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It’s my own fault. I should have been paying attention to the ongoing debate between believers, historians, and skeptics. I should have followed the Jesus Seminar, an informal group of Christians and atheists who examine the factual evidence surrounding Christ’s life. But I was busy doing other things. Earning a living. Socializing. Going to the movies. Reading books. Traveling. In short I was doing what most self-respecting atheists do – living in the real, not fantasy, world. My doubts began as I watched The God Who Wasn’t There, the 50-minute documentary promoted on this website over the last few months. (see / click on picture above right) Using interviews with believers and skeptics, graphics and footage from old films, ex-fundamentalist Brian Flemming presents the case that the Son of God never existed. With good production values and appropriately moody background music by DJ Madson, David Byrne and others, TGWWT promises more than it delivers – and much of what it does deliver comes not in the film but in one of the commentaries accompanying the DVD. TGWWT begins well, asking why Paul, whose letters comprise the bulk of the New Testament, never once refers to a living Jesus. Paul knew some of the disciples and began preaching and writing less than a decade after Christ’s supposed death, yet in his letters, the only references to Jesus are to the crucifixion and resurrection. No mention of the Virgin Birth. Nothing about turning water into wine, walking on the Sea of Galilee or raising men from dead. No Sermon on the Mount. No feeding of the five thousand. Zilch about Mary Magdalene. Nada about Pontius Pilate. If you want to persuade people of your conviction, you use every bit of evidence you have. Paul’s conversion came only a few years after Christ died, but he does not produce even one person among the hundreds or thousands who would have witnessed his life or death. “Here, all the way from Jerusalem, in his late forties now, but with a vivid memory of that day twelve years ago when the Son of God was crucified and the sky was covered in darkness, is John (or Jane) Doe.” (Cue for applause…) So where is the evidence? The first gospel (Mark’s) was not written until more than forty years after Jesus reportedly died. Josephus the historian, regarded by many Christians as the primary independent confirmation of Jesus’ existence, did not write about him until over 60 years after the crucifixion. Jesus’ story was not unique. It followed a pattern common to divinities across the world – a hero born of a virgin who dies violently and is reborn again. Few who heard such tales believed that they took place in the real world – and Paul’s letters suggest that he too did not see Christ as an actual human being. Then some believers decided to flesh out the story. History and propaganda have always been bedfellows. In a world where most people were illiterate and died before they were forty, events older than a generation ago could seldom be verified or disproved. Christ's life could easily be invented. There’s enough material there for Flemming to make a three hour film. But instead of building up the evidence, he gets bored and wanders off the point. First, he offers a reprise of the violence in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, suggesting it is symptomatic of the bloodthirstiness underlying fundamentalist Christianity and many other religions. Then we detour into the Rapture with an extended interview with Scott Butcher, an otherwise apparently sane individual who runs a website where those who have booked their seats on the first flight to Heaven can leave messages for friends and family left behind. Finally we interview Robert Sipus, Superintendent of the Village Christian School in California where Flemming was a student. The last scene is of Flemming fulfilling a personal ambition by denying the Holy Spirit in the school chapel. All very interesting, but irrelevant to Jesus’ (lack of) existence. For more on that, you have to rewatch the film in commentary mode, to listen to an interview with Earl Doherty, webhost of jesuspuzzle.com, who adds more substance to the argument. Did Jesus exist? Possibly yes and possibly no. As two interviewees in the film point out, questions about his existence are irrelevant compared to the messages attributed to him. One, Richard Dawkins, suggests that these messages have their origins in the secular, not religious, world. In other words we do not need a Jesus, whether real or fictional, to tell us that love and forgiveness are qualities that we should all aspire to.
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If God existed, he would... admire the beauty of a universe that he did not create recognize that eternity is meaningless deny both heaven and hell disown all men and women who speak in his name denounce the harm caused by religious "morality" help the human race to thrive without him If God existed, he would be an atheist. |
