The God Who Wasn’t There
A Film Beyond Belief
The God Who Wasn’t There is an exploration of the Jesus myth from former Christian, Brian Flemming.
But it’s not just about Jesus.
Starting off with a selection of vox pop interviews with several Christians leaving a Billy Graham rally, Flemming acknowledges that Christians can be a very happy bunch when they’re talking about Jesus. But that’s not the complete picture.
So, to balance things a little, we are shown the less acceptable face of Christianity – the nutters, the extremists and the fundamentalists for whom the Bible has provided plenty of justification for the most appalling atrocities.
We then jump to a rather entertaining summary of ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told,’ and it’s here that Flemming starts raising the questions that this documentary seeks to address by highlighting some of the leaps and inconsistencies in the accepted narrative.
And then the film reaches the crunch questions. Where did the story of Jesus come from and what happened between the founding of his ministry and the rise of Christianity?
With the help of a variety of academics and writers – each of who provides an intelligent, thoughtful and clear take on the subject matter - Flemming explores the mythical and folkloric roots of the Christian story. And he starts to build quite a powerful case that Jesus was a mythological figure – one with striking similarities to many other mythological characters – for whom Christians have claimed an unwarranted historicity.
That’s not the end of the story, though.
Pagans, as we are so often reminded, have historically been very keen on blood sacrifice. Goats, lambs, messiahs – you name it, they’ve sacrificed it. And, historically, Christians have been just as bad. But do Christians today share this obsession with blood sacrifice?
To answer this, Flemming pulls together a series of unauthorised scenes from the most popular Christian movie of all time – The Passion of the Christ. I’d forgotten quite how explicitly violent, and downright nasty, the film is and – as Flemming points out in one very memorable scene – Ian Gibson shows an attention to detail that Ruggero Deodato would have been proud of.
But does any of this matter? We all know that religious people are nice people who wouldn’t harm a fly – and some of them even do good works. So what if they’re all following a fantasy?
This brings us to the third and probably most powerful part of the film.
This is the part where he looks at what Christianity actually says – what the Bible actually calls for – and, accepting that most Christians don’t subscribe to a literal interpretation of what the Bible says raises yet another question.
What do modern Christians believe?
The conclusions are often very disturbing. And, as part of his attempt to answer this question, Brian Flemming returns to his own fundamentalist upbringing – specifically the Christian school he was sent to – and attempts to challenge the very self-contradictory man in charge of teaching 1800 students over what exactly he is trying to promote.
The God Who Wasn’t There is a dryly humourous tour through the parts of Christianity that many people – both Christians and others – would really prefer not to see mentioned. It’s a film that asks a series of provocative and interesting questions that challenge the both the basis of Christianity and the modern incarnations of the religion.
The film already has a well-deserved following and is one that will appeal to anyone who is interested in looking beyond the dogma. My only gripe is that it could have been a lot longer – but with a stack of extended interviews and special features on the DVD, this could be premature.
Wednesday 30 Nov 2005 | Paul Pritchard | Documentary
Dear Mr Pritchard:
I have not seen any movies which would even touch the supernatural magnitude of Our Lord Jesus Christ and his Love for His own creation, I know there are lots of infidels in the cosmos. The works of these infidels who mock and chant against the Life and purpose of Jesus Christ will come to naught in their short lived existance. They will also be witness to their own loss as they push through life with such a dark heart. They are becoming aggressivly more bitter against the Almighty and only real God of the Universe. Our Lord knew it would be that way.
The wise and prudent will lament their Greatest loss when all is said and done. It is the END time now and all in this generation will soon see.
Fair review, I just hope I get to press ‘Submit Comment’ before the END time is upon us.
Great movie, I only wish that people would flock to this as they did The Passion of the Christ.
Most compelling moment of the DVD: When the man who wrote The End Of Faith stated that even questioning religion is not allowed. One is never even allowed to raise the issue. Giving the example of Pres. Bush invoking God and having not one single reporter call him on this fantasy really made me think.
Scary how many people will believe anything, I mean anything, to the point that they can’t even explain its origin. Sad, so sad.
I just saw the movie… and i have only one word FANTASTIC!!!!! great film, its incredible when you tray to talk truth to a christian, there will be time that they just simply invent things with no knowledge of it, here you can see how people are more worried on whats going to happened after we die, and want to devote life to nothing, and consequently waste it… people are very dumb and dont want to use the brain
Very fitting! “The priests used to say that faith can move mountains, and nobody believed them. Today the scientists say that they can level mountains, and nobody doubts them.” Joseph Campbell
Hi Jim. You may want to look up the definition of a Straw Man argument.
i have one comment its lame cause people would say whatever they want to say people even talk shit all the time about people and judge people they dont know, what u hear aint true what u feel and the miracles that u see thats the truth the connection is the truth and its like a culture not all christians are the same some know the message seen miracles and could be the worst person the only message or true main ones jesus says is love one another is that soo bad or be honest be good to your neighbors and forget ur past u always could change it gives a chance for people to be better but when the end come all the dumb asses who rather believe what the saint which has alot of power said will see your days will come, but atleast some christians didnt waste their time if the end comes and they were right ok they won but if its not true they didnt really lose because they tried to be good but the rest will lose big time
i’m eager to see how this pans out. Somehow i dont see Christianity dissolving in my lifetime. Why do i feel that even if they could prove 100% it was all a hoax, it wouldnt matter. I guess some people are too tied up with tradition and feel its too scary to consider another possibility. Maybe they just need to believe regardless of what it is they believe in. age old question, would you rather be ignorant and happy, or have all the answers and not sleep at night? is it possible to be happy without being ignorant?