Defying Gravity: Discussion thread for the remaining episodes.

[Archangel]

Changing the url on that ch131.com site, it says episode 10 will be posted tonight.

Also, Paula is getting to be more annoying that Wass. It's as if someone like Trent Roman is writing for her with the way her religious beliefs are portrayed.

I was thinking the same thing, it's as though she's being written by a raging atheists idea of a religious person.

 

[Chris_Johnston]

^^^ Dunno what you mean by "raging atheist". All the Fundies I've met act pretty much exactly like Paula. If you make the mistake of admitting that you don't share their beliefs, you get a whole lotta rage spillin' onto you. Or else a condescending shake of the head. It varies.
Atheists just try to avoid religious folk... unless we're cooped up with one for six years in a tin can. (Maybe they should've tested for that.)

 

[Christopher]

Guess I have to wait for this to hit DVD. ABC sucks, they could have at least ran the last couple of episodes on a Saturday night or some other dead spot on their schedule.

According to ABC, they haven't permanently cancelled the show; they simply didn't have time on their schedule to run all 13 episodes before the fall season began, so they're postponing the rest for later broadcast when the opportunity becomes available. At least, that's what they say.

^^^ Dunno what you mean by "raging atheist". All the Fundies I've met act pretty much exactly like Paula. If you make the mistake of admitting that you don't share their beliefs, you get a whole lotta rage spillin' onto you. Or else a condescending shake of the head. It varies.

The point is that most religious people aren't as extreme as that, and dwelling on the extreme members of a group is a common way for its antagonists to stereotype and demonize it (like the way religious bigots portray Islamist militants as being typical Muslims rather than the extreme minority they really are). If the show's only overtly religious character is a raging fundamentalist like Paula and there's no more positive depiction to balance it, that could be interpreted as a slam against Christianity in general.

At the very least, it's wildly implausible that someone so intolerant would ever have been cleared to participate on a spaceship crew like this, because that attitude would obviously create serious conflicts between her and others in the crew.

 

[Archangel]

^^^ Dunno what you mean by "raging atheist". All the Fundies I've met act pretty much exactly like Paula. If you make the mistake of admitting that you don't share their beliefs, you get a whole lotta rage spillin' onto you. Or else a condescending shake of the head. It varies.
Atheists just try to avoid religious folk... unless we're cooped up with one for six years in a tin can. (Maybe they should've tested for that.)

BULLSHIT

Have you ever read TNZ?

 

[Chris_Johnston]

Have you ever read TNZ?

Isn't that the website with all the gossip "news"?

 

[Count Zero]

Have you ever read TNZ?

Isn't that the website with all the gossip "news"?

No, that's TMZ. TNZ is short for 'The Neutral Zone', the political forum of TrekBBS. It's normally invisible unless you join the user group in your User CP.

Man, I really want to see the last episodes of this show but it seems to be impossible until a non-specified point in the distant futire...

 

[Christopher]

Have you ever read TNZ?

Participants in Internet bulletin boards, especially ones like TNZ, are not statistically representative of the general population (both because of the tiny sample size, mere dozens or hundreds of people, and because it's a self-selected sample with certain common characteristics rather than a broad, random cross-section of the population) and cannot be used as evidence of any widespread pattern of human behavior.

 

[Trent Roman]

Also, Paula is getting to be more annoying that Wass. It's as if someone like Trent Roman is writing for her with the way her religious beliefs are portrayed.

Thank you; I've always made a point not to sugar-coat our flaws as a species or culture, particularly the popular ones.

All the Fundies I've met act pretty much exactly like Paula. If you make the mistake of admitting that you don't share their beliefs, you get a whole lotta rage spillin' onto you. Or else a condescending shake of the head. It varies.

By fundy standards, Morales is actually a pretty nice one--vivacious without being manic, and pleasant enough outside of her screed episodes, although you never know what'll set these people off. There are plenty who won't even glance your way other than to condemn you to their hell.

The point is that most religious people aren't as extreme as that, and dwelling on the extreme members of a group is a common way for its antagonists to stereotype and demonize it (like the way religious bigots portray Islamist militants as being typical Muslims rather than the extreme minority they really are).

There's nothing like the smell of apologetics in the morning--like a freshly manured field.

At the very least, it's wildly implausible that someone so intolerant would ever have been cleared to participate on a spaceship crew like this, because that attitude would obviously create serious conflicts between her and others in the crew.

Quite so--in fact, one of my first questions on seeing the pilot, as I recall, was: "Who let a fundy aboard a spaceship?" But, of course, we now have the answer: Beta did. Just as with Wass, who seemed too abrasive and inept in many ways to have made it through the program, the alien entity has 'chosen' Morales, for whatever reasons known only to it at this point. In Wass' case, apparently because he was in a prime position to understand the underlying physics of the object; if what we've seen holds, Beta has a reason for wanting her aboard, which makes her instability more of side-issue (and hardly unique, on this crew; hasn't pretty much everybody had a breakdown or withdrawal at this point?).

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Aragorn]

"Our" flaws? How did everyone who doesn't think and act like you become "our"?

 

[Trent Roman]

What kind of question is that? We're all human; I don't abrogate swathes of the species over ideological differences, nation, biology or any of the other things we've invented to divide ourselves from ourselves. The problems of the collectivity are also the problem of the individual (particularly in this case, where individuals are targeted). Casting blame where blame is due is legitimate, but responsibility must also be accepted.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Archangel]

What kind of question is that? We're all human; I don't abrogate swathes of the species over ideological differences, nation, biology or any of the other things we've invented to divide ourselves from ourselves. The problems of the collectivity are also the problem of the individual (particularly in this case, where individuals are targeted). Casting blame where blame is due is legitimate, but responsibility must also be accepted.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

No you just attack and insult Christians at every opportunity. Must be a side affect of being "open minded" and enlightened.

 

[Trent Roman]

Well, that's just being polite, innit? See, the Christians have this rule that says 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' And since I believe in treating people the way they want to, I treat them the way they do others, since, following this logic, that's what they want for themselves as well. Though I'll admit, I haven't quite got the resources to pull off millenia of repression and murder.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Aragorn]

So what's your stance toward people who like to stereotype and label others?

 

[Archangel]

So what's your stance toward people who like to stereotype and label others?

It's only stereotyping if you don't agree with Trent, otherwise it's just the truth.


It's funny that the Evengelical Atheists are just as pushy and condescending as the "Fundies" they loathe so much.

 

[T J]

Changing the url on that ch131.com site, it says episode 10 will be posted tonight.

Also, Paula is getting to be more annoying that Wass. It's as if someone like Trent Roman is writing for her with the way her religious beliefs are portrayed.

I was thinking the same thing, it's as though she's being written by a raging atheists idea of a religious person.

I admit I seemed that way to me as well... Over the top-non-normal stereotype.

Hummm... it seems the libbys run Hollywood, who'd have guessed it?!

 

[Christopher]

Hummm... it seems the libbys run Hollywood, who'd have guessed it?!

First of all, Defying Gravity isn't made in Hollywood, it's an international co-production shot in Canada.

Second, Hollywood is a profit-making industry. It's therefore run by billionaires, who are generally conservative.

Third, most liberals aren't hostile to religion per se, just to religiously-motivated attempts to take away people's freedom (including their freedom to practice any religion they choose). Rabid atheists are anything but liberal in the literal sense of the word (i.e. free-thinking, open-minded, fair and tolerant).

 

[Trent Roman]

It's only stereotyping if you don't agree with Trent, otherwise it's just the truth.

I beg your pardon, but the correct term is "a searing insight into the human condition". Get it right, yo.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[pornografix]

I come here looking for s1e10 but all I find is hollytrash polemic canucks?? anyway this is what i got http://stagevu.com/video/iveapasmnciu

 

[1001001]

Episode 10...

Okay, I guess. Nothing really happened, except Paula's "episode", which was to be expected.

Thanks again to whomever pointed out these links. At least I get to finish it.

 

[Chris_Johnston]

My main glitch with this episode was: Precisely what the hell was Rollie doing messing with a handheld phone while driving, if this is supposed to be 2052?
We've already outlawed that!
Oh, and didn't I recently see a car commercial from some company that's putting radar sensors in their new models? One would think that technology would've advanced a little by 2052.
And why is Wass scrounging for modeling materials like dental floss & drinking straws? Couldn't they pack him up a nice deluxe Zometool set? Or don't they have 3D Holographic emitters?