About 75 students attended a free screening in Lockett Hall Wednesday of “The God Who Wasn’t There,” a movie that questions the existence of Jesus, the man Christians consider the son of God.
The student organization Atheist, Humanist and Agnostics sponsored the screening, and an informal discussion panel after the movie was hosted by religious studies professors John Whittaker and Delbert Burkett.
Viewers had varying reactions to the film’s ideas and the way they were presented.
“The production was somewhat amateur, but it raised issues that have been around a long time,” Burkett said.
Erik Browne, president of AHA, said he showed the movie to students because it brought up questions about the Christian faith that many Christians have never thought about before.
“By offering these challenges of the literal interpretation of the Bible, I think it leads people to question their faith,” Browne said.
The film started with a six-minute summary of the life and death of Jesus.
It then stated that there is a 40 to 55 year timespan between the death of Jesus and the writing of the gospels.
The narrator, Brian Flemming, then told of his life experiences at a fundamental Christian school in California where he accepted Christian life three times.
But the film progresses to an interview with the school’s principal, and Flemming is thrown out of the principal’s office for questioning the fundamental Christian beliefs the school’s students are being taught.
Andrew Beyer, philosophy senior, said he enjoyed the film.
“I thought it brought up some good, provocative points about the Christian faith,” Beyer said.
Alan Nicholson, sociology junior, said he agreed that the film discussed ideas that remain relevant today.
“There’s so many Christians that don’t know why they believe what they believe,” Nicholson said. “The movie offers people another view of Christianity and of the documents that they believe in so strongly.”
But not every viewer enjoyed the showing.
“I didn’t like the movie because he spent the first 15 minutes on whether Jesus existed and then spent the rest on how he didn’t like his childhood and his school,” said Joel Emerson, history sophomore.
The religious studies professors who were in attendance also had different views of the film.
“It seems the author was making the point that he thinks Jesus was a mythical figure, such as Hercules,” Burkett said.
Burkett disagreed with the the movie’s portrayal of Jesus as a mythical figure, but he acknowledges that the real Jesus might not have been the spiritual figure he is known as today.
“For most scholars, one of the facts of history is that there must have been someone there named Jesus who got this whole thing started,” Burkett said.
While Whittiker said he enjoyed the film, he said he thinks many of the claims and arguments against Christianity that were debated in the movie aren’t anything new.
“I liked the film,” Whittiker said. “It holds Christian feet to the fire, but the stuff in the film is hundreds of years old.”
 
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