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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
Release dates	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 which questions the existence of Jesus and examines evidence that supports the Jesus myth argument against the existence of a historical Jesus.

Overview

Statements made by Flemming and interviewees in The God Who Wasn't There include the following:

• The divine Jesus was based on older, mythic "savior figures" such as Thor, Balder, Deva tat, Dionysus, Mithras, Bacchus and Horus, arguing that these figures shared most of a set of key characteristics with Jesus, including being born of a virgin on December 25, being killed on a cross or tree, being visited by Magi from the East, riding donkeys into the city, being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, etc. Flemming accuses Christian leaders of being reluctant to teach early church history because it supports, rather than debunks, the idea that Jesus was a mythic figure rather than a historic personage.

• Christianity's global success is based on its claim to historical accuracy, as compared to most other mythologies, which exist in the realm of metaphor and moral parable, such as those of the ancient Greeks, who did not claim that Zeus walked the earth thousands of years ago, or the followers of Mithras or Osiris, who never claimed to have documentary proof of the physical existence of their gods. Flemming argues that Christianity bases its claim to moral authority on the assertion that God placed his own essence on Earth at a particular time and place, which can be documented, and that the evidence typically offered for this does not withstand close scrutiny.

• The letters of Saul/Paul of Tarsus, which were written before the Gospels, omit most of the events from the traditional life of Jesus, which Flemming argues Paul would never have omitted from his arguments unless he had never heard of them. Flemming asserts that 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.

• Jesus's life as a living person can be disproven by the fact that Paul seemed unaware of Jesus's life despite writing shortly after Jesus was supposed to have died, with Jesus's biography first provided by the Gospels of Mark, John, Matthew, and Luke, written around the end of the first century A.D. The film suggests that modern Christians aren't taught about early history of their religion because doing so would call the historicity of Jesus into question.

• Moderate Christianity makes even less sense than a fundamentalist interpretation of Christian doctrine, because the Bible contains many messages incompatible with toleration of non-Christians, particularly Jews, who reject Jesus as a savior and are therefore damned.

• God's demand that people believe in him or be damned to eternity in hell as essentially mind control. He is appalled that Jesus will forgive murder, theft, and any other sin but will not tolerate one doubting in God's existence. Because Jesus knows peoples' 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."

• Mel Gibson deliberately emphasized the graphic violence and suffering in his film, The Passion of the Christ. Flemming quotes a number of scenes from the film, and a running tally of depictions of violence, suffering or bloodshed is shown. Flemming sees the success of The Passion Of The Christ as evidence that Christian audiences do not deplore, but rather revel, in the bloody, violent or even sadistic undertones of the Jesus myth.

• Nearly half of Americans believe, to some degree, that the Rapture, or the End of Days, will occur in their lifetime (the next 30 or 40 years), and that this sort of thinking is not conducive to long-term governmental policies.

Appearances

• 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 studying ancient science at Columbia University in New York, where he received a Master's degree in ancient history. His articles have been published in The History Teacher, Skeptical Inquirer and The Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. He served as editor-in-chief of the Secular Web for several years. His latest book is Sense and Goodness Without God.
  • 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. 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 Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore, The Morphology of North American Indian Folktales, and Folklore Matters.
  • Sam Harris is a researcher into the neurology 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, a website that explores, confirms, and debunks urban legends, Internet hoaxes, and other popular beliefs.
  • Robert M. Price is Professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute. His books include Beyond Born Again, Deconstructing Jesus and The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man.
  • Ronald Sipus, principal of Village Christian School, which Brian Flemming attended as a youth. During the interview, Sipus accused Flemming of misrepresenting himself and the reasons for the interview, and walked out.

• The following only appear on the DVD's commentary track:
  • Richard Dawkins is an eminent British evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. His best-selling books include The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and The God Delusion. Dawkins is a staunch atheist and an established critic of creationism.
  • Earl Doherty is a modern pioneer of the Jesus Myth theory. His 1999 book The Jesus Puzzle lays out evidence for a mythical Christ.
  • The Raving Atheist is a lawyer and atheist blogger read widely in the blogosphere.

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.

Criticism

The film has been criticized by conservative Christian groups like Focus on the Family, which has taken issue with its scholarship.

Critic Mike Licona, observed "... no major or well-known scholars are interviewed" and that, in conclusion "... film is a rehashing of the same hypercritical skepticism that has failed to convince even most skeptical scholars for decades." Reviewer Cliff Vaughn of ethicsdaily.com criticized Flemming for characterizing all Christians by associating them with extremists who burn books, likening his approach to that of filmmaker Michael Moore by accusing Fleming of "relying on oversimplification for cheap laughs." Vaughn disputes Flemming's claim that the Inquisition was not a perversion of Christianity, but an expression of it. Vaughn also criticizes Flemming for characterizing Jesus by a quote by him in Luke 19:27, "But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me," by pointing out that in that passage, Jesus is telling a parable about the Ten Minas, and attributing that statement to the king in the story.

Flemming has responded to this criticism by claiming that Jesus often used parables to illustrate his own beliefs, and that in the parable in question, the King is obviously meant to be a stand-in for Jesus himself, in order to illustrate his view of those who disagree with him. Flemming has responded to some of his criticisms on the FAQ page of the film's official website.

Christian apologist and head of Tekton Apologetics Ministries James Patrick Holding has replied to the claims put forth by Flemming here on his site.

See also

• Jesus myth hypothesis
• Jesus and comparative mythology

References

1. ^ David Ian Miller (2006-02-13). "Finding my religion". SF Gate.
2. Licona, Mike (2007-12-09). "A Review of Brian Flemming's DVD "The God Who Wasn't There"".
3. "FAQ". The God Who Wasn't There's official website.
4. Holding, James Patrick; "Great Expectorations Or, The Apostate Who Wasn't All There" tektonics.org

External links

• Official website
• The God Who Wasn't There at IMDb
• An interview with Brian Flemming by ChristianityToday
• Brian Flemming's personal weblog

• 2005 films
• Documentaries about religion
• Pseudohistory