The God Who Wasn't There: Film Review

So last night I was surfing through the Netflix lineup of documentaries and came across the doc The God Who Wasn't There. I watched it and thought it was so interesting, hey, why not write a blog about it.

This doc was directed by a former fundamentalist christian turned atheist, and it's premise is an examination of the historical, factual development of Christianity in it's earliest days. This is something I have been studying in depth for my Humanities courses as of late, so naturally I was interested.

The film begins with street interviews of Christians outside of a Billy Graham event. He questions them about the life of Jesus, who he is, etc. To these questions the answers are quite specific. But when he questions them about what exactly happened AFTER the Ressurrection, and how the faith developed in history, he find a troubling vagueness in need of examination.

What he finds upon examination is that between the supposed historical lifetime of Christ and the creation of the gospel of Mark, their is a 40 year gap, filled only by the letters written by Paul. In examining the letters of Paul, the troubling truth becomes clear. Paul never speaks of the Christ as a historical figure, and in fact, he never mentions any of Christ's circumstances before his death. We find that much like any other Gods of the time, Christ is spoken of in a strictly allegorical sense by Paul, and is never claimed to be an actual human being. It is not until 4 decades later, after the emergence of Paul, that the traditional Gospels were created which claimed Christ was an actual human being. In the words of the director, it seems that... JESUS LIVED...EVERYONE FORGOT....THEN THEY REMEMBERED.

After this are many examinations of the Christian literature and interviews with historians, anthropologists, atheists, as well as Christian activists. We hear discussions of the folklore of Christianity, Christ's myth in comparison of other allegorical hero figures, and some of the details of the Gospels which are historically inaccurate.

Also included is an interesting discussion about the God myth and the human obsession with blood sacrifice, which includes an examination of the violence of the movie, PASSION OF THE CHRIST, the most successful Christian film ever created, and the open armed acceptance this film received from Christians, despite the level of blood, violence, and gore it contained.

Lastly, the film examines the ramifications that the influence of Christian beliefs has in this country and the world itself. It explores the harm Christian dogma does to both society and the individual psyche. The author returns to his fundamentalist childhood school to interview the man responsible for indoctrinating himself as a child, and explores the harm that these beliefs have on children, instilling the idea of demonic forces and damnation into the hearts and minds of young children.

The film ends when the filmmaker is kicked out of the interview by the school administrator, only to find that by chance his childhood chapel is open and empty. He ends the film by standing in that church, and denying the Holy Spirit, something he was taught at this school was a guarantee of his eternal damnation.

As a student of the Humanities and as a heathen, I found this film to be both amusing and strangely uplifting. Though the film discusses the negative aspects of Christianity, the people we meet in the film, namely atheists, were some of the most interesting and enlightened individuals I had encountered in film for some time. I found myself laughing almost cheering these people on who have the courage to stand up and discuss the Christian faith in a critical and investigative way.

The film is also terrifying as well, in that we can see how deeply the Christian mindset is ingrained in the world itself, and how this system could ultimately lead to crisis and the demise of our world as we know it. An interesting point is how the belief in revelation and judgment,which most Christians believe will happen within the next century, is leading to the reluctance for humanity to plan for the future, look for sustainable resources, and plan for the future of our planet. Namely because Christians believe that they will be long gone before these problems come to affect their lives and those of their children.

As a heathen, I was uplifted and motivated by this film. For one, it reaffirmed my own personal abolition of Christianity. Secondly, it gave me the motivation to continue raising my child with a focus on both education, knowledge, and encouragement to find her own path spiritually. Though those in the film were mostly atheists, and I am most defo not an atheist, I still felt this film encouraged that which is most important to me as a human and a heathen. The quest for Knowledge, and the need for a system of personal morality and responsibility based upon ultimate equality among human beings, regardless of religion.

My verdict: Check it out! http://www.thegodmovie.com/