Contact:
info@madmanorsomethingworse.com
What is this film?
It's a short documentary - roughly 15 minutes in length - that critically examines the ethics of the man known as Jesus Christ. We tried to keep it as short as possible so as to reach as many viewers as possible. It's no lightweight though - this film aims to reach the heart of Christianity - the belief that Jesus Christ was a moral exemplar.
Where will this film be shown?
YouTube. It's free to all and was not made for any kind of profit whatsoever.
Why produce this?
Because organised religion in its present form overwhelmingly damages human progress.
When I first wrote all this, it was for an article in Freethinker Magazine. It was aimed at the sort of atheists who say that, though they don't believe that Jesus was the son of the Christian God, that he was still an excellent moral thinker. I'd recently done an Alpha Course (banal Christian dogma masquerading as existential inquiry) in which C.S. Lewis' famous 'Liar, Lord or Lunatic' argument was used. It occurred to me that it was a potent argument, and that C.S. Lewis just got the conclusion wrong.
I have been inspired since the realisation of my atheism by the work of Christopher Hitchens, whose book Letters to a Young Contrarian had a great impact on me. In it, he argued that those with a hugely inflated reputation ought to be deflated. And no-one has a more greatly inflated reputation than the Nazarene.
How did you make this?
All of the people majorly involved in the production of this are university students who worked for free. The camera and microphone equipment were borrowed from the University of Sussex. The animation and artwork was created by the Brighton-based Many Artists Who Do One Thing, using his own photography and scanned-in elements, which were digitally processed using Photoshop and After Effects. The soundtrack was produced by Adam Felman using Logic. Editing was done by Keita Lynch using Final Cut Pro.
So you believe that Jesus Christ was real?
To the Christian, the question is of universal importance, but as an atheist this is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that billions of people around the world dedicate their lives to the man in the hopes of a second one. I think it is worth asking as to whether this is noble or not.
Why do you hate my god?
I don't hate your or anyone else's god, because I don't believe that any such beings exist. To my knowledge there is no evidence to the contrary.
Why do you worship the devil?
I don't believe in devils or demons either.