The God Who Wasn't There

The God Who Wasn't There
Directed by	Brian Flemming
Written by	Brian Flemming
Produced by	Brian Flemming Amanda Jackson
Starring	Brian Flemming (narration) Sam Harris Richard Carrier Alan Dundes Barbara Mikkelson David P. Mikkelson Robert M. Price Scott Butcher Ronald Sipus
Distributed by	Beyond Belief Media Microcinema International
Release date	May 21, 2005
Running time	62 mins
Language	English

The God Who Wasn't There is a 2005 independent documentary written and directed by Brian Flemming. The documentary questions the existence of Jesus, examining evidence that supports the Christ myth theory against the existence of a historical Jesus, as well as other aspects of Christianity.

Overview

Jesus myth hypothesis

Most of the film is a presentation of the argument for the Jesus myth hypothesis. Flemming and interviewees in the film make these claims:

• The history of Christianity, especially the doctrine of the earliest Christians, is consistent with Jesus having been a mythical character, with historical details only added on later.
• The Epistles of Paul, which were written before the Gospels, show no awareness on the part of the author that Jesus was supposed to have been a human being who recently lived. Paul mentions only the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension and presents them as having occurred in a mythic realm rather than an earthly one.
• The death-resurrection-ascension sequence was common in previous mythologies and religions, making it more likely that the Jesus character was inspired by his similar forebears than that he actually lived on Earth.
• Other details of the Jesus biography offered in the Gospels also have precedent in previous mythologies and religions, especially Judaism. For example, the "Massacre of the Innocents" scene appears to be directly inspired by a nearly identical story in Exodus.

Other criticisms of Christianity

Besides defending the Jesus myth hypothesis, the film criticizes some other aspects of Christianity:

• Flemming argues that moderate Christianity makes even less sense than a fundamentalist interpretation of Christian doctrine, asserting that the Bible contains many messages incompatible with toleration of non-Christians, who reject Jesus as the Savior of Christian doctrine and (in Flemming's view) must therefore be regarded by Christians as damned.
• Flemming sees God's demand that people believe in him or be damned as essentially mind control. He interprets Mark 3:29 and similar passages as damning anyone who doubts the existence of the Holy Spirit. He is appalled by the notion that Jesus will forgive murder, theft, and any other sin but not this type of disbelief.
• Because Jesus knows people's innermost thoughts, and that therefore one must police one's thoughts to avoid any doubt, Flemming summarizes this idea with the statement that the greatest sin in Christianity is "to think."
• Flemming asserts that Christians have historically been obsessed with blood sacrifice, and illustrates this viewpoint by pointing out that Mel Gibson's 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which contains very few scenes that do not feature graphic violence or suffering, was more successful than any other previous film about Jesus.
• The film references poll results indicating that 40% of Americans believe, to some degree, that Jesus will come back to Earth in their lifetime, and that this sort of thinking is not conducive to long-term governmental policies.

Interviews and commentary

Several notable personalities make appearances in the documentary:

• • Scott Butcher is the creator of the Rapture Letters.com website.
  • Richard Carrier is a philosopher and historian who holds a PhD in ancient history from Columbia University, New York.
  • Alan Dundes was an anthropologist and folklorist. Until his death shortly after being interviewed for the documentary, he was Professor of Folklore and Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
  • Sam Harris is a researcher into the neurobiology of religious belief, and author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation.
  • Barbara Mikkelson and David P. Mikkelson are the founders of Snopes.com.
  • Robert M. Price is Professor of Biblical Criticism at the Council for Secular Humanism's Center for Inquiry Institute.
  • Ronald Sipus, principal of Village Christian School, which Brian Flemming attended as a youth. Sipus walked out of the interview, accusing Flemming of misrepresenting himself and his reasons for the interview.

The following only appear on the DVD's commentary track:

• • Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist and popular science writer.
  • Earl Doherty is a contemporary advocate of the Jesus Myth theory and author of The Jesus Puzzle.
  • The Raving Atheist is a lawyer and former atheist blogger, who has since claimed to have converted to Christianity.

Among the Christians shown in the film were attendees at a Billy Graham Crusade event at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on November 18, 2004.

Blasphemy Challenge

In December 2006, the atheist organization Rational Response Squad announced it would give free DVDs of the film to the first 1,001 people who participated in the Blasphemy Challenge, an Internet-based project encouraging atheists to declare themselves publicly.

See also

• Jesus and comparative mythology

External links

• Official website
• The God Who Wasn't There at IMDb
• An interview with Brian Flemming by Christianity Today