Monday, February 11, 2008
What the Bleep
A friend recommended this movie to me, as we've had a few talks about science and religion. I was curious to see it but I'm glad I didn't read the reviews beforehand. The quick version is, its not very good, in fact its quite bad from the standpoint of explaining quantum physics which is what the goal seems to be at the start. But then it moves to bio-chemistry which isn't terribly mysterious. Then it gets into some stupid shit like how thoughts affect the pattern of a snowflake. Quite possibly the best moment is at the very end of the movie when it explains the credentials of the people interviewed, if you want to know why its great you'll just have to go here. Its a way better review including the problems with the limited science thats included and an amazing screen shot, without which you wouldn't believe this persons credentials....
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4 comments:
Incorrect sir! It's not how thoughts affect the pattern of a snowflake, it is in fact how intentions affect water molecules!
Did you read the review I linked to? That was one of the many problems with that film. Yes those were water molecules, water molecules that had been frozen. Intentions or no, water only takes the form of a crystal when its below its melting point. The film was entertaining but it did a pretty lousy job explaining quantum physics, the only part it did well was the analogy of the many basketballs, but even that they screwed up by then making some inane assumptions from that. Poor Heisenburg.
yes from someone who knows about physics it does not do a great job about explaining, but to someone who knows not very much about physics it does a decent job.
My concern is for people who don't know physics. They may leave thinking they have learned a little about science and about how the world works, unfortunately most of the really interesting stuff in the movie is not based on science. Thats not to say they are definitely wrong, just that the hypothesis has not be throughly studied, although in some cases they were just wrong. Like the prayers that reduced violent crimes by 25% what they forgot to mention is that Murders actually increased during the same time period, some would consider that an important statistic.
People are free to believe any thing they want so long as its not harming others. If it makes someone feel better to believe the stuff in that movie then thats great, there was no beliefs in there that I can see doing harm. The reason I still attack it is because they debase science by claiming that these ideas are based in science when they are not.
If instead of claiming this was based on science they had said these were the teachings of a 35,000 year old spirit warrior named Ramtha being channeled through the odd woman in the movie named J.Z. Knight then I would take no offense at the movie. But they didn't, at least not till the very end, no instead they claimed this was based on quantum physics which no one really understands anyway which allows them to make such claim with an air of authority they have no earned, that is why I take offense at this movie. my old english teacher would love that run-on sentence.
Fair enough? Later everyone
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