Who are these movies for? They are not going to change my mind and they add nothing to the discourse. Is it just religious porn?

If I came upon a book called "Aborting God" in a bookstore, my initial reaction would probably be the assumption that it was written by a religious person decrying anti-religious influences in society, or something similar.

What's hilarious is that the atheist in this film is a lot more in line with Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro types

What, Keven didn't like that his character died at the end of "God's Not Dead", so he played the same character again? Geeze, he just cannot give atheists a single likable characteristic.

By attacking a starwman of atheism, Christian films are arguably just setting young believers up to question their faith when they someday encounter the real thing and find they've been lied to. But the attitude I was taught when I was young was pretty much 'don't learn about atheism, other religions, or the people who believe those things because that's how Satan tempts you and corrupts you'. From that perspective, these films make prefect sense. Obviously not all Christians are like that, many are not. But many are.

When I left the faith I heard SO MANY of these ideas. It was very demoralizing. They kept saying I hated God and I kept trying to explain I COULDN’T. It was crazy-making.

My faith was shaken when my best friend, who was 13 at the time, died of cancer, and when not even a year later my father was diagnosed with cancer, but it didn’t make me an atheist. It made me want to know god better, frankly, so I started to research. I wanted to be a theologian, in fact. But the more I researched the more I realized the Bible couldn’t be the word of God at minimum. My atheism came years later, after even more exploration.

My favorite part of this video is hearing Shaun Hannity say "That's a fair point." And Leon's response with "IS it!? IS it Hannity!?" I get a solid chuckle every time.

These movies are not interested in creating any sort of dialogue or discussion: They are only made to make their creators a quick buck by telling their audience precisely what they want to hear, much like Sorbo's character in the "debate". They also have the unfortunate consequence of radicalizing that same audience. I will not mince words: I am an atheist, and the hypocrisy of these films is both staggering and insulting. Whenever I hear the argument that Atheists are inherently immoral, it makes my blood boil. I do not need a cloistered, tax-dodging homophobe as my moral compass, and when I help others as part of my job (Social worker), I do so out of a genuine interest in helping others. I do no need the promise of an eternal reward or the threat of eternal punishment to do my job well or go above and beyond to help a needy family. And yet someone like Joel Osteen closed the doors and church to the people in Houston during a Hurricane, and his brainwashed dupes still send him tax-free donations every week. What angers me the most is how religious people are so willingly duped into acting against their own best interests just because some snake oil salesmen knows exactly how to manipulate them. In this political climate, we all suffer for it.

When I was a believer I was dumbfounded why atheists couldn't see the "obvious", that there has to be a God. But now, on the other side of that fence, I see that the default position is actually non-belief and the burden of proof is on the ones making the extraordinary claims.

Hannity: Thats a powerful point Narrator: It Wasn't

God's Not Dead 3: Even-Not-Deader

As you and other reviewers who dislike these types of films have pointed out, the "logic" of atheism causing people not to be decent and good is ridiculous. Atheism being a creed of the irresponsible couldn't be further from the truth, because an atheist doing good deeds is based on the simple logic of how it's just better to be good, as opposed to Christians who are being good for the sake of going to heaven. Good deeds being done out of an expectation of a reward is childish, and also in the case of the film's homophobia, self important. "That person is going to hell but I'M not because I'M doing more reward-garnering things than they are with their weird mannerisms and yucky bedroom habits. So that means I'M morally superior!" (I would hope it goes without saying that this is a very specific group in the religious community, not all of them)

I think it's because religion is entangled with conservatism. The "Protestant Evangelical persecution complex" is great for voter turnout.(I say Protestant, because Catholics are much more diverse and therefore differ in the political Spectrum). I always found it strange because conservatism in America isn't kind to the poor or the sick. It often relies on antagonism, nationalism and fear-mongering, Concepts that should be antithetical to Christianity. The reason why it doesn't make sense is because it's almost never about religion-- it's about politics. The irony of it is that this whole thing is bad for Christianity. Christians could be taking part in a positive future, but instead insist on antagonizing everyone else. But these are just my thoughts. Thanks for reading.

The ironic thing with Kevin Sorbo is that in real life he is the exact polar opposite of the atheist caricatures he portrays. Where he is the angry, far left atheist in his movies, he is the angry far right Christian on in real life.

The faith-proof thing drives me mad with supernatural movies. They invariably present worlds where the supernatural is literally and indisputably, demonstrably real and wind up making a hash of the theme.

I find it absolutely hilarious that the only reason these evangelicals can think of for someone becoming an atheist, agnostic, nontheist, etc. is "something tragic happened". It's like they don't want to admit that there's a variety of reasons as to why people choose their spiritual beliefs. And why is it always atheism in their minds that these people switch to? Why not Buddhism? It's like "we can't have people thinking about stuff and coming to their own conclusions- we need to have people regurgitate platitudes and mindless drivel instead!"

My path to atheism was that of doubt and struggling with those doubts. I was likely an atheist before I even knew there was a word for it. Being born in 1981 and having spent the majority of my life residing in rural Mississippi, I had no one to influence me, no online "atheistic propaganda" to steer me; it was simply curiosity and intellectual honesty.

It would take a hard right christian to come up with the concept of "world famous atheist"

As to what makes people atheist, a quote I like: "The road to atheism is paved with bibles that have been read cover to cover."

God Prefers Kind Atheists Over Hateful Christians

Your description of the athiest charachters style of arguing literally could be word for word applied to ben shapiro

Sooo is it me or is Kevin Sorbo just playing the same role that he played in God's Not Dead only he's an author instead of a college professor? :/ Very informative and well made video. Keep up the great work. :)

Ugh gross. This movie sounds somehow even worse than "God's Not Dead." I didn't even think that was possible. Seriously, I'm a Christian, and I really wish the people who make movies like this could be shipped off to another planet. Not only are they making all Christians (and religious people in general) look terrible, they are reinforcing a toxic, hateful tribalism within Christianity that is completely opposite of Christ's actual teachings. Instead of being a "light" to the world, it just makes the world a worse place to live in for everyone. Please, Christian filmmakers, just _stop._

Ah, Jesus Bro, but played straight.

Religion is fine until you end up demonizing someone else’s beliefs even if they believe in nothing like atheists. My best friend is super Christian, goes to church every week and goes on ministry trips but I don’t care because he doesn’t harass me for not believing and doesn’t shove Jesus down my throat.

Do you think Kevin Sorbo prays to good every night, to forgive him for playing a Demi-God? I mean, without Hercules he’d have no career now to stand on his soap box and rally the poor persecuted Christians. Must feel like a catch 22 to him. LoL

All it took for Dave Rubin to become faithful is a boost in his Patreon funds.

Kevin Sorbo was at a local convention a few years ago and I considered telling him that Hercules was an early positive male role model and helped give me the courage to transition. I sincerely wish I had.

As someone born to atheist parents, thanks for mentioning I exist, haha. It's pretty common here in France I think, but I feel like people don't realize we exist in the US, I guess it sounds too farfetched? :P

The funny thing is I have always attributed Kevin Sorbo, who played Hercules, as having a large influence in making me question my religion as a kid. It made me ask, what was the difference between Zeus and the Judaeo Christian god, why believe one and not in the other?

For a film named "Let There Be Light" it sure is super desaturated-looking and gloomy.

My tragedy was reading the bible cover to cover. Tragic, indeed. One can hate the concept, or fictional character of god - I mean, the god of the bible is a monster that behaves like a spoiled preschooler.

Fundamentalist religions have one thing in common. It’s their way or the highway.

They know an Atheist can't hate God so by making him hate God feels like an inside joke. So for them an Atheist secretly believes in God even though they can't admit it to themselves.

"extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" is exactly why I became an agnostic/atheist/amazing sex machine in the first place. My dad passed away - - - > started questioning my long-held beliefs - - - > read up on many different worldviews and faiths - - - > realised a lot of them made big claims but provided small proof - - - > realised there's not much reason to have faith in any of them, so didn't. After not turning into a rampaging Hitlerstalin like my aunt always warned us atheists were I simply went about my life and feel just fine 👍🏻

This film is a just Gods Not Dead remake, down to the Atheist who is only atheist because of a personal tragedy and the female Muslim Christian convert . Kevin sorboro literally just wanted to produce his Gods Not Dead Fan fiction.

"Aborting God" subtly of a bulldozer

that hardest thing for me about being an Athesist is the fact that I am requested not to reveal I am athesist because it makes everyone else feel uncomfortable. The fact that I get told "your a good person even though your a athesist". I just find it unfair.

“How can I hate something that doesn’t exist?” I’m gonna use that.

I am an atheist, I was bought up in a non-religious household in London, however my current partner is a believing Christian. We get on very well together, her faith does not create a barrier between us, she understands that I find the Bible and the whole idea of God and his eternal kingdom literally beyond belief. She, on the other hand, has a strong faith that God and Jesus are real and there will be some kind of eternal afterlife. We both have different views, thankfully neither of us are sufficiently rabid in our views for it to affect our relationship.

There is an idea in Christianity, it’s not in the Bible, it’ not in Church Doctrine, it’s not officially part of Christian mythology, but it does explain a few things. It’s canon in the Discworld novels, Atheists sometimes joke about it and fanatical christians seem to be so convinced of it that they assume it’s the entire motivation of unbelievers. And that idea is; You can hurt God by saying he doesn’t exist. Gods and faries are the only mythological creatures who are like that. Vampires like it if you deny they’re vampires, ghosts don’t care, trolls don’t care, mermaids don’t care, but pixies dies if you say ‘I don’t believe in faries” and gods have egos so fragile you can you can deny them as a form of revenge. Sorbo’s character openly blamed God for killing his kid, in front of Atheists, and NO ONE called him out on it. He is in fact a misotheist not an Atheist. Also, while I have no doubt he’s supposed to be Dawkins, I don’t think Sorbo has actually read one thing Dawkins actually said. Dawkins NEVER said “Party on!” In fact, Dawkins believes that altruism is an evolutionary trait that helps the survival of the entire pack, and the majority of his criticism of religion are about how people like Sorbo use religion as an excuse to justify bad things. ...Oh! Also Santa. Gods, faries and Santa.

I really feel like it's massively disingenuous on the part of a lot of the conservative media (And a lot of atheists as well) to act like ISIS is purely just a byproduct of Islam and not a complicated mess of other equally important factors like the history of foreign interests exploiting the resources in the region and a lot of the negative impacts that said exploitation has had on the populace at large in the area. That's not to say that the religion of Islam is beyond reproach and has no issues, it has a lot of the same issues as most of the Abrahamic Faiths and a lot of issues unique to Islam specifically, but that being/becoming a muslim doesn't automatically mean you're going to go around sparta-kicking gay people off of rooftops or strapping on suicide vests for Allah. Edit: Also just to sort of clarify a point I made, there are plenty of atheists who do make good/specific criticism of islamic scripture and a lot of the real-life application of said scripture, that's the sort of criticism we need more of, not just vague allusion to how bad ISIS or other extremist groups are and acting like their behavior is perfectly a 1/1 representation of your typical muslim living in places like New York, Berlin, Toronto, etc. Yeah it's a minority of atheists who make that sort of argument, I will grant that, but they a VOCAL minority who often get signal boosted by christian conservatives or other similar groups.

My experience is that non religious people tend to be more consistently kind than religious people are...

A religion that teaches that one person can be punished for another person's crimes is morally reprehensible.

So...Kevin Sorbo just wanted to reprise his role from God's Not Dead, but this time the death wasn't permanent? Gotcha...

Lost his faith because his son died, regain his faith when shown that god allowed his son to die. Sure, why not.

Kevin Sorbo has fallen into what I like to call, "Kirk Cameron Syndrome". The means that if you can't get into the spotlight in a good tv show role cause your typecast, get into the mainstream belief and go out of the way as possible!

I miss Hercules. He should have just stayed Hercules.

Ah Kevin please go back to playing Hercules! You were way better in representing Greek myths than Christian ones...

Everytime I see Kevin Sorbo in these movies I remember Kratos busting Heracle's face in in God of War 3. Who Sorbo voiced as a reference to Hercules. "THIS! IS! FOR! BEING! IN! GOD'S! NOT! DEAD!

"Sorbo endorsed Donald Trump for President, claiming that "Jesus would have voted for Trump." - Wikipedia - Annnd there goes the last shred of respect for the man.

“That godless In-N-Out Burger” Hilariously enough, doesn’t In-N-Out print Psalms on their packaging?

Kevin Sorbo is the Chuck Norris without the karate skills

Great video. Although I would disagree on the meaning of anti-theism. I don't think anti-theists hate God but rather they want to eradicate religion from the world. Anti-theists think religion is harmful and isn't conducive to a good society and that we need to remove religion from society so to build a society based on reality.

I find most people don't know In and Out is just as Christian as Chick-fil-A. They have Bible references on all their packaging. I appreciate a joke that makes people think

God's Not Dead made me lose all my respect for Sorbo. How the heck did this movie make me lose even more respect for him? He was already at zero! How do you have negative respect?

As much as I hate to admit it, I am the stereotypical Atheist. Raised Christian and once I went to college and had a space where I was allowed to think for myself, I had heavy doubts. Then my mom tragically passed away on top of other revelations about emotional manipulation and other tools of various faiths, it just came together and I knew my doubts were well placed. And I am very angry at god (if we were to assume a loving caring god exists), beyond livid in fact. Not just for what happened to my mom but for all the countless tragedies that occur daily. I'd rather spend eternity in hell than a moment near a being who could've made existence painless but chose not to full well knowing what that would entail. More realistically, since I am an atheist after all, I am upset and angry at the amount of pain this fairy tale has caused me and many of my fellow ex believers. Religion and belief are far from harmless.

Just a quick point: agnosticism refers to a knowledge claim, atheism points at a lack of belief in a god or gods. You can be a gnostic (arguably) or agnostic theist as you can be a gnostic(arguably) or agnostic atheist.

A _real_ debate would have Sorbo vs _Lawless._

Boss: Why didn't you come in to work yesterday? Employee: Well, why does ISIS chop of peoples' heads?

I became an atheist in 4th grade even though my parents took me to church so like, clearly college doesn't mean atheism

I am so, so happy that the jerkbag atheist as seen here and in people like Brian Griffin are fictional, and that I've never met anyone talking like that in real life. They exist, no doubt, but every atheist I've met have been more-or-less "Let's agree to disagree" when I, for one good-ish reason or another have brought up my faith. I hope they stop making movies like this someday. It's talking to people of Christian faith as if they were completely isolated from world news, and, if American, didn't have perfectly peaceful Muslims living in their midst. ~ TDG

Stellar work once again. And I think it's always weird when movies will have a real life tv personality or news anchor portray themselves within the limited reality of the movie. Especially if it's a Hannity type.

"No money to that GODLESS In-N-Out Burger," doesn't In-N-Out print bible scripture on their burger wrappers tho?? 😂😂😂

People who fall into college equals atheist would probably be stumped by my story. I am pretty sure that because I went to a christian college I was accelerated towards agnosticism.

Tbh if God expects me to convert he's gonna have to do better than that circa 1995 photograph tunnel special effect smh

Irony: looking back I have realized that kevin sorbo's Hercules the legendary journeys helped me become atheist.

This movie sounds like another version of "God's Not Dead," which also started Kevin Sorbo.

Is it just me, or does Kevin Sorbo look like he's about to burst into tears in every single frame of this movie to anyone else? Like, is that just what his face looks like nowadays?

These sermons have a warped sense of the world. No atheist I've ever met said that they hate God. You can't hate what you don't think exists

"Godless In-N-Out burger" stuck out to me because they put bible verses on the bottom of their cups :D Great video!

Just noticed something: in addition to not knowing how debating or atheism works, the movie also does not know how an iphone works. Look at 7:34 when the coded-gay character is talking on his phone: the screen is still brightly light rather than automatically blanking out the display due to the phone detecting the near presence of the user's head during a phone call. The movie thinks the audience is so dumb that it feels the need to REMIND US HE'S HOLDING A PHONE.

I know what you mean about the myth about people becoming Atheists because of tragedy. I remember watching the 700 Club a while back where this Christian woman wrote to Pat Robertson because she was trying to witness to an Atheist woman and the Atheist gets hostile at the mere mention of God. Pat assumed that the Atheist woman was sexually assaulted by her father. How could he assume that if he never met the Atheist woman?

Clicked this as I got confused of whether there was a 4th God's Not Dead movie featuring the atheist professor guy. Saw it and just ugh these movies really just all mesh together as one big stereotypical blob of nonsense and victimization. I could probably sleep half way through one, have it switched with another and not instantly notice its a different movie.

It's funny how this character supposedly goes atheist because of losing a loved one, but in reality it's often the other way. People turn to god or other addictions because of a traumatic life event.

I'm surprised one book wasn't called "gay marriaging the bible belt into atheism"

It’s honestly movies like this one that have nearly made me leave my faith entirely. I grew up Catholic and remain a Christian (somewhere between Catholic and Protestant, long story), and I grew up in the South where these views are unfortunately fairly mainstream within the Church. It makes one feel they have to be a hateful bigot or a non-christian. They think they’re preaching the Gospel but all they do is destroy the most sacred and beautiful teachings of our faith: to love others as Christ loved us, to lay down our lives for others (whatever form that may take).

This and God's Not Dead become much better movies if you imagine that one night of drinking and driving, Kevin Sorbo's character from this movie ends up being the guy running over his character in GND

"No money to that Godless in-n-out burger" is probably one of my favorite quotes

Sorbo called that Jesus would have been a Trump supporter. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Sorbo's knowledge of Christianity.

From a man who made his career playing a demigod of a polytheistic religion.

Goddamn you, Hercules! You were so cool back in the day - and a little bit corny tbh.

I love when these start with "PureFlix" ads.

16:56 no ISIS never was in Iran How can you be a newscaster and not know where ISIS was

The reality of atheism is I became an atheist when I realized we had better explanations for stuff now than "God did it.". As far as what I think and feel about God... Well, I really don't. Not until I am forced into discussing the concept. Usually by religious people.

Religion had so little impact on my family’s every day life that I didn’t even realize that my parents had been „basically atheists“ all along until I was in my 30s. They weren‘t actively hiding it, it just wasn‘t an issue whatsoever. Being raised in an otherwise „mildly Christian“ environment that acknowledged the existence of other religions and, albeit being confident in „ours“ to be the right one, wasn‘t too judgemental about them and was even relatively encouraging in regards to thinking about „the details“ for oneself. In fact and ironically, it was this „relative open-mindedness“ that kept the mere idea of the very concept of not being religious at all from occuring to me for very long time (it only was dawning on me when I kinda stumbled across a TED talk by Richard Dawkins about what he called „militant atheism“...), and I guess that‘s why I instead spent many years trying to figure out a way to make sense of the contradictions between all the different religions (including historical and/or tribal natural religions), trying to find the common ground, the „true core“ which I believed most of, if not all, religions to be flawed projections of, distorted by natural and cultural environments. I just didn‘t realize the elephant in the room, being that all religions I had ever heard of, including the one I was raised in, were simply unconvincing not only in the details, but fundamentally. But after that, for a second I was still terrified of how my parents would react when it somehow slipped out in the middle of an otherwise everyday conversation. I can‘t imagine how hard it must be to come out as an atheist to devout Christian parents in a devout Christian community.

When I was a child, I believed in god in the sense, that I accepted the narrative of a creator and the whole testament thing. I mean, it's shown everywhere, there are books and movies and they teach stuff in (german) school (I never really understood why they separate the lessons in catholic and protestant, but whatever) Then, I heard the word "atheist" and asked my parents what that word means. They answered truthfully with "Someone that does not believe that god exists" and I was like "WAIT, that's a legit standpoint you can hold and there is even a word for it?". After that, I was an atheist :D

I haven't seen "Let There Be Light". I can address some fallacies brought up in this well done video essay. * What we consider good behavior is not 100% tied to religious belief or lack of it. What we consider bad behavior is not dependent on religion or lack of it. Religious believers or non believers can act in good ways or terrible ways. * What makes people act in good ways is a dedication to act in those positive ways. Religious belief alone will not stop hate, or harming others.

I got an ad for PureFlix featuring Kevin Sorbo on this video, which is... well, I see why the algorithm would think it would be relevant, but...

'that's a powerful point' i spat out my coffee, the delivery on that was just perfect, assuming this was meant to be a parody

i didn't read the whole title and for a few seconds was like... "i dont remember this in gods not dead"

Why does Kevin love to play Atheist? I think he's an closeted Atheist

"IS IT?" Oh wow, we said that at the same time. As life-long Christian and former Sunday School teacher, I could never stand these movies. They show the worst of Christianity and Christians by acting like all non-Christians (ESPECIALLY atheists) are awful people, and instead of spreading love and the benefits of the faith, take such a holier than thou approach that it's a wonder than anyone would enjoy the movie, let alone want to be Christian if they weren't already. It also perpetuates the myth of the God-hating athiest which, as you clairified, makes no sense by definition. I think the best Christian movie I saw was one where an atheist side character eventually becomes Christian at the end or at least agnostic, but it's because the main character Christians in the movie are kind to him and his dying daughter. He never has to explain why he's an atheist, and he's hesitant at first when the main sick girl gives his daughter a cross because he doesn't want his kid to be hurt by unanswered hope. At the end, he is appreciative of the comfort his then-dead daughter received before she died, as hope for heaven helped her pass in peace. It also has some of the Christians being cruel to the main Christian family, and acting like the reason their daughter is sick is because they weren't good enough Christians, making the movie more balanced than most when it comes to depicting people of faith.

So, they took out the kid dunking on Kevin Sorbo from God's Not Dead and just re-released the rest?

"is it? Is it Hannity?!?!" If you're going to encounter Hannity get used to saying or thinking that 😆

Your channel is probably the single best out there that discusses religion and atheism

It's like the inverse of that old Hitch interview with Hannity.

My parents were strictly raised Mormon, but when they started having kids they decided they would let their children decide what they believe. We weren't told any religious belief was an absolute certainty, and we weren't told anything about what religion was, so all 3 of us became atheist. Tbh, it was a bit jarring and a little strange when my 1st grade teacher told us Christmas stood for "Christ's Mass", and that the red swirl on candy canes represented his blood (we were at a public school, so maybe that was a bit wrong for them to say idk and idc). I didn't even know who Christ was, but I don't hold it against people when they talk about their religion openly. I kinda welcome it really, it's interesting to learn about. But it is a bit awkward when someone who is super religious finds out I'm an atheist. There have been times where I've had to try and explain why I don't believe in God or a god, and it does make me worry that someone is going to say "you're wrong but you can be saved from Hell if you believe in God. Surely you actually believe God." I don't even believe in Hell, so I think it's more that they're worried and want to save me to feel like they've done a good deed. If someone wants to pray for me I'm willing to let them for that, but I'm not ok if they try to brush me off as some confused Christian or someone who has lost my way...idk