***SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN***
Synopsis:
Josh Wheaton (not Joss Whedon) is a college freshmen and it is his first semester on campus. As the movie begins he has a lot going for him, a beautiful long-term girlfriend whom he plans on marrying one day and aspirations of going on to law school after college. He registers for his first set of classes when the student who is processing his registration looks at the cross around his neck and suggests he might want to reconsider his philosophy class. The professor is a known antagonist towards religion, and Christianity in particular, but Josh has his schedule set just right and to change classes would mess up everything.
As Josh attends his first philosophy class professor Radisson enters and points to a board of names of world famous philosophers and scientists and asks “what do all these men have in common?” The answer is that they are all atheists. Not one of them believed that God exists. Since these most brilliant men all concluded that there is no God professor Radisson suggests that the class take their word for it and then they can just skip that section of the philosophy class (which he informs them is the hardest, and lowest graded part of the class for those who go through it). All the students have to do to get an “A” on this section of the class and move on is write three simple words on a page, “God is Dead”, and sign their name to it.
The class thinks this is a great deal and everyone writes on their paper just as they’re told. Everyone, that is, except Josh Wheaton. As the class passes their papers to the end of the row and as professor Radisson comes to collect them he finds Josh staring at a blank piece of paper. The professor asks Josh what seems to be the problem? Josh states that he cannot do what the professor asks because he is a Christian. Professor Radisson states that what Josh chooses to do in his own private and personal life is up to him but in this class he needs to just sign the paper so they can move on. Josh refuses. Professor Radisson explains to Josh the alternative to not signing the paper, namely, that if he will not comply then Josh will have to prove to the class that God does indeed exist. Josh accepts the challenge nervously and is told that the next three class periods he will receive 20 minutes at the end of each session to present his case. They agree that the class will decide in the end who is right between them and if God is dead or not.
After class Josh meets up with his girlfriend and relays what has happened to which his girlfriend instructs him that he is to simply sign the paper as the professor asks and not cause any more trouble. She insists that since she has plans for them to be together the rest of their lives that Josh has to think of her future and not just his and that even getting a “C” in the class can keep him from getting into law school which is not acceptable.
Josh, struggling with what to do, goes to a church to pray and think and ends up meeting Reverend Dave. After relaying his problem to Reverend Dave, Dave just gives him a Bible verse Matthew 10:33. When Josh gets back to his dorm and reads it he finds that it says “but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” This convinces Josh that he has to take a stand no matter what, he cannot deny his Lord.
What unfolds from here is that Josh begins to consume books on apologetics, God’s existence, ethics, cosmology, etc., in preparation to make a case for God. His girlfriend finds out that he is continuing down this road after she told him not to and she dumps him. After the first presentation he gives in class, a brief explanation of the cosmological argument, the professor challenges him with a Stephen Hawking quote which seems to put a hole in his argument about the need for a Creator because the universe can “create itself.” Josh not knowing how to respond to this does not offer a response and the professor mocks his ignorance and hubris for stating that it still doesn’t change his faith in God.
After class professor Radisson catches Josh in the hallway and threatens him (obviously feeling a little threatened himself), stating that he will do everything in his power to keep him from ever getting into law school if Josh continues to try and embarrass him in his own class. Despite this, however, Josh is resolved that he must continue no matter the consequences. He gives two more lectures at the end of two more classes in which he cleverly responds to Hawking’s previous quote with a quote from John Lennox, who is himself a highly regarded professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford (the best part of the whole movie), which shows the logical errors of Hawking’s reasoning. He also in turn points out that in the same book that professor Radisson has quoted from that Hawking states “philosophy is dead” and therefore if Hawking is beyond question and is always right then there is no point to this class or the professors chosen discipline.
By the final lecture given by Josh professor Radisson is no longer content to sit and listen but is up front with Josh now and interrupting and offering counter points. Josh holds his ground and in the end he badgers the professor saying “Why do you hate God?” He repeats this question several times with growing intensity until the professor blurts out “Because he has taken everything from me!” (Earlier in the film it was revealed that Professor Radisson lost his mother to cancer when he was just 12 years old and God did not answer his prayers to save her). Josh asks the professor “How can you hate someone who doesn’t exist?” The professor responds “You haven’t proven anything.” To which Josh responds that he may not have but he has demonstrated that faith in God is reasonable and we all have the evidence and have to decide where we stand. Josh tells the professor that he is wrong to not even give students the chance to decide for themselves. He turns to the class and asks them where they stand and starting with one student who stands up (a Chinese foreign exchange student that comes to Christ through all of this) and then followed by every other student in the class they all stand and declare “God is not dead.”
Sub-story synopsis:
It should be said right away that I left out quite a bit in the main synopsis. Primarily what I left out is the 3 or 4 rabbit trails this movie runs down besides the main story. Briefly to mention those rabbit trails, there is a girl from Muslim family who has turned to Christ secretly but when exposed is tossed out of her home. There is a foreign exchange student from China who comes to Christ to his father’s embarrassment and chagrin. There is a woman dating professor Radisson who is a Christian herself and finally comes to the conclusion she has to end it with him because they are “unequally yoked” and he is a verbally abusive jerk to her. There is a girl named Amy who is a left-wing, PETA-type vegan, feminist and journalist who writes for “The New Left” who ends up with cancer and is dumped by her high powered business man boyfriend (played by Dean Cain who is not such a Super-man, and is also the brother of the girl who dated the professor, both of whom have a mother with Dementia). Amy eventually gets kind of saved by talking to Newsboys (no clear gospel presentation). And then there is Reverend Dave and his missionary friend who keep trying to leave on a trip to Disney world but can’t get their car to start, nor the rental car to start, ,or the second (supposedly different) rental car to start and this is the main form of comedy relief in the movie. At the end they do get the car to start and are on their way but get blocked by traffic of everyone going to the Newsboys concert and Professor Radisson who went to go try and win his girlfriend back gets hit by a car right in front of them. Reverend Dave is then able to lead Radisson to Christ as he lies dying in the street.
Evaluation:
Over-all the movie was disappointing, but not as disappointing as I expected it to be. Let’s talk about the positive aspects of the film first:
The first positive in the film is that the acting was better than most Christian films. This is not to say that the script was incredible but the acting of the script that they had was decent. In addition to this, the apologetic arguments utilized in the film were better than I expected and I almost cheered out loud when they referenced Dr. John Lennox. I was extremely thankful that there was no mention of Dr. Dino or Ken Ham in the movie, rather they referred to a top rank Christian thinker, professor and apologist at one of the most renowned schools on the planet (They also mention C. S. Lewis a couple times, bravo!). The Cosmological Argument, the fossil record and the Moral Argument are the most prominent lines of evidence used in the movie in favor God existing as Creator. What gets said about these is fairly-well presented with good visuals and I agree with what gets said. In addition to this the movie contains some very moving and emotionally stirring incidents that I think will inspire and move Christians in a positive way, maybe encouraging them to risk their comfort for the sake of standing up for Jesus in their own life.
Now let’s talk about the negatives:
The film suffers tragically from too many stories going on at once that are completely irrelevant to main thesis of the film. While they should have spent more time letting Josh Wheaton present evidence for God’s existence (because there was so much more that could have been said and you have a captive audience!) they instead distract from the story with rabbit trail after rabbit trail that will tug at the hearts of believers but do absolutely nothing for unbelievers. While, like I said already, what Josh says in his apologetics arguments are good they are far too brief and this was a missed opportunity.
Another major problem with the movie, and this is something most Christian movies suffer from, is that it was overly ideal in its outcome. It’s so over the top that you can’t really believe it unless you are the most hopelessly and blindly optimistic post-millennialist around! The fact that the entire class sides with Josh is too much. In a philosophy course in a secular university you are going to have other students who are as committed to Atheism as the professor, you won’t win them all and probably not even most. Had 10 of the 80 students stood up and said they believed in God when it was all over then that would have been a realistic success and something for Josh to have been very excited about, but all 80 who originally had no problem denying God’s existence? Not likely.
In addition to this you have the professor and the left-wing journalist getting right with God in the end, the Muslim turned Christian girl not denying her faith and enduring being rejected by her family, Chinese student finding Christ, and the dementia patient mother having a moment of clarity to speak to her son and warn him about the danger of sin. It’s not that everyone gets “saved” in this movie (just most of them) but it is that they paint an overly positive view that I think doesn’t lend itself to reality. The truth is that many times people will continue reject God all the way to the grave and that you won’t convince everyone that God is real, etc. I think Christian movies would do better to present reality rather than overwhelming victory every time. I think if Christian film makers today were to do a movie called “Jeremiah” it would be about a prophet who led Israel to total revival and saved them from being destroyed! Because the good guys who love Jesus always get exactly what they want in the end, right?
Conclusion:
In reality the best we can hope for in this movie, in my honest opinion, is that the many Christians who go to see it will get a taste of apologetics and want more. For the Christian struggling with doubt this may provide some encouragement and maybe, just maybe, they will google John Lennox after the movie and start a journey towards a reasonable faith. This movie, however, will not convince an atheist or skeptic of anything. It doesn’t present anything that they haven’t likely heard already and it doesn’t present it as well as they have probably heard elsewhere. Perhaps it will serve as a launching point for further discussion but, frankly, the people who need apologetic arguments need more than what is presented in this film and therefore they need someone they can talk to who knows more apologetics than are in this film. And if you are that person, or know someone who is, you’d be better off just talking to your skeptic friend about apologetics yourself because this movie won’t cut it.
