I recently saw the movie ‘Paul’. Yes, I should have known better, but it had my name on it and it came out around my birthday, so I HAD to see it. (Don’t see it: contains sexual references, bad language, and goes nowhere). I had enjoyed a couple of Simon Pegg movies, so I was quietly optimistic. <Beware: contains spoilers>

Anyway, I was intrigued to see a very strong anti-God, anti-Christian message, which was really a throw away sub-plot. One of the characters, Ruth, was a one-eyed (literally) fundamentalist Christian and a creationist. In one scene, she argues the standard creationist arguments for life on earth, much to the disgust of the alien Paul, who gives her the standard evolutionary answers. Soon, in his frustration, he places his hand on her head and gives her some ‘Alien enlightenment’ about the origin of the universe, the truth about everything. She consequently sees that all that she has been brainwashed to believe (such as God) is make believe.

Atheists, like Richard Dawkins are still trying to do the same, so we can similarly be free of our superstitions and share in his wonderful enlightenment! The alien Paul obviously doesn’t believe in God, and Ruth later admits that he didn’t scare her, he “freed her’. Paul also cures her blind eye, and when she asks how he did it, he says “Evolution baby.” Talk about an evangelist!

Anyway, what is quite telling is that once Ruth was unshackled from her beliefs, she realised there was ‘no sin’. That’s classic! Can you hear the devil’s voice in that one? Plus she was now free to ‘curse and  fornicate’. That’s at least honest don’t you think? Even outspoken atheists don’t have enough guts to assert this sort of logic, saying that the rules and collective decisions of society help the individual and promote success or a happier life. I wonder if without God, she were now free to murder or steal or dis-honour her parents?

Luckily I had an encounter with Jesus. He did the real equivalent of an alien enlightenment flash on my brain, a bit like the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. I can’t explain it any better than that because I think differently now, and I can’t credit myself with having more brains than anyone else. I was the atheist who became a Christian and who sees the world through new eyes. I wouldn’t have even recognised the anti-god sub plot a few years back. Praise God he made himself known to me!

I prayed with a man seeking God, he had a belt buckle that had two menacing silver hands that locked around his waist. I prayed “Jesus, please show him who you are, he’s just like me, he believes and does the same things I used to, and I’m no better than him.” Anyway, for what its worth, the Movie Paul was the story of who I used to be, but never want to be again.