, that's, and, and, and again, this is not all evil, what I'm saying here, you know.
I agree with some of what they're saying, but the essence of it is there is no God, so you make your own way.
And what I like about Forrest Gump was it at least tried to struggle with the issue of destiny versus chance, right?
I mean, that's what are we feathers?
So it's destiny versus chance.
And that ultimately is what?
What that means is if there's destiny, that means there's a transcendence.
There's a God.
And that was, of course, Gary Sinise's character.
Lieutenant Downey.
Lieutenant Down, Lieutenant Dion.
His journey was he wanted to find meaning and purpose by dying in a war because he thought that that was the transcendence that he needed, right?
Every person was looking for this thing outside of themselves, but they needed to find it within.
That was the point of the story.
And that's all fine and dandy, but that's assuming that there is still a moral, transcendent, objective world that you're accountable to.
So it's cheating, basically.
It's saying, well, I don't want to have a God out there who tells me what to do.
I want to create my own life.
It's what I create can't be Hitler, can't be genocide, can't be racism.
It's like, well, no, actually, it can if you're consistent.
And that's the problem with these movies.
They're never consistent.
And it creates this illusion that you can find this or you can create good meaning and purpose, but that's rarely what actually happens if you are consistent.
And if you can create your own meaning.
So if Lieutenant Dan was going to find his meaning in being in the war and serving his country, then if he was wrong about that, he came back and he was like, you know, lost his legs and he was drunk.
And then how's that work?
How do you create your own meaning and then you're wrong about it?
Well, that's.
That means that you're answering to another truth that's outside yourself if you can be wrong about it.
And by the way, that's why I think makes Forest Cup a masterpiece is because good art will not be propagandistic.
It won't have just one view.
It will have a viewpoint, but it is fair to multiple sides and allows enough ambiguity for people to see the truth on both sides without being relativistic.
Lieutenant Dan's story was very interesting to me because his journey was with God, actually.
Yeah, he's like yelling at God for a while.
Yeah.
Well, because when he loses his legs and he loses his chance to die in a war, he gets mad at God and the hurricane is a symbol of God and he's cursing God.
And then afterwards, what happens?
He comes to peace with God and he gets baptized.
He jumps into the sea and that's a baptism.
And that's when he's happy and he's found his peace with God, at least with God as he understands him.
And again, God can exist within an existentialist worldview, but it becomes one more of multiple choices of how you're going to create your meaning.
Okay, if you want to believe in some God that gives you meaning, okay, that's fine too.
So, you know, but my point is at least that it gave voice to that perspective, which I really appreciated.
You know, I noticed that when he got baptized, it was a total immersion.
And not the cake like sprinkling or pouring.
Yeah.
That's the first thing I've said in like 15 minutes.
I just need to guess on again.
Have you been working on something just because I'm Presbyterian?
Is this you've been trying to our core group of Baptist listeners?
All right.
Got to call you out, man.
By the way, I was immersed, so I have no problem with immersors.
I sense that when you were in the world.
Immersion is one of many baptisms.
You create your own.
Follow your heart.
Follow your heart.
Yes, yes.
Well, I want to talk about this classic.
Rita, if you only had one day to live, what would you do with it?
I'm in Phil.
What are you dying of?
No.
The whole world is about to explode.
What do you do?
I just want to know where to put the camera.
What are you looking for, Phil?
A date for the weekend?
No, I'm just interested in you.
You know, what do you want?
What do you like?
Groundhog Day.
Oh, my gosh.
I honestly didn't.
Oh, my mind was off.
Oh my gosh.
Dan gave me the...
It's a classic.
I love it.
I love Groundhog Day.
But here's what it is.
By the way, Bill Murray has an amazing cameo in Zombieland 2.
Oh, yeah.
And you need to work on it.
I look forward to it.
So Groundhog Day is phenomenal classic.
It's the guy who's a selfish, narcissistic weather reporter who has to go out to some Nowhere'sville and do a report on Punxitani.
And what happens is he gets into this time warp thing, weird thing, portal where he keeps living Groundhog Day over and over and over again.
And what happens is, of course, there's a woman involved and he likes her.
He'd like to sleep with her.
But nonetheless, when he starts living it over and over again, a day is not a lot of time to get a lot done.
And life gets boring and dreadful.
It becomes despairing.
And that's Groundhog Day is actually, and I read about this in my book, Hollywood Worldviews, but Groundhog Day is Kierkegaardian existentialism, literally.
In that one of the premises, you first recognize the meaninglessness of life and it's boring and it's dread.
That's that word dread.
You hear about that with Kierkegaard.
It's the dread.
What does dread mean?
Dread basically means, it doesn't mean dread of death or anything like that.
The dread is meaninglessness.
Because if there's meaninglessness, then there's no point or purpose to go on, right?
And so by him living the same thing over and over again, like Sisyphus, right?
He realizes the meaninglessness to his own life.
Now, of course, he's a selfish narcissist, so that's the reason why he's launched into that and he doesn't know that.
And then he starts realizing, well, how do I respond to that?
And then he responds in three ways in the movie, which happens to match Kierkegaard's three responses and stuff.
And forgive me, I don't have the technical terms here, but his first is he responds by just indulgence, which is a childish response.
And that, well, okay, if this is all I got, then I'm just going to eat food and all this kind of stuff because after all, I'm not going to, you know, I'm going to relive the day over and over again.
So mine is just hedonistic experience.
And of course, that's empty and despairing.
Then he goes through this notion of.
But it's fun.
But it's fun.
Just point that out.
No, actually, it isn't fun because he ends up becoming despairing.
It leads him to despair again.
How about you get a few seconds?
Then he goes, you know, playing devil's advocate.
Okay.
It is fun for the moment, but not for the long term.
And he doesn't get out of the despair is he's living it over and over again.
He has to get out.
How do you get out?
He's not going to get out that way.
He figures, well, okay, well, what if I...
Are we still talking about Groundhog Day?
Yeah.
I was missing the content.
I started talking about Kierkegaard.
Religious man is the final choice, but the first one is the earthly man or something, physical man, something like that.
And then the other choice is, you know, he starts realizing, well, there's no meaning, so I'm just going to keep killing myself.
So he tries killing himself in many different ways.
And of course, that doesn't give any meaning or purpose either.
Then he realizes, well, I'm going to try to get the girl.
And so he has to keep winning her over and over again every day.
So all these things lead to this despair.
It's not until he realizes that he has to give up, give selflessly of himself to help others, to give to others.
His release of his selfishness is what gets him out and finds the meaning and purpose.
So instead of looking at the woman as a means to his end, he learns that he has to help her and help others.
And that's how he gets out of the Groundhog Day thing.
But my point is, is that it follows Kierkegaard's philosophy.
And again, that's not entirely wrong.
I wouldn't even necessarily disagree with that.
But that is one of the ways that they express this struggle with meaninglessness and despair.
And, you know, the other classic movie on that.
I got one more Soundcliffe for Groundhog today.
We got two in this one.
Okay.
No matter what happens tomorrow or for the rest of my life, I'm happy now.
Because I love you.
We should listen to the Groundhog Day clip over and over again.
Yeah.
You really react each time.
To be really thematic, like Groundhog Day, you know.
Yeah.
That was dreadful.
No, just kidding.
Well, but that was the point where he's expressing where he realizes, and it's not just that he loves her.
It's that love is not what someone gives to you.
You make me feel good.
By the way, that's a correlation to follow your heart is love, right?
What is love?
And actually, a lot of Hollywood movies get it right.
Love is selfless giving, not selfishness.
Because if they really did pursue how they really live their lives, which is love is how you make me feel, that's a very selfish, unsatisfying story, actually.
So they do actually follow quite a good definition of love.
But oftentimes the view is that people will think love is how you make me feel.
So I'm in love because I'm happy and you make me feel good.
But what he has to learn in Groundhog Day is it's not about him feeling good from her.
It's about him giving to her, giving of himself to her.
And that's what real love is.
It seems like in Groundhog Day, he's finding a truth that exists outside of himself.
So that's one thing that throws me off when you say it's existentialist.
Because then why isn't just the first solution of indulgence?
If that's his meaning, fine.
You know, what is the outside truth that's saying selflessness is the answer?
This is Kierkegaard.
So this is where Kierkegaard is a Christian existentialist.
So you've got a Sartre or a Camus, and they are, well, there is no Sartre and Camus.
Are you just making up words now?
Flowerbed.
Oh, yes, Camus.
That's right.
Camus.
It's Camus.
It looks like Camus.
Camus looks like Camus.
Camus, yeah.
Sorry, the adults are talking.
But the atheistic existentialism is the dominant mode, and that is you start without the existence of God.
Kierkegaard represents a Christian existentialism, which is a different version, but it's similar, but it's different, obviously, because Kierkegaard believes in God.
He was like the Rob Bell of his time.
Yeah.
Could be.
Yeah, he wasn't very happy.
He was actually very critical of Christianity of his day, the way they lived it out.
So my point is, is Groundhog Day is existentialism, but that's where he's following Kierkegaard.
Kierkegaard's answer is that there is an outside meaning in existence.
So to him, existentialism is more a tool, which is how I see it.
Like without God in life, in a life, there is no meaninglessness and purposelessness.
And that should drive you to despair.
And I want it to.
And I want it to drive you to the point of even considering suicide because really there's no other thing that's any more valid.
But in your heart of hearts, you know that that's not the answer because there is a God and that's why you're feeling the despair.
It's not because of meaninglessness.
It's because you don't have meaning because you're out of connection with your God.
And that's why I think existentialism is a tool towards pointing people to the truth.
And in Groundhog Day, I think there's also the other side of the coin, which is no secular philosophy can be consistently lived.
And so the people who promote it are often the biggest hypocrites of all, which is why Jean-Paul Sartre, the famous French existentialist, you know, there is no God, essence precedes existence, and I create my own meaning.
There he was.
We're talking in the time of the Cold War.
I don't remember if it was Khrushchev or who, but he was banging his shoe at the NATO meeting or something.
Jean-Faul Paul Sartre, the existentialist banging his shoe on the table and demanding, no, that was Khrushchev.
But Jean-Paul Sartre was complaining that it was immoral for America to be involved in war.
The existentialist who's denied that there are transcendent moral values, saying it's immoral for America to be, my point here is that a good story to be good has to follow certain Judeo-Christian principles or it's not going to be a good story, whether or not they're promoting it.
And that's what I would say an existentialist movie will talk about meaninglessness and despair and creating your own meaning.
But in the end, they'll create a meaning based on that there is something transcendent, whether it's love or a God or whatever it is.
So I would just argue that's just inability of human beings to be consistent with godless philosophies in their own stories.
Because if you were, it wouldn't be a good story.
That would be my argument.
And what kind of American doesn't like war?
I was waiting for that.
Just war.
Oh, geez.
Here we go.
I'm Augustinian.
You can't get me.
Kyle's the resident libertarian pacifist.
Ah, but are you true libertarian?
I'm a true lib.
Another classic of that time period.
I'm sorry if these are all old movies that people don't wear.
That's when we really made movies.
We had to walk two miles in the snow to see a movie.
There's this new movie, Casablanca, coming out.
You know what I mean?
You all should go see it.
City Slickers is the other classic one.
And there's one where it's about find your smile.
You know, you've got these three guys.
They're all miserable lives.
They're selfish.
One's single.
One's got marriage problems.
One's an adulterer.
So, and they're all midlife crisis.
It's the classic.
Well, why?
Why?
Why are they empty lives?
They have no purpose.
They think that by going on this exciting journey of this, you know, what was it?
A cattle thing?
Yeah, cow driving yourself.
Cow drive thing.
Yeah.
They go on a cow drive.
They try different things.
They go on like a bull rush.
They go on a cow drive.
They think, and the whole thing is, is to find your smile.
I need to find your smile.
Find your happiness.
Follow your heart.
That type of thing.
And then Jack Palance, the old guy, the old cowboy there, he goes, what's Curly?
Yeah.
And he goes, what's the meaning of life?
He says, one thing.
What?
What one thing?
What one thing?
And by the way, this is Kierkegaard as well, because Kierkegaard talks about having purity of mind of one thing.
And of course, he believed it was focusing on God to some degree.
But in the movie City Slickers, it's like, one thing, what one thing?
Tell me, tell me.
And the guy dies.
And he will never know the one thing that will give meaning to life.
And what it turns out is it doesn't matter.
Just your one thing, one thing to be devoted to and committed to.
And again, this is very similar to the follow your heart, find your smile, this kind of a thing.
But again, it really has no meaning because Hannibal Lecter's one thing is just as valid a one thing as Mother Teresa's one thing.
Fiction versus non-fiction, but whatever.
Fiction's real in today's world, right?
I thought that was a documentary.
What was?
About Hannibal Lecter?
Oh, yeah.
Science of the Lambs.
Yeah.
Yeah, it could be.
Documentary.
Yeah.
Very accurate.
Yeah, City Slickers.
I remember thinking that was a movie all the parents went to go see.
They loved it.
That's it.
It's old.
Yeah, sorry.
Titanic.
Titanic was Follow Your Heart.
My grandparents went to see City Slickers.
Yeah.
Oh, your grandparents.
My grandparents.
He's 32.
I'm 39.
You're young bucks.
Young'ins.
What movie did you just say?
Titanic?
Titanic was Follow Your Heart.
I've never seen it.
You've never seen it?
I've never seen Titanic.
What?
Wow.
I liked it.
I know that's going to get me in trouble, but I liked it.
I mean, that's one thing weird thing about James Cameron movies.
Everybody says they don't like it.
The box office never begged to differ.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
To some degree.
Exactly.
No, absolutely.
Especially at the time.
Though I did.
I legitimately hate Avatar.
Brian likes Avatar.
Didn't we discuss this?
Yeah, we did.
Yeah, so we didn't release her or not.
I can't remember.
Haven't released it yet.
So, you know, let's see.
He also likes Twilight.
Just point that out.
I like a lot of things.
But this gets to a more recent movie.
I'm trying to think of something more recent, and it's kind of tangential.
It's tangential, but it's connected because I think it's this notion, it doesn't have to be a consistent philosophical worldview, but just this notion of, you know, there is no transcendent God.
There's only this material universe, you know.
And, you know, like I said, Neil deGrasse Tyson was saying, you know, we create our meaning because that's it.
This most recent sci-fi movie, Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt, you know, that's a really, it's really kind of cool.
It is a slow movie, but it's a sci-fi movie about the principle is that it's in the near future, so we've got some space travel going on.
It's not Star Trek, but it's definitely not now.
And Brad Pitt plays a, plays an astronaut who is asked to go out to, I think it's Jupiter or something.
No, no, no, not Jupiter.
Neptune.
Because his father, who went before him, was a famous astronaut and went years ago and never came back.
And he was supposed to do some exploration.
And anyway, now they think that he's engaged in something that's creating these waves of energy that by the time they reach Earth are creating massive storms and problems.
So he's got to go find his father and figure out what it is and stop it or whatever.
So this is sort of like searching for your father.
And then, of course, he had a bad relationship with his father, even though he follows in his footsteps.
But there's also a God metaphor going on where his father is like a God, you know, and it's his own search for God.
And they bring in religion in the movie in terms of, you know, is it just space or is there a God out there?
And some people believe in God and he doesn't.
And so when he finds his father finally out there and, you know, and they come kind of face to face and stuff, and the whole point was his father had been pursuing that looking for alien life.
You know, there is alien life out there.
And that's what he, that's what we're going to find meaning because we find we're not alone.
We're not alone.
We're not alone.
And he realized when he got out there that, no, we are all alone.
There is nothing.
But he doesn't want to stop.
He doesn't want to stop the pursuit.
So he goes mad, basically.
And that's what sort of the story's about.
But what's interesting is Brad Pitt has to face him down and bring him back.
And he's kind of, his father's kind of going crazy, kind of going mad with this like, in other words, there's nothing to find, but he keeps wanting to find it.
It's ruining him.
It's destroying him, which is also a metaphor for God, right?
Trying to find someone that's not there.
But what happens is he says, basically, there isn't, you know, we thought science would give us the answers, but it doesn't.
We are alone.
And then Brad Pitt says, well, we're all we have.
So let's make the best of it.
You know, in other words, it's the, and it's the same thing as the movie Contact, you know, where, well, contact, there was alien life, but it's like we have each other and that, and just having each other is how we get the meaning and purpose that we're longing for in some transcendent God or even in some alien life.
And so that I would call what I would say would be like a humanistic worldview that says, well, there is nothing outside of humanity.
There's no God.
There's no aliens.
But we're all we've got.
So let's just make the best of it.
Let's find meaning and purpose in just loving each other.
And of course, I'm not, I wouldn't denigrate that, obviously.
But as a Christian, I would say, well, that's good that you love one another.
But again, there's no difference between loving one another and committing genocide against one another if there's no God and there's no purpose and no meaning.
And you could say, well, I don't want genocide, but there are some people who do.
And so the only way that you can really find meaning or purpose in loving one another is if that love is rooted in a higher love or a transcendent love and understanding and meaning that gives it purpose that says, no, genocide is not good and love is good.
Because otherwise, if you're just creating it, you can't have a standard to judge.
You can't have a standard to adjudicate what's right and wrong unless it's transcendent.
So if you say there is no transcendent, we're all we've got, like at Astra.
Then you're just deluding yourself.
You're trying to get the benefits of an existence of God by finding meaning in loving another, loving other humanity.
But there's really no meaning in it.
You're basically living a delusion.
You are following a fairy tale.
I like when atheistic media like that tries to find meaning and you're supposed to leave with this inspiring feeling.
And you're like, this is really depressing.
There was this thing that I saw online or something where it was like the eulogy that an atheist wanted read at his funeral.
And it's supposed to be really inspiring.
And it's like this, you know, when we die, there is nothing and we turn into dust.
And it goes on and basically says, you know, and then I become stardust and I'm all around you.
And it's like, so know that when you see the wind, you know, I'm.
And I'm like, so you're saying that I'm just dead?
Like, that's the inspiring message.
Like you're sitting in a funeral, an atheist funeral, and you're listening to this.
You're like, this is not.
Yeah, there's no inspiration in that.
You're trying to find it, but there isn't.
There's no meaning there.
That's exactly my complaint.
I'm just like going, you know, you think that there by not, okay, the critique is there, if there is no afterlife, this life is all we've got.
So let's make the most of it.
But the problem is, is making the most of it's no different than making the least of it.
Yeah, but why?
There's no difference.
There's no difference.
Why is what the most is?
Yeah, exactly.
That's arbitrary and that doesn't matter.
And so you're right.
I get the same feelings, the same thoughts.
Like, you think that's inspirational to say we're just stardust, nothing.
There's no meaning in life.
And isn't it wonderful?
It's like, no, no, you're, you should kill yourself, actually.
Again, there we go with the dark suicide.
That's the existentialist in me because there is a train of existentialism that does lead to suicide because there's no meaning, no purpose.
So there is no difference between suicide.
Speaking of which, Hemingway killed himself because he was an existentialist and he wanted to have the final control over his death.
So he deliberately killed himself.
And that is how I think Camus also, no, Jasper Johns, who is also a famous existentialist, a German, he killed himself as well in order to express the ultimate control because there's no one that controls my reality.
So I want to control my ultimate reality and there's no meaning and purpose.
So he kills himself.
It's like, if you're really consistent with this secularism, this atheism, this existential humanism, you know, you're just living a delusion and you're believing in a lie, something that you know is not true.
There is no meaning.
So I create meaning.
No, there is no meaning.
So there's no meaning to even create because what you're doing is you're creating fairy tales.
And they talk about Christians following fairy tales, right?
It's like, no, if you create your own meaning, you are the ultimate fairy tale maker.
So what do you think it is about this theme that resonates so well with kids?
Or at least like in a Disney, like, why does Disney keep going back to that?
I think it resonates, well, with parents more.
I mean, parents want that.
Parents care more about the story.
You could have characters going off and doing all sorts of random stuff and kids would be entertained.
And the kids watch the Smurfs movie.
Yeah, exactly.
Some of them watch anything.
You know, I think there's something here that has to do with, again, I see it as a reflection of God in the sense of like Disney is why they do, you know, encouraging teenagers to rebel.
I think ultimately it's the rejection of the authority of parents in that view, in that understanding.
is an expression of the rejection of authority over me because to become an adult is to take control of yourself.
And there's some truth to that, obviously.
But in a philosophical sense, ultimately all authority is an imposition upon the self, philosophically speaking.
So the existentialist believes that any law, any morality, any God, any system, any politics is an imposition of alien values upon me, which is a violation of my personal autonomy, my philosophical autonomy.
And so that's how the philosophy of existentialism goes.
Therefore, it likes to encourage rebellion in teens against parents because parents are the first step of authority on the progress of authority up to God.
You know what I mean?
So it's all a pattern of anti-authoritarianism.
I'm sorry, that's wrong.
Not anti-authoritarianism, anti-authority.
Because we would be against anti-authoritarianism, which is an abuse of authority, right?
But I think that that's what ultimately is driving the secular storytellers, I think, of whether it's Disney or what have you.
I think they as adults are expressing their rejection of authority by telling stories that can appeal to children who, you know, becoming an adult does mean you start to have some more self-definition.
But I think, you know, we have things like, you know, the little mermaid and stuff, you know, where it's like the father's wrong and parents are wrong and parents are bad.
And it's the constant depiction of parents as being fools or wrong that rather than being right and being guides.
You know what I'm saying?
So I think it's all kind of part of that same expression.
I don't know if that makes sense.
Rambling a little bit.
We expect secular entertainment to do the opposite of what God, like what would be the godly view you'd think, like, or what the biblical approach would be.
But it seems more like they want to just repackage, you know, follow your heart, your dreams will come true.
It really is another way of saying that there is a will and purpose for your life.
Yeah.
But you just take God away.
Yeah.
And so they're taking all the, it's like taking all the good stuff of the Christian faith and just brushing away like the minor detail that you're created and you have actual meaning.
And I don't know.
I think the thing is we're talking about is like we expect to see the secularism more clearly.
And that's why it's fascinating to me that the original sin is finding a good and evil outside of God.
Yeah.
Like it's not just finding evil.
We always expect that fruit on that tree to be evil, but it's not.
It's good and evil.
To find a definition of good and a definition of evil that's not connected to God is a lie.
Good point.
Yeah, very good point.
You can't ask if it's exceptional.
Maybe I did that too.
One thing I find interesting about these follow-up art things is like it often backfires on the character.
Sure.
You know, but that's not the part that we remember or it's not the part that they want to emphasize.
You know, you look at like the little mermaid where she goes off and rebels against her dad.
And it's like, you know, then she goes through all these horrible things because she didn't listen.
You know, and it's like, honestly, you could probably get killed if you went to the service.
That's my favorite thing about Frozen is the whole main anthem that they sing is like, Let It Go.
And she's like, I can just go be myself and be whoever I want to be.
And, you know, I'm not going to hide who I am anymore.
And she goes off and she like casts the entire kingdom into eternal winter, you know, because she's just doing what she wants to do.
And then the whole story arc is her having to confront that, you know, she has to become part of the community again and learn how to control that.
And sure.
And that's where I would say Hollywood is not a monolithic.
And there are many traditional values that do come through in a lot of movies, plenty of movies.
And I certainly want to acknowledge that.
And I think you're right.
There are movies, you know, think about it.
Like most romances, whether it's romantic comedy or romantic drama, there's usually opposites.
And one person is like, I'm thinking of that movie.
I don't know why it's a bad movie and it's an old one, but Forces of Nature with Ben Affleck and Sandra Ballock.
I don't know.
My grandparents saw that movie.
Yeah.
You know, you have one person who's like the crazy wild person who's fun.
And the other person who's always stodgy or rule-oriented and organized, right?
I mean, that's classic for a lot of these setup scenarios, right?
And of course, you know, there are certainly movies where the fun character ends up teaching the rule-oriented character to learn to let go and relieve and enjoy life more.
But there are movies where it's the opposite.
And not as much, though, not as often, where that fun character who goes by the wind follows the wind.
You think that's going to bring you fun, but it actually brings you into disaster.
And so, yeah, that's but they certainly exist.
Both versions exist of values in different movies for sure.
Trying to think of an example off the top of my head.
I can't.
I see so many of them.
Sometimes I forget the titles.
We've talked to Brian so long that he's forgetting movies.
He's forgetting movies, which is just we've done it.
We've accomplished it.
How about for the subscriber portion?
Yes.
We are going to go into the most pro-life movies.
Brian has a list here.
Yeah.
Let's do it.
And we'll dive into those.
Brian's looking at us like I do.
I have a list.
Yeah, I just thought of this.
He had sent the list.
I can add it to that.
But yeah, we'll talk about movies that are pro-life, probably a lot of times not meaning to be.
Great.
All right.
Let's do it.
So, everybody, just follow your heart.
And as long as you end up at the subscriber portion, then you are on the right track.
As long as you try hard and believe in yourself, you can definitely do.
I'm trying to quote Devil or Carrot thing.
I don't remember.
Yeah.
As long as I will wish, I would dream really hard.
That's what she says.
I will hit the baseball.
Game-winning home run.
Oh, yeah.
And I never noticed that.
Sounds just like Donald Trump.
Yeah.
That was Rob Paulson doing our character, Tom Solariac.
We added that character and rejected because people don't like the veg tales.
So Solariac.
He looks like Tom Selleck as a big cash.
Jeez, come on.
Classic.
Yeah.
Kids love Tom Selik humor.
Yeah, they do love Tom Selik humor.
That was one for the adults.
All right.
All right, everybody.
So your subscription portion.
No, that's what I'm about to do.
I'm about to hawk the wares.
Okay.
So I have many fine goods for you to peruse today.
And the main thing is DC Talk body pillows.
Yeah.
I just want you guys to know that if you don't subscribe to the battle obviously, you're missing out on the most fantastic thing ever, which is a special intro for the subscriber segment written by Ethan and recorded by our voice guy, Dave Dan.
You get a lot of bonus Dave material on the subscriber portion because he sends me the different takes of things and stuff, and I always throw them on there.
It makes me laugh every time.
And don't forget Gadawa.com.
Oh, yeah, Godawa.
Let me ask how to get to Godawa.
Gadawa.com.
All my stuff.
Go to Godawa.com.
Buy my stuff.
Buy my stuff.
Worldviews.
Transcendence.
Worldviews.
Transcendence.
And humanism.
Did I say how to actually subscribe?
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Thank you.
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Until next time, this is Dave D'Andrea, the voice of the Babylon Bee, reminding you that one does not simply walk into Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A on Sunday.