{"id":830,"date":"2007-08-20T12:17:32","date_gmt":"2007-08-20T20:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2007\/08\/20\/zeitgeist\/"},"modified":"2008-02-24T12:59:16","modified_gmt":"2008-02-24T20:59:16","slug":"zeitgeist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2007\/08\/20\/zeitgeist","title":{"rendered":"Zeitgeist"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend of mine asked me to watch the first sec\u00adtion of Zeit\u00adgeist (a movie you can watch for free on the inter\u00adnet at http:\/\/zeitgeistmovie.com\/<\/a>) and give him some per\u00adspec\u00adtive on it.<\/p>\n

Here goes:<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t recall ever hav\u00ading run across so many fac\u00adtu\u00adal inac\u00adcu\u00adra\u00adcies in such a short span of time. I doubt I even caught them all \u2014 they were fly\u00ading fast and furi\u00adous. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll start with a few that are easy for an untrained layper\u00adson to see right away. There\u2019s some oth\u00ader stuff he said that I know is false, but demon\u00adstrat\u00ading it is less easy. It becomes \u201cmy expert you\u2019ve nev\u00ader heard of\u201d ver\u00adsus \u201chis expert you\u2019ve nev\u00ader heard of\u201d with me say\u00ading \u201cmy expert is bet\u00adter than his expert \u2014 trust me.\u201d So I\u2019ll keep this list focused on stuff any\u00adone can eas\u00adi\u00adly ver\u00adi\u00adfy on their own.<\/p>\n

One eas\u00adi\u00adly-checked fact that he builds his argu\u00adment on is that the South\u00adern Cross is the real inspi\u00adra\u00adtion for the cross of Jesus (watch from 17:35 through 19:03). Three prob\u00adlems with this:
\na) The South\u00adern Cross is a mod\u00adern inven\u00adtion \u2014 not an ancient con\u00adstel\u00adla\u00adtion. Check http:\/\/www.windows.ucar.edu\/the_universe\/crux.html<\/a> and http:\/\/www.fillingthesky.com\/constellationhistory.htm<\/a>l
\nb) The South\u00adern Cross is not vis\u00adi\u00adble from where the New Tes\u00adta\u00adment was writ\u00adten. In the North\u00adern Hemi\u00adsphere you have to be below 30 degrees lat\u00adi\u00adtude to see it. The New Tes\u00adta\u00adment was writ\u00adten from Jerusalem<\/a> on north.
\nc) It\u2019s hard to see how a con\u00adstel\u00adla\u00adtion that did\u00adn\u2019t exist and could\u00adn\u2019t be seen inspired the sto\u00adry of Jesus when Romans actu\u00adal\u00adly killed peo\u00adple on cross\u00ades all the time. Is he seri\u00adous\u00adly sug\u00adgest\u00ading that the Romans did\u00adn\u2019t actu\u00adal\u00adly cru\u00adci\u00adfy peo\u00adple?<\/p>\n

Miss\u00ading such a basic fact does\u00adn\u2019t inspire con\u00adfi\u00addence in the more eso\u00adteric, less eas\u00adi\u00adly-checked facts he uses to make his entire case. There are oth\u00ader eas\u00adi\u00adly-checked facts he dis\u00adtorts. Two from the Bible struck me.<\/p>\n

In the time range 23:38 \u2014 25:20 the movie claims that Jesus is a per\u00adson\u00adi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion of the astro\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal sign of Pisces. Towards the end of this sec\u00adtion, the nar\u00adra\u00adtor states that Jesus\u2019 dis\u00adci\u00adples asked him when he would cel\u00ade\u00adbrate the next passover with them him after he is gone and that Jesus\u2019 answer in Luke 22:10 was code lan\u00adguage for Aquar\u00adius (the next age of the Zodi\u00adac). This is easy enough to check \u2014 and it turns out to be a lie. Luke 22:10 is about the passover they are cel\u00ade\u00adbrat\u00ading that night, not the next meal they will share after his res\u00adur\u00adrec\u00adtion. That isn\u2019t a minor dif\u00adfer\u00adence \u2014 it under\u00admines his entire inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtion.<\/p>\n

Anoth\u00ader exam\u00adple of his will\u00ading\u00adness to dis\u00adtort the Bible to make his point occurs around time mark\u00ader 21:10, when he says that the Bible teach\u00ades that Jesus comes from heav\u00aden wear\u00ading a crown of thorns, which rep\u00adre\u00adsent the rays of the sun. He quotes John 19:5 to sup\u00adport this point. Look it up. There\u2019s not even a hint of Jesus descend\u00ading from heav\u00aden any\u00adwhere in this pas\u00adsage. He\u2019s walk\u00ading from one place to anoth\u00ader \u2014 not descend\u00ading from the clouds as the nar\u00adra\u00adtor claims.<\/p>\n

These two instances aren\u2019t nit\u00adpick\u00ading \u2014 these are very eas\u00adi\u00adly checked state\u00adments in the best\u00adselling book of all time which is always avail\u00adable for instant fact-check\u00ading on the inter\u00adnet at places such as Bible Gate\u00adway<\/a>. If he did\u00adn\u2019t even check these ref\u00ader\u00adences that key parts of his argu\u00adment rely on, then how much stock can we place in his ref\u00ader\u00adences to obscure ancient Egypt\u00adian texts that only schol\u00adars have ready access to?<\/p>\n

He\u2019s evi\u00addent\u00adly received crit\u00adi\u00adcism along this line, because he felt com\u00adpelled<\/a> to give some doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion for his use of ancient texts at http:\/\/www.zeitgeistmovie.com\/GMappendix.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Just look through it. Pay atten\u00adtion to the sto\u00adries of Jesus in the right col\u00adumn (you are pre\u00adsum\u00adably more famil\u00adiar with them). I think you\u2019ll be sur\u00adprised at how flaky that list is. <\/p>\n

Bot\u00adtom line: Zeit\u00adgeist is very imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtive, but that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 2\/24\/2008: This post is still gen\u00ader\u00adat\u00ading com\u00adments. It\u2019s been six months since I wrote this post, and since then a help\u00adful review by Ben With\u00ader\u00ading\u00adton has been post\u00aded \u2014 The Zeit\u00adgeist of the \u2018Zeit\u00adgeist Movie\u2019<\/a>. Look to it for a more detailed rebut\u00adtal of the movie\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A friend of mine asked me to watch the first sec\u00adtion of Zeit\u00adgeist (a movie you can watch for free on the inter\u00adnet at http:\/\/zeitgeistmovie.com\/) and give him some per\u00adspec\u00adtive on it. Here goes: I don\u2019t recall ever hav\u00ading run across so many fac\u00adtu\u00adal inac\u00adcu\u00adra\u00adcies in such a short span of time. I doubt I \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cZeit\u00adgeist\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants-opinions-and-general-contrariness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-do","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}