The God Who Wasn't There
Sunday May 29, 2005
There's a new movie out there that challenges commonly held assumptions about Christianity, Jesus Christ, and theism itself. Is it any good? Have you seen it?
According to the web site:
Holding modern Christianity up to a merciless spotlight, this bold and hilarious new film asks the questions few dare to ask. And when it finds out how crazy the answers are, it dares to call them crazy.
Your guide through the bizarre world of Christendom is former fundamentalist Brian Flemming, who unflinchingly explores the absurdity of belief and believers. Along the way, you will discover:
Jesus Christ is likely a fictional character, a legend never based on a real human.
Christian doctrine contradicts itself at every turn, and encourages immorality when it serves the religion.
The beliefs of moderate Christians make even less sense than those of extremists.
And God simply isn't there.
I have no idea if this film is any good or not. The marketing message says that his film will "do to religion" what "Super Size Me" did to fast food," which sounds rather extreme to me. It's arguable that "Super Size Me" didn't end up doing much to fast food and thus it's not a comparison that should raise expectations, but it sounds like they are saying the film will cause people to re-evaluate their ideas about faith. I have my doubts that any film will accomplish that, however good it is.
I can't comment on whether the film is good or bad, so I encourage readers to send in comments or reviews.
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Comments
The DVD was OK, if I watched it in the theatre I would have asked for my money back. The commentary section redeems the film’s superficiality; watch it immediately after viewing the film. It digs deeper into the questions lightly touched upon in the movie. Otherwise you will feel cheated by the hype.
Its strength is the attempt to keep the tone light – no pedantic mood, though the effort feels strained at times. One flaw is it presents its world view overwhelmingly from a white male perspective and mostly from Christian refugees like himself, thus its point-of-view is too narrow. The film was, pun intended, preaching to its choir and will not raise skepticism among Christians or resonate with those of other beliefs.
As a black woman raised an atheist, my non-belief comes to me naturally, so when confronted with religion I may approach it differently than many, even if some of my conclusions are the same as those skeptics interviewed. I’m not as obsessed/bitter with the validity of Western religions as how irrelevant it is to a functional modern society. He dances around this in the main film, discussing it only during interviews with a few atheists in the commentary.
Though he compares other mythologies to the origin of Jesus they were all “dead” religions/myths and he doesn’t illuminate them to the viewer, coming off VERY smug. He asks some Christians coming out of a fundamentalist revival – “are you familiar with Dionysus, Oedipus, or Osiris?” and they, of course, say no. Though he later shows that other origin myths are almost identical to that of Jesus, he doesn’t give you any overview or background into the history/culture of those myths. Though I studied them in elementary school, along with other mythologies, if I was in a movie theatre I wouldn’t be able to readily recall any details either. So this point is rather weak. Ironically, the trailer implies this is the heart of the film, so its presentation is a failure. He seems more preoccupied with patting himself on the back about starting a minor Internet meme of his own.
It would have been nice to compare other living religions’ beliefs to Christianity (Buddism, Taoism?) or at least delve deeper into why Jews believe in a messiah but don’t believe Jesus is their messiah. It’s only hinted at in the context of a film clip – a “Jewish Council” condemning the blasphemy of Jesus’ insistence he is the son of god. In fairness, he may have feared losing his target audience, Christian skeptics, though the overall lack of depth and shortness of the film left plenty of room for a wider POV.
Recommendation? Borrow it from your local library or rent it. May introduce you to some organizations/authors you were unaware of; also first atheistic documentary I’ve heard of…grade: B-.