Faith and Science: An Analysis of the Film Bruce Almighty

This paper analyzes the film Bruce Almighty and differentiates between factual information, inferences, and judgement based on the concept of the film. It also discusses the importance of faith and situational attribution over personal attribution.

Running head: FAITH AND SCIENCE
FAITH AND SCIENCE
Name of the Student
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Author Note

1FAITH AND SCIENCE
The purpose of the paper is to draw an analysis of the film Bruce Almighty released in
the year 2003. The film stars Jim Carrey (Bruce Nolan) and Jennifer Aniston (Grace Connelly)
as the lead actor and actress respectively. The film is based on how n a man named Bruce who
was as a TV journalist for his living and is not able to get a chance of doing something
significant in the company due to his colleague’s better competency levels. Grace, Bruce’s
girlfriend, is the only person who makes Bruce feel that everything will be fine in his life (Rotten
Tomatoes, 2008). This paper also attempts to differentiate between terms like factual
information, inferences and judgement play based on the concept of the film where a man like
Bruce turns into an avid believer of faith from a complete non-believer.
The film Bruce Almighty is film that revolves around a character called Bruce Nolan who
has completely stopped believing the fact that God (almighty) is capable enough to run this
world because of all the bad luck he comes across on a daily basis from his social to professional
life. Faith is something that is strongly based on an individual’s spiritual conviction rather than
any real-life proof. Faith in an individual is imbibed as a process of inheriting the culture from
his/her ancestors and this is how a man starts believing in an unseen all-powerful spirit, who is
perceived as the maker of every phenomena of the world. Though, there are people who believe
that every phenomenon in this world has to have a scientific reason behinds their inception and
that nothing happen at the will of an unseen entity. These individuals give more emphasis on
science and evolution rather than any personal conviction. Bruce developed a negative attitude
towards God, based on his inference that God (almighty) has only planned bad luck in his life.
Inferences are a result of reasoning an individual does based on evidences (Estalrrich & Rosas,
2013). Furthermore, the scene where Bruce accepts that a human being would be able to govern
the world better was based on Bruce’s personal attribution towards God (almighty) that was

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based on the suffering people still had to go through (including Bruce) even after praying to God
(almighty) every day. Judgemental attitudes within individuals develop when there is a sense of
underestimating the situation and overestimating the personality, especially towards people
individuals have never come across (Nyamhanga, Muhondwa & Shayo, 2013). For example;
Bruce was sure to govern the world better because he considered that God (almighty) could
never understand the real problem human beings face down on Erath. Because God (almighty)
does not step into their shoes. Finally, Bruce was able to understand the fact that his attribution
towards God (almighty) is wrong when Bruce was given the responsibility of playing the role of
God for ten days and that Bruce realised that human beings should get what they deserve because
that is what is best suited for them. If everybody is given when they ask for then there would be a
chaos in the world. Therefore, a fact is understood as something which is based on some level of
evidence and not mere on what an individual opinions towards something (Archer-Brown, Piercy
& Joinson, 2013).
However, the film Bruce Almighty was made for mere entertainment by director Tom
Shadyac, it possesses a deep meaning. The movie has taught me that God lives within every
individual and there are few instances that human beings do not have an answer to. For example;
the instinct of a mother that her child is hungry has cannot have a scientific background of how
did the mother understand without the child speaking a word (Jung, 2014). Such instances in life
only makes me feel that faith is the real goal to stay happy because too much curiosity would
only bring confusion rather than contentment (Gallbraith, 2017).
Therefore, the paper concludes on a note the film Bruce Almighty has a deep meaning
behind the comic role of Jim Carrey and how the film helps to understand that possessing

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situational attribution is better than personal attribution because the condition faced by the other
individual is never known until someone step the those shoes.
Reference
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Galbraith, J. K. (2017). The culture of contentment. Princeton University Press.
Jung, C. G. (2014). The mother archetype. In The Archetypes and the Collective
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Nyamhanga, T. M., Muhondwa, E. P., & Shayo, R. (2013). Masculine attitudes of superiority
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Rotten Tomatoes (2008). Bruce Almighty (2003). [online] Rotten Tomatoes. Available at:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bruce_almighty/ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2019].