Today, I decided to finish watching “Zeitgeist”, a movie my friend decided was compelling argument for the disbelief in Christianity, among many things. Anyway, I could barely get through the first 10 or so minutes of it without figuratively ripping out my hair at the ridiculousness of the arguments asserted by the makers of this video.
Basically, the first argument goes that because there are striking similarities between the “Christian Myth” and other ancient belief systems (cited examples include Pagan and Egyptian religions), Christianity is somehow necessarily falsified. I suppose this would sort of make sense given that Christianity does claim to be the only true way and it does share many similarities with other religions. And if this were where the facts stopped, I would definitely say that the case for Christ isn’t looking to hot. However, I’ve got to reiterate two essential points before we move on.
First off, Christianity differs from other religions that make the same assertions or embrace the same ideas in that the person of Christ actually came and actually did what the Bible claims He did. Like my post from yesternight/early early this morning, Christianity is rooted in history. There’s a huge difference between stories and folklore that simulate/pre-date the Christian God-narrative, and the actual reality of the person of Christ in the God-narrative.
If one were to use these facts to argue in favor of the Christian story, one could suggest (like C. S. Lewis does in his Christian-allegory, “The Pilgrim’s Regress”) that the stories of other religions that bear striking similarities to the Christian narrative are the products of peoples who have received images from God about salvation, but not the explicit words. The images of a Savior were inspired into them, and they have made do as best as possible (even though this led to worship of many things other than God)–like a silent movie or mime performance. This would explain the similarity of imagery, though the explicit details are different.
Contrastingly, the Jewish people had been given the express words from God in the form of the Old Testament. Thus, they made do with the words of God without pictures (of course, this led to a worship of the Law, instead of God)–like a radio show where listeners have to fill in the blanks with their imaginations/interpretations. What one needs to see is the importance, therefore, of Christ’s coming. Christ is the physical embodiment of the Word of God (i.e. God’s promises of sending a Messiah, in flesh and blood, see John 1:1-18), thus giving mankind a definite image of the Savior God has provided and to provide the specifics (in terms of truth about God and His word, and, through his ministry, explicit dates, places, and names for reference, etc…) to God’s story.
Secondly, the existence or possibility of alternative rationalizations does not naturally disqualify the Christian truth-claims about Christ in the least. The first part of “Zeitgeist” deals with providing rationalizations about various images in the Bible using Pagan mythologies (e.g. Christ’s Age is the Age of Pisces, hence the fish imagery, or the crown of thorns is actually representative of sun-rays). The Christian idea of Jesus the Christ is twisted into just another form of sun-worship. Obviously, one can draw whatever connections one would like between many things and provide correlation after correlation, but that is a red herring fallacy (i.e. the act of diverting attention away from what lies at the heart of the debate). Sure, maybe the crown of thorns represents sun-rays or something, but what can be said against the veracity of Christ having died at the hands of the Romans and having risen three days later? Perhaps Christ’s call to be fishers of men is just an elaborately subtle allusion to the astrological sign of Pisces, but what of the first-hand accounts of Christ’s ministry by these men of humble origins? It’s easy to make a straw-man out of the Christian Gospel and knock it down as just fanciful storytelling and allusive literature, but it is much more difficult (and I’d argue impossible) to find reason to doubt the veracity of the events recorded in the Gospels.
If you’ve watched this video (which I suppose could either help or hinder your personal quest for truth), you should probably ask yourself, “What are the makers of this movie really trying to say? What are they trying to make me think? Why?” and whether or not it really makes sense. Reformation Theology has a pretty decent rebuttal too, if you’d like to venture another rejection of “Zeitgeist” by someone more qualified and well-read than myself.
Below are a few more… random WTF moments I came across while watching:
- Government financed schools blamed for steadily declining intelligence of American public:
Last time I checked, Canada’s public schools were paid for by tax-dollars too, and we were cited (in the same video, same chart, same list) as taking the number one spot for mathematics and doing decently for physics too. - “There are people guiding your life and you don’t even know it.” – Jordan Maxwell
Sounds exactly like what the movie is trying to do, but of course, they’d never admit it. Also, this same guy is quoted many other times. I’m wondering what made him the go to guy for truth,. Considering he’s so pissed about groups forcing their ideas of truth on others, I’m amazed (no I’m not, actually) that he’s not, you know, calling himself out for doing the exact same thing. - The Evil RFID Chips
Somehow, everything brought up in the movie somehow relates to having Radio Frequency Identification chips being implanted in everyone. Is it just me, or does this sound more and more like just another sketchy conspiracy video? Or perhaps propaganda? Paranoid musings? - According to “Zeitgeist”, we have forgotten our “true relationship with nature”.
Of course, the movie never explains this claim they sneak in with any of their clever and well-twisted facts. It’s asserted without much basis and actually echoes monotheistic sentiments, but of course, religion (at least according to the movie itself) is evil and the cause of wars and bloodshed… so wait, what?