The Answer Man

For most people it is assumed that religion and belief have the same meaning, however this is not the case. In the film this week “The Answer Man”, directed by John Hindman, is a story about an author named Arlen Faber. Faber in the film is a best selling author, famously known for his book Me and God, leaving all of his readers with the question what he said to God. 

For 20 years Faber was successful in keeping his location a secret and never having to meet fans of his book and answer their questions. In his book he seems as if he has all the answers and has directly spoken to God himself. He portrays himself as knowing the key to fully understanding God. When we are introduced to Faber the last thought I had was that he would be an enlightened man himself. First thing we get to see is how he treats others around him, he is very grumpy and seems almost angry at the world. Faber himself does not seem as if he has the answers at all. It is very apparent that he himself doubts his own relationship with God.  Faber is introduced to different characters like Elizabeth, a mother, and bookshop owner Kris, who just finished rehab, he begins to question everything he once believed. For once he has to put his own beliefs aside and help the ones around him. 

For most of us we are just raised to believe this one thing and a lot of us are never asked “well what do you think?”,  we are just expected to go along with what we are taught. Just like Faber there are times where we doubt our beliefs or just have a moment of questioning. I think for a lot of people there are points where we question our beliefs because it is hard to fully believe in something that we may not have seen with our own eyes. 

I personally had moments of straying away from the religion I practice because of moments of doubt. When things seem to be going bad and you have the question “why me?”. Even if you are doing everything the way you are taught, how can you not question your own beliefs. It wasn’t the question of the culture of my religion but what my beliefs were and if my own personal beliefs lined up this religion.