Good reviews of a bad Jesus Myth film

I earlier wrote about the inept Jesus Myth film The God Who Wasn't There in an essay entitled "Reefer Madness and a new Jesus Myth film", where I pointed out that the film's producer, Brian Flemming, was apparently not using a standard version of the Bible in his effort to prove that Paul didn't think that Jesus had ever been on earth. Not surprisingly, I am not alone in my disapproval of the film. Check out these reviews:

Ethics Daily, "MOVIE REVIEW -- 'The God Who Wasn’t There':

Which is worse: willful misrepresentation or incredibly sloppy research? Either way, it’s hard to attach much credibility to the filmmaker, even if he makes a few valid points along the way. Swapping reliability for entertainment has never been and never will be a path to greater illumination … even if you, like Flemming, question the very nature of what lies on the other side.

J.P. Holding's Tectonics, "Great Expectorations -- Or, The Apostate Who Wasn't All There":

"Flemming appears to be a man with serious psychological problems. He has gone from being an Christian who was gullible and ready to believe anything to a Skeptic who is gullible and ready to believe anything."

Mike Lincona, "A Review of Brian Flemming's DVD "The God Who Wasn't There"":

The thesis of the film is that Jesus never existed. The first words that appear on the screen claim that the video is “a documentary.” However, viewers expecting to encounter up-to-date scholarly research will surely be disappointed. With the exception of a telephone interview with Richard Dawkins, who is not a scholar on the historical Jesus and is, therefore, speaking outside of his field, no major or well-known scholars are interviewed. Additionally, Flemming finds it difficult to stay on topic. His video goes back and forth between arguing that Jesus never existed and pointing out atrocities committed in the name of Christ like the Inquisition. This flip-flopping between two theses is distracting, since his second and unstated thesis is unrelated to the first. It is as though Flemming is saying, "Jesus never existed and, oh, by the way, I hate Christianity and all religion."


Susan Verstraete, "A Critical Review of The God Who Wasn't There":

I thought long and hard about not writing this piece so as not to give the movie any free publicity. In the end, we chose to publish so that so that people who had seen the film and wondered about the questions it raised could find a simple defense of the faith and so that our readers might have a synopsis of the teaching of the movie without actually viewing the film. Trust me, you aren't missing anything good.

Comments

Frank Walton said…
You can watch the movie for free right here. We linked to your critique. Thanks.

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