Truly Dreadful Film

Boring

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I'm a Christian. I'm also extremely open-minded and a logical thinker. Yea, I know we all consider ourselves to be this way, but I've had more than one close friend say that I'm the most level headed person they know. They say I am willing to see things from another person's viewpoint better than anyone they know. When presented with an argument that contradicts my opinion or my belief, I pride myself in being able to consider the other person's position...that is, as long as they are willing to discuss the matter in an intelligent, civil manner. Brian Williams cannot do this.I had been debating internally whether or not to watch the movie. Not because I was afraid my faith would be shaken, but because I didn't know if I wanted to spend 90 minutes of my life listening to something that might be someone else's ludicrous argument. For example, I had seen Bill Maher's "Religuous" and it was full of asinine statements. He interviewed people who were just ordinary folks or fringe believers, and he mocked them. He didn't have the guts to debate experts who have studied the religion. The priest of my local parish would have ripped Maher to shreds in a debate over religion.So, I took a chance and started the movie. Right off the bat Williams starts with poor logic then he insults me. The movie starts out saying the church once believed the Sun revolved around the Earth. Since they were wrong about that could they be wrong about other things? This is poor logic because nowhere in our dogma does it say that salvation required a follower to believe the Sun revolved around the Earth. Human's lack of understanding of the mechanics of the universe, and their insistence on adhering to a false understanding of those mechanics, doesn't prove or disprove the existence of God, either.Williams then immediately jumped into a series of short quips of Christians explaining who Jesus was (i.e. "the Son of God" or "the Messiah, the Saviour of the World"). Williams narration points out that these Christians are smiley, happy people, but not all Christians are like them. He then starts rolling a series of pictures of deranged people who have committed horrific acts in the name of God.Screw you, Williams. These people were not followers of God. They were insane. Your insinuation that Christians are evil, disturbed people or a belief in God drives people to commit atrocious acts is insulting to me. Because of the nature of humans there are good and bad people in EVERY aspect of life! If you want to debate the existence of Jesus, fine. If you want to do it by insulting me and my faith, then you're on your own.I turned off the movie after 3 minutes.

As a Christian, I watched this documentary eager to see how the producer would present his view. Most of my friends do not follow Christianity and I have respectful and stimulating discussions with them about our respective views.Having recently been reading "Zealot: the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth," I was expecting a much more robust debate and engagement with relevant literature (evidence, if you will). However, the producer has taken a similar approach to the one fundamentalist Christians are often criticised of: identify a few weak points in the Christian position, then spend the rest of the movie discrediting Christians for actions and views that are quite often unrelated to the original stated aim of the "documentary." In essence, combinations of the straw-person / ad hominem fallacies.Given the long and healthy tradition of academic rigor in agnostic and atheist circles, I was appalled that the producer was unwilling to engage a single historical or theological scholar from the Christian perspective. Instead, he trotted out several fairly minor academics for his cause and then contrasted their views to those of some relatively ignorant Christian lay people, pop theologians, authors a school principal. The producer completely by-passes the ancient non-Christian historical references to Jesus as a teacher and good man. Also, having stated that Christians don't understand how Christianity spread, I was waiting for information about the politicization under Empire, etc, but he just bumbles on.As identified in previous posts, the producer also mixes some spurious or outright wrong information into his analysis of the historicity of Christ, causing me to question his entire research (which seems to be pretty thin on the ground).The lack of research, ever-present vitriolic sarcasm and complete disregard for critical thinking (more leaps in logic than a gymnast on a vaulting horse), is why I gave this such a low score.One highlight: good overviews of synoptic gospel authorship and links between Jesus and previous deities in the ancient world, but those 10 minutes or so don't make this one to watch.I would say read "Zealot" and "Deconstructing Jesus" for a much better analysis of historical and theological arguments, then balance those with "The Case for Christ," or similar.

When Christians are asked how Christianity is spread, many cite "Pentacost" because (if you will take time to read it) Jesus bestowed His power on them to go forth, preach, and heal.A central component to Christ's ministry was faith. The concept is mentioned numerous times from Jesus telling his Disciples during a storm they had little faith, to the woman "in red" who touched his clothes and became healed... "Woman, your faith has healed you."So here we are again, when did the spread of Christianity start. I agree with most: by sending out his Disciples to the public, Jesus was empowering them to spread the good news. It is in that same fashion that a Christian seeks to discover their unbelieving brother, and help them realize the glory of God.

The notion that there never existed a personage known as or modeled after a "Jesus Christ" is intriguing to say the least and deserves a better made "documentary" than this. I, too, have come to believe there never was such a person and have read some of Earl Doherty's discussion on the matter at his website so I was all gung-ho to see a film presentation of all the evidence, spliced in with commentary from the many great thinkers that agree with the premise. Boy, was I let down! This film is poorly made and -to put it bluntly - boring! The director clearly did not do his homework. Interviewing people on the street about Jesus was pointless, too. Why not talk to theologians? for example. There is so much ground to cover and so many, many talking points to explore but the director wastes precious minutes by, among other things, visiting the Christian school he attended as a youth followed by a poor imitation of ambush-style journalism in an interview with the schools director. This is a subject that deserves serious consideration and I await the filmmaker that deals with it as such.