This is the most accurate review of God's Not Dead yet. I'm a Christian and I'm really baffled as to how all my friends think this is even slightly good.
EVANGELIST Daniel Torres Yeah you did..lmao now we have a lying Christian...wow and before you go I didn't judge him I will quote you "Actually it was a great movie much better than this false Christian portrayed it." You are judging this man deeming him to be a false Christian when you don't know the man personally,professionally or let alone know the relationship he has with god. People like you who judge before knowing someone personally just like you will me are the people who give real Christians bad names. Now I'm not one of those Christians but you sir aren't one either because real Christians font judge people before they know them. So please tell me how you know that he's a false christian? Did you meet him? Talk to him? Ask him questions? Or did you just watch his video and say oh yeah we got ourselves a false Christian because I bet that's what happened.
I never said anything about the devil...lmao look back at my words did I mention the devil? Nope so that's lie number 2 for the so called christian. I'm not judging anyone but you and only for judging someone else before you know anything what so ever about them. I don't care if your psych major. I took psych in college to and I don't care how much you know about psychology you can't tell what someone truly believes inside their soul unless you speak with them first or know them personally. No amount of training in psych will give you the magical ability to size a person up in an instant as you say. Especially not when that person is putting on a attempt at parody and comedy. It's part of my job to interview people as well hundreds of them. Thar doesn't give me the ability to know if someone is a flash Christian. Plus the dude runs a channel about Christian movies and media. If he wasn't a Christian then why do that? He doesn't cuss or take the Lord's name in vain. I would like to know how you came to your conclusion because I know it's going to be full of assumptions and no facts because you don't even know the man. So please quit bullshitting everyone and just apologize to the man for calling him a false Christian when you don't go to church with him,know him,talked to him, or even ever been in contact with him. Your just really judgemental. That's all. Also I took 5 years learning to decode minute facial expressions and body language in general and I saw nothing to suggest what your talking about. So for one thing bruh I didn't say anything about the devil you did. Your the one that can't admit you don't know this guy for shit and your just talking out your ads and someone called you on it.
the thing that bothered me the most about this movie was how Joss Whedon kind of used the professor dude's past to emotionally manipulate him so he could prove his point.
There is about the same amount of evidence for superman as there is for the wizard in the sky of the new testament. So, yeah, I guess you could sub Superman in for him.
What the hell kind of professor would make students literally write "God is dead" and expect every one of them to just agree on the same thing just because he's personally an atheist? If anything even remotely like that happened in real life, there would be lawsuits up the ass.
Neo Anderson It was to entertain the ideas that the philosophers portrayed in which they would study. To keep an open mind about what they're saying no matter how much you disagree, but granted it's pretty stupid to make everyone write something so trivial and not just say what the professor wanted them to do.
there are things that exist but no where like the one in the film. my english teacher said he had a paper to write on for a philosophy class and had to use evidence that god was real/not. but it was open to either side, no way like they show it in this movie.
In my experience, philosophy classes are open minded and accepting of all religions. But there's always that one guy who won't put up with anything other than the Christian worldview and drops the class in the first week. This movie is his version of reality.
I took Judaism for my religion requirement, mostly because the alternative course--Christianity--would probably not have been taught by someone who believed it.
@Ash Kitt Nobody in my Judaism class was Jewish, only the teacher. We mostly read the Bible, a book about Sabbath practices, a couple of novels, etc. There was also a field trip to a Reform synagogue.
@@tintinismybelgian Someone doesn't need to BELIEVE something in order to teach ABOUT it! I don't believe in a 6-day creation. I don't even think the Bible teaches that, but I can acknowledge that Fundamentalist Christians do. (Genesis opens with a poem or song about creation. That's why there's a refrain: "Evening came and morning came, the x day." It's poetry, not natural history!) There are LOTS of Christians who accept science-based evidence and see no conflict between evolution and Christian faith (see Biologos.org, for example, or look up the Bill Moyers interview of climate scientist, Sir John Houghton). Why can't God be glorified through evolution? It's really a pathetic "faith" that insists that every word of the Bible is literally true. That can be so EASILY disproven. Even the most ardent Fundamentalists are still selective literalists. They just aren't honest about it and don't allow others the same selectivity they actually practice.
@@DonnaBrooks I think we're coming at this from slightly different points. Let me put it into a different context. Whereas I agree that an English professor who subscribes to the Oxfordian theory *could* teach a class on the literature of William Shakespeare (despite believing that it was not William Shakespeare who wrote it), it is also possible that his/her unorthodox bias would affect the presentation of the material in such a way that I might miss out on something that is considered by the larger Stratfordian scholarship to be crucial in the literature itself. This is not to say that a Stratfordian English professor could not also bring his/her *orthodox* bias into the classroom. Rather, I am saying, as a student, it would just be my personal preference to learn the *rule* before the *exceptions/detractions* to the rule, if that makes any sense.
I'm a Christian and I have sometimes been that guy to interrupt everyone and say "that's not true" and then go into a tirade I've since learned to shut up
+Michael Edwards you're saying Christians can't like Nostalgia Critic? I love watching NC, and I'm a Christian. Kevin seems like an insightful Christian pointing out flaws of Christians in filmmaking.
Miss-Jazz-DaFunk How did you make that connection from what I said? I was saying that the name Nostalgia Christian is a satirical version of Nostalgia Critic, and based on his comments in these videos, he's not Christian.
Christian here, but I find this movie so foolish and enjoyed your review. It did indeed feel like a propaganda piece of stereotypes. And the shots are look like a lifetime film.
This story was written to support an agenda, not explore the nuances of human behavior. The people are, indeed stereotypes. They represent distinct types with distinct places on the number line of political/spiritual belief. That can be okay with me if it is done well, but it is not done well here.
Watch God friended me. At least that show shows more about being a good person and helping your fellow human being than persecution. Also, it does make a point on how some Christians aren't open ears on hearing the atheist side. Plus the lead character is an atheist and isnt a total jerk
Yeah! It just made me sad, because I've heard people react like that to things and all I'm thinking is: you don't understand, it is your health or your career right now.
“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.” --Madeleine L’Engle
Oh, that's wonderfully said! It is also the antithesis of the "gospel" according to modern conservative Christians. They are all about tribalism, power, & ego.
Absolutely! From the looks of it, this movie did not portray that very well at all. Instead we just have the kid literally dissing the professor, when he knows that he’s God is correlated with a major trauma in his life! Instead of sympathizing and finding a way to gently explain that his mother wasn’t mercilessly killed by God or something, he basically mocks him for it saying “how dare you hate God after what you’ve been through!” They did not handle the topic of the professors grief and addressing it in a loving Christ like manner at all.
It's too bad your "good" book is full of intolerance, murder, rape, genocide, slavery and torture. More and more people are catching on to the hypocrisy of it all.
Assuming the writer actually did some research and approach the subject matter with an open minded respect through which he/she wanted to make an argument.
Brandon Roberts I agree with you mostly. But I think most atheists actually would like to see religion done away with, for the better or course. When you say TH-cam Atheists, who are you referring to?
Brandon Roberts Ehh Jaclyn Glenn I can see would be more passive. But I've been watching the Amazing Atheist for a few years now and there have been several times where I know he's said something like "You know how much better the world would be if there was no religious thought" even though he does advocate freedom of speech quite often. And I don't watch the Armoured skeptic enough to give a case for him
The beat a dead horse brigade has decided to test the waters of antifeminism and anti-SJW making them just as socially conservative as the people they once hated.
Kushner's argument is basically that God is good, but he's too weak to stop bad things, sometimes. However, if this same God is powerful enough to make the universe, it doesn't exactly make sense that his omnipotence would be foiled by a couple of Nazis. I recommend C.S. Lewis's "The Problem of Pain" for a different angle on the issue. It's not a long read (about 150 pages).
Ash Kitt Define bad or evil. You see your argument is fundamentally flawed because atheism cannot account for objective morality which essentially means evil cannot exist (or if it can it is your opinion which doesn't have much weight). The Christian theist's answer to this problem would be relating back to the Fall in Genesis. When sin entered the world so did evil and "bad things". This happened because Adam and Eve broke the relationship with God who is the source of all good, joy, love, etc. So essentially, sin is why bad things happen because it is the absence of God (the source of all good, joy, love, etc.) that allows evil. Another argument could possibly be made that evil exists to allow for the possibility of free moral choice (Hence why the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil was even in the garden) and that the absence of free moral choice is in itself a greater evil than the existence of evil. However, I am not exactly sure how strong this point would be. Feel free to pick it apart.
Man, I realize it now. This movie perfectly states the actual oppression in America, and in the world, basically. While the privileged Christian, Josh, risks a bad grade, the muslim woman legitimately puts her future on the line to worship God, yet Josh is praised the most at the end. It's a perfect representation of where our mentality is on this issue in the states.
I mean, I'm more concerned that this film makes all it's villain characters atheists without actually knowing what an atheist is. Yeah, hating God is not atheism, its actually completely different.
The quote at 8:20 is a perfect example of why this is ridiculous. It's a portion of the class, it's not discriminating against his personal life, and even in those parameters - he is allowed to hold a position contrary to his professors. Super ridiculous. Plus, "I feel like God wants me to defend him." MMM, no. "The truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself." -St. Augustine
I'm a Christian...and I was angry when this movie came out. So many members of my church praised it is the best film they had seen, and it was emberassing (same with War Room.) God doesn't need us to defend Him. Period. The acting was laughibley bad, the story made no sense, and neither did the motivations. I am so sick of these Christian movies that are so contrived and never look at stories from other people's perspectives. The arrogance and ignorance is baffling. Jesus didn't eat with the rich, religious, knowledgeable and overly preachy people of his day. He met with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the lepers and outcasts, and the rejects of his society. Honestly, I have had better dealings with atheists than I have with quite a number of Christians and that is sad. Great review man. Fantastic. It's a breath of fresh air to see a reviewer that sees things for what they are and views these films fairly. Keep it up.
Actually it was the best movie like ever. Great acting and on point. As you know we are living in the Tribulations of Revelations so Christian genocide is not even a secret anymore. You can grab a newspaper from the past two years or even go on that news site and find stories of students being persecuted, suspended and expelled from work or school. The point of the mpvie was actually to raise awareness to these situations hence why they put a couple of the cases where it was student vs. State/college. Me, my wife and some friends were all victim to this persecution so we understand and appreciate this more i guess than somebody whose never faced such trying times.
+Isaiah Reimer Yeah this movie is incredibly bigoted to atheists; painting us all as evil sociopaths. It's decisive drivel and basically a Evangelical-circle-jerk. It can't take on the subject matter in a truly compelling way so instead it vilifies skeptics to give the character something to overcome.
+Daniel Torres That is complete nonsense. Only on rare occasions are these stories being presented even true, and when they are true the offending party is always swiftly punished. Quit acting persecuted. It's sickening. There are people in the world who are facing real adversity. if you live in North America no one is persecuting you for being Christian. That is a lie.
This video needed to be made, and you did it fantastically. The more I think about it, the more I think "Christian films" as a genre need to go away... Right now it's just Christians trying to be filmmakers... What we need is legit filmmakers who also happen to be Christians, who will just let their worldview naturally come out in their films instead of forcing it. The one criticism I would have is the rant about wolves... I think the people who made the film had good intentions, they just aren't good at making movies. But I do agree that marketing it as a way to support your faith is a bit take-advantage-of-ish.
Finally, someone said it! I feel the same way. Christian movies often lack subtlety and realism, traits that most movies require in order to be a success.
Dude Christian movies aren't suppose to be blockbusters. They just tell other then Christians can convert atheists like this guy or some shit like that. 9 years in Christian schooling, I've seen some really REALLY cheesy movies.
Why not have a Christian become a good filmmaker? I agree that they had good intentions while making the movie but I think people should give some of these filmmakers a real chance to shine. All they need are good, believable scripts and they would be pretty good movies.
Boston Beach I'm all for Christians becoming good filmmakers, it's Christian movies as a genre that I have a problem with... And the fact that the people making them aren't great filmmakers.
gabemillermusic I would suggest the film Fury that came out last year. Brad Pitt, big budget, great acting, Brad Pitt, and a Christian message. And Brad Pitt.
I *HATE* this trope of "Atheist = Christian + Tragedy". A lot of Atheists are Christian specifically because we're born into it. We're taught Christianity our entire lives and though we tend to be skeptical about some of it, we never decide to question it out loud for fear or reprisals. Then maybe we enter an environment without the strong Christian overtones that we once had and are allowed to speak our minds for once. For me, that was college. My Philosophy professor was a warm welcoming man who welcomed all beliefs. But also encouraged everyone to question everything and form your own conclusions. That's really what philosophy is about. He never challenged Christians. But Christians challenged him. And he never directly fought back. He only asked them informative questions. It really was eye-opening. I'm an Atheist. But not because I prayed for something and God didn't answer or whatever. I'm an Atheist because there's no argument against any religion that can't inadvertently be used against ALL other religions.
+theGreenGoblin Yeah I turned into an Atheist (I was Christian) after reading a lot about ancient gods, thinking their stories are a lot neater. XD I couldn't say one is true over the other, so I unfaithed lol. Oddly it was at my confirmation when I was all o.O what the hell am I doing? No not for me. >.> I remember that day clearly it was like I just woke up and was all, ok, this is the way things are. I'm never coming back here again, I'm sleeping in. >.>
+theGreenGoblin I stopped believing when i was in highschool and saw a video on youtube about the universe and how big it was. how could anyone create something like this? and what about all the alien species on other planets? they'll probably have their own gods, the same way mulsims have their god, etc. It just didn't make any sense to me and i had a brilliant idea that perhaps there is no god and when we die it'll be the same as before we were born. Free though is the biggest enemy of religion!
+theGreenGoblin My mother always told me to believe what I thought was right. around 5th grade I became an Atheist, because I realized that even a 5th grade Science book disproves a god.
There is evidence that can be presented for Christianity though. Namely the archaeology of the Old Testament and the historicity of the New Testament. I'll briefly sum both up. The archaeological argument is that we keep excavating things that seem to confirm some of the Old Testament stories, including the crossing of the Red Sea. A documentary that really highlights this is called The Exodus Revealed. The historicity of the New Testament essentially highlights the historical accuracy of the New Testament letters (it was written as many letters from different people, not as one book), and using that to show that the apostles were telling the truth about Jesus. I'm not gonna go into anymore depth though, because I want you to pursue this on your own. I'm grossly under explaining both of these arguments.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... you can cut this movie down to ten miuntes by expanding on one of two basic conversations: 1) Teacher: "Write 'God is Dead' on a piece of paper and turn it into me." Joss: "Or... you can treat us like the adults we are and trust that we understand that this is a philosophy class and not a theology class. I understand that writing a paper that is just some half-assed sermon is wasting your time. But ending an 8 page paper that explains the nuances of what you're teaching from several perspectives and that quotes the text books with a 7-sentence conclusion that explains my opinion that just so happens to have the word "god" in it IS NOT a waste of time." Teacher: "Well, as long as you stick to the syllabus and the writing prompts and don't turn this class into you're own personal church service (like this movie's teacher did for him... for some reason), then I suppose it would be unfair of me to ask you to do something if it's really against your beliefs. If I HAD to take a theology class, I certainly wouldn't want to be forced to write, "Darwin was am idiot." Joss: "Glad we could both act like adults!" 2) Teacher: "Write 'God is Dead' on a piece of paper and turn it into me." Joss: *leave the classroom and goes to the dean* Joss: "Yeah, the philosophy teacher is asking me to do something that goes against my religion, and if I don't do it, he'll fail me. That's against the law, as it's a clear example of religious discrimination." Dean: "Yes, we've had trouble with him before, and 80% of his morning class came in with similar complaints. I'll do something about it. Probably threatening to fire him if he doesn't stop acting like a baby will help. Anything else?" Joss: "Well, I still need the class. Who do I talk to about getting a different instructor who won't be a pain in the ball sack?" Dean: "Go to the administration building. I'm sure you can get into a different class if you hurry."
27:35 "What I want is for them to make their own choice. That's what god wants." But remember, if they make the wrong one, they get cancer, or hit by a car!
This is the strawmaniest straw man that ever strawed. No philosophy professor would do this. Beyond that, even an atheist philosopher should understand the central role of religion in the history and development of philosophy. I am an atheist myself, but I enjoyed your review. I was tickled that you admit what so many (at least on the right) don't understand: Christianity is NOT endangered. It is not being destroyed by liberals, and it remains the largest religion in the U.S and in the world. The heavy handedness cynicism of this movie is awe inspiringly high. You have to wonder why anybody thought that this film would work as an accusation of college liberalism AND lead to a belief in God. I don't get why Christian cinema os os inept. If I were a Christian, I would be frustrated that a movies like this that claims to extol my religion is a cheap, poorly written, poorly acted attack on a Straw man. I mean, if you could defend your position on its own merits, you wouldn't NEED a Straw Man, right?
You're right. We're not being persecuted in first world countries. In other countries people get killed for their faith, and many Christians complain about things like this.
The weirdest part is that IMO Josh actually gets a good deal. The movie treats it like this terrible trial but ...like it's only 30% of his grade -- 70% is a B, maybe C+. I would JUMP at the chance to trade 30% of my grade for an opportunity to share the Gospel/defend the faith to my entire class. I mean -- the entire class CONVERTS by the end. In a Christian mindset, that's worth so much. I'd trade my LIFE for that; it's a no-brainer to take a minor hit in a college class for that.
A philosophy professor rejecting debate on any philosophical concept makes about as much sense as rain without water. Most professors I interact with welcome opposition if it's professional and will grade it accordingly if it's argued well. Honestly, outside the hardline American Evangelicals, most Christians do not like these movies
THANK YOU. I'm a Christian, and I've been trying to explain why this movie makes me so angry. You summed it up perfectly. Congrats, you've just got yourself a new subscriber!
i'm a christian too and every character is just forcing their beliefs on everyone else. seriously?! i don't think a preacher's first words, while trying to save someone after getting hit by a car, would be "do you believe in God? Hurry up and change your answer or else you'll die!" no, a real christian would try to keep the person awake and talk to them until the ambulance came. then, they would pray for them and visit them in the hospital later. then, after the person recovered, the preacher would tell them that the experience was a way for that person to reconnect with God.
First time watching your channel, and I honestly had low expectations given how so many other Christians act, but I'm honestly impressed. As an agnostic atheist, let me go ahead and say your review was completely fair and unbiased. Any insertion of your own religious beliefs were purely there to debunk the pandering bullshit the film did, and it puts a smile on my face to see someone from the side this film supposedly supports standing up and saying, "That's not correct". Good work on this, and I'll be looking forward to your other reviews. You've earned yourself a subscriber. Side Note: Part of the reason I was somewhat concerned before seeing the review was because of yourname and likeness clearly parodying the Nostalgia Critic, but I honestly find you to be almost as good as him, ironically enough. You just did well in structuring your video in general and it was overall entertaining. You've done your name justice, be proud of that.
So. Much. Truth. I'm a Christian and I enjoy some Christian films, but I have to agree with you, this movie was so much worse than it could have been. Too many story-lines, bad acting, bad music, the whole idea of debating the atheist professor and then the professor getting saved before he dies (PREDICTABLE), and all those "persecution" cases in which Christians were the main antagonists pretty much ruined it. This movie had potential, but, sadly, all it managed to do was paint Christians in the wrong light, and I think it ultimately did more harm than good. :/
You know, I gotta say, you're my kind of Christian. I'm agnostic, and I wanted to see what this movie was about so I checked out this video. Not what I was expecting, in a good way. All of your arguments were intelligent and unbiased, and you were humorous and entertaining to boot. Everyone has the right to believe what they want, but the important thing is to be open minded to others and keep logic in the forefront. You do just that, and I commend you for it. Great vid!
+KnowbysCabin Thanks so much. It's funny, because I get a lot of heat from Christians who think I'm attacking Christianity or faith. Most of them don't even catch on that I'm a Christian, but I've never had an Atheist or Agnostic think I wasn't a Christian from these videos or be upset about me being so. Thing is, I love talking to people and learning about others, but I hate to fight. So many people just want to fight about religion, and people who actually want to learn don't have time for that BS. I'm honored that you watched my video and took the time to complement!
HAHA. For now anyway. Who know's for how long. The disciples of this movie might come and get me, and yell at me, "WHY DO YOU HATE GOD....S NOT DEAD?!!!!"
Say Goodnight Kevin Maybe you'll get an email from the producer telling you to take it down, like when the Nostalgia Critic reviewed the room and "John from theroommovie.com" threatened him with a lawsuit.
Good video. I thought it was super interesting. Glad we have some christians critiquing terrible christian movies, too. by the by, I was sent here by a mutual fan of ours.
"God is good all the time and all the time god is good." Well that's easy for you to say! You aren't the one getting dumped because you have cancer or getting hit by a car or anything like that!
Is it bad that, after the scene where Mina breaks up with Rattison (no idea if I spelled that right) and he's in the elevator with Josh, I thought Rattison was going to try to kill him?
I'm sorry but thus idea made me cry laughing! Can we have this movie instead?! The professor just shanks the kid and once Josh has a near death experience, he recovers and probably faces a pitch black void if not the cheesy version of what heaven looks like then has an existential crisis? I'd watch that.
I honestly thought I was going to hate this. There's a rule in comedy that one should never punch down. Christian movies are such an easy target, I figured with an endorsement from Bobby Burns, watching you review it would be the equivalent of watching a professional wrestler pile drive a toddler. I'm delighted to say I assumed incorrectly. This was truly funny in addition to being very thoughtful. You have a new subscriber and I have a new channel to binge watch (Don't judge me- I finished Friends and House of Cards doesn't come out for another month.)
I am an Atheist, and I am happy to say you have a new viewer! It's disturbingly rare to find sane Christians online LOL But then, it's rare to find ANY sane people online...EVERYONE has to be a troll apparently.
+Rory Turing I was actually surprised that he wasn't a Christian. I'm not saying that all the Christians agree with this movie, but very few Christians online have the guts to criticize their own religion. This movie is absolute garbage...
+Agustín Prieto technically he's not criticizing christianity, but rather just a badly made movie that happens to be about christianity, and misrepresentes christianity. this movie realy sucked in my opinion, and I'm a christian too.
Rogue Skywalker Yes, but there are a lot of criticizable things about religion and I don't see a lot of christians talking about this issues, they prefer ignoring them...
:-O COUCH TOMATO COMMENTED ON MY VIDEO!!! You're going to be the most famous person on youtube one day! haha. Haha. I did that one on the first video, because that was actually the joke I thought of that inspired me to actually make the show. :-P Thanks for watching, bro!
Thank you for your points here. I was thinking a lot of the same things when I watched the movie. The script was clearly written by someone who had no idea how atheists think or what arguments they would make against God, or really even how to defend God to such a person without relying solely on stereotypes and tired strawman arguments. As a Christian I was disappointed, because it panders to a Christian audience and actually tries to get them to rejoice at the atheist's downfall rather than feel any pity or compassion for him, while creating a sense of superiority in Christians since the "good guy" "won" the ridiculously contrived "debate".
+NoscoSays I wonder if anybody acknowledges that the professor _died_ before the concert scene, because Duck Dynasty guy sure didn't, and neither did anyone there. If they didn't, it'd give more weight behind the already credible statement you made about how they set up this strawman just to fall.
Here is the reasoning of every character in this movie: "I'm right, because I'm right. Since I am right, I do not need to prove myself right, because I am right."
Three main atheists in this film, Professor Jeffery Radisson, liberal blogger Amy Ryan, and businessman Mark. Let's take a look at where they are at the end of it. Professor is hit by a car and dies from his injuries, but his conversion redeems him. Blogger gets cancer and will inevitably die soon, but her conversion redeems her. And the businessman is alone in that he neither converts nor dies, and it turns out that being the only atheist left means he spends the rest of his life being a sad loner. Moral of the story is, the only good atheist is a dead atheist. Apparently...
Really good work. The point you made about how the movie made people feel like they were sharing their faith if they shared the film is so true. I mean, Jesus didn't say, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you share Christian movies.”
I have a BA in philosophy and I'm facepalming at this film. Why on earth would a philosophy prof discourage any debate over the existence of God? The topic comes up multiple times in most philosophy courses (think the writings of Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and so on as far as Western tradition goes). And not all philosophy profs are hardline atheists either. Even so, encouraging debate is something important. Good review.
Are you implying that this would never happen in real life? Because when I started my philosophy class, my professor told me to write down "God is dead" on a piece of paper. I stood up to him, and walked out of the class. Then I yeeted out on my unicorn.
I haven't seen the movie so I was surprised by the Alliance Defending Freedom cases referenced in the end credits. I agree with your frustration about the way these cases are misrepresented and I can offer more information about one for which you didn't provide any additional notes; OSU Students Alliance v. Ray. I was a student at OSU in 2009 and actually contributed articles and editorials to The Liberty, the student produced paper that was targeted by OSU officials that year. While a few of the contributors were Christian (myself included), many were not. The Liberty was establish as a politically conservative counterargument to the far-left-leaning school sponsored paper, The Daily Barometer. We were political content not religious. President Ray didn't like our politics so as an attempt to "beautify the campus" he arranged to have our distribution boxes on campus thrown away while leaving all the Barometer boxes in place. It didn't stop the distribution of our paper we just didn't have boxes to leave them in. But as evidence of how welcome and tolerated our Christian presence is on campus I think the "God's not Dead" folks ought to take a look at our Socratic Debate Club. Oregon State has the most successful regular theist-atheist interaction of any university campus I know in America. We sponsor six to eight debates each school year (unscripted and open to audience interaction) and usually have anywhere from 200 to 1000 students in attendance. We don't even tell people how the must think when it's over. There are not many Christians on campus and we're not always treated well but nothing to the magnitude of God's Not Dead. American Christians need to stop feeling sorry for themselves and shame on production companies like Pure Flix for cashing in on the Christian marytr complex.
Wow, thank you so much for sharing this story! I remember reading about this, because I actually did read about every one of those cases, mainly because I wanted to see if ANY of them were anything like the story in the movie. Once I saw there was a pattern, I decided not to waste my time doing a summary of all of them. I love your whole comment, but especially that last sentence. Very much the sentiment I have. Thank you again!
Say Goodnight Kevin I wish I could stand up and applaud you for researching those cases. I'll admit, I was totally fooled when I saw those in the credits. I should have assumed that there was some sort of huge "Christian" law firm behind them! I've already heard of more than one case of a Christian organization getting into trouble with their state government, the case receiving huge amounts of attention on Christian news sources, and donation money pouring into the coffers of "Christian" law firms who will supposedly be the victims' advocates. Sometimes these firms aren't connected to the case at all! They'll lie to their mailing list and make bank. You know, generous-hearted Christians are often waaaay too easy to fool.
so how far-left is the Barometer? like, far-left like "destroy all the things" or far-left like "sometimes people can be pretty racist and trans women are women"?
I'm a big Doug Walker (The Nostalgia Critic) fan. Normally when someone tries to duplicate another or try to be the "Christian (insert noun here)" it can be lame. But this is acceptable. I never wanted to see this cheesy snorefest. Oh yeah another stereotype where the Atheist is a villain we're supposed to hate and shove doctrine down... yaaay.....that Liberty University joke was fantastic
No way hercules is magic so he gets a strength advantage on superman plus he can just read scene direction really loud " disappointed!!" Sends massive ass shockwaves then mr t just comes and beats both their asses lol so I guess it doesn't matter lol
As a Christian I was interested in this well-made movie that my friends were talking about and told me it's a really good movie. But when I watch the movie, I got disappointed. It portrays an evil atheist professor, that the basis of his atheism was his hate to God and his misunderstanding of the biblical theology, this is emotional appeal, and in the end the student exploited that by borderline disrespectfully yelling "why do you hate God". That's one big weakness of the movie. The second one that although it is a Christian movie that's trying "to prove" that God exists, the arguments does not come from the Bible. Although I do recommend to study secular philosophy, and the arguments used are actually good, as it comes from the endorsed book "God's Not Dead" by Rice Brooks, but seems that it made him forget the reason why people do not believe in God according to the Bible. It did use the Bible, only as some snippets. There are other less commendable argument such as endorsing Big Bang. And 10-minute lecture then class dismissed. And several more peripheral stuff. It says that the earth is billions year old, I'm okay with that, although I don't believe it to be true. It has people misunderstanding the purpose of hijab, although it's true that you can kick out and even kill your children if he/she leaves Islamic faith (It's pretty weird to say this, because Islam means submission. So if I say I'm a Christian I'm also basically a Muslim as well because I'm in submission to God. But you know what I mean). The ending kinda looks like it's a promotion for Newsboys' album. And the hilarious part is that the Chinese student is speaking Standard Mandarin with his Cantonese speaking father. And also the fact that Josh's presentation was visually stunning, only for the entertainment of the audience of the movie, like how did he get those animations done that quick? And... unrealistic death. That wouldn't have killed him. Get a truck probably? He was not even jaywalking. This might be a good motivation for young Christians to engage in intellectual talks of the Bible as Paul did on Mars Hill in Acts 17, but might not be a good resource and reference. You all probably know that. By the way Kevin, good review, and I agree with your comments in the end as well.
I want to see a movie where someone from inside a Christian movie company calls out the company for manipulating Christians into watching their crappy movie. It could be like a modern take on that movie where Martin Luthor called out the Catholic Church for selling indulgences except instead of being tried at the Diet Of Worms the battle takes place both in the public eye and in the courtroom. It could bring to light some of the shady practices of people trying to make a quick buck and show the people that you don't need to support everything with "Christian" stapled on to it.
A good Christian movie is about a person who is at war with his faith, also those who are Christians that are very judgemental and critical. He does everything to defend his faith and confronts them.
Maybe Kevin Sorbo is mad at Joss Whedon because he auditioned for Firefly and didn't get cast? It would have been a step up from the later seasons of Andromeda.
This was AWESOME! It perfectly encapsulated every single reservation I had about the film! And the inclusion of the debunked court cases at the end! You really put a lot of work into this! This was your best one yet! Keep up the great work!
This is kind of a non-Christian thing for me to say but one of my favorite people to discuss religion with is my friend who is agnostic (not atheist but still) we're willing to discuss the challenging questions or topics that I feel like with some church go-ers they would either be angry or just be set in stone about what they believe and not willing to question it. Which is one of the things that really pisses me off about this movie because I was hoping that this movie would be willing to challenge other Christians the way that my friend has been willing to challenge me. This movie does NOTHING for Christians, it's too willing to be safe rather than to try and say something that will make Christians think! All in the name of getting as many Christians to hand over their hard-earned money by telling them only things they want to hear.
The moment that perfectly summarizes how bad this movie is, is when the teacher gets hit by a car and instead of giving him medical attention they try to covert him to Christianity. He dies.
Kevin Sorbo just can't catch a break in a christian movie, can he? (He dies in this movie, in "Let there be light" he loses his wife to cancer...) And in both movies he starts out as a bitter, abrasive atheistic jackass.
Nice review... funny and great at pointing out the obviously overloaded propaganda. Also, as an atheist, I listen to Christian music often. It actually can be really good.
Liked, favorited, and subscribed. After watching this movie with, like 30 or my friends (including my priest, campus minister, and missionary friends), I had to discuss how bad it was with some of my like-minded friends. We're practicing Catholics, but that doesn't mean we're idiots. We talked about it for, like, 5 hours, and now, 6 months later, we're still obsessed with it. So dumb, and so amazing.
Autumn Hobbit actually, I'm in college, and we watched it for a camous ministry movie night. It didn't make me angry, though, because this movie is hilariously bad.
NicAyBear it's a terrible movie, but what REALLY ticks me off, is how they not only manage to demonize atheists, they went and demonized islam and liberalism as well for no reason. They didn't even do it intelligently, the liberal chick isn't a believable character, and even the muslim girl wasn't dressed normally. She wore a scarf like it was a niqab, yet exposes her arms. They dont even know what they're supposed to depict.
Goodnight Ke-oh wait. Wrong show. But seriously, this movie is redonkulous. I mean, I get the idea, but the execution is just...no. Jesus doesn't need to be defended. The best defense for a Christian is to live a life that honors God, and to love unconditionally as Christ loves us. Legit, Blimeycow brought up a really good point (with plenty of sarcasm) on the TH-cam comments video, in the sketch where God is "worried" about an atheist who brings up good points, and God begins to question His existence. If God needed us to defend Him, what would that say about Him? I get it-there does need to be discourse Symposium-style at times, but in a intellectual and civilized manner. Sort of like Dr. Zacharias or other respectful apologists.
woah wait no. We certainly should preach the gospel and argue against false arguments. Using the laziness of "just live a good life" is the cowards way out. The lesson here isn't that was shouldn't fight for the truth or argue against wrongness. The lesson here is that we should argue well, and not use straw mans and poorly done movies to make our arguments.
I don't believe he was implying that we shouldn't defend the faith. I think what he meant was that although some have been converted by good defense of the faith, more have been swayed by authentic Christian lives. For instance, who inspires you more; the guy who posts articles and Christian hashtags, or the lady down the street who always helps everyone out, no matter what they have trouble with or what she is busy doing? True witness begins at home, with your family and your neighbors. Eventually, it may branch out to include others, but it needs to have a firm foundation built at home.
Yeah no. More people are converted through actual evangelism (historically speaking) than people just trying to live good lives. Hell Jesus spent most of his time actually preaching and doing stuff with people and telling stories and He was freaking perfect. if anyone had an excuse to just sit around and let the converts come it was Him.
*deep sigh* This film is such a shallow, self-congratulatory representation of the Christian faith. I'm embarrassed that teenage-me ever enjoyed it. There is so much actual, genuine Christian persecution going on in the world; shouldn't we be drawing attention to that instead of making up sh*t?
"I wish I had got to Liberty University! That way I wouldn't have to listen to views different from mine!" Actually, considering LU had Mitt Romney (a Mormon) and Bernie Sanders (a far-left liberal) speak there, I think they definitely want a sort of dialogue.
This movie does more harm than good, Instead of actually having a discussion based in reality and answer Questions, it just pushes their agenda and world view. Honestly I would really like a Religious movie to be based In reality cuz that might actually open people eyes and maybe make them curious about religion. But nooooo, one can only be an atheist cuz of some tragedy. It's like saying gays choose to be cuz they were molested or some dumb shit... Oh yeah if a person dies it's ok as long as they accept God before they die so they end up in heaven and prayer cures Cancer, well only for some people tho.
Oh yeah I forgot to add an Atheist can't hate something he doesn't believe in.. I really high hopes for this movie though that it was going to be an actual smart debate, but nope there are better religious debate on YT
"Something can be labeled "Christian" and not be true or good. . . It is possible for music to be labeled Christian and be terrible music. It could lack creativity and inspiration. The lyrics could be recycled cliches. That "Christian" band could actually be giving Jesus a bad name because they aren’t a great band. It is possible for a movie to be a "Christian" movie and to be a terrible movie. It may actually desecrate the art form in its quality and storytelling and craft. Just because it is a Christian book by a Christian author and it was purchased in a Christian bookstore doesn’t mean it is all true or good or beautiful. A Christian political group puts me in an awkward position: What if I disagree with them? Am I less of a Christian? What if I’m convinced the "Christian" thing to do is to vote the exact opposite? Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective."--Rob Bell Great movies made for less than 2 million: Clerks
I found this film insulting to muslims, liberals and atheists but even more insulting to the intelligence of Christians. It's a real obnoxious pander-fest.
18:23 True Story: After hearing this when I was 15 I though "Stephen Hawking has every reason in the world to want to believe in God, and if he doesn't there must be a pretty good reason why", and that ladies and gentlemen, is how I started down the path of atheism.
3:52 Humanistic and Church moral teachings are basically the same. The "I Heart Evolution" is indicative of the sad fact that most people have absolutely no understanding of literary criticism, allegory, or the fact that the writers of Genesis incorporated and rewrote Babylonian myths to express their own philosophical views.
I just found your channel now, and your commentary is hilarious, I don't know how you're able to stomach all these movies but its funny as hell. Subscribed.
As a girl in a Muslim family, the scene with the Muslim girl makes me annoyed. If you're going to include other religions in your Christian movie, at least do a five second google search. MUSLIM GIRLS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WEAR SHORT SLEEVES. The point of a hijab is to cover yourself more conservatively. It's not some hat that you can just wear with anything.
I'd like to say this: there is a genuine hostility to Christians on college campuses from professors, especially in the humanities. Ironically, you'll find the most devout people in the sciences. That being said, the movie is rather contrived and lacking, theologically. If this had happened in real life, all Josh would have had to do was 1) drop the class and 2) report it to the dean. He seemed to have had an opportunity to take another class entirely. He didn't have to take it. Is American culture growing more hostile to Christianity? Yes. However, it's a mistake to equate this with what Christians around the world experience. We have so much in terms of freedom and legal recourse than what the film makes it out to be. In fact, it's shameful: playing on Christian fears to sell movie tickets or promote a legal law firm. If Christianity is true - which I believe it is - we shouldn't have to rely on fantasies to promote the Gospel.
You cannot imagine how hard I was laughing. The "Liberty University" quote was golden. Please keep making more Nostalgia Christian videos! :D Might I suggest you review "Time Changer"?
I'm an atheist, but I gotta say, I found this highly entertaining, and I appreciate your focus on equal critical standards for religious and mainstream films; too often religious people treat movies like this with kid gloves, which is patronizing both to the films themselves, and to the religion involved. One should not expect less of their religious entertainment, nor adjust their expectations downward because a film addresses theistic subject matter; kudos for your honest and balanced take. You done good.
DoctorDissonance Thank you so much! That's really encouraging! I love making these reviews, so it's so exciting to see that others enjoy watching them!
"why do you hate god?" I'm an atheist and I actually had a christian ask me this as angrily as Josh did in this film. He didn't like my response. I laughed at him and simply asked how can I hate something that doesn't exist.
+Young Knight true dat. We could imagine an all powerful, and all competent being that created everything that ever happens on purpose...and then observe suffering....and then be mad at the fictional character we made up in our head. It's possible. Fair point.
Some qualms (though you're probably mishearing the dialogue intentionally for comic effect to show how Solomon and Konzelman fail at simple expository passages): - Radisson's class is a MWF class. Given that Josh arrived on what appeared to either be an move-in/academic advisement day (fun fact: they don't schedule those on the same day because people will spend all day moving), I'm going to assume it's Monday and that his first class is on Wednesday. - Radisson mentioned "the three next classes" (meaning Friday, Monday of next week, and Wednesday of next way) as the ones Josh has to present on. This is just unfeasible as far as gathering a good set of arguments and "proof," but it becomes crazier that, according to Josh when he witnesses to Martin in the library, he "has to work like a dog for the rest of the semester just to catch up." My reaction: dude, your schedule isn't THAT packed your freshman year. This six-day period of coming up with arguments has somehow placed your first semester in danger. I didn't even take my first tests until a month into the first semester! - this movie should not take place over a two-week period, if I'm doing my math correctly (according to what I could gather from the exposition). - yeah, I don't like that trend in Christian films where secular/humanist characters listen to CCM, especially run-of-the-mill bad CCM like Stellar Kart (the band "Lois Lane"/Amy was listening to while researching Mr. Duckbeard on the Wikipedia). I guess it's because the Kendricks have a monopoly on Third Day and Casting Crowns, but if you're gonna have them listen to CCM just so you don't license a song with less-than-morally-right song choices (as if a Christian movie would knowingly license "Mean Machine" by Sugar Ray), license good CCM like Relient K or dc Talk. Or, I dunno, license the secular songs that fit your PG rating.
and another thing: why would Josh's girlfriend dump him over him checking out books on apologetics? I know those books symbolize how he's taking the Radisson thing too seriously, but he could just say that he's also interested in apologetics. I have some friends who'd be insulted to find out that I once checked out Dianetics from my library because I wanted to read it (to see how out there it was) - to them, giving Scientology a glance is akin to enabling rape because of the stuff Elron and Miscavage have done while running the Church itself (though indie-Scientologists seem to have a loathing of what those guys have done and just take Dianetics by itself). However, they wouldn't cut off all ties with me just because I read Dianetics or Naked Lunch or books by Woody Allen.
+Hal Emmerich It seems the simplest way around the music-and-morality problem would be to license instrumental music. It hardly seems out-of-character for Amy to be listening to classical music or jazz. I could see her grooving to Miles Davis' _Kind of Blue_ or listening to Debussy's _Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun_. If they really wanted to switch it up, Amy could be portrayed as a fan of world music. There are plenty of purely instrumental pieces in world music, and for even those works with words the "morality" of them may be beside the point if the audience doesn't know what they're saying. And a good thing about licensing classical music especially is that there are so many orchestras, soloists, and ensembles out there and so many budget labels that you're bound to find one that will let you have the rights to the music cheap. Or you can hire a musician or set of musicians to record their own performance of a solo or chamber work. It wouldn't be too hard to find a pianist out there willing to record a few minutes of a sonata by Mozart or Haydn or Beethoven or Brahms or either of the Schumanns or somebody.
.....i personally know that thats not true. acording to the quaran that father was supost to beat her into submission, or kill her. he was being very merciful.
Well, it could be argued that there is that NEW testament that kind of ratifies some of that stuff. But you're right, the bible and the quran say to do stuff that we don't do anymore. (and probably never should have done.) Something many faiths have to come to grips with.
Uh...I go to school with a lot of girls who are muslim and wear hijabs (the headscarf), and after doing a quick research check to make sure I can say with a fair amount certainty that this is not how you wear them. 1. Hijabs typically don't cover part of your face. Niqabs do that, but they're usually not one piece of fabric (which is what the girl has) but two pieces clipped together. 2. Even if I'm wrong about #1 , the fact that she's bothering to cover her face with a black veil but leaves her arms uncovered is just ridiculous. Covering your arms and legs AS WELL as your hair is, like, modesty 101 in Islam. I mean, I know this is christian propaganda and all, and this is just nitpicking, but ...seriously. It wouldn't have killed them to at least get SOMETHING right about the religion they're bashing...
No that REALLY bugged me too. It showed how they really did very little research for the "opposing" sides in this film (atheism, Islam). The first thing that came to mind when i saw her out it on before her father picked her up was "that's...not a hijab. Did they just hand her a piece of cloth on set and say 'hey, put this cloth around your face and look like your oppressed?' Because that's what it looked/felt like."
Why would they put all those court cases up in the credits if none of them were relevant? I love how you named Superman and Hercules! Haha! Totally was not planning on spending 40 minutes watching this review until after I did. 😆 Thank you for making this! Totally worth the effort.
just wanna start this by saying I really enjoy your satirical reviews of Christian movies. I've been trying to open the eyes of my fellow Christian peers about horribly made Christian movies for awhile, trying to get them to realize that shoving an agenda down people's throats without any good story telling or love of film making isn't going to win people to Christ. ok, now that that's out of the way, I do get alot of your gripes with this movie, however having attended a liberal university I have experienced discrimination and attempted humiliation because of my faith, albeit more from my peers than my professors. This isn't just an isolated incident either. I know other kids who have gone through the same. You say it's so unbelievable that this type of scenario could happen, and while I agree that the characters were a bit one dimensional, are you saying Christians are never put down for their belief in God in high brow academia? Because that's simply inaccurate. I've also seen some professors who were some pretty big jack assess (can I say that on here? lol), so to me it's not that far fetched that a teacher would be like this in front of a class. it also doesn't surprise me that a bunch of kids would sign a paper saying God's dead then change their minds a few days later... because many of the kids I've seen in college don't bother to think for themselves anyway haha. anyway, just wanted to provide my two cents. I think showing the angle of what Christians experience and the intellectual arguments for God could make for a really compelling movie, if done in a more subtle and artistic fashion. keep doing what you're doing with these reviews!
Thanks for sharing your insight! That's a great perspective. Also, normally I wouldn't let someone say "Jack ass" in my comments. But since you went to a liberal university, it's understandable and I'll let it slide. lol. It's not so much that I don't think this type of things might happen, I just think, if it did, the kid wouldn't be so alone. I think the Alliance Defending Freedom would pounce on the opportunity to take on this case. Beyond that, the kid never talked to any other school administrators, which I think would be the first step to take in a hostile situation. Personally, I feel like the kid was out of line to begin with. You go to school to learn different points of view. I doubt a teacher who is so hostile towards Christianity, would allow the student to teach 3 full classes. The fact that the student was given those opportunities to explain his case, shows an amazing amount of grace on the side of the professor. My point is, which I'm not sure if I explained well in the review or here in this comment, is simply that the plot of this movie is just too convenient. The actions of the characters are not consistent, and the way the scenario plays out is very hard to believe. If Christians are walking away from this movie thinking winning a debate is more important than showing love, then I think the movie has failed to create a character that I can root for. Thanks so much, again, for watching the video and giving your thoughts and feedback!
Good point about the professor giving him all this time to make his case, although it really could have been to embarass him or refute everything he was saying in front of the class, and not to give him a chance. Certainly universities should be a place where ones views are challenged, but it should be a place where all perspectives are allowed and debated, not just "God existing" or "God not existing." I agree with you though, the plot and story telling did have alot of problems. I'm definitely not saying "this is the best movie ever what is wrong with youuuu?!?!" Christian movies have a long way to go lol. Thanks for taking the time to write out a response! Btw I've been binging on your movie reviews most of the day. They're kind of addicting haha. And sorry about that liberal university rubbing off on me!! ;p
Jack ass should be fine. The word ass is used in the Bible (KJV)... to describe a donkey. Indeed I know of people who are put down because of their faith and atheist teachers who will talk about christians in a disrespectful way. I also know of christians who try to talk to other students about christianity who don't want to talk about it, and these christians think they're being persecuted. That's not persecution, that's rejection. They need to chill.
+trekyz yes there are Christians like that and I totally agree that's being a little pushy. But when everyone is talking and giving their perspective on something and the Christian friend is the only one who isn't allowed to.. that just isn't cool either
Oh yeah! absolutely! Yes! Christians have the right to speech like everyone else. I have preached the gospel to people in public areas on a college campus and sometimes engaged in apologetics. I talked to people in a civil manner with mutual consent. If people didn't want to talk to me, that would be rejection, but not persecution. My previous point is I know people who act like victims of something they are not of.
In its portrayal of atheists and liberals and anyone who’s not a conservative evangelical Christian, this movie flagrantly violates the Ninth Commandment: “Thou shalt not BEAR FALSE WITNESS against thy neighbor.”
This is the most accurate review of God's Not Dead yet. I'm a Christian and I'm really baffled as to how all my friends think this is even slightly good.
IKR!!!!
actually it was a great movie much better than this dude portrayed it.
+EVANGELIST Daniel Torres Talk about judgement before actually knowing the person. some Christian you are.
EVANGELIST Daniel Torres Yeah you did..lmao now we have a lying Christian...wow and before you go I didn't judge him I will quote you "Actually it was a great movie much better than this false Christian portrayed it." You are judging this man deeming him to be a false Christian when you don't know the man personally,professionally or let alone know the relationship he has with god. People like you who judge before knowing someone personally just like you will me are the people who give real Christians bad names. Now I'm not one of those Christians but you sir aren't one either because real Christians font judge people before they know them. So please tell me how you know that he's a false christian? Did you meet him? Talk to him? Ask him questions? Or did you just watch his video and say oh yeah we got ourselves a false Christian because I bet that's what happened.
I never said anything about the devil...lmao look back at my words did I mention the devil? Nope so that's lie number 2 for the so called christian. I'm not judging anyone but you and only for judging someone else before you know anything what so ever about them. I don't care if your psych major. I took psych in college to and I don't care how much you know about psychology you can't tell what someone truly believes inside their soul unless you speak with them first or know them personally. No amount of training in psych will give you the magical ability to size a person up in an instant as you say. Especially not when that person is putting on a attempt at parody and comedy. It's part of my job to interview people as well hundreds of them. Thar doesn't give me the ability to know if someone is a flash Christian. Plus the dude runs a channel about Christian movies and media. If he wasn't a Christian then why do that? He doesn't cuss or take the Lord's name in vain. I would like to know how you came to your conclusion because I know it's going to be full of assumptions and no facts because you don't even know the man. So please quit bullshitting everyone and just apologize to the man for calling him a false Christian when you don't go to church with him,know him,talked to him, or even ever been in contact with him. Your just really judgemental. That's all. Also I took 5 years learning to decode minute facial expressions and body language in general and I saw nothing to suggest what your talking about. So for one thing bruh I didn't say anything about the devil you did. Your the one that can't admit you don't know this guy for shit and your just talking out your ads and someone called you on it.
the thing that bothered me the most about this movie was how Joss Whedon kind of used the professor dude's past to emotionally manipulate him so he could prove his point.
That bothered me too. Very much. It is so far from what I believe is an appropriate way of sharing your faith. Thanks so much for watching!!!
mirkwouldnt Josh Wheeton
That is rather the not Christian way.
Yeah ughhhh
I cannot STAND the inaccuracies of the portrayal of Muslims. How insulting the creators of the movie probably have never gotten to know a real Muslim
The Philosophy teacher wasn't even an atheist... he was just really angry with the dude in the sky.
Superman?
There is about the same amount of evidence for superman as there is for the wizard in the sky of the new testament. So, yeah, I guess you could sub Superman in for him.
+Steven Kollin No, Hercules.
+John Sheely So Zeus left Hercules on Earth again?
+John Sheely Yeah, he's a misotheist, not even atheist, tsk tsk.
What the hell kind of professor would make students literally write "God is dead" and expect every one of them to just agree on the same thing just because he's personally an atheist? If anything even remotely like that happened in real life, there would be lawsuits up the ass.
The Straw Man kind
Neo Anderson It was to entertain the ideas that the philosophers portrayed in which they would study. To keep an open mind about what they're saying no matter how much you disagree, but granted it's pretty stupid to make everyone write something so trivial and not just say what the professor wanted them to do.
It would still be lawsuit territory, but it could be a good social experiment.
Neo Anderson l wish I didn't. watch. the. movie.
there are things that exist but no where like the one in the film. my english teacher said he had a paper to write on for a philosophy class and had to use evidence that god was real/not. but it was open to either side, no way like they show it in this movie.
In my experience, philosophy classes are open minded and accepting of all religions. But there's always that one guy who won't put up with anything other than the Christian worldview and drops the class in the first week. This movie is his version of reality.
I took Judaism for my religion requirement, mostly because the alternative course--Christianity--would probably not have been taught by someone who believed it.
@Ash Kitt Nobody in my Judaism class was Jewish, only the teacher. We mostly read the Bible, a book about Sabbath practices, a couple of novels, etc. There was also a field trip to a Reform synagogue.
@@tintinismybelgian Someone doesn't need to BELIEVE something in order to teach ABOUT it! I don't believe in a 6-day creation. I don't even think the Bible teaches that, but I can acknowledge that Fundamentalist Christians do. (Genesis opens with a poem or song about creation. That's why there's a refrain: "Evening came and morning came, the x day." It's poetry, not natural history!) There are LOTS of Christians who accept science-based evidence and see no conflict between evolution and Christian faith (see Biologos.org, for example, or look up the Bill Moyers interview of climate scientist, Sir John Houghton). Why can't God be glorified through evolution? It's really a pathetic "faith" that insists that every word of the Bible is literally true. That can be so EASILY disproven. Even the most ardent Fundamentalists are still selective literalists. They just aren't honest about it and don't allow others the same selectivity they actually practice.
@@DonnaBrooks I think we're coming at this from slightly different points.
Let me put it into a different context. Whereas I agree that an English professor who subscribes to the Oxfordian theory *could* teach a class on the literature of William Shakespeare (despite believing that it was not William Shakespeare who wrote it), it is also possible that his/her unorthodox bias would affect the presentation of the material in such a way that I might miss out on something that is considered by the larger Stratfordian scholarship to be crucial in the literature itself. This is not to say that a Stratfordian English professor could not also bring his/her *orthodox* bias into the classroom. Rather, I am saying, as a student, it would just be my personal preference to learn the *rule* before the *exceptions/detractions* to the rule, if that makes any sense.
I'm a Christian and I have sometimes been that guy to interrupt everyone and say "that's not true" and then go into a tirade I've since learned to shut up
It's.........really weird seeing a Christian give this movie an actual review, cheers mate.
Trust me, a good number of us really loathe this film. Including me and my boyfriend. Lol
+Zero Nova what Jazz Da-Funk said. She and I despise these things cuz...they're just plain terrible... :c
I don't think he's a Christian. His whole Nostalgia Christian thing is satire of Nostalgia Critic.
+Michael Edwards you're saying Christians can't like Nostalgia Critic? I love watching NC, and I'm a Christian. Kevin seems like an insightful Christian pointing out flaws of Christians in filmmaking.
Miss-Jazz-DaFunk How did you make that connection from what I said? I was saying that the name Nostalgia Christian is a satirical version of Nostalgia Critic, and based on his comments in these videos, he's not Christian.
Christian here, but I find this movie so foolish and enjoyed your review. It did indeed feel like a propaganda piece of stereotypes. And the shots are look like a lifetime film.
Not all Christians fit the Trump-lovin' stereotype.
This story was written to support an agenda, not explore the nuances of human behavior. The people are, indeed stereotypes. They represent distinct types with distinct places on the number line of political/spiritual belief. That can be okay with me if it is done well, but it is not done well here.
Watch God friended me. At least that show shows more about being a good person and helping your fellow human being than persecution. Also, it does make a point on how some Christians aren't open ears on hearing the atheist side. Plus the lead character is an atheist and isnt a total jerk
- Amy, u got cancer...
-I don´t have time 4 cancer...
"I don't have time to bleed."
Ain't nobody got time fo dat!
Okay, that line though...unfortunately, I know some people who, numbly--that would be their first response. :/
Honestly that line was the only time I actually started feeling sympathy for the character. Like "man what a tough response. What a strong woman."
Yeah! It just made me sad, because I've heard people react like that to things and all I'm thinking is: you don't understand, it is your health or your career right now.
“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.” --Madeleine L’Engle
Oh, that's wonderfully said! It is also the antithesis of the "gospel" according to modern conservative Christians. They are all about tribalism, power, & ego.
Absolutely! From the looks of it, this movie did not portray that very well at all. Instead we just have the kid literally dissing the professor, when he knows that he’s God is correlated with a major trauma in his life! Instead of sympathizing and finding a way to gently explain that his mother wasn’t mercilessly killed by God or something, he basically mocks him for it saying “how dare you hate God after what you’ve been through!” They did not handle the topic of the professors grief and addressing it in a loving Christ like manner at all.
Or it isn't your job to draw anyone anywhere
I’m gonna look up this person.
It's too bad your "good" book is full of intolerance, murder, rape, genocide, slavery and torture. More and more people are catching on to the hypocrisy of it all.
Is anyone going to talk about the fact that this girl has obviously NEVER worn a hijab? idk it bothers me
Or the fact that she also wouldn't be allowed to wear clothing showing her arms if her father was that conservative/psychotic.
Right I’m so annoyed. This movie was written by closed minded morons
Yeah seem kinda like an insult, I agree this film would have been alot more interesting if it was about her.
Assuming the writer actually did some research and approach the subject matter with an open minded respect through which he/she wanted to make an argument.
@@mysteriiis Not to mention that the father and his son would've been donned in their trafitional garb as well.
You can find more compelling atheist arguments in the TH-cam comment section.
Brandon Roberts I agree with you mostly. But I think most atheists actually would like to see religion done away with, for the better or course.
When you say TH-cam Atheists, who are you referring to?
Brandon Roberts Ehh Jaclyn Glenn I can see would be more passive. But I've been watching the Amazing Atheist for a few years now and there have been several times where I know he's said something like "You know how much better the world would be if there was no religious thought" even though he does advocate freedom of speech quite often. And I don't watch the Armoured skeptic enough to give a case for him
The beat a dead horse brigade has decided to test the waters of antifeminism and anti-SJW making them just as socially conservative as the people they once hated.
Kushner's argument is basically that God is good, but he's too weak to stop bad things, sometimes.
However, if this same God is powerful enough to make the universe, it doesn't exactly make sense that his omnipotence would be foiled by a couple of Nazis.
I recommend C.S. Lewis's "The Problem of Pain" for a different angle on the issue. It's not a long read (about 150 pages).
Ash Kitt Define bad or evil. You see your argument is fundamentally flawed because atheism cannot account for objective morality which essentially means evil cannot exist (or if it can it is your opinion which doesn't have much weight).
The Christian theist's answer to this problem would be relating back to the Fall in Genesis. When sin entered the world so did evil and "bad things". This happened because Adam and Eve broke the relationship with God who is the source of all good, joy, love, etc. So essentially, sin is why bad things happen because it is the absence of God (the source of all good, joy, love, etc.) that allows evil.
Another argument could possibly be made that evil exists to allow for the possibility of free moral choice (Hence why the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil was even in the garden) and that the absence of free moral choice is in itself a greater evil than the existence of evil. However, I am not exactly sure how strong this point would be. Feel free to pick it apart.
Man, I realize it now. This movie perfectly states the actual oppression in America, and in the world, basically. While the privileged Christian, Josh, risks a bad grade, the muslim woman legitimately puts her future on the line to worship God, yet Josh is praised the most at the end. It's a perfect representation of where our mentality is on this issue in the states.
*facepalms*
I know, I suck.
I mean, I'm more concerned that this film makes all it's villain characters atheists without actually knowing what an atheist is. Yeah, hating God is not atheism, its actually completely different.
Interesting point...Josh is the first world problems of Christians.
I wonder if the film makers were even aware this.
The quote at 8:20 is a perfect example of why this is ridiculous. It's a portion of the class, it's not discriminating against his personal life, and even in those parameters - he is allowed to hold a position contrary to his professors. Super ridiculous.
Plus, "I feel like God wants me to defend him." MMM, no. "The truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself." -St. Augustine
+Zakary Jester I LOVE that quote!!!
+Zakary Jester Very good point
Zakary Jester Agreed.
I'm a Christian...and I was angry when this movie came out. So many members of my church praised it is the best film they had seen, and it was emberassing (same with War Room.) God doesn't need us to defend Him. Period. The acting was laughibley bad, the story made no sense, and neither did the motivations. I am so sick of these Christian movies that are so contrived and never look at stories from other people's perspectives. The arrogance and ignorance is baffling. Jesus didn't eat with the rich, religious, knowledgeable and overly preachy people of his day. He met with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the lepers and outcasts, and the rejects of his society. Honestly, I have had better dealings with atheists than I have with quite a number of Christians and that is sad. Great review man. Fantastic. It's a breath of fresh air to see a reviewer that sees things for what they are and views these films fairly. Keep it up.
Yeah, only good thing was that the main character was really hot
+Isaiah Reimer I didn't think War Room was that bad
Actually it was the best movie like ever. Great acting and on point. As you know we are living in the Tribulations of Revelations so Christian genocide is not even a secret anymore. You can grab a newspaper from the past two years or even go on that news site and find stories of students being persecuted, suspended and expelled from work or school. The point of the mpvie was actually to raise awareness to these situations hence why they put a couple of the cases where it was student vs. State/college. Me, my wife and some friends were all victim to this persecution so we understand and appreciate this more i guess than somebody whose never faced such trying times.
+Isaiah Reimer Yeah this movie is incredibly bigoted to atheists; painting us all as evil sociopaths. It's decisive drivel and basically a Evangelical-circle-jerk. It can't take on the subject matter in a truly compelling way so instead it vilifies skeptics to give the character something to overcome.
+Daniel Torres That is complete nonsense. Only on rare occasions are these stories being presented even true, and when they are true the offending party is always swiftly punished. Quit acting persecuted. It's sickening. There are people in the world who are facing real adversity. if you live in North America no one is persecuting you for being Christian. That is a lie.
you dont have to hate science and hurt animals to be christian... this movie should insult christians more than anyone
@John McLawson I disagree with everything you just said that was so stupidly stereotypical and unnecessary
This video needed to be made, and you did it fantastically.
The more I think about it, the more I think "Christian films" as a genre need to go away... Right now it's just Christians trying to be filmmakers... What we need is legit filmmakers who also happen to be Christians, who will just let their worldview naturally come out in their films instead of forcing it.
The one criticism I would have is the rant about wolves... I think the people who made the film had good intentions, they just aren't good at making movies. But I do agree that marketing it as a way to support your faith is a bit take-advantage-of-ish.
Finally, someone said it! I feel the same way. Christian movies often lack subtlety and realism, traits that most movies require in order to be a success.
Dude Christian movies aren't suppose to be blockbusters. They just tell other then Christians can convert atheists like this guy or some shit like that. 9 years in Christian schooling, I've seen some really REALLY cheesy movies.
Why not have a Christian become a good filmmaker? I agree that they had good intentions while making the movie but I think people should give some of these filmmakers a real chance to shine. All they need are good, believable scripts and they would be pretty good movies.
Boston Beach I'm all for Christians becoming good filmmakers, it's Christian movies as a genre that I have a problem with... And the fact that the people making them aren't great filmmakers.
gabemillermusic I would suggest the film Fury that came out last year. Brad Pitt, big budget, great acting, Brad Pitt, and a Christian message. And Brad Pitt.
I *HATE* this trope of "Atheist = Christian + Tragedy". A lot of Atheists are Christian specifically because we're born into it. We're taught Christianity our entire lives and though we tend to be skeptical about some of it, we never decide to question it out loud for fear or reprisals. Then maybe we enter an environment without the strong Christian overtones that we once had and are allowed to speak our minds for once.
For me, that was college. My Philosophy professor was a warm welcoming man who welcomed all beliefs. But also encouraged everyone to question everything and form your own conclusions. That's really what philosophy is about. He never challenged Christians. But Christians challenged him. And he never directly fought back. He only asked them informative questions. It really was eye-opening.
I'm an Atheist. But not because I prayed for something and God didn't answer or whatever. I'm an Atheist because there's no argument against any religion that can't inadvertently be used against ALL other religions.
+theGreenGoblin Yeah I turned into an Atheist (I was Christian) after reading a lot about ancient gods, thinking their stories are a lot neater. XD I couldn't say one is true over the other, so I unfaithed lol. Oddly it was at my confirmation when I was all o.O what the hell am I doing? No not for me. >.> I remember that day clearly it was like I just woke up and was all, ok, this is the way things are. I'm never coming back here again, I'm sleeping in. >.>
+theGreenGoblin I stopped believing when i was in highschool and saw a video on youtube about the universe and how big it was. how could anyone create something like this? and what about all the alien species on other planets? they'll probably have their own gods, the same way mulsims have their god, etc. It just didn't make any sense to me and i had a brilliant idea that perhaps there is no god and when we die it'll be the same as before we were born. Free though is the biggest enemy of religion!
+theGreenGoblin My mother always told me to believe what I thought was right. around 5th grade I became an Atheist, because I realized that even a 5th grade Science book disproves a god.
There is evidence that can be presented for Christianity though. Namely the archaeology of the Old Testament and the historicity of the New Testament. I'll briefly sum both up. The archaeological argument is that we keep excavating things that seem to confirm some of the Old Testament stories, including the crossing of the Red Sea. A documentary that really highlights this is called The Exodus Revealed. The historicity of the New Testament essentially highlights the historical accuracy of the New Testament letters (it was written as many letters from different people, not as one book), and using that to show that the apostles were telling the truth about Jesus. I'm not gonna go into anymore depth though, because I want you to pursue this on your own. I'm grossly under explaining both of these arguments.
theGreenGoblin shut your ass up lets argue
I've said it before and I'll say it again... you can cut this movie down to ten miuntes by expanding on one of two basic conversations:
1)
Teacher: "Write 'God is Dead' on a piece of paper and turn it into me."
Joss: "Or... you can treat us like the adults we are and trust that we understand that this is a philosophy class and not a theology class. I understand that writing a paper that is just some half-assed sermon is wasting your time. But ending an 8 page paper that explains the nuances of what you're teaching from several perspectives and that quotes the text books with a 7-sentence conclusion that explains my opinion that just so happens to have the word "god" in it IS NOT a waste of time."
Teacher: "Well, as long as you stick to the syllabus and the writing prompts and don't turn this class into you're own personal church service (like this movie's teacher did for him... for some reason), then I suppose it would be unfair of me to ask you to do something if it's really against your beliefs. If I HAD to take a theology class, I certainly wouldn't want to be forced to write, "Darwin was am idiot."
Joss: "Glad we could both act like adults!"
2)
Teacher: "Write 'God is Dead' on a piece of paper and turn it into me."
Joss: *leave the classroom and goes to the dean*
Joss: "Yeah, the philosophy teacher is asking me to do something that goes against my religion, and if I don't do it, he'll fail me. That's against the law, as it's a clear example of religious discrimination."
Dean: "Yes, we've had trouble with him before, and 80% of his morning class came in with similar complaints. I'll do something about it. Probably threatening to fire him if he doesn't stop acting like a baby will help. Anything else?"
Joss: "Well, I still need the class. Who do I talk to about getting a different instructor who won't be a pain in the ball sack?"
Dean: "Go to the administration building. I'm sure you can get into a different class if you hurry."
27:35 "What I want is for them to make their own choice. That's what god wants."
But remember, if they make the wrong one, they get cancer, or hit by a car!
Silvershock Nicktail and get sent to hell to burn and be tortured forever. makes sense.
Yes, cause you know dang well god DEFINETLY is the reason why that happened
@@TheJoker-kh7fd Well really a shitty screen writer is why it happened, but it says a lot about how they see us.
that line just oozes with hypocrisy
This is the strawmaniest straw man that ever strawed. No philosophy
professor would do this. Beyond that, even an atheist philosopher should understand the central role of religion in the history and development of philosophy.
I am an atheist myself, but I enjoyed your review. I was tickled that you admit what so many (at least on the right) don't understand: Christianity is NOT endangered. It is not being destroyed by liberals, and it remains the largest religion in the U.S and in the world.
The heavy handedness cynicism of this movie is awe inspiringly high. You have to wonder why anybody thought that this film would work as an accusation of college liberalism AND lead to a belief in God. I don't get why Christian cinema os os inept. If I were a Christian, I would be frustrated that a movies like this that claims to extol my religion is a cheap, poorly written, poorly acted attack on a Straw man. I mean, if you could defend your position on its own merits, you wouldn't NEED a Straw Man, right?
You're right. We're not being persecuted in first world countries. In other countries people get killed for their faith, and many Christians complain about things like this.
I’m Catholic and I hate this movie
The weirdest part is that IMO Josh actually gets a good deal. The movie treats it like this terrible trial but ...like it's only 30% of his grade -- 70% is a B, maybe C+. I would JUMP at the chance to trade 30% of my grade for an opportunity to share the Gospel/defend the faith to my entire class. I mean -- the entire class CONVERTS by the end. In a Christian mindset, that's worth so much. I'd trade my LIFE for that; it's a no-brainer to take a minor hit in a college class for that.
A philosophy professor rejecting debate on any philosophical concept makes about as much sense as rain without water. Most professors I interact with welcome opposition if it's professional and will grade it accordingly if it's argued well.
Honestly, outside the hardline American Evangelicals, most Christians do not like these movies
It's really refreshing to hear a Christian bash this film.
THANK YOU. I'm a Christian, and I've been trying to explain why this movie makes me so angry. You summed it up perfectly. Congrats, you've just got yourself a new subscriber!
i'm a christian too and every character is just forcing their beliefs on everyone else. seriously?! i don't think a preacher's first words, while trying to save someone after getting hit by a car, would be "do you believe in God? Hurry up and change your answer or else you'll die!" no, a real christian would try to keep the person awake and talk to them until the ambulance came. then, they would pray for them and visit them in the hospital later. then, after the person recovered, the preacher would tell them that the experience was a way for that person to reconnect with God.
First time watching your channel, and I honestly had low expectations given how so many other Christians act, but I'm honestly impressed.
As an agnostic atheist, let me go ahead and say your review was completely fair and unbiased. Any insertion of your own religious beliefs were purely there to debunk the pandering bullshit the film did, and it puts a smile on my face to see someone from the side this film supposedly supports standing up and saying, "That's not correct".
Good work on this, and I'll be looking forward to your other reviews. You've earned yourself a subscriber.
Side Note: Part of the reason I was somewhat concerned before seeing the review was because of yourname and likeness clearly parodying the Nostalgia Critic, but I honestly find you to be almost as good as him, ironically enough. You just did well in structuring your video in general and it was overall entertaining. You've done your name justice, be proud of that.
Crucillus Thorn I support this comment.
I am Bernie sanders and I approve this message
Fun fact: Hercules got run over by Superman.
Seriously, that is the only thing I took from this stupid - ass movie.
That's a bitchin fun fact
No no we also learned that joss whedon sux gods dix and swallows then he tried to throw up that nasty shit on Hercules lol
Wait.. Superman killed Hercules. Doesn't that mean God's Not Dead ?
So. Much. Truth. I'm a Christian and I enjoy some Christian films, but I have to agree with you, this movie was so much worse than it could have been. Too many story-lines, bad acting, bad music, the whole idea of debating the atheist professor and then the professor getting saved before he dies (PREDICTABLE), and all those "persecution" cases in which Christians were the main antagonists pretty much ruined it. This movie had potential, but, sadly, all it managed to do was paint Christians in the wrong light, and I think it ultimately did more harm than good. :/
Totally agree, and I love RED. :D Can't wait for Of Beauty And Rage.
Favorite line at 13:30 XD
"Or I could commit real suicide and find out for sure."
I spit out my drink laughing.
Boogung
I choked on my food 😂😂😂😂
xD
You know, I gotta say, you're my kind of Christian. I'm agnostic, and I wanted to see what this movie was about so I checked out this video. Not what I was expecting, in a good way. All of your arguments were intelligent and unbiased, and you were humorous and entertaining to boot. Everyone has the right to believe what they want, but the important thing is to be open minded to others and keep logic in the forefront. You do just that, and I commend you for it. Great vid!
+KnowbysCabin Thanks so much. It's funny, because I get a lot of heat from Christians who think I'm attacking Christianity or faith. Most of them don't even catch on that I'm a Christian, but I've never had an Atheist or Agnostic think I wasn't a Christian from these videos or be upset about me being so.
Thing is, I love talking to people and learning about others, but I hate to fight. So many people just want to fight about religion, and people who actually want to learn don't have time for that BS.
I'm honored that you watched my video and took the time to complement!
@@saygoodnightkevinI think you're too smart to be a Christian. But you haven't done much research into your religion I guess.
Kevin's not dead.
He's surely alive
Weird Name Productions He's livin' here on TH-cam! Still just as hilarious!
HAHA. For now anyway. Who know's for how long. The disciples of this movie might come and get me, and yell at me, "WHY DO YOU HATE GOD....S NOT DEAD?!!!!"
CFR
Say Goodnight Kevin Maybe you'll get an email from the producer telling you to take it down, like when the Nostalgia Critic reviewed the room and "John from theroommovie.com" threatened him with a lawsuit.
Good video. I thought it was super interesting. Glad we have some christians critiquing terrible christian movies, too. by the by, I was sent here by a mutual fan of ours.
Thanks so much! That’s cool! Thank them as well!
"God is good all the time and all the time god is good." Well that's easy for you to say! You aren't the one getting dumped because you have cancer or getting hit by a car or anything like that!
when I saw the title "Nostalgia Christian" I expected some cringe shit, but this was actually pretty funny
Agreed, at first he looks like a Nostalgia Critic ripoff, but he's actually pretty good.
IKR I feel like I’ve stumbled upon a hidden treasure.
Is it bad that, after the scene where Mina breaks up with Rattison (no idea if I spelled that right) and he's in the elevator with Josh, I thought Rattison was going to try to kill him?
it definitely gives off that kind of vibe. I half expected him to whip out a knife and hold it to his throat.
TrashLord Lord of the Trash I thought he was gonna say,let's see if your God's real and then kill him
why was he doing the nostalgia critic parody?
I'm sorry but thus idea made me cry laughing! Can we have this movie instead?! The professor just shanks the kid and once Josh has a near death experience, he recovers and probably faces a pitch black void if not the cheesy version of what heaven looks like then has an existential crisis? I'd watch that.
@@morpheues2127 yeah, it does! R there no cameras in elevators to show what was going on?
I honestly thought I was going to hate this. There's a rule in comedy that one should never punch down. Christian movies are such an easy target, I figured with an endorsement from Bobby Burns, watching you review it would be the equivalent of watching a professional wrestler pile drive a toddler. I'm delighted to say I assumed incorrectly. This was truly funny in addition to being very thoughtful. You have a new subscriber and I have a new channel to binge watch (Don't judge me- I finished Friends and House of Cards doesn't come out for another month.)
Thanks so much!
House of Cards... How much time can change things.
I am an Atheist, and I am happy to say you have a new viewer! It's disturbingly rare to find sane Christians online LOL But then, it's rare to find ANY sane people online...EVERYONE has to be a troll apparently.
+Rory Turing
I was actually surprised that he wasn't a Christian. I'm not saying that all the Christians agree with this movie, but very few Christians online have the guts to criticize their own religion. This movie is absolute garbage...
+Agustín Prieto technically he's not criticizing christianity, but rather just a badly made movie that happens to be about christianity, and misrepresentes christianity. this movie realy sucked in my opinion, and I'm a christian too.
Rogue Skywalker
Yes, but there are a lot of criticizable things about religion and I don't see a lot of christians talking about this issues, they prefer ignoring them...
I am a christan And I agree this was awesome
I agree, it is rare to see this kind of self awareness and I wish it would happen more often. (I'm an agnostic by the way)
Great review Kevin! I was waiting for the epic sign off "Jesus died, so you don't have to" lol...maybe next time
:-O COUCH TOMATO COMMENTED ON MY VIDEO!!! You're going to be the most famous person on youtube one day! haha.
Haha. I did that one on the first video, because that was actually the joke I thought of that inspired me to actually make the show. :-P
Thanks for watching, bro!
Lol, I live for these Nostalgia Christian videos man! I refresh your page daily. Great vid!
Thank you for your points here. I was thinking a lot of the same things when I watched the movie. The script was clearly written by someone who had no idea how atheists think or what arguments they would make against God, or really even how to defend God to such a person without relying solely on stereotypes and tired strawman arguments. As a Christian I was disappointed, because it panders to a Christian audience and actually tries to get them to rejoice at the atheist's downfall rather than feel any pity or compassion for him, while creating a sense of superiority in Christians since the "good guy" "won" the ridiculously contrived "debate".
+NoscoSays I wonder if anybody acknowledges that the professor _died_ before the concert scene, because Duck Dynasty guy sure didn't, and neither did anyone there.
If they didn't, it'd give more weight behind the already credible statement you made about how they set up this strawman just to fall.
Here is the reasoning of every character in this movie:
"I'm right, because I'm right. Since I am right, I do not need to prove myself right, because I am right."
Circular logic 101
@@therealgadielsepulveda no, it's 102. Philosophy dude's class is the prereq for that
To be fair a christian wrote every character, "Write what you know."
Three main atheists in this film, Professor Jeffery Radisson, liberal blogger Amy Ryan, and businessman Mark. Let's take a look at where they are at the end of it.
Professor is hit by a car and dies from his injuries, but his conversion redeems him. Blogger gets cancer and will inevitably die soon, but her conversion redeems her. And the businessman is alone in that he neither converts nor dies, and it turns out that being the only atheist left means he spends the rest of his life being a sad loner.
Moral of the story is, the only good atheist is a dead atheist. Apparently...
I know it's been 4 years since you made this, but I just wanted to say you made me laugh, over and over!
i am proud of the comments. not one argument.
I've got the best subscribers ever! :-D
Say Goodnight Kevin yep
Really good work. The point you made about how the movie made people feel like they were sharing their faith if they shared the film is so true.
I mean, Jesus didn't say, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you share Christian movies.”
I have a BA in philosophy and I'm facepalming at this film.
Why on earth would a philosophy prof discourage any debate over the existence of God? The topic comes up multiple times in most philosophy courses (think the writings of Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and so on as far as Western tradition goes).
And not all philosophy profs are hardline atheists either. Even so, encouraging debate is something important.
Good review.
Great job on this Kevin! Nostalgia Christian is one of my favourite series on youtube right now, so keep it up!
This movie flies in the face of what my church teaches yet a woman at my church praised this movie.
Are you implying that this would never happen in real life? Because when I started my philosophy class, my professor told me to write down "God is dead" on a piece of paper. I stood up to him, and walked out of the class.
Then I yeeted out on my unicorn.
Wow, that was great! I love this series and I'm REALLY glad that Blimey Cow led me to discover this channel! Keep up the good work, Kevin!
I haven't seen the movie so I was surprised by the Alliance Defending Freedom cases referenced in the end credits. I agree with your frustration about the way these cases are misrepresented and I can offer more information about one for which you didn't provide any additional notes; OSU Students Alliance v. Ray. I was a student at OSU in 2009 and actually contributed articles and editorials to The Liberty, the student produced paper that was targeted by OSU officials that year. While a few of the contributors were Christian (myself included), many were not. The Liberty was establish as a politically conservative counterargument to the far-left-leaning school sponsored paper, The Daily Barometer. We were political content not religious. President Ray didn't like our politics so as an attempt to "beautify the campus" he arranged to have our distribution boxes on campus thrown away while leaving all the Barometer boxes in place. It didn't stop the distribution of our paper we just didn't have boxes to leave them in.
But as evidence of how welcome and tolerated our Christian presence is on campus I think the "God's not Dead" folks ought to take a look at our Socratic Debate Club. Oregon State has the most successful regular theist-atheist interaction of any university campus I know in America. We sponsor six to eight debates each school year (unscripted and open to audience interaction) and usually have anywhere from 200 to 1000 students in attendance. We don't even tell people how the must think when it's over. There are not many Christians on campus and we're not always treated well but nothing to the magnitude of God's Not Dead. American Christians need to stop feeling sorry for themselves and shame on production companies like Pure Flix for cashing in on the Christian marytr complex.
Wow, thank you so much for sharing this story! I remember reading about this, because I actually did read about every one of those cases, mainly because I wanted to see if ANY of them were anything like the story in the movie. Once I saw there was a pattern, I decided not to waste my time doing a summary of all of them.
I love your whole comment, but especially that last sentence. Very much the sentiment I have. Thank you again!
Say Goodnight Kevin
I wish I could stand up and applaud you for researching those cases. I'll admit, I was totally fooled when I saw those in the credits. I should have assumed that there was some sort of huge "Christian" law firm behind them! I've already heard of more than one case of a Christian organization getting into trouble with their state government, the case receiving huge amounts of attention on Christian news sources, and donation money pouring into the coffers of "Christian" law firms who will supposedly be the victims' advocates. Sometimes these firms aren't connected to the case at all! They'll lie to their mailing list and make bank. You know, generous-hearted Christians are often waaaay too easy to fool.
so how far-left is the Barometer? like, far-left like "destroy all the things" or far-left like "sometimes people can be pretty racist and trans women are women"?
What exactly were these conservative views presented in your paper?
I'm a big Doug Walker (The Nostalgia Critic) fan. Normally when someone tries to duplicate another or try to be the "Christian (insert noun here)" it can be lame. But this is acceptable. I never wanted to see this cheesy snorefest. Oh yeah another stereotype where the Atheist is a villain we're supposed to hate and shove doctrine down... yaaay.....that Liberty University joke was fantastic
Thanks so much!
Spoiler Alert: Superman kills Hercules at the end of the movie, being faster than a locomotive and all...
No way hercules is magic so he gets a strength advantage on superman plus he can just read scene direction really loud " disappointed!!" Sends massive ass shockwaves then mr t just comes and beats both their asses lol so I guess it doesn't matter lol
As a Christian I was interested in this well-made movie that my friends were talking about and told me it's a really good movie. But when I watch the movie, I got disappointed. It portrays an evil atheist professor, that the basis of his atheism was his hate to God and his misunderstanding of the biblical theology, this is emotional appeal, and in the end the student exploited that by borderline disrespectfully yelling "why do you hate God". That's one big weakness of the movie. The second one that although it is a Christian movie that's trying "to prove" that God exists, the arguments does not come from the Bible. Although I do recommend to study secular philosophy, and the arguments used are actually good, as it comes from the endorsed book "God's Not Dead" by Rice Brooks, but seems that it made him forget the reason why people do not believe in God according to the Bible. It did use the Bible, only as some snippets. There are other less commendable argument such as endorsing Big Bang. And 10-minute lecture then class dismissed.
And several more peripheral stuff. It says that the earth is billions year old, I'm okay with that, although I don't believe it to be true. It has people misunderstanding the purpose of hijab, although it's true that you can kick out and even kill your children if he/she leaves Islamic faith (It's pretty weird to say this, because Islam means submission. So if I say I'm a Christian I'm also basically a Muslim as well because I'm in submission to God. But you know what I mean). The ending kinda looks like it's a promotion for Newsboys' album. And the hilarious part is that the Chinese student is speaking Standard Mandarin with his Cantonese speaking father. And also the fact that Josh's presentation was visually stunning, only for the entertainment of the audience of the movie, like how did he get those animations done that quick? And... unrealistic death. That wouldn't have killed him. Get a truck probably? He was not even jaywalking.
This might be a good motivation for young Christians to engage in intellectual talks of the Bible as Paul did on Mars Hill in Acts 17, but might not be a good resource and reference. You all probably know that.
By the way Kevin, good review, and I agree with your comments in the end as well.
Thanks for the review and for sharing your experience!
This film ignores the fact that there is a load of Christian intellectualism out there.
I want to see a movie where someone from inside a Christian movie company calls out the company for manipulating Christians into watching their crappy movie. It could be like a modern take on that movie where Martin Luthor called out the Catholic Church for selling indulgences except instead of being tried at the Diet Of Worms the battle takes place both in the public eye and in the courtroom. It could bring to light some of the shady practices of people trying to make a quick buck and show the people that you don't need to support everything with "Christian" stapled on to it.
I thought about this type of thing for a reimagining of Bible Man. Saving Christians from the wolves. That's true danger!
It could be titled, "IT'S CHRISTIIIIIAAAAAN"
If you do, channel Christopher Nolan's Batman.
Sinner: "I swear to you!"
Bibleman: "SWEAR TO GOD!"
A good Christian movie is about a person who is at war with his faith, also those who are Christians that are very judgemental and critical. He does everything to defend his faith and confronts them.
Maybe Kevin Sorbo is mad at Joss Whedon because he auditioned for Firefly and didn't get cast? It would have been a step up from the later seasons of Andromeda.
"Maybe Jesus can decide my grade"
I fell on the floor
We just not gonna talk about how this pastor let this man just die. "His lungs are filling with blood you just gotta trust me" ok call the police.
What I really learned from this is that Josh should be studying graphic design, not philosophy
"I don't have time for cancer?" "Cancer? Ain't nobody got time for that!"
Pretty sure someone would get fired for forcing students to renounce their faith to be accepted in the class 🤷♀️
"That can't be all statistics."
"What are the odds?"
Brilliant!
This was AWESOME! It perfectly encapsulated every single reservation I had about the film! And the inclusion of the debunked court cases at the end! You really put a lot of work into this! This was your best one yet! Keep up the great work!
"Oh I should've gone to Liberty Universityyyy...."
Kevin, you make me laugh so hard. Thank you. xDDD
This is kind of a non-Christian thing for me to say but one of my favorite people to discuss religion with is my friend who is agnostic (not atheist but still) we're willing to discuss the challenging questions or topics that I feel like with some church go-ers they would either be angry or just be set in stone about what they believe and not willing to question it. Which is one of the things that really pisses me off about this movie because I was hoping that this movie would be willing to challenge other Christians the way that my friend has been willing to challenge me. This movie does NOTHING for Christians, it's too willing to be safe rather than to try and say something that will make Christians think! All in the name of getting as many Christians to hand over their hard-earned money by telling them only things they want to hear.
The moment that perfectly summarizes how bad this movie is, is when the teacher gets hit by a car and instead of giving him medical attention they try to covert him to Christianity. He dies.
Brad Jones: WOULD SOMEBODY CALL FOR AN AMBULANCE?!
Kevin Sorbo just can't catch a break in a christian movie, can he?
(He dies in this movie, in "Let there be light" he loses his wife to cancer...)
And in both movies he starts out as a bitter, abrasive atheistic jackass.
Nice review... funny and great at pointing out the obviously overloaded propaganda. Also, as an atheist, I listen to Christian music often. It actually can be really good.
What episode of Mission Impossible was that?
13:48
Liked, favorited, and subscribed. After watching this movie with, like 30 or my friends (including my priest, campus minister, and missionary friends), I had to discuss how bad it was with some of my like-minded friends. We're practicing Catholics, but that doesn't mean we're idiots. We talked about it for, like, 5 hours, and now, 6 months later, we're still obsessed with it. So dumb, and so amazing.
I had to watch it in Catholic religious education as well. It still makes me angry on a fundamental level.
Autumn Hobbit actually, I'm in college, and we watched it for a camous ministry movie night. It didn't make me angry, though, because this movie is hilariously bad.
NicAyBear it's a terrible movie, but what REALLY ticks me off, is how they not only manage to demonize atheists, they went and demonized islam and liberalism as well for no reason. They didn't even do it intelligently, the liberal chick isn't a believable character, and even the muslim girl wasn't dressed normally. She wore a scarf like it was a niqab, yet exposes her arms. They dont even know what they're supposed to depict.
This is one of the best breakdowns of this movie I've heard. Love it and subscribed!
Matt Bullock Thanks so much!
Goodnight Ke-oh wait. Wrong show.
But seriously, this movie is redonkulous. I mean, I get the idea, but the execution is just...no. Jesus doesn't need to be defended. The best defense for a Christian is to live a life that honors God, and to love unconditionally as Christ loves us. Legit, Blimeycow brought up a really good point (with plenty of sarcasm) on the TH-cam comments video, in the sketch where God is "worried" about an atheist who brings up good points, and God begins to question His existence. If God needed us to defend Him, what would that say about Him?
I get it-there does need to be discourse Symposium-style at times, but in a intellectual and civilized manner. Sort of like Dr. Zacharias or other respectful apologists.
Or G.K. Chesterton-esque debate.
Autumn Hobbit Indeed. I just couldn't think of anyone else...
woah wait no. We certainly should preach the gospel and argue against false arguments. Using the laziness of "just live a good life" is the cowards way out. The lesson here isn't that was shouldn't fight for the truth or argue against wrongness. The lesson here is that we should argue well, and not use straw mans and poorly done movies to make our arguments.
I don't believe he was implying that we shouldn't defend the faith. I think what he meant was that although some have been converted by good defense of the faith, more have been swayed by authentic Christian lives. For instance, who inspires you more; the guy who posts articles and Christian hashtags, or the lady down the street who always helps everyone out, no matter what they have trouble with or what she is busy doing? True witness begins at home, with your family and your neighbors. Eventually, it may branch out to include others, but it needs to have a firm foundation built at home.
Yeah no. More people are converted through actual evangelism (historically speaking) than people just trying to live good lives. Hell Jesus spent most of his time actually preaching and doing stuff with people and telling stories and He was freaking perfect. if anyone had an excuse to just sit around and let the converts come it was Him.
One man's shameless promotion is another man's brilliant marketing campaign.
*deep sigh* This film is such a shallow, self-congratulatory representation of the Christian faith. I'm embarrassed that teenage-me ever enjoyed it. There is so much actual, genuine Christian persecution going on in the world; shouldn't we be drawing attention to that instead of making up sh*t?
100%
"I wish I had got to Liberty University! That way I wouldn't have to listen to views different from mine!"
Actually, considering LU had Mitt Romney (a Mormon) and Bernie Sanders (a far-left liberal) speak there, I think they definitely want a sort of dialogue.
"How can you hate someone that don't exist"
*facepalm*
This movie does more harm than good, Instead of actually having a discussion based in reality and answer Questions, it just pushes their agenda and world view. Honestly I would really like a Religious movie to be based In reality cuz that might actually open people eyes and maybe make them curious about religion. But nooooo, one can only be an atheist cuz of some tragedy. It's like saying gays choose to be cuz they were molested or some dumb shit... Oh yeah if a person dies it's ok as long as they accept God before they die so they end up in heaven and prayer cures Cancer, well only for some people tho.
Oh yeah I forgot to add an Atheist can't hate something he doesn't believe in.. I really high hopes for this movie though that it was going to be an actual smart debate, but nope there are better religious debate on YT
"Something can be labeled "Christian" and not be true or good. . . It is possible for music to be labeled Christian and be terrible music. It could lack creativity and inspiration. The lyrics could be recycled cliches. That "Christian" band could actually be giving Jesus a bad name because they aren’t a great band. It is possible for a movie to be a "Christian" movie and to be a terrible movie. It may actually desecrate the art form in its quality and storytelling and craft. Just because it is a Christian book by a Christian author and it was purchased in a Christian bookstore doesn’t mean it is all true or good or beautiful. A Christian political group puts me in an awkward position: What if I disagree with them? Am I less of a Christian? What if I’m convinced the "Christian" thing to do is to vote the exact opposite?
Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective."--Rob Bell
Great movies made for less than 2 million: Clerks
I just found you by accident...
Now binge watching your channel.
Just, the entire channel :3
I found this film insulting to muslims, liberals and atheists but even more insulting to the intelligence of Christians. It's a real obnoxious pander-fest.
18:23 True Story: After hearing this when I was 15 I though "Stephen Hawking has every reason in the world to want to believe in God, and if he doesn't there must be a pretty good reason why", and that ladies and gentlemen, is how I started down the path of atheism.
3:52
Humanistic and Church moral teachings are basically the same.
The "I Heart Evolution" is indicative of the sad fact that most people have absolutely no understanding of literary criticism, allegory, or the fact that the writers of Genesis incorporated and rewrote Babylonian myths to express their own philosophical views.
I just found your channel now, and your commentary is hilarious, I don't know how you're able to stomach all these movies but its funny as hell. Subscribed.
As a girl in a Muslim family, the scene with the Muslim girl makes me annoyed. If you're going to include other religions in your Christian movie, at least do a five second google search. MUSLIM GIRLS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WEAR SHORT SLEEVES. The point of a hijab is to cover yourself more conservatively. It's not some hat that you can just wear with anything.
I'd like to say this: there is a genuine hostility to Christians on college campuses from professors, especially in the humanities. Ironically, you'll find the most devout people in the sciences. That being said, the movie is rather contrived and lacking, theologically. If this had happened in real life, all Josh would have had to do was 1) drop the class and 2) report it to the dean. He seemed to have had an opportunity to take another class entirely. He didn't have to take it.
Is American culture growing more hostile to Christianity? Yes. However, it's a mistake to equate this with what Christians around the world experience. We have so much in terms of freedom and legal recourse than what the film makes it out to be. In fact, it's shameful: playing on Christian fears to sell movie tickets or promote a legal law firm. If Christianity is true - which I believe it is - we shouldn't have to rely on fantasies to promote the Gospel.
Just about died laughing at the Gangnam Style elevator. Great video, Kevin!
You cannot imagine how hard I was laughing. The "Liberty University" quote was golden. Please keep making more Nostalgia Christian videos! :D Might I suggest you review "Time Changer"?
9:31- A lion does not need to be defended as king of the jungle; he just is.
this movie sucked. yes I'm a christian
I wouldn't have questioned that. Anyone with an ounce of taste can see it sucks!
I don't even know a good Christian movie that's not an adaptation of the Bible.
3DSDF Chariots of Fire
This is mystery science theater 3000. The fact that this guy is Christian just makes it 10x better
You’re too kind. Thanks!
Faithful people. PLEASE DO NOT PREACH TO ATHEISTS WHO ARE DYING. This is a horrible thing to do. Just don't. Just be a human.
+Rose K Quite the opposite. Less people are believers.
+Rose K Quite the opposite. Less people are believers.
Even though I'm a Christian, I thought this movie was a structural mess. It's sad really :/
I'm an atheist, but I gotta say, I found this highly entertaining, and I appreciate your focus on equal critical standards for religious and mainstream films; too often religious people treat movies like this with kid gloves, which is patronizing both to the films themselves, and to the religion involved. One should not expect less of their religious entertainment, nor adjust their expectations downward because a film addresses theistic subject matter; kudos for your honest and balanced take. You done good.
DoctorDissonance Thank you so much! That's really encouraging! I love making these reviews, so it's so exciting to see that others enjoy watching them!
The Hercules, Superman and, Josh Wehdon joke was when I knew I was going to watch this whole video.
"why do you hate god?"
I'm an atheist and I actually had a christian ask me this as angrily as Josh did in this film. He didn't like my response. I laughed at him and simply asked how can I hate something that doesn't exist.
As someone who believes in God that question how can you hate someone who doesn't exist yet I remember hating a bunch of fictional questions
+Young Knight characters
+Young Knight true dat. We could imagine an all powerful, and all competent being that created everything that ever happens on purpose...and then observe suffering....and then be mad at the fictional character we made up in our head. It's possible. Fair point.
Some qualms (though you're probably mishearing the dialogue intentionally for comic effect to show how Solomon and Konzelman fail at simple expository passages):
- Radisson's class is a MWF class. Given that Josh arrived on what appeared to either be an move-in/academic advisement day (fun fact: they don't schedule those on the same day because people will spend all day moving), I'm going to assume it's Monday and that his first class is on Wednesday.
- Radisson mentioned "the three next classes" (meaning Friday, Monday of next week, and Wednesday of next way) as the ones Josh has to present on. This is just unfeasible as far as gathering a good set of arguments and "proof," but it becomes crazier that, according to Josh when he witnesses to Martin in the library, he "has to work like a dog for the rest of the semester just to catch up." My reaction: dude, your schedule isn't THAT packed your freshman year. This six-day period of coming up with arguments has somehow placed your first semester in danger. I didn't even take my first tests until a month into the first semester!
- this movie should not take place over a two-week period, if I'm doing my math correctly (according to what I could gather from the exposition).
- yeah, I don't like that trend in Christian films where secular/humanist characters listen to CCM, especially run-of-the-mill bad CCM like Stellar Kart (the band "Lois Lane"/Amy was listening to while researching Mr. Duckbeard on the Wikipedia). I guess it's because the Kendricks have a monopoly on Third Day and Casting Crowns, but if you're gonna have them listen to CCM just so you don't license a song with less-than-morally-right song choices (as if a Christian movie would knowingly license "Mean Machine" by Sugar Ray), license good CCM like Relient K or dc Talk. Or, I dunno, license the secular songs that fit your PG rating.
and another thing: why would Josh's girlfriend dump him over him checking out books on apologetics? I know those books symbolize how he's taking the Radisson thing too seriously, but he could just say that he's also interested in apologetics.
I have some friends who'd be insulted to find out that I once checked out Dianetics from my library because I wanted to read it (to see how out there it was) - to them, giving Scientology a glance is akin to enabling rape because of the stuff Elron and Miscavage have done while running the Church itself (though indie-Scientologists seem to have a loathing of what those guys have done and just take Dianetics by itself). However, they wouldn't cut off all ties with me just because I read Dianetics or Naked Lunch or books by Woody Allen.
+Hal Emmerich It seems the simplest way around the music-and-morality problem would be to license instrumental music. It hardly seems out-of-character for Amy to be listening to classical music or jazz. I could see her grooving to Miles Davis' _Kind of Blue_ or listening to Debussy's _Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun_. If they really wanted to switch it up, Amy could be portrayed as a fan of world music. There are plenty of purely instrumental pieces in world music, and for even those works with words the "morality" of them may be beside the point if the audience doesn't know what they're saying.
And a good thing about licensing classical music especially is that there are so many orchestras, soloists, and ensembles out there and so many budget labels that you're bound to find one that will let you have the rights to the music cheap. Or you can hire a musician or set of musicians to record their own performance of a solo or chamber work. It wouldn't be too hard to find a pianist out there willing to record a few minutes of a sonata by Mozart or Haydn or Beethoven or Brahms or either of the Schumanns or somebody.
as a Muslim I feel disgusted by their portrayal of that girl and her life. No Muslims in America act like that
.....i personally know that thats not true. acording to the quaran that father was supost to beat her into submission, or kill her. he was being very merciful.
+Rogue Skywalker
the bible says that christians are saposed to kill women who are raped.
Well, it could be argued that there is that NEW testament that kind of ratifies some of that stuff. But you're right, the bible and the quran say to do stuff that we don't do anymore. (and probably never should have done.) Something many faiths have to come to grips with.
Sent here via Bobby Burns, did not disappoint, not only subbed, going to binge
I really love your honest voice and humour glad good people like you are calling pureflix on their hypocrisy.
Uh...I go to school with a lot of girls who are muslim and wear hijabs (the headscarf), and after doing a quick research check to make sure I can say with a fair amount certainty that this is not how you wear them.
1. Hijabs typically don't cover part of your face. Niqabs do that, but they're usually not one piece of fabric (which is what the girl has) but two pieces clipped together.
2. Even if I'm wrong about #1 , the fact that she's bothering to cover her face with a black veil but leaves her arms uncovered is just ridiculous. Covering your arms and legs AS WELL as your hair is, like, modesty 101 in Islam.
I mean, I know this is christian propaganda and all, and this is just nitpicking, but ...seriously. It wouldn't have killed them to at least get SOMETHING right about the religion they're bashing...
No that REALLY bugged me too. It showed how they really did very little research for the "opposing" sides in this film (atheism, Islam). The first thing that came to mind when i saw her out it on before her father picked her up was "that's...not a hijab. Did they just hand her a piece of cloth on set and say 'hey, put this cloth around your face and look like your oppressed?' Because that's what it looked/felt like."
Why would they put all those court cases up in the credits if none of them were relevant? I love how you named Superman and Hercules! Haha!
Totally was not planning on spending 40 minutes watching this review until after I did. 😆 Thank you for making this! Totally worth the effort.
Haha, thank YOU for watching!
just wanna start this by saying I really enjoy your satirical reviews of Christian movies. I've been trying to open the eyes of my fellow Christian peers about horribly made Christian movies for awhile, trying to get them to realize that shoving an agenda down people's throats without any good story telling or love of film making isn't going to win people to Christ.
ok, now that that's out of the way, I do get alot of your gripes with this movie, however having attended a liberal university I have experienced discrimination and attempted humiliation because of my faith, albeit more from my peers than my professors. This isn't just an isolated incident either. I know other kids who have gone through the same. You say it's so unbelievable that this type of scenario could happen, and while I agree that the characters were a bit one dimensional, are you saying Christians are never put down for their belief in God in high brow academia? Because that's simply inaccurate.
I've also seen some professors who were some pretty big jack assess (can I say that on here? lol), so to me it's not that far fetched that a teacher would be like this in front of a class. it also doesn't surprise me that a bunch of kids would sign a paper saying God's dead then change their minds a few days later... because many of the kids I've seen in college don't bother to think for themselves anyway haha.
anyway, just wanted to provide my two cents. I think showing the angle of what Christians experience and the intellectual arguments for God could make for a really compelling movie, if done in a more subtle and artistic fashion. keep doing what you're doing with these reviews!
Thanks for sharing your insight! That's a great perspective.
Also, normally I wouldn't let someone say "Jack ass" in my comments. But since you went to a liberal university, it's understandable and I'll let it slide. lol.
It's not so much that I don't think this type of things might happen, I just think, if it did, the kid wouldn't be so alone. I think the Alliance Defending Freedom would pounce on the opportunity to take on this case. Beyond that, the kid never talked to any other school administrators, which I think would be the first step to take in a hostile situation. Personally, I feel like the kid was out of line to begin with. You go to school to learn different points of view. I doubt a teacher who is so hostile towards Christianity, would allow the student to teach 3 full classes. The fact that the student was given those opportunities to explain his case, shows an amazing amount of grace on the side of the professor.
My point is, which I'm not sure if I explained well in the review or here in this comment, is simply that the plot of this movie is just too convenient. The actions of the characters are not consistent, and the way the scenario plays out is very hard to believe. If Christians are walking away from this movie thinking winning a debate is more important than showing love, then I think the movie has failed to create a character that I can root for.
Thanks so much, again, for watching the video and giving your thoughts and feedback!
Good point about the professor giving him all this time to make his case, although it really could have been to embarass him or refute everything he was saying in front of the class, and not to give him a chance.
Certainly universities should be a place where ones views are challenged, but it should be a place where all perspectives are allowed and debated, not just "God existing" or "God not existing."
I agree with you though, the plot and story telling did have alot of problems. I'm definitely not saying "this is the best movie ever what is wrong with youuuu?!?!" Christian movies have a long way to go lol.
Thanks for taking the time to write out a response! Btw I've been binging on your movie reviews most of the day. They're kind of addicting haha.
And sorry about that liberal university rubbing off on me!! ;p
Jack ass should be fine. The word ass is used in the Bible (KJV)... to describe a donkey. Indeed I know of people who are put down because of their faith and atheist teachers who will talk about christians in a disrespectful way. I also know of christians who try to talk to other students about christianity who don't want to talk about it, and these christians think they're being persecuted. That's not persecution, that's rejection. They need to chill.
+trekyz yes there are Christians like that and I totally agree that's being a little pushy. But when everyone is talking and giving their perspective on something and the Christian friend is the only one who isn't allowed to.. that just isn't cool either
Oh yeah! absolutely! Yes! Christians have the right to speech like everyone else. I have preached the gospel to people in public areas on a college campus and sometimes engaged in apologetics. I talked to people in a civil manner with mutual consent. If people didn't want to talk to me, that would be rejection, but not persecution. My previous point is I know people who act like victims of something they are not of.
I'm glad this review is bringing you even more subscribers, cuz you deserve them! Good job & goodnight Kevin!
In its portrayal of atheists and liberals and anyone who’s not a conservative evangelical Christian, this movie flagrantly violates the Ninth Commandment: “Thou shalt not BEAR FALSE WITNESS against thy neighbor.”