Perm

I wasn't overly impressed with it, but I didn't go in thinking it would be the end-all of atheism documentaries either. In fact, I find that atheism is so far out of the "main stream" that when I view something that is supposed to be atheist in nature, it generally comes off like it's for people who barely have a notion of atheism and free-thinking.

There just aren't documentaries or much material made for people who are further along the road of free-thinking than most. Even things like "end of faith" and "the god delusion" touched on topics we've debated here on IIDB for years.

I liked the documentary, specifically the interviews with at the end. The guy who did the filming and his points were mediocre at best, but it was worth watching.

Gamer4Fire

I think that after being exposed to IIDB, that it would take a lot more to impress than the average individual. Because you are not the target audience for it, you are judging it too harshly.

Maybe some of the more artistic here could make a decent documentary set at the average IIDBer level. I'd volunteer, but I'm a broke college student.

doubtingt

My problems with it were NOT that it didn't have more advanced arguments targeted at a priori skeptics (although it didn't), but rather that it didn't have much to appeal to or persuade the luke-warm believers who are accessible via reason, but believe largely out of laziness and/or lack of familiarity with an alternative. I doubt it will sway anyone. In fact, I have many people in my life who could potentially be swayed to at least serisously doubt the historical-assumption, but I am unlikely to loan any of them a copy of this film, because its anti-Xtian tone does more harm than good to the credibility of the jesus-myth argument. Now, I think many of the anti-Xtian points were valid, but they belong in a different film.

Basically, the filmaker set it all up as a critique of Xtian believers who are naive and uneducated about the history of their own religion (fish in a barrel). But almost everyone out there (both believers and non-believers) assumes that credible, academic scholarship supports a historical Jesus.
Thus, to be persuasive to anyone, he needed to directly take on the mainstream establishment of Biblical scholorship, and show how their evidence and reasoning (or lack their of) that they use to conclude a historical Jesus simply don't hold up to any minimal standard of honest and unbiased, reasoned inquiry. I don't feel the film ever really attempted to do that.

Bboyneko

I concur, the film was a enormous let down. It seemed the documentary maker cared only about returning to his childhood school and denying the holy spirit, which to me stated that his interest was far less intellectual as it was personal, petty, and childish.

terrible documentary, terrible film, overall poo-poo.

Doug Shaver

I suspect it was not, in general. I have not heard much at all about it -- just a few comments in that other forum, and now some more in this one.

Toto

It made a splash when it came out. I think people here are criticizing the DVD for being a personal, artistic statement and not the academic legal brief that they think would be persuasive.

doubtingt

I wouldn't fault it for being "artistic", but I also wouldn't call it particularly "artistic" either. Yes, it was "personal", but that's not an inherent flaw. Personal examples that speak to the points the movie wants to make could be a positive. The problem is that the personal elements Flemming uses undermine rather than illuminate or support the main points, by giving the film an air of an a-rational, emotion-driven vendetta against Christianity.

The film was billed as an expose' style documentary that would present a compelling case against some core assumptions of the Christian faith, most centrally the historical existence of Jesus. If that was the film's intent, then it failed at it. However, it succeeded if its intent was to be just another of many films that make extremist believers look silly, intolerant, and ignorant of their own doctrines.

Tammuz

I think you should view it more as a personal film with Brian Flemming "settles issues" with his former religion and school than a scholarly docunentary.

Vampyroteuthis

Jesus Camp is better.

EmpiricalGod

When i watched it, i had very limited knowledge of biblical critisism, and haven't read the NT. Having said that, i found that the documentary contained alot of facts i didn't know previously, and found that overall the video was interesting.

However, i have been reading up on material extensively since and much more familiar with the bible, and such documentaries interest me less, because i feel like they direct the information more for people who don't spend alot of time reading about a faith they don't follow. In other words non-beleivers, who are less learned in the subject. So most of the information is already old knowledge.

Maybe that's why you found it disappointing.