‘The Whale’ Exposes Religion for What It Is — a Remnant of the Dark Ages
This Brendan Fraser comeback vehicle is more than just a tearjerker — it’s a well-told family drama as well as an incisive critique of religion.
“The Whale” hit movie theatres late last year after debuting at the Venice International Film Festival where Brendan Fraser received a 6-minute standing ovation for his tour-de-force performance.
The movie is a moving portrait of a man in search of redemption for his past transgressions. But what blew me away was the incisive commentary on Christianity peppered throughout its nearly two-hour runtime.
Before we delve into the specifics, let me warn you that there are plenty of spoilers ahead. If you haven’t watched the movie yet but are planning to, I suggest you bookmark this page and read the rest of the piece after you’ve seen it.
As you probably know, Mr. Fraser plays Charlie, a morbidly obese man, who makes his living teaching remote classes on writing.
In the opening scene, when Charlie’s in the middle of something, he’s interrupted by a door-to-door missionary. A teenager named Thomas barges in and greets Charlie, who looks puzzled by the arrival of this unexpected guest. Shortly after, they get into a conversation but never really touch upon the topic of religion.
However, in that same scene, a while later, Charlie’s best friend Liz reveals: “My dad forced me to go [to church] when I was a kid. It was awful growing up with all that end times b******t.” And asks Thomas, “You’re young; why the hell would you want to believe that the world is about to end?”
“I believe that when Christ returns, it’s going to be beautiful.”
Cut to two days later, Thomas pays Charlie another visit. This time around, he hands Charlie a few brochures from his church and tells him, “Christ’s return has been promised for centuries. But there are a lot of clues in scripture that suggest it’s imminent. So that means that we don’t have time to deny the gospel. We don’t have the luxury of —”.
Charlie cuts him off to ask, “You really think the world is gonna end soon?”
“I mean… the Bible says that no one shall know the day or the hour, but yeah, I think we’re probably living in end times,” comes the reply.
Charlie enquires, “And that doesn’t bother you?”
“No, I think it’s amazing. The idea that there’s a better world coming to replace this one. That all the terrible things about this country, this planet, will just get wiped clean, replaced with something pure…”
I think now’s the perfect time to segue into my personal journey, which involves my transition from being an agnostic to a practicing Christian, and eventually, my decision to leave religion behind and embrace atheism.
From skepticism to belief and back
For the record, pop culture has always been very cynical in its portrayal of Christianity. “The Last of Us,” “Don’t Look Up,” “X” (2022) and “Squid Game” are some of the recent movies and shows I can think of off the top of my head. Not to mention the countless cartoons, music videos, commercials and what have you dissing religion and religious folks.
And it’s sad that it’s usually Christianity that’s called out. I can name at least two other religions whose ideologies and customs are just as conservative and outdated.
Alright, back to my story.
The lockdowns implemented during the pandemic were rough — mentally and emotionally. I was stuck in a rut, and I was desperately looking for a magic pill to help me escape the clutches of depression.
Just when I’d given up hope, a friend, out of the blue, asked me if I’d read the Bible. I hadn’t at that point, but I was open to the idea. They suggested that I start with one of the four Gospels — the Book of John.
I obliged, and thus began my journey as a believer.
Initially, I did it out of politeness, but soon I started enjoying and savoring each and every word I read. The Bible spoke to me in a way that no other book ever had before. Buoyed by the positive changes and with a little push from my friend, I soon started attending the Sunday service at a nearby church.
I got to admit, I experienced a strong sense of community and belonging at the church. The lively exchanges I started having with my newfound Christian friends about Bible verses became fodder for my brain and soul, improving my mental health considerably.
But here’s the thing: I noticed that the majority of them do believe strongly in the end-times prophecy. And just like Charlie, I was dumbfounded by this belief of theirs. The rational me just couldn’t buy into the concept of the afterlife. The idea seemed so far removed from reality that I’d always roll my eyes (figuratively speaking) whenever someone brought up the topic of the Second Coming. Or if I came across any verses alluding to it when reading the Bible.
“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.”
― Richard Dawkins
And don’t even get me started on Jesus’s resurrection. Well, Jesus surviving the crucifixion and coming out of the tomb on the third day is still somewhat plausible. But the image of Jesus levitating straight into heaven is as bizarre as it is silly.
Now, let’s get back to the conversation between Thomas and Charlie.
“Did you… like it?” Thomas asks Charlie after he discloses that he’s read the Bible twice.
“I thought it was… devastating. God creates us, expels us from paradise, then we wander around for thousands of years killing each other before he comes back to save 144,000 of us. Meanwhile, the other seven and a half billion of us fall into hell.”
“Yeah, that’s not really how I interpret it, but Charlie, you have to understand — God hasn’t turned his back on you. If you accept him, he’s going to release you from this, he’s going to take your soul out of this body and give you a new body, one made of pure light. Don’t you want that?”
The God hasn’t turned his back on you message is what really resonated with me when I first started reading the Gospel.
Growing up Hindu, I don’t think I heard any stories about an altruistic god or goddess sacrificing their life to cleanse humanity of its sins. So it was refreshing to read about an ordinary man sacrificing his life to atone for our mistakes.
“Theology is ignorance with wings.”
― Sam Harris
However, after a while, common sense took over, and questions such as “If God will only save people who accept and believe in him, what about people of other faith who’re just as faithful to their god or deity? Doesn’t their faith amount to something?” started to niggle at the back of my mind.
Despite the skepticism, I confess I loved reading the Bible, especially the Epistles of Paul. Take Ephesians 4:29, for instance:
Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
The New Testament is filled with such gems.
Take it from me, by reading and incorporating Jesus’s teachings into your daily life, you’ll find the key to bringing order to your existence.
I had had suicidal thoughts since my teenage years. I just couldn’t rid myself of this and other negative thoughts for a long time. I immersed myself in my work, worked out like a maniac and even took a break from social media — to no avail.
But those thoughts vanished into thin air once Bible reading sessions became part of my daily routine. And for the first time ever, I felt like I’d found my life’s purpose.
You’re probably wondering, if the Bible had such a profound effect on my psyche, why on earth did I turn my back on Christianity?
I’m getting there.
The cognitive dissonance of religious dogma
Let’s start with this snarky exchange between Thomas and Charlie’s daughter, Ellie, which takes place just minutes before the one between Thomas and Charlie mentioned above.
Thomas goes: “I, uh. Charlie was interested in hearing more about my church. I brought some literature and I thought that — ”
“Are you like a Mormon?” interrupts Ellie.
“No, I, uh… I’m from New Life.”
“Ohhh. That end times cult thing.”
“It’s not a cult.”
“I’ll tell you one thing I like about religion.
“What I like about religion is that it assumes everyone is an idiot and that they’re incapable of saving themselves. I think they got something right with that,” declares Ellie.
“Well, I don’t really — ”
“But what I don’t like about religion is that when people accept Jesus or whatever, they suddenly think they’re better than everyone else. That by accepting the fact that they’re stupid sinners, they’ve somehow become better, and they turn into a******s.”
“I don’t really know what to say, I have some pamphlets.”
I found the entire scene rather hilarious but thought-provoking nonetheless.
Ellie is right on the money with her observation, especially this part — they suddenly think they’re better than everyone else.
I’ve noticed this pattern of thinking among some of my religious friends, too. Not necessarily that they’re better than everyone else, but that their worldview is faultless. They usually take this moral high ground because they believe that:
- The Bible is infallible
- Their interpretation of the Bible, or their pastor’s, is more accurate than the person next to them
I find this mind-boggling — that believers readily accept that text written eons ago as the absolute truth without considering the times and circumstances they were written in. Then use it as a yardstick to form opinions on contemporary issues such as LGBTQ and abortion rights.
I wonder if they realize that by completely disregarding qualities like critical thinking — so essential to make sense of today’s socio-political issues — they’re essentially excluding themselves from getting involved in any sort of intellectual discourse about those topics. Consequently, they continue to stay in the dark and remain oblivious to the changing norms around them.
“We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That’s it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.”
― Sam Harris
The “us vs. them” or an anti-pluralistic mindset is also alarmingly widespread in Christendom, with many believing that the broader world is out to get them or attack their faith. This is a shared trait among most (conservative) religious folks and cuts across state and country lines.
“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.”
― Richard Dawkins
But the numerous atrocities that were and continue to be committed in the name of God, directly contradicting Jesus’s universal message of love and compassion for fellow beings, were the last straw for me.
Religion has forever been used as a political tool by the rich and powerful to push their agenda, as seen in the Crusades during the Middle Ages, the witch trials in most of Europe during the same period, the colonization of the New World in the sixteenth century, and the present-day abortion crisis in America.
All of this got me thinking: Do I really need God to lead a righteous life?
Can’t I just apply the lessons I learned from the Bible, such as love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness and tolerance, without identifying myself as a member of a particular community?
And thus, I decided to take a break from religion once and for all.
“The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism.”
― Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Despite my reservations about organized religion, I cannot stress enough the role the Bible played in ensuring my mental, emotional and spiritual well-being during the pandemic. The lessons I learned then are still in some way helping me become a better human being.
Now instead of God, I’ve started to devote my time and energy to ensuring the well-being of people around me.
To all those folks who think humanity is doomed and that we need some sort of a divine intervention to set things right, I’ll leave you with one of Charlie’s iconic lines from the movie: “Do you ever get the feeling that people are incapable of not caring?”
