Okay, I posted this in NS thinkers but I thought it was good. Don't bitch about how long it is, read it or don't.
First off, I just want to say that this is an interesting movie and I plan to watch all of it. I've only watched Part I, and I'm going to go ahead and tear most of his argument apart.
There are so many places I could start, but the main point is that most of this stuff is simply coincidence. If you go through something as broad and massive as all of human history up to Jesus, you are bound to find some similarities. I'm not impressed by all the prophets he says have similar characteristics to Jesus. When people create myths of gods/prophets, it is not that astounding that many of them have virgin births. If you believe there is a being that is divine but came to earth, what easier way to do that than to have a human mother and divine father. Bam, virgin birth. It wasn't stolen from other cultures, it is simply the most convenient explanation for creating these figures.
The thing where he said that Moses came down to see the Israelites worshiping the bull symbolizes the transition to a new "age" had some pretty weak backup. First, the physical time it takes for these constellations to shift is unimaginable. It's not like you wake up one morning and the sun is now in a new constellation or whatever. It takes a long-ass time, and you probably wouldn't even notice a change in a lifetime, much less for however long Moses was on the mountain.
Also, I couldn't find for sure, but I'm almost positive that the Zodiac calendar we use today didn't exist back then, at least not in the same form. Jesus representing the age of Pisces was pretty stupid too. Of course you're going to find a few fish references in there, that's all the people ate! I'm not convinced. Moving on...
Where he said the Ten Commandments were "stolen" from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, did anyone else notice that there were about five highlighted from about a hundred rules? Of course you're going to find a rule that says "Do not kill" in other cultures, you couldn't really have a good civilization without it.
And if he is so convinced that the Church was set up to manipulate masses of people, why isn't the Vatican today calling all Catholics to go get some new land? I'm sure the pope could use a new vacation home, he needs a tan. No, it's because the Church truly believes what it teaches. It's not based on some epic conspiracy. If what he said really was true, why wouldn't the Church have shut it down?
That being said, there are some interesting points in the movie. And no, I'm not saying that the Bible should be literally interpreted or that Christianity is the only true faith, or even that I know Jesus existed for sure.(Although most scholars agree he did.) I'm also not saying that the Church is perfect. Far from it. I was just pissed off at how damn sure of himself this guy was. He'd say " Well most people believe blah blah blah, but the REALITY is this." Yeah, well how the fuck do you know? We don't even know for sure what's going on in the world today, and we sure as hell don't know everything that went on thousands of years ago. We'll probably never know for sure whether there is a God. I believe there Jesus existed, but I'm not sure. This guy believes Jesus didn't, which is fine, but he doesn't know for sure and should stop pretending like he does.
Now I'll shut up and go watch the rest of the movie. If anyone wants to respond that would be awesome.