Cheap The God Who Wasn't There (DVD) (Brian Flemming) Price

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Customer Reviews of The God Who Wasn't There

I calls 'em like I sees 'em
This is a great informative film. However, please don't see it if you're a fundamentalist Christian easily offended by challenges to your dogma. You'll hate it. Of course, one of the biggest criticisms the movie puts forth is that many Christians cannot tolerate ideas counter to what they accept as truth even if presented as theory. In other words, Christianity works because people refuse to hear anything that might be construed as questionable. Yes, many hardcore Christians are blissfully ignorant. More power to them, I guess. <
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>I'm not Christian so that wasn't a problem for me. And I really don't care if someone is Christian because that's their choice. But I have to admit that this doc raises many important questions, presents many important ideas. Personally, I think Christians should see it. But it would just make them uncomfortable or angry, so never mind. For the rest of us though, it gives you something to think about. <
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>The thing I liked best about the film is that is not mean-spirited. It would be easy to take the low road, but the film, while clearly having a point-of-view, does not particularly attack Christianity. It merely showcases many compelling arguments. And the maker clearly has a strong background in the Christian faith, which helps because he actually knows what he's talking about. Some people might not agree with his findings, but you can't argue with his actual quotes from the Bible and even his history which is taken directly from accepted church teachings. Yet for such a strong faith, it's amazing how quickly people get hostile when challenged. <
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>I found it fascinating.

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a sound introduction with conspicuous omissions
Some of the atheist reviewers who are disappointed by the brevity of this documentary and its attention to the topic of Christ ahistoricity would better appreciate that it was produced to provide an introduction and encouragement to the viewer to research extraordinary claims for oneself. Considering apparent budget constraints, Brian Flemming brings a wealth of talent and production experience to fashion an entertaining if perhaps overly personalized audio/visual outcome that serves just this -- an engrossing introduction. But even as the most perfunctory gloss to advance a remarkable unmainstream-like theory, it is marred by glaring incompletion. <
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>At the very beginning in of the presentation, the producer hints at a critical underpinning of mythic Christianity but ultimately fails to inform the viewer of its total import. Terra-centric dogma embraced by the Church and challenged by Galileo at great personal risk was just a small component of a vast astrotheological almost universal understanding of cosmic reality that served as a critical component to the foundation of Christianity and its Jesus myth. Flemming skillfully informs the viewer of a long preceding nearly global tradition of the "rising and dying godmen", but seems content to keep one ignorant of their sun god status with astrological contexts that was at the heart of the arguments posed by so many of this producer's intellectual antecedents. It might interest readers and viewers alike to know that Christ mythicist theory has a very distinguished tradition that dates back to the enlightenment of the eighteenth century, precisely at a time when the parameters of civic tolerance would begin to allow for such notions. Aside from the emphasis on the dearth of extra-Christian and unapologetic evidences for Christ's existence, attention to astrotheological precepts and their influence on the foundations of almost all known religions, both still existing and defunct, was the cornerstone of authors' arguments advanced in declaration of the mythic Jesus of Nazareth. This remained so until the 1920s or so, when a new fervor of apology both moderate and fundamentalist generally swept western publishing houses of any topics that might run contrary to Christian orthodoxy. <
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>What is most inexplicable about this production is the failure of the producer to acknowledge his fellow Californian who has with great integrity and almost infinite research, best resurrected (no pun intended) a nearly forgotten intellectual tradition to great esteem and hopefully respectability. Richard Carrier is perhaps the most eminent current atheist essayist, but he only arrived to a completely mythicist opinion relatively recently, as is apparent by his older essay on Earl Doherty's website. This begs the question why would the producer seek to interview someone whose opinions on the subject are so virginal over Acharya S, whose nearly decade of contributions in this arena are impeccable and popularly known? Just the most superficial glances at her website reveal that study of her 2 books and several essays have been a force of liberation and psychological release for many questioning ex-Christians, and probably more so than Carrier could affect in his wildest dreams. <
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>At the conclusion of his interview with Earl Doherty, Flemming expresses his desire that Christ mythicist theory may one day assume some respectability as well as acknowledged credibility in the halls of academia. Does he not appreciate that he undermines that very goal if he, presumably with deliberation, ignores his topical forebears and ignores any colleagues with the same or similar pursuits?

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Christians: fear this!
I loned my copy to a friend whose wife has been a Christian for decades. After watching it, she renounced her religious beliefs. The information presented by this movie is devasting to Christianity.