A LAVISHLY-shot documentary about what God means to people around the world has just opened in the US.
But Oh My God? left at least one critic singularly underwhelmed.
Tirdad Derakhshani, of the Philidelphia Inquirer, says the movie – brainchild of Brit Peter Rodger, a commercial photographer and adman-turned-filmmaker:
Is anything but a treasure.
The film, says Derakhshani begins with promise. Following a gorgeous montage of landscapes, we are treated to controversial one-liners. Says a fundamentalist Muslim:
To kill a homosexual is a good action in the sight of god.
An American Christian says:
I’m convinced that calling God Allah is blasphemy.
But, says the reviewer:
Viewers expecting a stimulating theological smackdown will be disappointed. So will anyone expecting any intellectual stimulation.
Derakhshani continues:
As a piece of raw journalism, it is thorough: It would be hard to find a faith, creed, religion, major or minor, that is not somehow represented or referenced. But that is part of the problem: The film seems to be little more than a list of contradicting statements.
As pretty as it is to look at, and comprehensive as it is, God? remains a flaccid, directionless mishmash of views that are given little, if any, intellectual analysis.
Rodger – who shot the film over 30 months in 23 countries, including the United States, Tibet, Australia, Israel, Bali, Japan, the Vatican, and parts of Africa – roped in a number of celebrities to offer their views of God. The movie-maker said he wanted to include celebs to “help navigate us through” the material.
Says Derakhshani:
One wonders whether a qualified historian or theologian wouldn’t have served better.
In a sense, Oh My God? is the ultimate TV ad: Slick, and exquisitely constructed, it sells religious diversity a la United Colors of Benetton.
Rodger’s conclusion boils down to a few empty truisms: There are lots of different beliefs around the world. To take them too seriously leads to fundamentalism and that’s bad.
But faith, mixed in with a good dose of multicultural toleration, is groovy.
As Ringo [Starr] sums it up, ‘God is love’. Right on!
Oh My God? has an official website where one can leave one’s thoughts about what God is. There are over 600 comments on it already, many of them religious, spiritiual or New Age bollocks. But this one I found priceless:
God is the essence between you and me where all is possible and manifested through the thread-rhythm-hymn of that which binds and brings us together in the subtle-sacred-fearless pulse of heart and compassion… God is the Fly on the Wall.
Swat it, I say!
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
November 29th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
They could have got Glen Benton from the band Deicide to give his thoughts
November 29th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
The truth -most of the time- appears after a while…
So to those who believe in “anything” , the truth will come someday as a flash light before them.
We all wait and see who is right and who is wrong?!!
It is a matter of free-belief , some – I might be one of them – will enjoy the sweetness of victory – sadly the others – I might be one of them – will weep the astray-choice they undertake.
what is good for some is bad for others . Even in medicine.
But a community will agree upon some rules to unify their way of judgment .
However some party(s) do exist among the same community which defy these rules and consider them anti-freedom.
What ” HUMAN BEING ” we are !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 29th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Does this yank think Arabic-speaking Christians are blasphemous, or has he simply failed to think through what he says?
Oh, I do wonder.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:11 am
“…But that is part of the problem: The film seems to be little more than a list of contradicting statements.”
Little more than contradicting statements. Exactly! Isn’t this the very essence of religion world wide? Maybe this was the film makers original intent: to show to the world the sheer contradictory and divisiveness of religion?
This is not a problem; it’s what religion IS. Contradictory, divisive, nasty, small-minded in so many ways, and purely subjective, open to any interpretation chosen by those in power to control others. It seems to me that a movie like this will show the truth of religion and g-d as it exits in the minds of believers, purely arbitrary and judgmental.
“One wonders whether a qualified historian or theologian wouldn’t have served better.”
qualified theologian? Ok, but which religion would you like to choose to make a film like this? Oh, Christian theologians maybe? Oh, which Christian theologian? Catholic? Protestant?
Or maybe a Muslim? or a Jew? or a Hindu? Which one you gonna chose to be better served? Oh, but then it would be biased and not giving the beliefs of others not of the chosen theologian’s faith. Which just goes to show, G-d = Mankind just made it all up as he went along…