I just finished watching The God Who Wasn't There on DVD. I checked it out from the library after seeing an ad for it in the New Yorker.
I thought it was going to be reasoned arguments against Christianity, and I was interested in the part that was supposed to talk about Christianity's resemblance to other prior religions. Instead it was a bunch of LOLXIANS (I stole that term from Metafilter).
It was pretty inflammatory which was the author's point, I guess. I had problems with the misquoting of scriptures. One quote was attributed to Jesus from 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." Sounds like Jesus is pretty evil and bloodthirsty, doesn't it? Well, what the author, Brian Flemming, left out is that Jesus is telling a parable and that line is spoken by the main character in the story. It's not Jesus speaking for himself.
He also says that after Jesus' death, everyone forgot about him until Paul, aka Saul, picked up the story. He talks about how the gospels were written at least 40 years after Jesus died. He says that even Christians can't explain how the story got disseminated. He asks a couple of Christians on the street and they give some vague explanation about it being "in God's divine plan." The thing is, every Christian I know would be able to tell him that the apostles carried the story to various parts of the known world at that time. It's right there in the book of Acts which he completely ignores. Of course he could say that the book of Acts is made up, but he doesn't even address it. I think he takes a perverse pleasure in making Christians look stupid.
He has other objections to Christianity for which he gives what are supposed to be the commonly accepted Christian rebuttals, none of which I've ever heard before. (And if you know me, you know that I used to be one of the bible-thumpiest evangelicals there were, and now I'm one of the catholiciest Catholics there is.) For example, regarding Christianity's resemblance to other religions, he talks about other savior myths and the countless Egyptian, Roman, Greek, and assorted pagan gods which share characteristics with Jesus. He says that Christians just say Satan knew the prophecy of Jesus and so he masterminded these hoaxes in advance. I have never once heard anyone say that. The standard answer I've heard is that it is evidence of God revealing himself to humans, but the fullness of the revelation comes with Jesus. Possibly just as wacky an answer if Christianity is not your thing, but the point is, I don't know what Christians he's been talking to.
Oh, and then there's the part where he says the cardinal sin of Christianity is to think because to Christians doubt is the same as blasphemy. Nope, I've never heard that one. In fact I've always been taught that I should examine my beliefs and decide for myself. Every pastor I've ever had has said that: not to take his word for it, but to study and determine what I think is true. I would think that allows for doubt, or else what would I have to verify?
He interviews Sam Harris who goes on about how dangerous it is that 60% of the American electorate is Christian. Okay. He says it's a shame that college-educated presidents and congressmen are using their religion to impede embryonic stem cell research. He says they are basing it on their belief that the soul enters a zygote at the moment of conception. Again, I've never heard that reasoning. I've only heard people talking about life beginning at conception, which means that a life is being destroyed in the use of an embryo for its stem cells. Souls are immortal; they can't be destroyed. Again, not a distinction that would make Mr. Harris see a Christian's point. I just would have appreciated a little more accuracy.
I guess I can't say I'm completely disappointed. I checked out the DVD because I wanted it to make me think. It certainly did, just not in the way I expected. And I didn't expect it to make me angry. Mr. Flemming seemed to be going out of his way to be disrespectful. I expected more of a straightforward "Christians are wrong. Here's why," rather than a malevolent "Christians are crazy. Here's (inaccurately) why."
