Zeitgeist

For those of you in the know, the latest round of internet conspiracy theories has landed in the past year and is called "Zeitgeist". It's a movie in three parts: part one covers the lie of Christianity and how it's used to motivate people to be good citizens; part two covers 9/11; and part three covers the Federal Reserve Bank. It's very well done and very well put together. The narration is subtle and not overdone. The music is good conspiracy-theory creepy. The images can be haunting at times, but not overdone.

Parts two and three make you angry. They do a great job of portraying the government as the cause of wars and the Federal Reserve and the powers that be the true Axis of Evil in the World. Makes you want to go blow something up. Most of the accusations are unfounded, however, and are based largely on anecdotal evidence, text-proofing, and bias.

The reason I posted this blog is because of part one. This deals with Christianity and its origins. The movie makes the conclusion that Jesus never existed and his life was the Christian equivalent of other mythological figures from the past, most notably the Egyptian god Horus. It asserts that religious leaders took the life of Horus and inserted Jesus' name where applicable. Why this was done was never pulled out of the movie. They give no clear reason why these religious leaders and governing authorities (like Constantine) established this make believe figure to be the head of this new religion. They only voice their protest over the Church and the "fraud" that has ensued over the years. What is left is only speculation and spurious biblical research. They pull specific texts from the Bible to prove their point, but ignore others. Parts two and three have very specific agendas and conclusions (and link together) but part one does not, which leads me to believe it was just someone's soap box and wishful thinking. There isn't even a substantial connection to the other two parts of the movie.

Should you watch it? Sure. People you know may be watching it. A kid in our youth group watched it and has some doubts about his faith now. If you're a youth pastor, college pastor, pastor or in ministry, you should at least watch part one. It's about an hour long. Take some notes and do the research. It's not offensive, but it does cite George Carlin (the comedian) and one of his stand up routines as one of its sources. Good research, guys. It'll make you angry, but I think we need to be aware of this "New Atheism" that is here and reaching out to younger people.