The God Who Wasn't There

As a second-generation atheist, I walked into this movie knowing as much about the historical aspects of Jesus as say, your average Christian; not much. This movie opened my eyes to the mythological aspects of Jesus and the attempts made by the Christian church to turn him into a messiah. I was particularly impressed by the interviews with Sam Harris, Richard Carrier, Alan Dundes and Robert Price, to name a few. Each one was able to put forth very clear reasoning as to why we should question the existence of Jesus Christ.

I highly recommend this movie to those of all faiths, or no faiths at all. Critical thinking and reasoning should be present for all of our personal tenets. If you haven't yet questioned the foundational pillars of your religion, there's no better time to start.

This is an interesting film for Christians and atheists alike, and not at all what I was expecting. Rarely is faith approached in such a commonsense, factual way. The film maker's personal investment in the documentary is a big part of what makes it compelling. The first half of it is basically a summary of the known historical facts around the figure of Christ. The second half of it delves into modern Christians' (particularly American Christians) knowledge and understanding of the origins of the modern religion. There are some pretty tense moments when the film maker discusses the foundations of the faith with his former school principle. All in all, an interesting film well worth watching.

This movie (more like a documentary) was very well put together, entertaining and very informative, and like with any documentary, the information contained should be researched and verified. Brian Flemming makes it easy to do. The content is not derogatory to Christians (although, they may disagree) and the information included should be known to them (although, their churches would disagree). The movie makes some very good points about the most basic of peoples beliefs and will lead to a heavy debate (unless you watch it alone). I have shared this movie with quite a few people already, most give great reviews, the only negative so far...it's not long enough. While I enjoyed the bonus interviews, I found the background sounds a bit distracting.

I was fortunate to catch the standing-room-only world premiere in San Francisco. The audience was riveted throughout, and emotions ranged from laughter to shock to anger to fright. The film's editing, while slightly clumsy, weaves in and out of the theme of stripping Christian beliefs bare and exposing the shallow limits of what they believe or even want to think about.

Extended gruesome scenes from Mel Gibson's "The Passion Of The Christ" were hard to watch, but necessary to glimpse at what was in the movie that was so popular with Christains.

I think a "believer" would start questioning his or her faith after seeing "The God Who Wasn't There." Hopefully this movie won't just be "preaching to the choir" of the freethinking crowd that is its natural audience.

The hip electronica/techno/new age soundtrack, mixed with bits of religious chanting and gospel grooves, is as provocative as the film. The first instinct is to get up and dance, but a close listen to the lyrics and voice-overs force the brain to work harder than the body.

Like many alternative documentaries, this one starts strong, with little known facts and strong evidence for its main thesis.

However, it lets itself down when it degrades into polemic and blatant subjective reporting. This is not to say it is not entertaining and informative. Just a bit disappointing.

If the purpose was to convert (or is that upgrade) any Christians to some other view, it probably lost most of its potential audience when reporting became attacking.

Let me be clear, I am not a Christian. Growing up I was fed the same dogma as the narrator of this docu. I outgrew it, as all Christians eventually will - at least according to my understanding of the world and the views of people such as Ken Wilber, Jane Loevinger and the theories of spiral dynamics.

Unfortunately unknown to himself, the narrator is the unwitting victim of the same vices he accuses the Christians of - Rightness. He is sure he is right. As are his enemies, the Christians.

His attack is a textbook example of the rationalist attacking conformists. Perhaps in time he will move up to the level of pluralist and allow others to have their own views, while holding his own. He will realize that the conformists are as necessary to civilization as any of the other memes.

Enough said. Entertaining, but could have been better without the not so subtly hid personal agenda and sarcasm.