Max Kämmerer I am an atheist, like Brian Flemming, and I used to be a fundamentalist Christian, like Flemming. I think that religion is a bane on society that mankind should rid itself of. However, I am afraid that this movie is much too polemic and dishonest to make a big difference. Flemming makes all the usual mistakes that atheists make when attacking Christianity, like quoting the Bible out of context and demanding that Christians follow Old Testament laws. An assault on the gigantic monolith of faith requires more finesse and objectivity. What Flemming does right is his titular topic, i.e. his gripping presentation of the problem of the historical Jesus. It is truly thought- provoking, and I wish he had stuck closer to that. Here and there, he also manages to shine a good light on the religious mind and bring up something worth thinking about. I would advice viewers to be critical, even of this critical film. That should be a general rule, anyway.

dawnovwillow187 This Doc...is hilarious. Not smart. Doesn't make any sense to use it for a base of his rejection of something and then try to paint what he rejected as wrong. A director is trying to spend time debating where Christianity originated, Christ's validity, and argue with the principles of Christianity...and uses this context a lot: "The way the world operates" when he questions the leader of the school he attended about Christianity. Does the whole world operation on one belief. Right there it is realized he was just a someone who didn't agree with Christianity...now he wants to make it seem like it is wrong..but his argument is so stupid and dumb as he is...that laughter is all that can be applied to his premise. Christianity is about faith...using the context The World...operating this way makes no logical contextual sense...since there is more than one spiritual premise that people believe..Christianity is one. And like the Priest said when receiving that dumb question: Its a matter of Faith. Flemming is as dumb and as disgruntled as he sounds...no doubt about it. He didn't want to conform (which was HIS choice), now he spends his money and time trying to paint the opposite as bad. That is so funny. If one doesn't believe in God or Christianity...nothing about Christianity will apply to him anyway. Is he really that much of a cry-baby that he had to make a documentary?

bob_meg The first thing that is usually revealed in any summary of this film (for those who don't already know, the spoiler box is checked) is that Brian Flemming is an ex-fundamentalist Christian, and that, of course, immediately gives him an agenda. Maybe he's angry at being sold, what he now perceives to be, a bill of goods? Maybe he's out for revenge on the grade school that indoctrinated him initially (and at some abuse which is vaguely hinted at?).Regardless, he manages to articulate the fallacy of Faith that virtually all Judeo-Christian religions fall back on when faced with a question they can't answer factually: namely, "Well, you have to have faith" or --- the one I got most often when questioning parts of my Catholic upbringing --- "It's too complex for humans to understand...if you understood it, you'd be God." Once you get past this implausible answer --- and it's difficult, I'll grant you that; it's akin to being brainwashed --- it's pretty horrifying what the human mind is capable of accepting simply because "it's always been taught that way." Flemming makes some really good arguments, most notably that the Jesus story follows much of the exact same story arc of many pagan gods before him, and the obliqueness of Paul/Saul's "conversion" and evangelical experience. He also throws us some of the many destabilizing and discrediting "sources" out there, including a guy who runs a Web site for people to write letters to their loved ones, explaining how they are missing because they have been taken up to heaven in the infamous "Rapture", and the head of Flemming's former school who cowardly ends the interview because Fleming has successfully backed him into a corner (oh, but he does have a rather fat paycheck residing on his ability to force feed a doctrine based on myth and legend to 1800 kids).Also, to contradict previous reviewers, Flemming does NOT "want" Christians to believe 100% in the bible, and joyfully endorse gassing gays, etc. He is merely saying that the concept of believing "halfway" in something is ludicrous. How can you rationally endorse one part of a doctrine and deny others? But the key word here is "rational." To call this an important subject is a massive understatement. Can anyone honestly say 9/11 wouldn't have happened if not for the fanatical belief in God? And that's only the tip of the slaughter iceberg, obviously.The one bright side to all this is that, at least it seems to me, more people are waking up to the fact that Judeo-Christian religions are the problem, not the solution, and are encouraging each other to think with their own minds before deciding how to exercise their FREEDOM (and yes, it is a freedom, something that can't be dictated by a bunch of crazed fascists hiding behind a cross) to decide what to believe. That's largely due to the internet and also, to brave filmmakers like Flemming. Bravo.

thomasprescott 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.