The God Who Wasn't There on DVD (2005)

Peter Laws from St. Albans, Herts [Highly rated reviewer] , 13/12/2007

The buzz about this documentary is that it would do for God what Michael Moore did for Gun culture and Morgan Spurlock did for fast food. With such a lofty aim you'd expect a full on assault on belief in Jesus. Instead you get a few little ounches that never really connect. The film delivers a poor counter argument against the existence of Jesus. There are various incosistencies here, not least is what he might call his smokling gun text Luke 19:27 ('bring my enemies and kill them in front of me') He quotes it as if Jesus said this in isolation, whereas its from the words of a King in a parable told by Jesus. Other verses like Hebrews 8:4 are also out of context.

He keeps saying that Christians ought to prove their faith, but seems to forget that atheism takes faith too. It's good that these things get made, to encourage debate and discussion. Believe it or not, most Christians do actually think about their faith and come to intellectual conclusions on its truth, but are open to discuss and consider alternative views. Flemming seems to have his mind firmly made up, but his unconvincing pile of evidence does little to topple the God he sets out to expose.

The documentary itself is fairly well made, though does have an home made feel. There's a great use old video footage. There's a decent amount of extras with slideshows, commentaries. The most interesting one is the end of the slide show where he makes an advert for a belief system to stand against faith: 'Universalism' which ends up looking just like another religion which he has been trying to dismantle all this time.

  19 out of 24 people found this review helpful

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Andybe from Richmond [Highly rated reviewer] , 04/01/2008

This documentary is probably more appropriately labelled as a mockumentary. Flemming starts with the premise that believers are idiots (or perhaps, at best, lemmings) and prefers to throw stones and poke fun rather than analyze.

'The God Who Wasn't There' is basically an hour-long rant in the one-sided style of Michael Moore. Unlike Moore, though, Flemming doesn't 'win' his antagonistic interviews. The head of Village Christian Schools (which Flemming attended), for example, makes Flemming look disingenuous, if not foolish, and the viewer applauds his abrupt ending of the interview by walking off camera (he's particularly sympathetic in the extended interview).

There are any number of works that compare belief against history and/or the Bible, itself. These are not necessarily in film format, so less accessible, but much better and more professionally approached, reasoned, and argued. Two that I've read are (1) Harold Bloom's 'Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Devine' which, incidentally, doesn't necessarily disagree with some of Flemming's assertions (e.g., the Old Testament's God is very different from Jesus and the New Testament's God the Father - basically, 'Christianity' was created by Paul), and (2) Charles Freeman's 'The Closing of the Western Mind', which deals with the political foundations enabling the rapid spread of the Christian church and its effect on culture of the 4th century through to today. These, of course, require several hours of reading vs a 60-min venting session.

  7 out of 9 people found this review helpful

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Nadiestar from Ruislip, Middlesex [Highly rated reviewer] , 09/01/2008

I'm trying to be fair here as this film was clearly this is an independently funded film. I had waited almost 2 years for this film to be released in the UK........

I'm not going to say don't watch it as i think you would be missing out on some really good information that would make you think twice about believing in an organised religion.

My only grip is that i felt it ran too short and ended too suddenly.

But thought provoking and full of good content.... Quite frankly you wouldn't base your life on a Disney movie so why would you believe the Bible? Its a story..... an interesting story. BUT a story none the less.

Oh and also the soundtrack got a little annoying towards the end. But still see it the more people walk away from christianity the better.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful

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Matty99 from amanford , 24/01/2008

many of the other reviews written on here are correct in saying that this film is too short and doesn't go in to enough depth to offer a truly devastating critisism of christianity or beliefs in general. It does make some very brave (considering it's an american film) observations of christian beliefs, and many that christians find it difficult if not impossible to answer, but this is a difficult and complex subject and so it would be hard for such a short film to cover it in enough depth to really make a difference. This film is great for those of us atheists (who require no faith to maintain this position, by the way) who enjoy seeing christian leaders who talk with such authority about the secular world, squirm when questioned about the specifics of what they believe. I have given it 5 stars due to the lack of other documentary films of a similar nature.

fundamentalist Churches should show this film in their services if they are genuine in their belief that the 'controversy' about evolution should be taught in school. Preach the controversy!

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful

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Andybe from Richmond [Highly rated reviewer] , 04/01/2008

This documentary is probably more appropriately labelled as a mockumentary. Flemming starts with the premise that believers are idiots (or perhaps, at best, lemmings) and prefers to throw stones and poke fun rather than analyze.

'The God Who Wasn't There' is basically an hour-long rant in the one-sided style of Michael Moore. Unlike Moore, though, Flemming doesn't 'win' his antagonistic interviews. The head of Village Christian Schools (which Flemming attended), for example, makes Flemming look disingenuous, if not foolish, and the viewer applauds his abrupt ending of the interview by walking off camera (he's particularly sympathetic in the extended interview).

There are any number of works that compare belief against history and/or the Bible, itself. These are not necessarily in film format, so less accessible, but much better and more professionally approached, reasoned, and argued. Two that I've read are (1) Harold Bloom's 'Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Devine' which, incidentally, doesn't necessarily disagree with some of Flemming's assertions (e.g., the Old Testament's God is very different from Jesus and the New Testament's God the Father - basically, 'Christianity' was created by Paul), and (2) Charles Freeman's 'The Closing of the Western Mind', which deals with the political foundations enabling the rapid spread of the Christian church and its effect on culture of the 4th century through to today. These, of course, require several hours of reading vs a 60-min venting session.

  7 out of 9 people found this review helpful

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Peter Laws from St. Albans, Herts [Highly rated reviewer] , 13/12/2007

The buzz about this documentary is that it would do for God what Michael Moore did for Gun culture and Morgan Spurlock did for fast food. With such a lofty aim you'd expect a full on assault on belief in Jesus. Instead you get a few little ounches that never really connect. The film delivers a poor counter argument against the existence of Jesus. There are various incosistencies here, not least is what he might call his smokling gun text Luke 19:27 ('bring my enemies and kill them in front of me') He quotes it as if Jesus said this in isolation, whereas its from the words of a King in a parable told by Jesus. Other verses like Hebrews 8:4 are also out of context.

He keeps saying that Christians ought to prove their faith, but seems to forget that atheism takes faith too. It's good that these things get made, to encourage debate and discussion. Believe it or not, most Christians do actually think about their faith and come to intellectual conclusions on its truth, but are open to discuss and consider alternative views. Flemming seems to have his mind firmly made up, but his unconvincing pile of evidence does little to topple the God he sets out to expose.

The documentary itself is fairly well made, though does have an home made feel. There's a great use old video footage. There's a decent amount of extras with slideshows, commentaries. The most interesting one is the end of the slide show where he makes an advert for a belief system to stand against faith: 'Universalism' which ends up looking just like another religion which he has been trying to dismantle all this time.

  19 out of 24 people found this review helpful

Read all highest rated reviews