Oh, you poor picked-on Christians. What must it feel like to be the oppressed minority? Brought to you by the kind of people who truly believe there is a war on Christmas and worse yet, something NEEDS to be done about it, God’s Not Dead decided to attack atheism, and attack it a lot, and from a position that atheists are more powerful and numerous than Christians.
Really.
It’s the start of a term and shiny new freshman Josh Wheaton – geez, what is it with the names these days? I cannot hear “Josh Wheaton” without thinking of Joss Whedon, a man who would sooner explore the theology of Satan – anyway, Josh (Shane Harper) is checking out campus and signing up for classes and meets his girlfriend. His girlfriend of six years. As they part, she gives him a peck on the cheek and he … accepts it. Hey! Slow down, kids, this is a God film! Wow, maybe another six years and they’ll work up to a hug. Meanwhile, on another part of campus, the school’s only Muslim (Hadeel Sittu) gets out of her ride and removes her head scarf to reveal her rebellious side and a fetching ensemble. That’s how it works? Push-up bra? Outfit by The Gap? But the headscarf covers all the oppressive Islam/ dad bases, does it? We’re not even past the opening credits and this movie already feels wrong.
Defying a warning by an upperclassman, Josh takes a philosophy class taught by the evil Professor Radisson (Kevin Sorbo). We know he’s evil because he’s … an atheist! An atheist on constant lookout to bolster the swelling and bloated atheistic ranks! Prof Godsucks here starts the year by insisting everything will go smoothly if all his students just write “GOD IS DEAD” on a piece of paper, sign it, and hand it to him. Now, sure, I understand when you make a film like this and you have no respect for the first amendment, you probably assume that the same applies to others. But you know what? “Freedom of Religion” actually means something to a lot of people; and, not only would this action be considered immoral on several levels, it probably isn’t exactly legal, either. In the very least, this professor would almost certainly be fired. Brave Josh is, of course, the only student willing to stand up for himself and for punishment he gets to take on the prof in a series of class-ending debates on the topic: God – living or dead? 10 points if you can spot the obvious problem with the debate premise as stated.
The class itself has 80 students and made no bones about how the other 79 would happily sign such a statement without problem. WTF? What campus has exactly one Christian and one Muslim? Seriously? The class is 99% “my grade is more important than my spirituality?” You can’t take a sampling of 80 people anywhere in the world and get 79 to sign such a statement. The movie actually states that none of the others will EVER enter in a church. Oh, not just grade grubbers, actual li’l atheists and atheist sympathizers all, are they?
A quick wiki view shows there are an estimated 2.1 BILLION Christians in the world. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostics/Atheists collectively total half that. 4% of Americans are listed as atheist, but that didn’t stop God’s Not Dead from assuming that in a classroom of 80 students, only one would ever set foot in a church. OK.
This is already too long, I’ll cut to the chase. This is how all the debates proceed:
Prof Godsucks: [namedrop famous scientific atheist] God doesn’t exist.
Plucky Josh: [namedrop another famous scientific atheist] Here’s where he contradicts your statement.
Prof Godsucks: What do you know? You’re a freshman.
Just wait til you get to the part where all atheists are actually disillusioned followers. Yes, they want to believe, but God let them down (only because they don’t understand God’s ways, of course). There’s no end to the stomach-churning moments in this thing – the only two non-white students are portrayed as the pawns of false idol parenting. The Muslim girl is actually disowned when she admits she joined the Christ Club. Then there’s the fact that maladies befall the outspoken disbelievers — one gets cancer, another hit by a car. After that, we make a Christian hero spokesman out of Willie Robertson. Ah, I see this is American Conservative Christianity, where piety is defined by financial 
success. Yeah, next time you want to promote the God message, maybe leave out the guy who’s made a fortune killing living things.
God’s Not Dead didn’t stop there. It espoused a number of false and fairly offensive charges – like that without God, there are no morals and no morality. Also no goodness. Wow, really? So people not only won’t act moral without God, but won’t even know morality without God? That’s beyond condescending; it’s just plain stupid. I kind of hope all Christians or non-Christians alike who saw that moment were suitably offended.
God’s Not Dead plays like a recruitment film – which is exactly what it is—but with such awful portrayals of straw man opponents, it comes off as defensive and hateful a film as there is. The premise that all atheists are simply believers let down by God is as laughable as the idea that atheists recruit and constantly seek to bolster their union. This, of course, could only come from a set of people who believe the guy from Duck Dynasty is the ideal celebrity spokesman for their religion. I have lived on this planet for over 40 years. In that time, I have seen A LOT of religious cajoling. And yet, NOT ONCE, not one single solitary time have I ever been asked to join a group of atheists. Atheists don’t advertise. What’s the point? Christians, however …
♪If God wasn’t dead, where would He be?
And would He need to run an ad?
If you had a wad of cash, would you use it
Just to prove you were among his chosen?
And yeah, yeah, if it’s wrong to hate
Yeah, yeah instead alienate
And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You should love Jesus like us
Salvation says it is a must
Throw all heathens under the bus
They’re all suckers, doncha know? ♫
Rated PG, 113 Minutes
D: Harold Cronk
W: Hunter Dennis, Chuck Konzelman & Cary Solomon
Genre: Christians are better than you
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Someone I never wish to meet
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Me
♪ Parody inspired by “One of Us”
