The world has been pummeled by natural disasters and many regions have been devastated by terrorism and war in the past few years, a pattern that only seems to escalate with each passing week. It is frightening, this power of the earth, the horror of war and the inhumanity.

A recent letter to the editor published locally attributed everything from the regional drought in Tennessee to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the earthquakes and tsunamis in the region of Sumatra to the wrath of a God seeking our attention.

The author of that letter stated definitively that God:

“…created us with absolute free will. Consequently we can choose to live out our lives in reverential awe of him as our Creator or we can ignore him completely with no concern to obey his ways…

“Similarly, the Old Testament prophet Amos (circa 770 B.C.) declared to the nation Israel God’s efforts to reclaim the devotion and love of his people by the use of natural events: famine, scorching desert winds, plagues, war and drought.”

– Charles C. Currie, Leaf Chronicle, 8/8/07

The letter concluded with a statement that the Old Testament provides the answers; if we fail to “discern [God's] ways” he may need to pressure us until we do.

I wouldn’t want to take this interpretation of God’s word as the way all religious people view it. When I hear stuff like this I know that it is chasing people away from religion and spirituality. The people who want God to be as insecure and punishing as they impose religion with stone cold walls that reason cannot penetrate.

I can understand why there has been a great battle between science and religion. If science says, shows, proves that we humans have created global warming, and that’s what is causing these hurricanes and natural disasters, then where’s the all-punishing God that we need to have on our side punishing those who would oppose him (and us)?

God, in the Old Testament, says it is okay to attack and kill your neighbors if they don’t believe in your God. Kill them all, wipe them out, and leave none alive; he says it over and over again like someone (a man) who’s trying to justify to himself all the atrocities that he’s committed. Oh, and it’s okay to take their daughters as your sex slaves.

In the Old Testament, the public stoning of adulterers is normal and expected.

Those are just two examples of things that do not fly in this day and age, unless we get rid of government, science, decency and freethinkers.

Jesus came along and set us straight; told us that God has to do with love, that it was wrong to use the house of worship to make money or scandalize. All people deserve love and are loved by God. Jesus had a problem with, actually got furious with, people who say one thing (like they represent God), and do another (like lie, cheat, and take advantage of “lesser” people, including their wives and families). Jesus didn’t feel as if he had to beat people at their own game (hate/fighting), and he would turn the other cheek. He wasn’t so insecure that he had to demand love from others.

Religion, as in the Old Testament, led the Dark Ages. Rules made by priests were stringently followed. The world was flat, the sun went around the earth, and anyone not agreeing with such beliefs could be killed. People accused of being witches were tortured and killed, their properties confiscated by the Church. Many thousands of innocent people were killed during those times, 80% of them women. And killing was a public spectacle. Besides “witches”, pagans, converts, the crusades, heretics, religious wars, Jews, and native peoples are people and movements on the “resisted religion/therefore killed” lists. Twentieth century extermination camps (besides the ones in Germany and Poland) also took too many lives in the name of religion. It’s enough to make us want to hate religion forever.

I found a synopsis on this at: http://www.truthbeknown.com/victims.htm

When people do not want to be continually controlled and punished, and they eventually find out that they no longer admire the people who are doing the punishing, they will revolt, at least in their minds. In the Dark Ages there were people who mouthed the words of religion while they were becoming atheists. Religious people find that they cannot live by the strict guidelines required of them, so they say one thing and do another. We’ve learned, as a people, to hide our true feelings and demand that others judge us by what we say we are, not by how we live our lives.

People cannot live by punishment alone. They need to have relief. They need to make their life worthwhile and creative, and find the spirit of love and laughter inside them. Saying that religion is about love and then using it to punish everyone who is not choosing it is insincere and unbelievable. The Renaissance was the period where people learned to read, and they read the Bible themselves. They discovered that it did not say what religious leaders were telling them. They discovered that they did not have to live their lives in punishment. Art and culture flourished. Punishment and death in the hands of the Church rescinded.

People came to America to escape religious persecution. They wanted to worship in their own way. That is what this country was founded on. It was not founded on Christianity as I have heard claimed in this part of the country. History is worth studying. Facts are worth looking at. Science is a worthy study. And life does not have to be an either/or. Science and religion can co-exist. We could all do with a little lesson from Jesus.

Nowadays I am taken aback by Christians who are not ashamed of the wrongful invasion into Iraq, the torture, rape and continued killing. Though many Christian ideals have saved us from slavery and war in the past, I have yet to see that now. I see Christians today who worship the almighty dollar, who believe that God chooses those who step on others to reach their goals.

I hope that we don’t forget spirituality just to spite the religious fanaticism that resides in our country. Education is desperately needed to bring us out of these Dark Ages.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The French title was chosen because in addition to the meanings of the English word it also refers to a Compere or Master of Ceremonies, which seemed to fit the role of travelling showman.

The film was rushed to make the deadline for Annecy, and has more technical faults that there is space to list, but was fun to do all the same. It was set to recorded music by Earthly Delights, who conduct medieval dances, rather like bush dancing or square dancing, in Canberra, Australia. John Garden composed it and plays the Hurdy Gurdy, which felt exactly right for the puppet stage.

The Stiltfrog puppets are latex build-up over wire, about 4 inches tall. The Fool has a cushion foam body, latex build-up hands, and a foam latex head. Adam and Eve are Sculpey over epoxy putty, then foam latex puppets. It was shot on a Nikon D70 which developed flicker, and was replaced by a D50 which flickered from the start, though not as much. Compositing was done in Mirage, with a couple of planet shots put together in Lightwave.

Update

Lionel I. Orozco from  Stop Motion Works commented about our posting of Nicks work at Clarksville Online. He has a point:

Nick Hilligoss has gone VIRAL? …. He is spotlighted in a local USA online paper/voice from Clarkesville, Tennessee. Read about it, L’Animateur by Nick Hilligoss (StopMoShorts also mentioned). Nick has been YouTubified, Yahoo Videofied, Google videodized, the French Koreus.com site and here, here, etc. etc. and so on. Where are the ’suits’ (producers), studios, ad agencies who can perhaps offer Nick some animation gigs, or commissions, contract? Nick shed his own blood, sweat, tears and personal $$$ to create L’Animateur. Always, Stop Motion struggling to get respect & recognition and astounding, the sometimes amazing quality of work with verrrrry low budgets. Can you imagine, the leaps & bounds of Stop Motion, if you threw just a little money at it? – Lionel I. Orozco  Updated: 06.04.07

So if you know anybody in the film business or advertising industry,  show them Nick’s work, and lets get him some exposure!

* The text in this article is based off of the authors description of this video on his submisssion at StopMoShorts.

Professor Robert Winston

The Story of God is an epic journey across continents, cultures and eras exploring religious beliefs from their earliest incarnations, through the development of today’s major world faiths and the status of religious faith in a scientific age.

The series examines the roots of religious beliefs in prehistoric societies and the different ways in which humanity’s sense of the divine developed.

It looks at the divergence between religions that worship a range of deities and those that represent strict monotheism.

Professor Winston says: “However you define God, and whether you believe in God or not, the world we live in has been shaped by the universal human conviction that there is more to life than life itself; that there is a ‘god’ shaped hole at the centre of our universe.

“We have come up with many different ways to fill that hole, with many gods or just one, with gods of hunting, gods of farming, gods of war and gods of sea and sky.”

The series begins with Professor Winston examining the religions which believe in many different gods and explores why mankind started to believe in God at all.

The answer to that question, says Professor Winston, can be found in the caves where our ancestors first approached their gods and in the fields where people still call on them for help, in the cities where our ancestors have been honoured and in the temples where the gods have been appeased with sacrifices.

“But most of all the answer,” says Professor Winston, “lies in the human desire to be united with something bigger than ourselves.”

He travels to the Gargas Caves in South West France where, he says, if the story of God has a beginning, it is to be found.

He examines mysterious stencilled hand prints from 27,000 years ago which appear to have one or more fingers missing – do these represent early humans’ attempts to reach out to God?

In India, Professor Winston explores the origins of Hinduism and the emergence of Brahman as the supreme being with many different forms.

Some experts believe that there may be 330 million gods across the Hindu faith and he looks at the notions of karma and reincarnation, also popular in Buddhism.

While there are those who believe in many gods there are also those who believe there is only one true God and Professor Winston delves into the past to discover the beginnings of monotheism.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are examined in order to understand the ideas they share about God and the issues that divide them.

Professor Winston goes in search of an answer to the centuries old question: ‘If God created humanity why does God allow humanity to suffer?’

Finally he explores how belief in God has been challenged in the modern world by secular ideas, in particular science.

He looks at those scientific disciplines (nuclear and astro-physics) where a convergence between faith and science seems possible.

Professor Winston ventures into vast underground laboratories in Switzerland where they are trying to prove the existence of the ‘God particle’ and speaks to an American geneticist who believes there is a God gene which predisposes some people to have religious or spiritual beliefs.

He also puts his own belief in God to the test with a mathematical formula that has been adapted to calculate the probability of God’s existence.

Part One of Three

Click here to view the embedded video.

Holding modern Christianity up to a bright spotlight, this bold and often hilarious new film asks the questions few dare to ask.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Your guide through the world of Christendom is former fundamentalist Brian Flemming, joined by such luminaries as Jesus Seminar fellow Robert M. Price, professor Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris and historian Richard Carrier.

See the movie the Los Angeles Times calls “provocative – to put it mildly.”

Hold on to your faith. It’s in for a bumpy ride.

It’s available for sale at their website, I’ve already bought a copy :)