{"id":146148,"date":"2026-06-25T17:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=146148"},"modified":"2026-06-25T18:50:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:50:01","slug":"ru-steven-spielbergs-disclosure-day-should-have-listened-to-religious-people-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=146148","title":{"rendered":"(RU) Joseph Holmes–Steven Spielberg\u2019s \u2018Disclosure Day\u2019 Should Have Listened To Religious People More"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In some ways, this is remarkably astute socio-religious commentary. Sociologists Ryan Burge and Jonathan Haidt have argued the same thing in their books \u201cThe Vanishing Church\u201d<\/a> and \u201cThe Anxious Generation\u201d<\/a> respectively. Human beings need a common worship of their shared values to be socially bonded in community-wide groups. And religious communities do that more effectively than any other social organization. Both Burge and Haidt largely attribute the growing divisions today to a lack of such a common religious social framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is also one of the many ways Spielberg\u2019s film feels out of touch. Religion hasn\u2019t fulfilled that unifying force function in America for decades. Today, aliens wouldn\u2019t disrupt any such religious glue holding together society because that ship has already sailed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also somewhat out of touch with how actual religious communities think about how their faith relates to aliens. Most Christian thinkers who\u2019ve actually dealt with the question are totally comfortable with the compatibility of Christianity and aliens<\/a>. CS Lewis literally made a whole sci-fi trilogy about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, as Ross Douthat explained in The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, religious people have \u201cthe fear of a particular kind of extraterrestrial encounter, where supposed brothers from another planet offer themselves as shepherds of our souls, and we have to decide whether it\u2019s a revelation or a grand deception.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Randal King writes<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t have a problem believing in his movie aliens. I\u2019m just not prepared to elevate them to deities who will fix us if we just listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

Disclosure Day is another example of how Hollywood misunderstands religion.

Ted Balaker argues that the Steven Spielberg thinks he\u2019s asking profound new questions about Christianity.
The problem is they\u2019re only new inside Hollywood\u2019s bubble.https:\/\/t.co\/pqZstj9qEt<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/gSZ6cPzs08<\/a><\/p>— The Coddling Movie (@CoddlingMovie) June 25, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>