The God Who Wasn't There

This film questions the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth as found in the Christian Bible. Writer director Brian Flemming, a former fundamentalist Christian, leads the viewer through the life of Jesus, attempting throughout to apply them coherently to an actual time-line. He discusses the lack of historical evidence and gaps in the history related to Jesus and the years following his life. The film ends with the director talking to the head of the Christian-based school of his youth.

Yes, I'm an atheist, but no, I don't think this movie is worth viewing.

The historical discussion in the beginning is mildly interesting, although not detailed enough to be compelling. As the director talked to the head of his school, I wondered why I should care what he or this person think. Flemming's attitude throughout the film, and especially during his talk with the principal, put into question for the average viewer anything else he has said.

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.

This program may have 10 minutes of good information; otherwise it's snotty putdowns of religious people. It's as if director Brian Flemming only recently discovered both atheism and sarcasm, and feels with these tools he can easily bludgeon his opposition.

As for his "Christ never walked the earth" thesis, it doesn't get a chance here because Flemming wanders extensively into his own personal issues, and they take over the movie, never getting back on topic. I'm not studying the writings of Saul/Paul to find out how air-tight this all is, but a quick browse of Wikipedia suggests most of these arguments are discredited.

Anti-religious people will want more data. We don't need to be told that religious people are nutty, any more than American Jews need to be told how annoying Christmas music gets by mid-December.

Religious people tend to discount skeptics whose objections to religion are obviously rooted in abusive upbringings. Arguments from such victimized people are dismissed as irrational, and therefore unconvincing.

In the best scene, the Superintendent of Fleming's childhood Christian school rather insightfully confronts the director on his motivations. That seems like the most honest part of the movie, and it was short. If Fleming were a bit more self-aware, he might have a good story in him about his own (past & current) relationship to Christianity, and the abusive institutions that indoctrinated him in his youth.

The bonus interviews are pretty good, tho they don't bolster Fleming's thesis much. Sam Harris is a good spokesperson for the anti- religious POV, and he doesn't go light on those other, non- Christian religions. Harris also has some good (and easily Google'd) interviews on Salon.com , Amazon.com , and Samharris.org .

While I am agnostic and this film was preaching to my personal choir, I had some issues with it. Chiefly, I had the strong sense that Flemming was working out his personal issues, particularly in the last 15 minutes of the film, taking out his resentment against the fundamentalist school he attended as a child. I was surprised the superintendent sat and debated with him as long as he did; as we all know, fundies are not much for having their beliefs questioned. And I think Flemming did indeed mislead the guy about why he wanted to do the interview. I don't blame him for getting up and leaving the interview (which of course was exactly what he wanted the guy to do), and I have to commend the supe for sticking with it as long as he did.

Yes I am a bit surprised to hear myself sticking up for a fundamentalist, particularly one who makes his living brainwashing children. But, I'm also into reality and that's the reality of this film.

One thing I did enjoy about this film was all the clips from the various Jesus movies of the past. Good god what horrific acting in those old films! It was like watching MST3K.

This was a bit clumsy of a film. Film-making is an arduous process, so I think Brian Flemming must have some really serious issues with his former beliefs to go to the trouble of making a film about it, in order to make himself feel better. I hope it worked and I hope he makes a better film next time.

Meanwhile, if you're into Biblical skepticism, a far better investment of your time would be to read Bart Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus". This film was more of a diatribe and unlikely to be taken seriously by anyone not already a skeptic of Christianity. Ehrman's book is a serious, scholarly work well worth reading, particularly if you find yourself in the situation of debating family or friends about the Christian mythos.

My absolute favorite film of the year. The God Who Wasn't There brings to light some jaw-dropping information on the real origins of Christianity in an engaging and thoroughly entertaining way. A must see for everyone who has suspected that their Sunday school teacher might not have given them the whole story. Also has fascinating and thought-provoking interviews with some of the top scholars investigating the question of the historical Jesus and whether he really ever existed at all. I was particularly struck by the insights on modern Christianity and some of its more troubling aspects. The director, Brian Flemming, takes on all these topics but never loses his humor or warmth. I'm also looking forward to the DVD release, because the special features will be including more commentary tracks and interviews with figures such as world-famous biologist Richard Dawkins and groundbreaking Biblical scholar Earl Doherty. An amazing , excellent film!