New Movie - Heaven Is for Real

Psiclops

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Here's some info and a trailer for this new movie based on the book of the same title dealing with a little boy's NDE.
The Christians, in the comments at the original link, seem to be knocking it, so maybe it is worth seeing!
I guess it's my personal prejudice but I tend to be less keen on NDE stories which use the word heaven and the participants meet Jesus.

But it's all cultural, I argue with myself, the Buddhists meet Buddha and the Christians meet Christ etc, so I mustn't get hung up on the apparent religious apartheid.

I'm never quite sure whether we can back that up with evidence - statistics anyone?
 
One of the problems is that stories get filtered and re-filtered. For example, someone may write a fictional novel. Or maybe write a book retelling true events. But in either case, by the time it gets made into a movie, it's almost certain that some elements will have been added, removed, distorted, rearranged in various ways.

So in the case of an NDE account, not only is there whatever interpretation takes place on the part of the original experiencer, but in addition, all the subsequent changes before the final result hits the big screen. I guess the main positive thing I take from such movies is not whether it is a good or bad film, but simply that it helps to get the ideas publicised and talked about.
 
Ughh. Really not happy about this one. And I don't think that many Christians will have trouble with it! That book is one of those fundamentalist Christian NDEs, with Satan, etc. It's come into criticism because it's the story of the little boy and his experience as told by his father, an evangelical pastor, and there are a lot of concerns over that and other aspects.

Here's a non-evangelical Christian blog review of it that gives a portrait of what the book's about and presents criticisms:
http://thinking-christian.blogspot.ca/2011/12/book-review-heaven-is-for-real.html
There are a number of reasons one should be highly sceptical of this book. Firstly, Colton was just 4 years old when he began to talk about his experience mostly prompted by his father. (...)

Secondly, why so many months and years for the story to develop – with the prompting of the parents? (...)

Thirdly, the “information” provided by Colton is so obviously consistent with an evangelical fundamentalist view that it is not hard to see it has being informed by this culture as he grew up. Colton’s father is a pastor and he admits to reading Bible stories to Colton as he grew up. (...)
.
Fourthly, Colton’s father holds to a literalist reading of the biblical Book of Revelation which most people quite rightly understand to be highly symbolic and figurative. (...)

Fifthly, if Colton’s descriptions of God on thrones with angels using swords to keep Satan out of heaven are to be taken literally, then God has been caught in an Old Testament era time warp. (...)

Finally, the idea that Colton has told them a few things that he just couldn’t have known about is highly unlikely. Church communities are renowned gossiping communities and it is much more reasonable to assume that he heard some of these things than to believe they are supernaturally revealed.

More details/comments here:
http://readitorskipit.blogspot.ca/2011/04/book-heaven-is-for-real-by-todd-burpo.html
- The dads will take swords and fight with Jesus and the angels against Satan and his dragons and monsters
- there's going to be a "war" and that "women and children stand back and watch" while "good men, Jesus, and angels" battle satan and Jesus wins - pg 136
- Soon there will be a big war between "bad people", demons and monsters against believers, God and Jesus. Jesus wins and throws Satan into hell. "I saw it dad"
- Satan will be thrown into hell (Am I wrong or does the Bible in Revelation state that Satan will be cast into "the lake of fire" along with hell? But not cast into hell.)
- God zaps pastors with power when they preach
- we enter heaven through wide golden pearly gates
- boy said Jesus had "markers" on his hands and feet
- Despite what you might have heard in the media, the boy doesn't die. His heart doesn't stop, his brain didn't flat-line... there's no actual 'near death' nor actual-death involved.
- 'Heaven is for Real' is a pro-Christian, anti-abortion publication, written by a Christian pastor, and ghost-written by Lynn Vincent who acted as ghost-writer for Sarah Palin's book 'Going Rogue'.
- But the deal breaker for me in this piece of fiction is that it is far too full of biblical references the dad makes to try and convince us that his kid has been to heaven. These references fit with 'his' interpretation of life after death, based on his specific religious beliefs/theology (Wesleyan (as opposed to Calvinist)), which are very concrete.
- His father is a minister or pastor, and his mom is a youth-minister too, so he's heard and been exposed to this stuff around the clock
- the boy declares that only people in heaven are people who espouse his religious faith is reason enough to declare this book a fraud

Also see here:
http://www.discerningtruth.org/show...rpo-s-%91Heaven-Is-for-Real-A-Skeptics-Review
I find the book is essentially a boy's authentic OBE (Out of Body Experience) falsely aggrandized as a NDE (Near Death Experience) coupled with Christian modeled precepts of heaven.
 
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Well thanks for that Ian! One good thing about this forum is that it's stock full of folk in the know.
As the son of a Pentecostal pastor - I'll steer clear of this one!
 
I bought the book when it came out - along with one along similar lines: The Boy Who Came Back To Heaven, with Kevin & Alex Malarkey, that was also a bestseller: evangelic, father relates the child's story. I bought them before I knew what they were about. They might sit there and gather dust for quite a while. :D
 
- the boy declares that only people in heaven are people who espouse his religious faith is reason enough to declare this book a fraud

I wish I had read that statement first instead of last. Could have saved myself 2 mins of reading :D

Yup movie looks to be a radical religious propoganda piece. I've noticed this happening a bit on youtube now actually... you look for "NDE" and instead of documentaries you get wild claims of "Child seeing God and evidence HELL is real!!!" and when you start watching it you can see without minutes it is a radical religious propoganda piece aimed at using the old tactic of fear to get people into religion.
 
I wish I had read that statement first instead of last. Could have saved myself 2 mins of reading :D

Yup movie looks to be a radical religious propoganda piece. I've noticed this happening a bit on youtube now actually... you look for "NDE" and instead of documentaries you get wild claims of "Child seeing God and evidence HELL is real!!!" and when you start watching it you can see without minutes it is a radical religious propoganda piece aimed at using the old tactic of fear to get people into religion.
There is an awful lot of that happening on youtube. I'm sure that some of the accounts used in that way may be based upon some genuine experience, but it has been fictionalised in order to act as religious propaganda. And I'm also pretty sure that some of the accounts are either mostly or entirely works of fiction.

To me the NDE experiences are neutral, they just are what they are. But I've a feeling that some radical groups have felt threatened by such accounts, and are actively fighting the tide of truth by generating deliberate misinformation.
 
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