A Short Film About a Young Atheist and his Religious Parents

Very very good, believable even(well save for the anger scene).   I will make sure to donate as soon as I can, but sadly I won’t be able to share that lovely movie with any of my friends(most likely) without giving my atheism away.

Hi NinjaFang. Thank you for your positive  words. It is sad that you must hide your atheism. We made this movie for people like you. Hopefully we can all be proud and open atheists one day.

Thanks for watching!
Emma (Producer of Parrot)

Sounds like some of the music is umm… “inspired” by Philip Glass’s “Opening”.

Really enjoyed it!

That was an excellent film. Honest, unflinching, yet sympathetic to every character. The family dynamics were portrayed exactly as I’ve seen them time and again.  Please make more films like this. I left a donation. 

That was an amazing film. What I loved most about it was that it seemed to me like every character were as much defined by what they said as by what they didn’t say. I really got an impression that these were real people walking on eggshells around each other, and who had more going on inside than they cared to let on. The most striking example of this is the scene where the priest is talking about not letting your faith falter.

The mom grabs her son’s hand and squeezes it as if to say “listen up now, son.” I think you could really tell by the expression on her face that this was something really important to her. Faith as comfort. And that she also thought this would be the clincher. That the self-evident Truth of what the priest was saying would obviously bring her prodigal son back into the fold. And it almost did. You can tell that Todd is at least considering it by the way he closes his eyes and caresses his brother’s crucifix.

He’s in a vulnerable state and it would be so easy for him to slip back into the comfort of the old faith and believe that his brother still exists in Heaven. But then, of course, the priest ruins the magical moment by inadvertently disrespecting Ed’s memory and saying nobody knew the merits of faith better than he. The priest (and the mother) really had a hook attached to Todd for a short while but they ruined it by snapping him back out of it by being so careless about what’s actually true, making Todd remember what a sham he and his brother really thought it was. Perhaps there was also a little bit of “No. I can’t believe this simply because it’s comforting now that Ed is dead. That’s not what he would have wanted” involved. Yes, I really got all that from that short scene. Which is why this film is amazing.

 Well  that  where  you are wrong , the club seen  was totally appropriate  for the context of the film.

lol “this video is not intended for public viewing” well then you shouldn’t have put it on the internet, dipsticks

follow this link :

 Women More Likely to be Perpetrators of Abuse as Well as Victims:

I wasn’t saying he sounds like an egalitarian, I was surmising that’s what he was aiming to sound like. In any case, and speaking only for myself, I have encountered the opinion that it’s ok or “cute” for a woman to slap a man. You quite often see it in films too. At least in the context of this film it wasn’t played for cuteness or laughs. I see it often in romantic comedies, where it’s passed off as ok. Often as a silly misunderstanding.

Excellent film and one that I hope is widely seen, especially by young atheists dealing with religious families. My husband and several close friends know of and share my atheism, but the rest of my devoutly Catholic family does not know and I doubt I’ll ever tell them. They live 1600 miles away, so they are unlikely to find out that I don’t go to church. It is painful to hide part of myself whenever I see them, but it’s for the best. My elderly mother would never accept it and would suffer greatly if she knew.

 How exactly should it have been more hard hitting?  Do you have any experience being the atheist/agnostic child of devoutly Catholic parents?  I do.  This is EXACTLY what happens.  It is a dead on portrayal of the interactions the family members have with each other.  The underlying tension is just right, the arguments, the reactions, everything.  Any more ‘hard hitting’ as you say it and it would have been completely unrealistic in my not-so-uninformed opinion.

So, Wonderful video, it does show real skill on both the part of the actors and the crew who produced it.  I found the ending lacked closure, but perhaps that is because I am personally Catholic.

That said, being a catholic and interested only in fairness of representation (I am not here to start something, only get that difference of opinion in), that I would never argue my faith the way it was argued in this video.  The reasons for believing are more complex in real life than they are presented here, and I don’t personally know anyone of faith who would outright reject anyone, especially their own child, in the way that was shown here.  And maybe those things were intentional, maybe not. 

And that’s all, much respect to you, well made video.

peace.

I know what you meant and I completely agree with you. He sounds too misogynistic, so it’s hard to take him seriously (as an egalitarian). I don’t see a lot of romance comedies, so I was unaware that there are so many movies nowadays where women slap men. American movies do love to portray violence of all flavors, so it’s no surprise. But no, it’s not cute to see a woman slap a man. Only a sexist would find pleasure in that. The problem is that society finds women abusers to be less threatening, but that’s just because women are in general less threatening (we’re physically weaker). However, that doesn’t negate the fact that what they are doing is just as equally wrong as men hitting women.

 I really liked the film, even though I didn’t live that experience myself. I was taken to church and even confirmed etc, but from about the age of 8 I was having doubts. My Dad stopped going to church when I was 10 not long after I was confirmed (and I clearly remember just thinking ‘well I don’t believe in this but I’ll do it anyway, it’s expected and if it’s true, then cool’) due to illness and I was really relieved about it.
Went to youth groups as a teen, felt hugely uncomfortable, but there weren’t really other places to socialise and get to go on outings without parents. The fear and hatred from the young people around me directed at people ‘not like them’ really bothered me, as did the way they worshipped and acted. Anyway, long story short, I ended up being just fine with my atheism though I’ve still not admitted it to my mother. She sees me as being ‘not religious’ rather than a staunch atheist reading blogs like this. :p

Anyway. Enough about my life. I saw the ending, and the character moving out of home, as finally being okay to say what he is and take responsibility.

I wish I could show this and talk about it with people on my forum but it’d cause all sorts of trouble. They would see it as a movie about people who don’t use their religion well, and of slacker atheists, rather than quite a stereotypical/frequent thing that happens and how religious people look to us, and a young man who realised as a child that he didn’t need it and it didn’t make sense.

 This wasn’t a video to convince people to be atheists. This was a video meant to depict the difficult interactions when an atheist child struggles to deal with their atheism around an authoritarian, religious parent. This wasn’t meant to be some kind of “have a controlling mother? Abandon faith….”

But perhaps since you are of the same in-group thinking as the mother, you may have felt attacked or something, so you responded in defense.

To be honest, I had no controlling parents when it came to religion, but I abandoned faith just the same.

“Ergo, they ceased to think of themselves as ‘believers’.”….

Your assertion that these kids just wanted to blow off church is countered by the direct line from the film, “I don’t believe in god, dad.” They didn’t just “cease to think of themselves as believers…. they intentionally stopped believing in a deity.

 You tottaly didn’t understand the film you dumb ass; go preach your bullshit else where.

Is it called Parrot, because religious nuts constantly repeat each other from generation to generation without having something intelligent or original to contribute? Sad…

 That’s what I figured too. It’s just a shame that parrots have gotten this reputation for repetition, since they (well, some of them) are actually quite clever.

Just gonna say, that’s a super scary way of portraying faith in a family. But yeah, whatever, nothing like appealing to emotion with stereotypes to make a point, I guess.

I think you’ve misunderstood something. It’s not a question of repeating yourself; it’s a question of simply repeating what you’ve been told.

Itareski, there were parts that were note for note taken from ‘Opening’ off of Glassworks.  While watching, I kept hoping that Philip Glass and his copyright lawyers didn’t know of this film  😉

I liked it a lot. Very good short. 

I’ve been atheist for as far back as I can remember…& that church scene brought back an old memory from when I was 100% baptist christian. Hard to believe now, but I wouldn’t even listen to rock music for it was devils’ music then. I am so glad I grew up & wised up about this religious brainwashing most parents do to their kids. Now I can’t believe how anyone with the slightest bit of intelligence can still believe in these gods…god, allah, etc…It’s good to know that there are many people out there with my non-belief, I guess you’d call it. There for a while, I thought I was the only atheist around. 

 I watched enough soccer broadcasts to not get hung up on the accent, but besides that I agree with Caribbeanbreeze1.  The level of quality of this film is absolutely stunning, from the very first shot.  This is brilliant work and I wish I had more than $15 in my account.  Please please make more films, and share them with Hemant so we all can see it!

Same here! I come from a southern baptist AND Pentecostal family (I KNOW! How awful!) I remember the last youth group we went on. I brought CDs that didn’t have profanity, sexual innuendos, or anything of the sort. I even had amazing classical guitar instrumentals and you know what every single person on the bus tried to do (including the youth pastor)? They tried to convince me to throw away my CDs at the next rest stop because they were going to take away the focus from god. I looked at them and said “No way! I worked 2 hours per CD to get these! Not everyone’s parents buy their stuff!” Granted, it was minimum wage back then but still. No one offered to “buy” my CDs at a discounted price in order to get rid of them. :/ Also, it was the last youth group trip I went on. 

Great little film!  I especially liked the “Luck is always fair” and “I didn’t deserve to die any less than anyone else,” comments.
That father sure was whipped…

both are good explanations, i think i like yours better. You cant unlearn atheism for comfort. A lie would be the only option.

I love how religious apologists can’t
find the spiritual strength from god to form a coherent argument and
result to the hit and run strategy so they don’t have to reply to
people who have completely obliterated their argument. Andy Weber you
are a coward, if you would have argued your faith differently then
say how you would. Your argument must not be any better since you
found no time to give it. I also love how religious people ALWAYS
resort to the better than thou argument when someone brings up a case
of people doing bad things in the name of their god. The 9/11
terrorist were not true Muslims because no true Muslim would ever do
that. All the priest in the Catholic church molesting kids were not
real Catholics. Yet, when it comes time to bash atheists they don’t
let us use that convenient excuse. BTW, I know a lot of people who
came out as gay and or atheist to their religious family who were
rejected and thrown out of their home in their teen years including
myself. On the Thinking Atheist podcast just this week there was a
fifteenth year-old who came out as atheist to his adoptive parents
and his mother told him that she was glad he was not her real son.
Guess she wasn’t a true christian either. Andy Weber, I guess you
are just a true Catholic and all the others aren’t doing it right.
It’s going to be very lonely in heaven for you. Also, atheism is not
a belief it is a lack of belief. There is no faith or deity or
doctrine. We all have our own opinions but we do not believe anything
even close to an organized belief system. Evolution is something
unrelated to atheism and I know a few atheist who’s skepticism
extends into the world of science. Lastly, people should shrug off
non-sense when they hear it. Why should I give “concrete
consideration” to a tale about a zombie lord who is his own father,
born of a virgin, attempting assisted suicide so that he no longer
requires humans to sacrifice animals to him to please his illogical
anger at mankind because the first man he created out of dust and the
first woman he created out of said mans rib got fooled by a talking
snake to eat fruit from a tree that god planted in front of them to
tempt them, like leaving candy on a table for a child, then decided
to punish all future generations because of the crime of their
ancestors and created hell because he loves us too much. Then god
decided that mankind was just not good enough for him so he killed
them all in a global flood and let a 600 yearold man repopulate the
earth with his sons and their wives and the cousin incest that
followed, guess that is why we don’t live to 600 anymore. If I told
you that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the Earth you would not
give me “concrete consideration.”
 

Congratulations on an excellent short!
I loved every single moment (although have to agree with the volume jump in the club scene).

It portrayed my family spot on, except my parents are Lutheran.  I still have not “come out” to them because you can see the reaction it generally tends to get,   I am fully grown and do not live at home, and the thought of the fall out I’d get terrifies me.   

very good, very good.

”
They did not like being in church and staying away from strip clubs. Ergo, they ceased to think of themselves as ‘believers’. ”

Did you watch the video? Maybe if you watch again you’ll notice him reading “A Brief History of Time” and “The Selfish Gene”.

Also you mention that “Facts do not speak for themselves. They must be understood in light of principles we have already taken up.”

Not really sure what this is supposed to mean, but I can assure you that by the very definition of a fact, it stands by itself and holds true by itself. 

 Do an experiment.  Tell your parents that you are now an atheist and keep this up for 48 hours before you explain that you were just pretending.  If your parents do not try all manner of psychological manipulations then they are very unusual or not very devote.

religion was made thousands of years ago to control people.. its ridiculous.. talking snake? virgin birth? rain for 40days and 40 nights? 2 of every animal around the world? parting the sea? Jesus raised from the dead? i don’t know how any body with the slightest amount of intelligence can believe this brainwashing manipulating load of crap here is a quote i find extremely true, think about every president’s speech they all thank “God” or “God bless America”.  Seneca the Younger 4 b.c.- 65 a.d.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Andy, I see it’s been 2 weeks so I don’t know if you’ll see this, but I thought your comment which was in good faith merited an answer better than the one’s you’d received.

First, we know and understand that not all Catholics/Christians are like this. Most of us have plenty of Christian family and friends whom we greatly love, and aren’t trying to tar all believers as evil. I myself came from a Catholic family, and left the faith at around the age of 19. Most of my family is Catholic, though most of them don’t know of my atheism so I’m not entirely sure how they’d react. This film wasn’t meant to portray the way all Catholics are. It was meant to portray a situation familiar to many atheists. This is something a lot of us DO go through. Also, showing the ways that religion brings out the worst in people is just as valid as showing the ways that religion brings out the best in people. Too many Christians want to point at all the good things done by people inspired by their faith, but if you point out people doing evil it’s waved away with a “well they’re not good/true Christians.” That isn’t a valid argument. Faith inspires all sorts of actions, both good and evil. We reject faith because we consider it invalid way of determining truth and correct action. Try to consider why anyone should find your determinations of what faith demands to be more valid than what someone else determines. Who determines who is a good/true Christian? Different arguments, Bible quotes, and simple personal faith can be used to back up wildly varying answers to the question.

Second, the idea that many Christians have that atheists just haven’t considered their ideas is simply untrue. Many of us WERE Christians are one point. We deeply understand these arguments and ideas and at one point in time may have found them convincing and held them close to us. But it was because we have considered them so thoroughly that we have come to reject them. We find the arguments lacking. We find gaps and flaws in the logic, wishful thinking taking the place of rigorous search for truth, and contradictions so severe as to render the ideas unbelievable. It isn’t that we haven’t considered your ideas. It is that we have considered them and have concluded that you do not have just as logical an argument for your position as ours. If it appears that people are not considering what you have to say, it is likely because as atheists we encounter the same arguments – arguments we’ve previously considered, rejected, and then argued against a hundred times – again and again and grow tired of it. This doesn’t make it ok to be completely rude to someone who is coming to you in good faith, but I wanted to at least offer and explanation for what you’ve encountered.

Not all atheists have to be the militant type, forcing their dogma on others just as the religious force theirs. Many of us are just quietly atheistic, happy in our lack of faith while still accepting others beliefs. I don’t think you’ve read much into the film if you think atheists become so simply for convenience, and standing up to religious parents who’ve force fed you this nonsense from birth is no easy matter, as plenty of others testified.