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 | Richard Dawkins Sam Harris Richard Carrier Alan Dundes Earl Doherty Robert Price |
| Distributed by | Beyond Belief Media |
Running time | Unknown |
| Budget | Unknown |
The God Who Wasn't There is an independent documentary that explores the theory that Christ is a myth. It is written and directed by Brian Flemming, and was released on DVD on June 6, 2005.
Synopsis
Template:Spoiler According to the film's official website, the aim of the documentary is to hold "modern Christianity up to a merciless spotlight." The God Who Wasn't There, the website goes on to claim, is "bold and hilarious... [and] asks the questions few dare to ask. And when it finds out how crazy the answers are, it dares to call them crazy." Flemming is identified as an ex-fundamentalist Christian, and he is now portrayed as a "guide through the bizarre world of Christianity." [1] However, the film has received criticism as well as praise, in equal amounts, and has inspired a great deal of controversy.
The film asks extremely controversial questions going to the roots of Christian belief. The documentary in particular proposes that Jesus is likely a fictional character who was never based on a real human, that Christian doctrine contradicts often itself, and encourages immorality when it serves the religion, and that moderate Christianity makes even less sense than the extremist form.
Appearances
Several notable personalities make appearances in the documentary.
- Scott Butcher is the creator of RaptureLetters.com. A general contractor, he lives in Southern California with his family.
- Richard Carrier is a philosopher and historian studying ancient science at Columbia University in New York, where he received a Masters degree and a Master of Philosophy in ancient history and is working on his Ph.D. He previously graduated Phi Beta Kappa at UC Berkeley. His articles have been published in Biology & Philosophy, The History Teacher, German Studies Review, The Skeptical Inquirer, and the Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. He is a veteran of the United States Coast Guard and served as Editor in Chief of the Secular Web for several years. His latest book is Sense and Goodness Without God.
- Alan Dundes died six weeks after being interviewed for The God Who Wasn’t There. An anthropologist and folklorist, he was Professor of Folklore and Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1993, he became the first American to win the Pitre Prize's Sigillo d'Oro, the top international prize in folklore and ethnography. His books include: The Morphology of North American Indian Folktales (1964); Life is Like a Chicken Coop Ladder: A Study of German National Character Through Folklore (1984); Cracking Jokes: Studies of Sick Humor Cycles and Stereotypes (1987) and Folklore Matters (1989). One of the most loved professors at Berkeley, in 1994 Dundes won the Distinguished Teacher Award, given to one professor each year by the students and staff of Berkeley.
- Sam Harris, currently completing a Ph.D. in neuroscience, is one of the most compelling writers and speakers on the subject of religious belief. Writing unflinchingly about the dangers of Christianity, Islam and other religions in his book The End of Faith, Harris won rave reviews and is changing the terms of debate on the subjects he addresses. "Harris writes what a sizable number of us think, but few are willing to say in contemporary America"-- NY Times
- Barbara Mikkelson & David P. Mikkelson are the founders of the Urban Legends Reference Pages. This is generally considered the go-to source when you want to know whether an urban legend is true or false. But it is also a fine collection of writings from two dedicated and esteemed modern folklorists.
- Robert M. Price is Professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute as well as the editor of The Journal of Higher Criticism. His books include Beyond Born Again, The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts: A Feminist-Critical Scrutiny, Deconstructing Jesus, and The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man. Forthcoming titles are The Crisis of Biblical Authority, Jesus Christ Superstar: A Reductional Study of a Modern Gospel, The Da Vinci Controversy and The Amazing Colossal Apostle.
- Dr. Ronald Sipus is superintendent of Village Christian Schools in Sun Valley, California. He did not want his interview used in this documentary.
And, albeit in the commentary tracks only, the following personalities also make appearances:
- Richard Dawkins, possibly the world’s most famous atheist, is the author of a number of internationally best-selling books about evolutionary biology including The Selfish Gene (1976; second edition, 1989), The Extended Phenotype (1982), The Blind Watchmaker (1986), River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), and Unweaving the Rainbow (1998).
- Earl Doherty is a modern pioneer of the Jesus Myth theory. His 1999 book The Jesus Puzzle lays out in painstaking detail evidence for a mythical Christ.
- The Raving Atheist maintains a popular blog at ravingatheist.com.
Distribution
After a world premiere in San Francisco on May 21, 2005, the film was released simultaneously on DVD and in theatrical exposure. The theatrical exposure varied from a one-week run in Los Angeles at the Vine Theater to individual local screenings sponsored by supporters, often Atheist, Humanist, Universist or other freethought-oriented groups. (A similar approach was successful for Robert Greenwald's documentary Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War and other Greenwald films.) The documentary has been shown in Birmingham, New York, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, Virginia, Toronto and Norway. The DVD includes theatrical screening rights (called "public performance rights" in the industry), so anyone who buys it can hold a screening, including a screening for paid admission.
Musical Tracks
DJ Madson remixed these artists, in addition to providing original work for the film's music.
- Le Tigre
- Thievery Corporation
- Zap Mama
- David Byrne
Filmmakers
Brian Flemming (writer, director, producer, narrator) is a film director and playwright whose work has been called "jaggedly imaginative" by the New York Times, "a parallel universe" by the BBC and "immensely satisfying" by USA Today. The Fox News Channel dubbed Flemming "a young Oliver Stone." He is the co-writer (with Keythe Farley and Laurence O'Keefe) of Bat Boy: The Musical, a stage play based on a story about a half-bat half-boy in the tabloid Weekly World News. It won the 2001 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Off- Broadway and six Drama Desk nominations in New York. Bat Boy has since been staged in London’s West End, Germany and Japan. John Landis (Blues Brothers, Animal House) will direct the film adaptation of the play.
Brian also wrote and directed a faux documentary about the assassination of Bill Gates called Nothing So Strange, which premiered at the Slamdance film festival in 2002. Variety called it "a crackling good movie" that "may be the ideal prototype film for the digital age." The film won the Claiborne Pell New York Times Award for Original Vision at the 2002 Newport Film Festival and was released commercially in 2003.
Brian is currently at work on The Beast, a fictional feature film about a Christian high school student who stumbles across evidence that Jesus Christ never existed. The film will be released on June 6, 2006.
Amanda Jackson (co-producer) began her career in stage management for commercial and nonprofit theater in New York, working in such theaters as Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages and the Union Square Theater. On the set of Bat Boy: The Musical, she met co-author Brian Flemming and later joined the crew of his feature film Nothing So Strange, which was then in post-production, as a coordinator. She has since collaborated with Flemming on the development of The Beast and the production of The God Who Wasn't There. Amanda was educated at the Idyllwild Arts Academy and Cornell University.