The God Who Wasn't There [DVD] [2005] [Region 1] [NTSC] [US Import]

When I watched the amusing 4 minute black and white summary of the biblical story in this dvd, pulled from a cheap film from the early 20th century, I was struck by how really ridiculous the story is when you lay it out the way it is supposed to have happened and narrate it in a completely deadpan way. The actual basic story presents like a children's book, with incredible magic tricks and villains and talking animals and brightly coloured arks with happy smiley Giraffes and elephants, walking on water (how cool is that?) and chiselled good looking religious folk in pristine white smocks, spreading the message of love in a low assertive (Surrey) voice with blue watery eyes wide with love and sincerity - Oh, and a bit of suffering and execution at the end, but this is OK as the visible bit of the imaginary magical friend comes back to life and then disappears back to the IMF on a golden cloud or horse/donkey. This is the happy, clappy Christianity of modern Britain - `taught' to young impressionable children in the many faith schools that are dotted all around the UK, who absorb the Rock Star imaged, sincere, Jesus and the amiable on-looking and loving God with the white beard who loves all his `children' equally. Per a recent survey you don't even have to believe anymore to call yourself a `Christian' and you don't actually have to go to Church and grovel in front of a man in a frock every Sunday. But faith is still seen by the Church of E as a cohesive force of good and a `narrative' to being really BRITISH' -it's now a tribal badge to wear, like being a Conservative or a member of the KKK. This is the happy and benign face of British Christianity and, as Larkin predicted, it will die out as it drifts further and further away from the alternative or more accurate view of the Bible - i.e. that peddled by the money men in the US.

The US version of Chri$tianity has to compete with Islam to survive in the war of the Faiths. This is a corrupting Chri$tianity of money, power, blood, global war, more blood, more money, pain, death, AIDS, hatred, torment, retribution, bigotry, revenge, sin, even more blood, even more money, fear, loathing, HELL, Satan and blood sacrifice, big garish placards with `Death to This and Death to That' splashed on them, all built on exactly the book that is being selectively taught in British schools. Naturally this U$ version of industrial Chri$tianity, marvellously portrayed in the Mel Gib$on ghastly horror flick `The Pa$$ion of Chri$t' (which is discussed at length in this DVD), won't die out, as ultimately it's many, many proponents want their US Rock Star Saviour to return, save them from all the homosexuals, their gluttony and all the `other wrong religions' and blow up the World in the process.

This DVD tackles this from the view point of an ex-Christian in the US. It looks at how the whole biblical edifice is built on historically proven myths that the average US Christian, interviewed on the street in this DVD, has absolutely no knowledge of and, given one response elicited in this DVD, doesn't want to hear (and says so). An example to wet the appetite is the fact that the only person that wrote of Jesus in the 75 year gap between Jesus' death and the first Gospel (why wait so long?) is our old friend; Paul. Of the entire Jesus story the only part that Paul actually mentions is the death and resurrection - which is odd, as all the key important points/FACTS like the virgin birth etc he completely `forgot' to put in (possibly an editorial oversight on his behalf). These important embellishments were added much later as after thoughts in the Gospels, for some reason that I can't put my finger on, and practically all the notable events mentioned e.g. walking on water, healing the sick, born on 25 December etc precede Jesus' birth in the FAITH stories/myths of many of the other saviours and Gods that came before him (eg Adonis). How extraordinary is that?! Interestingly this huge raft of awkward facts, discussed at length in this very entertaining DVD, are also 100% acknowledged by the Church, which has officially explained them as being diversions put out there by `Satan' to lead us all astray - he is a cheeky monkey that Satan bloke.

This is an entertaining DVD because it links these damning truths with a neat musical soundtrack and rams home the points in an amusing vein. The delivery is different to that on Maher's film Religulous in that the contributors and the narrator have less truck with the subject matter - this is an all out assault with no empathy with the subjects. There is an underlying impatience, horror and frustration which is borne of the fact that the writer/narrator was once hoodwinked by this stuff and has subsequently seen the light. This is him putting the record straight and he doesn't really pull any punches in the process. A definite buy at the right price.

If you were expecting something along the lines of Zeitgeist: The greatest Story Ever Told h[...] (as I) might well be disappointed at the contents of this quite mediocre 'documentary.' That this adds another voice to the debate is surely positive - that we are still having the Judaeo-Christian god debate in 2012 is intellectually very sad indeed.

Whilst there is no way to challenge believers (should one even wish to do so), no way to argue against blind faith or call people to account for value systems that guide both their lives and some elements of society and government, there is the historical record and THE historical record is something we can, or should be able to discuss rationally and academically as fellow beings seated around a table not screaming at each other on pavements or anonymously posting hate on websites. That this film then doesn't really go any way to academically and anthropologically deconstructing the historical Jesus fable/myth/folklore (which is what it is) is something of a great shame because that is really all that can be achieved in an argument which is ultimately about personal beliefs and lifestyle aspirations.

There is a body of scholarly evidence out there which can almost dismiss the existence of an historical Christ Jesus figure and it is really that which this platform should have been used to present as a cohesive hypothesis, a hypothesis which would then have been passed to the non-secular side of the table to refute a la. disjunctive syllogism, which by failing to be disproved would have proved the hypothesis accurate and authentic. The problem is, however, that this film does not present any more than another voice in the debate, certainly no smoking gun and certainly no attempt to proffer a water-tight hypothesis. That is ultimately a great shame.

More and more studies like this now shed new light on old beliefs once taken for granted. What we were indoctrinated with at school was false, biased and inaccurate and investigations like this one lay the cards firmly on the table of truth.
Unfounded information (hearsay) means data derived from other people/third-hand sources (as with the Gospels etc) rather than on a genuine witness knowledge basis, is totally unacceptable today.
Law courts do not in general allow hearsay as proof, and nor does sincere contemporary research. Gossip alone provides no proof or good evidence; therefore we must dismiss it or face the music as narrow-minded hypocrites.
No one has the smallest amount of physical evidence to support a historical Jesus figure. This seems to be the central force in such studies as this one. I have also covered a similar thread in my own volume, The New Pagan Handbook. Come to think of it - perhaps I should be speaking intimately with the makers of `The God Who Wasn't There'?
Jewish scriptural values joined with Pagan myth/tradition of the time give us adequate information about how such a new-fangled religion as Christianity could have been crafted. Numerous Pagan myths cross-pollinate incredibly closely with the alleged Jesus god-man figure. To ignore such immense similarities, due to blind, unquestioning faith alone, is preposterous and rather dangerous in the extreme. This is how religious fundamentalism grows.
To ignore the mythological beliefs of history in favour of easily dismissed religious propaganda is basically ridiculous.
Resurrection accounts, Crucifixion tales, Virgin Births etc have all been knocking around long before the Jesus Myth was initially invented by those first cultist politicians, who wanted to rewrite ancient mythology.
Yes - we need more information like this and not less.