The God Who Wasn't There
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Movie Reviews of The God Who Wasn't There
Movie Review: God isn't dead. He just never lived is all.
Summary: 5 Stars
Brian Flemming, the director of this documentary, was raised as a fundamentalist Christian and attended a Cristian school. He has since abandoned his faith, and all faith in general. Here, he calls upon people involved in the various organizations or schools of thought that fall under the umbrella term "freethought," such as the Center For Inquiry (secular humanism) and infidels.org. For balance, he also interviews practicing Christians (found at a Billy Graham Revival in California during 2004) and for a climactic showdown of sorts, Ronald Sipus, the head of Village Christian School, where Flemming attended. Some clearly biased reviewers, who seem not to have actually seen the film, claim "The God Who Wasn't There" aims to make people of faith look foolish. Mr. Flemming's interview style is gentle and polite, and he never ridicules anyone, even out of earshot. What he does hold up to ridicule, however, is some of the more extreme beliefs that Christian leaders foist upon their followers, such as the idea that the Rapture (a.k.a. the End of the World) is coming within our lifetimes. Needless to say, people have been predicting the end of the world since the beginning of the world, and exactly zero of them have been right, so the current Armageddon fad (exemplified by the "Left Behind" series of novels) richly deserves skepticism and yes, ridicule. The true believers presented here, including Mr. Sipus, are allowed to speak, and would only seem foolish if you don't share their enthusiasm for the Son of God. The whole point of the film, of course, is to demonstrate that Jesus, from a historical point of view, was most likely a fictional character cobbled together from much older myths of heroes and blood sacrifice. Along the way, Mr. Flemming disects "modern" Christianity's preoccupation with violence, concluding with scenes (shown without permission!) from Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ." In a scene by scene analysis, he shows the "bloody Jesus" (his words) has only a few minutes without gruesome violence, and notes how this is far and away the most popular version of the Jesus myth. The overall style of the film is quick and witty (in the vein of "Super Size Me"), and is aided by computer graphics and clips from old films to illustrate his point. In any event, it never comes off like an academic snooze-fest, even if some can complain it's just a little too slick. The feature run time is merely one hour, but the extended interviews included as special features add on another hour. Also, if you insert the disc in your computer, you're provided with links to many of the research materials that Mr. Flemming used. Also, at the very end of the film, we find out that a thematic sequel of sorts is in the works, called "The Beast." This is due for release on June 6 of this year (that's right, 6/6/06--!). This will apparently take much of the material in this film and put it in the context of a "conventional" narrative film whose basic story echoes (I would guess on purpose) "The Da Vinci Code." Forgive me if that sounds in any way like an ad--I don't know Mr. Flemming or am involved in any of his projects--but it all sounds too juicy to pass up. After all, it's hard out here for a non-believer, so we take what we can get.Movie Review: An extremely rich introduction to the topic
Summary: 5 Stars
I hesitated before giving this five stars, since it has some real flaws, but between the documentary and the featured materials, it offers so much information, and so much direction to other sources, that I would strongly recommend it to those interested in the historicity of Jesus and Christianity. It is a wonderful demonstration of the power of electronic media. In addition to the documentary itself, it includes valuable features, including extended interviews with those featured in the documentary, and a tour of the sources of further information, including links to a variety of web sites. The links include some of Flemming's opponents; he certainly isn't afraid to direct his audience to them. Apparently most of this is old hat to some people, but I learned a great deal and there are always beginners. I borrowed the copy I watched, but I intend to buy my own.
The documentary could do with a little reworking. I think that presenting Charles Manson as an example of Christians is pretty dubious. Fleming also very occasionally includes obscene language, which I would prefer he didn't. It seems likely to alienate some of his potentially sympathetic audience. My other issue is the inclusion of material from The Passion of Christ by Mel Gibson. I do believe in copyright, and I hope that was fair use. Come to think of it, if someone is going to sit through those segments, why am I worrying about a few obscenities? In the end, I wasn't convinced of everything, but I look forward to further investigation of the matter.
I am not under the impression that a documentary needs to be objective or present all sides (unless it claims to be doing that), just that it be factual and fair, which is not the same thing. I would no more fault Flemming for failing to feature more traditional theologians than I would fault Billy Graham for failing to invite atheists to speak at his rallies. He presents support for his thesis, just as numerous Christian productions have presented for theirs. As it is, he presents interviews with Christian believers, and treats them respectfully, allowing them to speak for the most part without interruption. Parts of interviews cut for lack of space are included in the features. He perhaps should have presented more information about the communications leading up to his interview with Dr. Sipus. He discusses this on his blog on slumdance.com. I don't think that Sipus' description of the interview coincides with what we actually saw. He was permitted to speak at length on his philosophy of teaching, and got angry as soon as Flemming began to ask questions.
Depending on how narrowly one interpretes the title, Flemming did miss one possible argument. That is that there could have been a historical person Jesus (although variants in the time line might argue against this), and that the mythological elements were accreted to his life. Of course, one could still argue that even if there was a Rabbi Jesus there wasn't a divine Jesus, and so it is still a GOD who never was.
I don't think that it will convert committed Christians, but it has a lot of food for thought for those willing to consider the subject.
Movie Review: The Extras alone are worth the price of this DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
As thought provoking and enlightening as "The God Who Wasn't There" is about the lack of evidence for the human Jesus, the extras are powerful additions to understanding the flaw of not taking the religious right to task for relying only on blind faith in one book.
Scott Butcher, creator of Rapture Letter.com, belief in the "rapture", while delusional, shows the sincerity of this man's beliefs and his soft gentle demeanor is a refreshing presentation of the usually confrontational manner most evangelist use when confronted with resistance to their beliefs.
Richard Carrier, philosopher and historian, offers an excellent explanation of the unfriendly nature of the universe to any life form the frail design of the human body to endure even in our little part of the universe thus questioning the rational of an intelligent designer creating a universe for the living.
The late Alan Dundes, anthropologist and folklorist, walks us through folk history and its tendency to explain what people think happened compared to what actually happened.
Sam Harris, one of the most compelling writers and speakers on the subject of religious belief, presents an argument for intellectual honesty that any rational mind will find resonating with truth. He bluntly exposes the dangers of the fearful reality of 7th century fundamentalist mentalities having their finger on the button. He rebuffs the idea of "feeling God" and explains it's no different than "feelings" non-god spiritualist experience.
Barbara & David Mikkelson, founders of Urban Legends Reference pages at snopes.com explain the power of urban legends to change stories that are repeated over and over into reflections that resonate in societies. They expose the failing of the positive lessons of these legends by pointing out the dark side that often speaks far greater truths of the falsehoods of the intended meanings.
Robert Price, Professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, after inundating you with examples of Christ like life experience being told in other cultures thus exposing the god qualities of Jesus as anything but unique goes on to explain how he is a Christian atheist with his own understanding of what God is and its wholesome religious experience that does not beg historical scrutiny. Its an explanation you just have to hear to grasp.
The commentary with Earl Doherty, author of the Jesus Puzzle, will expose the viewers to a world of Christianity that does not have the human Jesus and adds to the lack of evidence there ever was a God-Man named Jesus.
These excellent addtions as well as the great music are well worth the price of the DVD alone. Combined, they make for one great reason to question your God.
Movie Review: ***** 10 stars - new insights even for long-time atheists
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this DVD both richly entertaining and extremely informative. Having been an atheist myself for over thirty years now, I considered myself knowledgeable on the subject matter of this DVD. Yet I was surprised - and quite delighted - by how much new insight I gained from this superb documentary.
For example, I did not previously realize that the Pauline Epistles make no reference at all to the virgin birth, to Mary and Joseph, to Bethlehem, to Herod, to *any* words allegedly spoken by Jesus, to anything pertaining to Jesus' earthly ministry, nor to any of the miracles Jesus supposedly performed. Paul mentions only the cruci-"fiction," resurrection and ascension, tales handed down to Christianity from older mythologies, as Brian Flemming powerfully demonstrates here.
Better than any other source I've seen, this DVD explains how the time-gap between Jesus' alleged death and the writing of the Gospels lends credibility to the assertion that Jesus probably never existed. Moreover, even if Jesus did exist, the stories surrounding him, such as the slaughter of the innocents, have no historical corroboration and therefore lead an objective viewer of this DVD to conclude that the Gospel accounts couldn't possibly be true (whether or not Jesus existed).
This documentary was also extremely funny where appropriate. When Brian Flemming summarized the highlights of Jesus' career, the footage running in the background - along with Flemming's casual manner of speaking - left me laughing more boisterously than I have since watching the original Monty Python episodes. What was especially funny was that Flemming's summary of the Gospels was perfectly on-target and did not distort scripture in any way. The DVD therefore succeeded in showing that the Bible, when viewed objectively, is truly laughable.
I also thoroughly enjoyed this DVD because I got to see video of individuals whose writings I have admired for years, such as Bob Price, Sam Harris, and Richard Carrier. People sometimes come across differently on camera than they do in print. But all of the extended interviews on the DVD showcased the intellect of these scholars as impressively as their books.
The physical production and packaging of this DVD are equivalent to anything marketed by Sony Pictures or Warner Brothers. I was expecting to receive a one-off DVD with an adhesive label. But what I received was a highly professional product in every sense of the word. My enthusiastic compliments to Brian Flemming and to everyone who participated in this important project. I hope that additional DVDs will be forthcoming.
David Mills
Author of "Atheist Universe"
Movie Review: A good starting point.
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed the movie "The God Who Wasn't There". It was slickly produced, it was entertaining, it has a good sound track, and it made some very incisive points (not least of which was average Christians' ignorance of their own church history and its contemporary religions). However, I have some reservations, and my overall conclusion is that it is a good start, but if you are coming to this movie for the first time, don't think it has all the answers.
"The God Who Wasn't There" is a one-sided documentary in the style of Michael Moore (e.g., Bowling for Columbine) or Morgan Spurlock (e.g., Super Size Me). Like those other documentaries, there are enough apologists around to make the case for the other side that the film maker is not obliged to present all sides of the argument.
I have two reservations about the movie. First, the title is misleading. I'd like to one day see a slickly-produced film outlining the arguments for and against the existence of God, but this isn't it. It is not a movie about atheism, or whether or not a God or gods exist, it is a movie about whether Jesus Christ was a real person (it argues that he most likely wasn't). For people seeking information on atheism per se, books are still the best source: I thoroughly recommend Richard Carrier's "Sense and Goodness Without God".
Second, it is very short - barely an hour, including the interviews that run through the credits. There is so much more that could have been put into the movie (as the two commentary tracks and the extended interviews on the on the DVD demonstrate). Particularly because it is so short, I can't say that it's the best piece of movie making. Nevertheless, the fact that so much extra is provided on the DVD increases the case for purchasing it.
Now, as I said above, this movie is a good start. It doesn't, and can't in the space it has, review all the evidence and arguments about the existence of Jesus. However, for someone like me who took it for granted that Jesus was a real person it certainly provided a good introduction to the argument that he wasn't. However, to get a fuller picture of the evidence indicating that Jesus didn't exist people interested in this idea should consider reading "the Incredible Shrinking Son of Man", and/or "the Jesus Puzzle" (which has a companion website).