religions have been created without a book

Except, and I don't expect you to understand this as you obviously have your mind made up the Bible is the TRUE word of God. It isn't made up. This movie is based on a Biblical prophecy that no matter what the Word of God would ALWAYS exist.

That is what makes Christianity different, it is based on the teachings of the one true and living God.

LoneWolfArcher I have absolutely no idea what you are going on about. Can you translate for us non-religious people?

Yeah I think you'll find that's a SUBJECTIVE OPINION and not SCIENTIFIC FACT

I think the reason the bible is so important, is the lack of an educational system.

Carnegie might not possess the intelligence and sociopathic tendencies that is necessary to create a religion that can control a population that is desperate for guidance.

Christianity has already proven in the past to be very effective in neutering a weak populas.

Why design a new gun from scratch when you have one that has been designed and perfected over centuries to do the job?


As for the troglodyte that said that the bible isn't made up, and is the word of god.... Are you saying that your god came down and sat at a table with a quill and squid ink for weeks writing multiple copies of his book?
Then went around handing out copies to everyone, "Oi, I'm god, this is my word!"

Cuz I'm pretty sure I've seen that guy downtown selling pencils on the street corner.

Imagine a world without internet... TV, radio, recordings etc.



How do you pass on information and teach others?


Through writing.


Religion had a much stronger influence on people when all those didnt exists during the eras where human struggle was prominent.

You are right that it would be better to invent a new religion that would benefit the inventor more.

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Of course the premise of the movie is a bit silly and at parts pretentious. It seems to suggest that a world without christianity would devolve humans to cannibals and scumbags for example. The idea probably that all you need is a bible, read it and boom! instant good guy, spreading the word and healing the world. There are many flaws with this:

1) Let's start with destroying all bibles. This is of course an imposible task, apocalypse or not, since there will be one in every second american home, in most hotel rooms and so on. And this doesn't even touch digital versions that can be copied unlimited times.

2) Okay, let's assume it would somehow be possible. You can wipe out every single holy book of every religion in the world, that doesn't change a damn thing about what people think and believe. ESPECIALLY in times of need! The bible itself was written some hundred years after the fact, so the faith was actually spread via word-of-mouth advertising. Christinity would have survived both the apocalypse and the purge, as well as all the other religions.

3) Now let's pretend all holy books and references to religion have been successfully wiped and for some reason everybody forgot about it and never passed anything to other people using their mouth. Let's pretend there was a point in history without any religion. People would make up new ones the next day! Religions come and go anyway. What doesn't ever go away is lots of people that for some reason need something to believe in. There would be cults, sects and similar all over the place and they would evolve into new religions because that's what humans do: Many just don't want to think for themselves, they want moral codes and spiritual leaders that tell them what to do.

4) SPOILERS! The movie conveniently ends with Eli reciting the bible and someone writing it down. It is implied that christianity is saved and would spawn a new generation of believers that would rebuild society. Well, that's how christians imgaine it anyway.
The thing is, every single word in the bible can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. If the bible was truly forgotten (we had to assume 1) and 2) really happened, right?), then nobody would have any idea what christianity was. Just reading the bible would never ever turn you into a person similar to what christians are today. Most christians don't even know what's written in the bible anyway - as I said, word of mouth is in fact more important. People cut down trees and decorate it with shiny things and make each other presents and dress up as santa because that's a fun thing to do but that's not in the bible.

Actually, THAT is the part that I would like to watch, how the new christianity would be like. It's like a reset. If they really started from scratch with the king james bible as a starting point, would the new christians be homophob? Because, there isn't actually much in the bible adressing this. Would they baptise people using blood of an ox like Moses did? How would they cope with outdated language like “Charity vaunteth not itself”? Would they now believe in unicorns (mentioned no less than 9 times) and satyrs (mentioned 2 times)?

Unfortunately, that's exactly where the movie ends.