The God Movie

Gnome and I watched an intriguing movie last night "The God Who Wasn't There" made by a former Christian fundamentalist, questioning why so many people believe in Jesus and the healthiness of propagating this belief. Of course I need to do more research on this to verify/challenge the documentarian's points, but it was so intriguing that I'll note two key points now:

1) The story of Jesus strikingly resembles the stories of other characters considered mythical, i.e. Dionysus and Mithras. A professor of folklore at UC Berkeley lists the most common traits of mythical heroes, and Jesus fits right in with the best of them.

2) The letters of Paul, the only Biblical documents written soon after the Jesus story is purported to occur, only tell of his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Paul is said to have been responsible for initially spreading the word of Jesus. The gospels of Mark and John (?) came much later (100 years?) and this is where we get many of the miracle (i.e. walking on water) stories. How many Christians can retell with any accuracy how Christianity spread in the years just after Jesus purportedly died? Why is this never discussed?

Of course the movie lists many of the oft-heard contradictions in the bible and the contradictions in the way it is interpreted (i.e. Why should homosexuality be wrong, but it's not wrong to wear a jacket made of wool/linen mix?). Many Christians say that the Bible cannot be taken literally, but if you're going to pick and choose which lessons to take literally, then it seems that you're creating your own set of morals to abide by, just like we secularists do.

If a god is needed to make people moral, then we would see a much more striking difference between how people of different religions and non-religions act. I read a great quote yesterday (by George Bernard Shaw?) that (not verbatim) "Without religion, good people will be good and evil people will be evil, but it is only through religion that good people can be evil."

I have nooo problem with anyone believing in a higher being, but I hate how it's such a conversation stopper. How can you question faith? Believing in a god is just fine, but it should be treated with the same skepticism as believing in UFOs, as the evidence for both is equally convincing. Sam Harris asked how the American public would react if Bush claimed to be acting on the will of aliens rather than the will of God.