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Before you read further, you should know that this movie is a juvenile attempt at a "shockumentory" and certainly not worth your time to see or ours to review. We hate the thought of honoring the filmmaker with space on our website, but decided to do so, grudgingly, because the movie is getting a certain amount of positive publicity. We wanted to make a critical review available on the Internet for anyone confused by the twisted views presented in this silly home movie.
A Critical Review of The God Who Wasn't There
Written, Directed and Narrated by Brian Fleming
Beyond Belief Media 2005
Review by Susan Verstraete
A friend of mine is fond of quoting the axiom, "Consequences have ideas." That certainly seems to prove true in Brian Fleming's documentary diatribe against Christianity, "The God Who Wasn't There."
The 39-year-old Fleming, who describes his parents as "typical, non-Bible-thumping Methodists,"1 attended an evangelical parochial school in California as a child. There, he says, "I was born again at least three times, I think."2 Fleming describes his school days as marked by fear—primarily the fear of going to hell. He lived in terror, thinking that examining his legitimate questions about the existence of the Holy Spirit might cause him to inadvertently commit the unpardonable sin, which he defined as doubting the Holy Spirit's existence, even in his thoughts. Fleming falsely concluded that, "The greatest crime in fundamentalist Christianity is to think." In what appears to be a backlash against his fear and his resulting self-imposed intellectual dishonesty, Fleming has repudiated his belief in Christianity and has become a bitter atheist with a pseudo-evangelical furor to convert others to his empty belief system.
Fleming had it all wrong. Scholars debate exactly what constitutes "the unpardonable sin," which Jesus mentioned in Luke 12:10 and Mark 3:29, but it seems to be attributing to Satan obvious works of the Holy Spirit that an individual knows to be the work of God. This is not mere doubt, but an enduring, clench-fisted rebellion against God.
As my friend said, consequences have ideas. Fleming's self-indulgent documentary is the consequence of the skewed doctrine he was taught (or misunderstood) and the resulting bitterness and anger he feels against Christianity. In a sad little segment at the end of the movie, Fleming goes so far as to misrepresent himself in order to film an interview with the current headmaster of the school he attended, perhaps in a quest for closure. Given Fleming's background, we have no hope of a non-biased treatment of the subject matter of this documentary.
Since we now understand some of Fleming's underlying motivation for making this movie, let's look at a few of the arguments he presents in his attempt to prove that "God simply isn't there."
To read the rest of this critical review, please click: http://www.ccwonline.org/fleming.html
A Critical Review of The God Who Wasn't There
Written, Directed and Narrated by Brian Fleming
Beyond Belief Media 2005
Review by Susan Verstraete
A friend of mine is fond of quoting the axiom, "Consequences have ideas." That certainly seems to prove true in Brian Fleming's documentary diatribe against Christianity, "The God Who Wasn't There."
The 39-year-old Fleming, who describes his parents as "typical, non-Bible-thumping Methodists,"1 attended an evangelical parochial school in California as a child. There, he says, "I was born again at least three times, I think."2 Fleming describes his school days as marked by fear—primarily the fear of going to hell. He lived in terror, thinking that examining his legitimate questions about the existence of the Holy Spirit might cause him to inadvertently commit the unpardonable sin, which he defined as doubting the Holy Spirit's existence, even in his thoughts. Fleming falsely concluded that, "The greatest crime in fundamentalist Christianity is to think." In what appears to be a backlash against his fear and his resulting self-imposed intellectual dishonesty, Fleming has repudiated his belief in Christianity and has become a bitter atheist with a pseudo-evangelical furor to convert others to his empty belief system.
Fleming had it all wrong. Scholars debate exactly what constitutes "the unpardonable sin," which Jesus mentioned in Luke 12:10 and Mark 3:29, but it seems to be attributing to Satan obvious works of the Holy Spirit that an individual knows to be the work of God. This is not mere doubt, but an enduring, clench-fisted rebellion against God.
As my friend said, consequences have ideas. Fleming's self-indulgent documentary is the consequence of the skewed doctrine he was taught (or misunderstood) and the resulting bitterness and anger he feels against Christianity. In a sad little segment at the end of the movie, Fleming goes so far as to misrepresent himself in order to film an interview with the current headmaster of the school he attended, perhaps in a quest for closure. Given Fleming's background, we have no hope of a non-biased treatment of the subject matter of this documentary.
Since we now understand some of Fleming's underlying motivation for making this movie, let's look at a few of the arguments he presents in his attempt to prove that "God simply isn't there."
To read the rest of this critical review, please click: http://www.ccwonline.org/fleming.html