A Brief Review Of The Zeitgeist Internet Movie

This review is strictly a synopsis of the theological bent of the Zeitgeist Internet movie (the first of 2 related movies). So please note that it is not a review of the Zeitgeist Addendum (the 2nd movie in the series) although the mindset that applied to the first movie surely applies to the second.

I agree with *a lot* those Venus Project people have to say about what is going on in the world today and about a lot of what they identify as evil and corrupt.  They seem to have a very good understanding of how the economy, international banking and politics work.  In addition, they have some excellent ideas for how technology can make the world a better place.  And they would do well just to stick with those areas.  But when they venture out into the world of religion, their atheistic groundings cause them to stumble, to make assumptions about religion in general and Christianity in particular that so many atheists make.  For example, their overall view of Christianity is really a description of Catholicism, not the biblical Christianity of the Protestant Reformers and others who will freely acknowledge the pagan roots of many Catholic practices and traditions.

To say (as the movie does) that Judeo-Christian beliefs are nothing more than ideas stolen from pagan religions is to deny the fundamental differences between those two world views.

It sounds like their solution is just a blend of Marxism, New Age theology and the age-old religion of pantheism, where the creature (mankind) worships the creation (technology and mankind itself) rather than the creator (God).  None of these things has solved any major social problems yet, and in fact have contributed to horrific conditions in some cases.  Look at India's society... a society based on pantheism.  Look at all the nations that have or had Marxist/communist governments.  And new-age theology is just a modern day version of pantheism if you ask me.

Their premise that a person's environment is the problem and not our sin nature, dooms them to failure... not that a person's environment doesn't matter because it certainly does - or at least it can. It is this sin nature that will prevent the Venus Project from ever becoming a reality.  Only God can do anything about that sin nature and the permanent fix requires leaving this world and entering into heaven, a sin-free environment... sin-free only because God has first removed sin from the sinner before they get to heaven.  The temporary fix is to be "born again"... where God puts His spirit in a person and enables them to have power over this sin nature and being born again is something that no human can initiate anyway.  God is in charge of that.  We are at His mercy.

So the Venus Project is dealing with the wrong cause, since they deny that people are born with a sin nature.  Yet this fact about our nature should be obvious (to those who are looking for it or who are not afraid to find it), as no infant needs to be taught how to be self-centered, how to cry for attention, how to be selfish and take things from their siblings, etc.  On the contrary, it takes a great deal of work to train children to behave kindly, honestly and to not be selfish and not hit their brothers and sisters.   To not understand this or to ignore this reality, opens up a whole can of worms, the can of worms that has taken the Bible out of schools so that kids nowadays have no moral compass to keep them from doing whatever they think feels good for them (i.e. relativism and "situational ethics"), without understanding the consequences to themselves or others, be those consequences immediate or long term.

Also, the big question for these Venus Project folks becomes, who will be the "enlightened ones" who are going to make sure everything goes as planned and that workloads and resources are properly, fairly, equitably distributed.  And how will these enlightened ones be chosen and by whom?  Can we trust our lives and our planet to a bunch of folks whose only moral compass is themselves and nothing higher or outside themselves?  How can they safely determine what is really right or wrong, fair or unfair for everyone on the planet? Whose standards of fairness and charity will they employ?  There will be chaos if someone is not in control.  There will be systems that need oversight and management.   How will malcontents, non-workers, handicapped people, etc be treated/handled?  Drugs? Execution? Starvation? Does the Venus Project bother to answer these questions publicly?... because I am sure they have been thinking about that amongst themselves and most likely have a plan already, unless they are living in lala land and expect some global miracle to occur that will enable everyone to cooperate on everything, even though most people have difficulty just cooperating with their own family members.  I wonder if they are waiting for a group of aliens to come in from outer-space to put everything in place. You are not going to get the corrupt one-worlders to let go of their wealth and power just by clicking your heals together and repeating "there's no place like home" (like in the wizard of oz).  All those evil people would have to be "removed from the planet" first. And there are surely plenty more that would be anxious to take their place.

Countless civilizations have fallen, not because they did not utilize technology properly or had the wrong economic system in place, but because of moral decline. And yes, because God wiped out some of these civilizations (thru "natural" disasters or warring nations) for their blatant disregard for Him and His moral laws, that if adhered to, would have protected them from death, disease, war, famine, etc.

If you are an atheist, I have a hunch that you will not agree with everything I've said but perhaps you would, if you studied the Bible as much as I have.  There's a lot of truth in there that is ignored only at one's own temporal and eternal peril. One of the things that opened my eyes to a lot of these issues was reading the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible.  Any wisdom that I even have on spiritual issues, I have to give God the thanks for opening my eyes.  I once was a nominal Catholic who cared nothing for anyone else's soul and hardly much for my own.  I may have thought I was somehow better than an atheist because I had "my religion".  But in God's eyes, I was spiritually lost like everyone else, religion or no religion.

In the meantime, you may wish to check out the information on intelligent design at our Creation web page.

Thanks for reading this article. I hope it will encourage you to question what people say, be they atheist or religious zealot.

Ray Kane

Epilogue:

I found this review of that video on the internet. I thought the reviewer's comments were pretty interesting...

"The ONLY reason the first Zeitgeist was a major online hit was its weakest argument concerning the "existence" of previous Jesus-like figures in history, of course, seemingly debunking Christianity. No one paid enough attention to the next 2 parts of the film which were much more convincing and thoroughly researched. The new film is much more cohesive, which leads me to believe that the only reason that very unfitting Jesus section of the first movie was created was to garner a fan base amongst the majority of the population, which are atheist or at the very least against the theory of a personal and caring God"