Crimes and Misdemeanors: A Discussion: Part 1
Uploaded by camdiscussion on Sep 23, 2007
Part 1 of 3: ‘What Does Judah Believe?’
A discussion of Woody Allen’s 1989 movie, perhaps his finest.
By Anton Scamvougeras.
http://camdiscussion.blogspot.com/
antons@mail.ubc.ca
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture . This time around I have discussed morality with the Ark Times Bloggers and have used the examples given in Woody Allen’s movie “Crimes and Misdemeanors” to do so. With out God in the picture to punish the evildoers in an afterlife, then can people do anything they want because “might makes right.”
Without the infinite-personal God of the Bible to reveal moral absolutes then man is left to embrace moral relativism. In a time plus chance universe man is reduced to a machine and can not find a place for values such as love. Both of Francis Schaeffer’s film series have tackled these subjects and he shows how this is reflected in the arts.
Here are some posts I have done on the series “HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? : Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” , episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence”, episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation”, episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” , episode 6 “The Scientific Age” , episode 5 “The Revolutionary Age” , episode 4 “The Reformation”, episode 3 “The Renaissance”, episode 2 “The Middle Ages,”, and episode 1 “The Roman Age,” .
In the film series “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?” the arguments are presented against abortion (Episode 1), infanticide (Episode 2), euthenasia (Episode 3), and then there is a discussion of the Christian versus Humanist worldview concerning the issue of “the basis for human dignity” in Episode 4 and then in the last episode a close look at the truth claims of the Bible.
I asserted:
Mudturtle, I want to personally thank you for answering the question, ON WHAT BASIS IS MURDER WRONG?
Your response is:
Because I think it is wrong for me. Internally….Yes. Apparently Christians can sit around saying, “Is it OK to murder? I don’t know yet, I’m only on Genesis” whereas every other culture seems to know it inherently, whether they believe in the God of Abraham or not.
_________________
Why do you have that belief internally that murder is wrong?
The Bible tells us, “{God} has also set eternity in the hearts of men…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV). The secularist calls this an illusion, but the Bible tells us that the idea that we will survive the grave was planted in everyone’s heart by God Himself. Romans 1:19-21 tells us that God has instilled a conscience in everyone that points each of them to Him and tells them what is right and wrong (also Romans 2:14 -15). THAT IS WHY YOU (MUDTURTLE) SAY THAT MURDER IS WRONG AND THAT OTHER CULTURES SAY THAT TOO!!!
It’s no wonder, then, that one of your own fellow humanists would comment, “Certain moral truths — such as do not kill, do not steal, and do not lie — do have a special status of being not just ‘mere opinion’ but bulwarks of humanitarian action. I have no intention of saying, ‘I think Hitler was wrong.’ Hitler WAS wrong.” (Gloria Leitner, “A Perspective on Belief,” THE HUMANIST, May/June 1997, pp. 38-39)
Here Leitner is reasoning from her God-given conscience JUST LIKE YOU DO MUDTURTLE, and not from humanist philosophy. It wasn’t long before she received criticism. Humanist Abigail Ann Martin responded, “Neither am I an advocate of Hitler; however, by whose criteria is he evil?” (THE HUMANIST, September/October 1997, p. 2)
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MOVIE ‘CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS” WHEN JUDAH STRUGGLED AT FIRST WITH THIS CONSCIENCE BUT THEN KILLED HIS OWN CONSCIENCE IN ORDER TO TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT. Look at how Romans 1 describes this process:
18 For God’s [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.
19 FOR THAT WHICH IS KNOWN ABOUT GOD IS EVIDENT TO THEM AND MADE PLAIN IN THEIR INNER CONSCIOUSNESS, BECAUSE GOD (HIMSELF) HAS SHOWN IT TO THEM.
20 FOR EVER SINCE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, HAVE BEEN MADE INTELLIGIBLE AND CLEARLY DISCERNIBLE in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification],
21 Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and [a]godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves].
(By the way did you notice the two evidences given every person that God exists? In verse 19 we see the conscience put in everyone that tells a person that there is more than just breath in their body and in verse we see the testimony of the creation that everyone sees around them!!!)
Judah ‘s final conclusion was that might did make right. He observed that one day, because of this conclusion, he woke up and the cloud of guilt was gone. He was, as his aunt said, “home free.”
Woody Allen has exposed a weakness in his own humanistic view that God is not necessary as a basis for good ethics. There must be an enforcement factor in order to convince Judah not to resort to murder. Otherwise, it is fully to Judah ‘s advantage to remove this troublesome woman from his life.
The secularist can only give incomplete answers to these questions: HOW COULD YOU HAVE CONVINCED JUDAH NOT TO KILL? ON WHAT BASIS COULD YOU CONVINCE JUDAH IT WAS WRONG FOR HIM TO MURDER?
As Christians, we would agree with Judah ‘s father that “The eyes of God are always upon us.” Proverbs 5:21 asserts, “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths.” Revelation 20:12 states, “…And the dead were judged (sentenced) by what they had done (their whole way of feeling and acting, their aims and endeavors) in accordance with what was recorded in the books” (Amplified Version). The Bible is revealed truth from God. It is the basis for our morality. Judah inherited the Jewish ethical values of the Ten Commandments from his father, but, through years of life as a skeptic, his standards had been lowered. Finally, we discover that Judah ‘s secular version of morality does not resemble his father’s biblical-based morality.
Related posts:
The Daily Hatch 