In the spirit of this bloody war we’ve been waging against Christmas and its persecuted practitioners, I felt it was my duty to link to the trailer for Brian Flemming’s new documentary, “The God Who Wasn’t There.” In the film, Flemming, perhaps best known as the author of the off-Broadway hit “Bat Boy: The Musical,” suggests that Jesus Christ, much like Santa Claus, is a figment of our collective imaginations.
Personally, I would have settled for a film outlining the apparent discrepancies between the teachings of Jesus and the actions of his followers here on earth, or even perhaps a film calling into question his virgin birth, but Flemming decides to go one giant step further, suggesting that the man described in the Christian gospels never even existed. When asked by the LA Times why he chose to question Jesus’ mere existence rather than just his divinity, Flemming said, “I think that the idea that an individual could be the son of a god is already so ridiculous it doesn’t need to be debunked.” Judging from that response, I’m guessing he’s not too interested in finding common ground. One just hopes for his sake that the fervent believers in this country are a bit more willing to turn the other cheek than they were in Amsterdam, when another ballsy filmmaker decided to call the legitimacy of a very popular religion into question.
…OK, as long as I’ve gone this far, I might as well go all the way and also link to the episode of Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit” in which they debunk the Bible.
Happy Holidays.
5 Comments
In two thousand years I bet they’ll be saying that Bat Boy never existed.
immaculate conception has nothing to do with jesus. it is the accepted church doctrine that mary was the only human born without original sin. the idea that jesus was begotten of the holy ghost is called the virgin birth, not the immaculate conception.
I really doubt that I want to “go there”, but here I go anyhow. How was Mary born without original sin? Is she from off planet?
Thanks for the links Mark.
I believe the dogma is that Mary’s original sin was deleted from the first moment of her conception, since God (who is off planet) already had plans for her. But I admit I don’t understand the mechanics of all this.
The evidence that Jesus existed is kind of shaky. But there certainly were early Christians, so something must have happened.
Thank you for the note, Dorothy. I’ll edit my post accordingly.
As for this film, I probably should have said it in the post, but, while I intend to watch it with an open mind, I’m doubtful that it’ll convince me that there was no Jesus. While I have a great many issues with Christianity, especially as it’s being practiced now in the US, whether or not Jesus really existed isn’t a question in my mind.