So, as I said before, there are a bunch of other movies (and books) seeking to debunk the claims of Christianity. So much so, that I would say that it seems to actually be a trend! We have Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, Brian Fleming's God who wasn't there (maybe his god wasn't?), The lost tomb of Jesus (executively produced by the same James Cameron who brought us Terminator and Terminator 2, koel né - haha), Zeitgeist, and then Bill Maher's Religulous. Methinks there might be some money to be made in this fad...
See, I would be quite troubled if these works were filled more with careful and good scholarship, more logical or feasible cases than mere mockery and slander... Now, I believe that the claims made in these movies need to be addressed, for a few reasons, namely:
1. There are answers. Not replying to critics would give the impression that the arguments are solid and unanswered.
2. Christianity welcomes questions, welcomes scrutiny and provides some strong answers for many issues raised. (Many other faiths do not take this stance).
3. Very often the critics offer no alternative, or an even weaker alternative (Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the DNA double-helix suggests seeding from outer space to explain the structure and design of it).
4. The bulk of the work presented here is very dubious, it makes weak illogical assumptions, purposefully distorts or manipulates the truth to fit a simplistic and skewed result. It deserves to be exposed at most, and at least not taken very seriously.
5. Serious questions should have a platform for expression, and the rubbish needs to be discerned from the authentic and challenging work.
6. We learn the trends of objections, and also, we learn a bit about decent scholarship by reading through good scholarship. For example, I learnt that it is good practice to list your sources when making statements or quoting people or writings. Don't just state a point about history without backing it up - give a reference. What book, page number, author, date of copy, etc. Most of these documentaries fail this in a huge way, it would not allow for them to twist the truth so deftly!
OK, so, here are some useful links that take up the challenge that these movies throw our way.
Religulous:
http://www.tektonics.org/religuguff.html
Zeitgeist:
http://www.xanga.com/JB_Fidei_Defensor/638110989/zeitgeist-rebuttal-speech.html
The God that wasn't there was linked to in my previous post...
Happy holidays!
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