A Matter of Faith / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Was Tyler simply a Jerk Jock who was only dating Rachel because of her looks, or did he genuinely begin to like her and only played up the image to impress to his friends?
- Evan:
  - Is he similar to Tyler, based on the former's actions most likely having the same ultimate goal with Rachel than the latter's?
  - Was Evan telling the truth when revealing the Forgotten First Meeting or was he just making it up to get closer to Rachel? He revealed it to her after Stephen told him about the incident of the kid who took her coin.
Designated Hero:
- The father is presented as the usual Christian Hero fighting against the evil of "The Myth of Evolution". However, he goes behind his daughter's back to question her teacher, something she is incredibly embarrassed by, tries to enforce his belief into a class that has nothing to do with it, and practically guilt trips his own daughter to fully accept his religion again based on feelings rather than facts.
- Portland as well. The film wants us to see him being fired for teaching creationism as "oppression", even though he knowingly violated school policy and refuses to accept the consequences for it. He also blames Kaman personally for his firing, even though all Kaman did was report him to the administration, which someone was going to do eventually.
Designated Villain: While Kaman is meant to be the "villain" of the story since he represents the side of evolution, it's hard to feel any actual antagonism towards him, largely because of Harry Anderson's warm and affable screen presence.
- When Stephen tells him about his faith, Kaman is completely fine with it and encourages him to keep believing if it helps him.
- Kaman also takes Stephen's requests for him to teach creationism with remarkable tolerance, even though any college-level biology teacher worth their pay could give a bunch of reasons why the Young Earth creationist teachings Stephen wants him to teach have no place in a biology class.
- Kaman even encourages Stephen to debate him so he can make his case. In Real Life there are biologists, among them atheist author Richard Dawkins, who refuse to debate Young Earth creationists because they feel that doing so gives them more recognition than their claims deserve.
- In the past, Kaman got a biology professor, Portland, fired for teaching creationism, an incident meant to characterize him as a villain. However, it was completely reasonable for him to do so, not just because creationism is considered a pseudoscience at best, but also since Portland wouldn't have been constitutionally allowed to teach it in the first place due to its religious origin. If the school allowed this, moreover, they could be sued (and some have been).
- Kaman accurately summarizes Stephen as "a religious dad who doesn't like his little girl thinking for herself."
- Kaman's grading policy is made into an evil plan to "get students to doubt their faith in God and the Bible," though his class still winds up with plenty of empty seats.
Pandering to the Base: There is a reason the film got so much praise from organizations advocating Young Earth creationism, such as Answers in Genesis, and so much criticism from everybody else.
Rooting for the Empire: Professor Kaman is supposed to be the villain, but he does absolutely nothing villainous, shows none of the Hollywood Atheist tropes, is the nicest character in the film, encouraged Stephen to keep believing if it makes him happy with not a bit of sarcasm, and correctly states that Stephen is merely "a religious dad who doesn't like his little girl thinking for herself". It's hard for anyone to not root for him.
The Scrappy: It's extremely hard to root for Evan for his continuous (unwanted) advances towards Rachel, and his obnoxious hostility towards Professor Kaman. He supports Stephen's Creation vs. Evolution debate, despite knowing how much it's embarrassing poor Rachel, and how she wants her dad to have nothing to do with it.^note Instead of showing the tiniest bit of empathy for Rachel's dilemma, Evan smugly questions her belief in Jesus (which she never lost) and goads her into supporting the debate. Most would find Rachel's angry reaction to this entirely justified.
Strawman Has a Point: Although he's written to be wrong, Kamen's assessment when speaking with a colleague that Stephen is "just a religious dad who doesn't want his little girl thinking for herself" is pretty accurate.
Unintentionally Sympathetic:
- Professor Kamen is set up as the villain since he advocates evolution, but he doesn't really do anything the average viewer would consider outright evil or even mean. In fact he seems to be one of the nicest characters in the film and shows far more tolerance to the creationist father, Stephen, than any Real Life professor would display.
- Additionally, Kamen seems to make genuine efforts to make his classes interesting and seems well-liked by students.
- When Stephen tells him about his faith, Kaman is completely fine with it and without a bit of sarcasm encourages him to keep believing if it helps him.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- Unless you subscribe to the same Young Earth Creationist beliefs the film espouses, which is a minority even in the United States, where it's most prominent, you'll probably find it pretty difficult to root for Stephen for wanting it taught in college.
- Also the Young Earth Creationists constantly attacking the professor throughout the film. The film tries to portray them as finding things that reveal the professor is not who he appears to be and is really just trying to corrupt students away from God, yet it ignores all of his actions that proves he is simply just trying to teach biology as it is accepted by the scientific community, and it comes off instead as them trying to force their beliefs into the public education system because someone has the gall to believe differently from them..
Values Dissonance: See Designated Hero above.

YMMV / A Matter of Faith

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