The documentary about Christian faith healing titled "Finger of God" is another in our "trades" series that has arisen from our many discussions with the religious. What I mean by "trades" is that a Christian acquaintance asked us to watch it, which we did, and then that person refused to watch an atheist documentary in return. For anyone who wants to actually see the movie before reading my thoughts, all 10 parts of "Finger of God" are embedded at the bottom of this post, so just scroll down and hit play.
The website for the film has a F.A.Q. dealing with issues about the movie, such as why the "miracles" discussed in the movie weren't verified in any way. Director Darren Wilson says he didn’t “have the luxury” of verifying any of the “miracles” by talking to doctors or having follow-up interviews because he didn’t have enough money. And yet, in the About the Movie section of the website he says, “But that's where I found myself, and I quickly discovered that God is an incredible film producer. He funded the whole film (I never had to ask for money), took me around the world, and introduced me to some truly incredible people.” So God couldn’t find the spare change to help you verify any tales of supernatural occurrences to convince unbelievers? Wow, the creator of the universe is a real cheap skate.
The reason that this basic verification is so important is because the movie consists entirely of off the wall and ridiculous claims that absolutely cannot be accepted without some evidence to back them up. Claims made in the movie include people having their bad hearts miraculously swapped with new hearts, missing eyes spontaneously regrowing, gold teeth magically replacing bad teeth, and people coming back from the dead.
It should be noted that none of this is ever shown on camera. These miraculous events always occur just before Wilson turned on the camera, or they are second or third hand accounts from people not directly involved.
I have another post dedicated entirely to these types of unverified personal anecdotes from religious folks here. The post discusses the disconnect between what sort of supernatural claims a Christian will accept from members of their own faith, while being completely unwilling to accept identical claims from members of opposing religions. It also covers the "but why would they lie?" question that Wilson and many other Christians frequently ask when skepticism is displayed towards second hand supernatural claims.
Something else humorous about the documentary's F.A.Q. is when it states that it’s a difficult issue for Wilson on whether people are allowed to burn the movie to DVD and give it out for free. His dilemma over whether people should be allowed to see these amazing miracles that will ensure they accept Jesus and don't spend eternity in hell? Because it cost him so much to make and he doesn't want to give it away for free. If God can randomly give people gold teeth and replace hearts in chests, why can’t he manifest some money for these people to continue on the work of such important, life changing magnitude? For that matter, why can’t God just poof a copy of this DVD in every unbeliever’s home? As the people in the movie like to harp on the issue of not limiting God, why is Wilson limiting God by not giving his DVD away for free and expecting God to take care of the rest?
One of the first groups discussed is the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (now known as Catch the Fire Toronto – probably because of a lot of negative press). In the film, the members of the church claim that God magically poofs gems and gold dust into existence for them on a regular basis.
While looking into this group, I found that even other Christian groups such as this site or this blog or this page attack these guys . It’s amazing how 50 people can read the same religious text, and come away with 50 completely different ideas of what it said and what people need to do to follow its teachings. More amazing is that members of the same religion are willing to call each other heretics and proclaim the other denomination is completely wrong and probably hellbound. (Another fun example I recently found was an exchange of comments here about a Christian song being sung in a public school. At one point, as the discussion goes predictably way off topic, a religious commenter states that anyone in early American history who was involved with slavery or the subjugation of the Indians wasn't a "real" Christian. I guess that gets rid of, well, pretty much all of the founding fathers, not to mention all the times in the Bible were god explicitly commands slavery and slaughter against the native inhabitants of a land so the Israelites can move in.)
If you guys can’t even decide what your religion is really all about, why would I want to be a part of it? If your God can regrow eyeballs and poof gold teeth into people's mouths, then he absolutely should be capable of showing up down here and saying "OK, sorry about the confusion, but THIS is actually what I meant. This denomination has it right and these other ones don't."
In one segment they show a man covered in gold colored dust (although after he's been covered, not in the act) and then later show a man falling down as he is being prayed for. When the camera pans down, he has what looks hilariously like a pile of gold splooge on his crotch. The "gold dust" is very clearly some sort of glitter they bought at a store, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out the minor sleight of hand required to throw it as someone is falling over. However the director clearly believes this is real gold dust, but then nonsensically says “No one’s making money on gold dust.” If God were dropping real gold on his followers, what precisely does he want them to do with it other than sell it or somehow use it in a monetary fashion?
A later segment of the movie deals with Bethel Church in Redding, CA, which has classes for young people at the “School of Supernatural Ministry” on how to perform supernatural healing. These students of the supernatural then go out in teams to perform these miracles for anyone they find who has any affliction - from headaches to cancer. These people honestly believe they are able to heal any ailment through the power of their deity. So at this point one has to wonder - has the hospital there just gone out of business? Oh yeah, that's right, Redding actually has two fully functional hospitals still treating people - because magic isn't real.
The kids from Bethel, when talking about their healing powers, proclaim that something supernatural happens every time they pray for healing, it’s just that sometimes what happens is invisible or doesn’t happen until after they leave. How anyone can make a statement like that without immediately feeling immensely foolish is beyond me.
The later segments of the film deal with the missionary Heidi Baker and her adventures across Africa. This segment also includes the claim of a man being resurrected from the dead. Of course Heidi chooses places like Africa for the sites of this nonsense, because Africa has a deep seated religious background that includes belief in sorcery, witchcraft, and resurrection from the dead. Their traditional religious beliefs going back hundreds to thousands of years include beliefs in nonsensical supernatural actions that would seem absurd in other settings (more information on Mozambique specifically, where Heidi has spent much time, can be found here). Many of the people in Africa who have since converted to religions such as Christianity and Islam still include these ideas of sorcery and raising from the dead in their mythology, attempting to mesh the theology of their pasts with the religions of the present.
Interestingly enough, it turns out there are actually quite a few Christian groups who believe that resurrection is a real phenomena which occurs in modern day. You can find a website explaining how Christians can raise the dead at this location (along with a host of second hand personal anecdotes about resurrection stories). Another website claiming you can resurrect the dead can be found at this location. It's bizarre that these sorts of claims continue to be propagated in modern times, especially with news stories readily available in which bodies are found by authorities after people have tried, and obviously failed, to raise them from the dead.
Let's compare these Christian websites to a page like this one, which follows a similar format of personal anecdotes and easy steps to work love magic to snare that guy who just won't give you the time of day. Or how about we compare these claims to this site, which describes “real” ghost stories (i.e. easily explainable personal anecdotes or outrageous stories with no evidence behind them).
This site has many similar claims to those of the Christians we’ve spoken with – that the supernatural is real but we’ve been trained to ignore it or not notice it since we were children. The kicker? It’s about Wiccan magic, not Christian healing. The site claims that “Magick is not only real, it's the only thing that is! Wicca magick is just one form of the mysterious and infinite Creative Power of the Universe. Life is full of real magick. But we've been trained not to notice it, even when it's right in front of our noses. Making magick is your birthright - a personal gift from the Divine. Learn how magick works and how to work magick, and nothing can stop you from creating the life you dream of.” Does reading this person’s personal assurances that magic is real make you believe in magic? Of course not! Likewise, I'm not taking Wilson's word for it that any of this magical nonsense happened until he can verify it in some way.
Wilson eventually puts his camera on the man who claims to have been resurrected from the dead after being beaten to death by several criminals. The man doesn’t speak English, so we only have the word of the person translating it. As the story progresses and other people discuss this issue, someone actually admits that the man was in the hospital, the church folk thought he was dying, they prayed, and then apparently he came back from the dead. Since these people were all at the church, and this man was at the hospital, none of them actually saw this happen. The director does not speak with any doctors who will verify that he died and then got back up. If he had been dying in a hospital, but had been revived by doctors through normal medical means, why would this be miraculous? This reminds me of that absurd claim of supernatural resurrection by Dr. Chauncey Crandall, who admits a dead man was revived by using a defibrillator, but still maintains it was his prayer before hand that did the job.
The worst part is that the man claims (or at least the translator claims) that he forgave the people who “killed” him and didn’t press charges. Not only is this absurd, it’s immoral. That man will officially be responsible when those people go and rob and kill someone else next.
The person who recommended this video to us has a favorite quote from the film, when Heidi says “All children believe in miracles until adults tell them otherwise.” When I was a child I believed I could contact the spirits of the dead and that I could summon dragons from another world – does that mean those things are real? Of course not! This same quote could be used to back up a belief in Santa Claus or the Easter bunny. We learn that miracles aren’t real through experience. When grandpa dies, he stays dead, and kids figure that out during their progression into adulthood. Casting aside childish beliefs in the supernatural is a good thing, not a bad thing.
At one point Heidi is speaking at night to a large crowd in Africa, composed almost entirely of people who don’t speak English. A woman is brought up whom Heidi claims is deaf (we have no way of knowing whether that’s correct or not) and then she prays over her and claims the woman has gotten her hearing back. The only problem is that the woman never says this, nor does it appear in any way that she is healed. She doesn't jump up and down for joy, or flip out because of all the sudden noise. She just stands there the whole time looking confused, wondering what the hell is going on, and then they shuffle her away from the camera after the so-called “healing” occurs.
In another segment Heidi comes across a woman who appears to be Islamic or has some other religion other than Heidi’s brand of Christianity. This woman very calmly, very nicely explains that she doesn’t want what Heidi is offering. At one point during this exchange, as Heidi will not get the hint and leave her alone, the woman puts her hands on her chest as she’s gesticulating. Heidi takes this to mean the woman has chest pains (even though this was clearly not the motion she was making) and then leaves proclaiming that her prayers healed the woman’s pain – even though nothing of the sort happened. These people live in a fantasy land.
As a side note - take a quick watch of the footage Wilson claims is of Jesus physically manifesting on Earth and rushing through a crowd. Something I learned from this movie is that not only is Jesus invisible, but he loves knocking over black people. Silly Jesus!
As the director goes into some of the poorer parts of Europe they come upon gypsies, and you see they live in absolute squalor and are missing teeth and are in exceedingly poor health. So why precisely did God give gold teeth to the rich Christians in Toronto, but doesn’t care about the teeth of gypsies in Europe? Oh yeah, those people couldn’t afford the dentists who put in the gold teeth, because God didn’t have anything to do with it.
At this point I'm just going to let the movie speak for itself, because there honestly isn't a single scene that isn't mind-numbingly stupid. You can watch the film in its entirety below. Grab some popcorn, crack open the beers, and invite the friends over - because this is a laugh riot you don't want to miss. Take special note of the section in the first clip when Wilson "proves" that God put gold teeth in people's mouths. How does he know this happened? Because the people making the claim are his aunt and uncle, and everyone knows that Darren Wilson's aunt and uncle have never told a lie in their lives!
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