History Film / GodsNotDead

* AdHominem: Radisson does this after Josh's first speech by simply choosing to namedrop Stephen Hawking, rather than actually debate him, and then asking if he thinks he's smarter than him. Then in the second debate, [[NotSoDifferent Josh does the same thing]], since Stephen Hawking feels philosophy is "dead" (Tu Quoque).

* NotSoDifferent: Both Josh and Radisson use very similar tactics against each other during the debate. It is just not as noticeable since Radisson is so over-the-top villainous and Josh is clearly meant to be portrayed in the right.
** Also, both Josh and Radisson are BastardBoyfriend[=s=] who go through a break-up with their respective girlfriends because of religion/irreligion.

* AppealToConsequences: Josh's moral argument for God's existence amounts to this, along with a mere assertion fallacy: he states that without God, there's no objective standard for morality, while not actually showing this at all.

''God's Not Dead'' is a 2014 Creator/PureFlix movie about Josh, a Christian college student who has joined a philosophy class with the firmly atheist Professor Radisson. Radisson demands the students write out the words "God is dead" with their signature to get a passing grade. When Josh refuses, he offers him the chance to debate it, and is determined to humiliate him.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion:
** The filmmakers clearly do not understand Islamic views on women's dress. While more conservative Muslims do think women should cover their faces, there is no way that Aisha would then wear a top that shows her bare arms and ''cleavage''. That entirely defeats the purpose, keeping them covered.
** While he beats Aisha for being a Christian, her father loudly proclaims to her "There is only one god!" The Muslim God and the Christian God ''are the same being'', not to mention that Jesus is still a revered prophet in Islam.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: The filmmakers clearly do not understand Islamic views on women's dress. While more conservative Muslims do think women should cover their faces, there is no way that Aisha would then wear a top that shows her bare arms and ''cleavage''. That entirely defeats the purpose, keeping them covered.

* AppealToAuthority: All Radisson does to challenge the Cosmological Argument is to name-drop Steven Hawking, and makes no attempt to dispute any part of the actual argument. Odd behavior for a professor of philosophy, particularly since Hawking is not a philosopher (he's even said "philosophy is dead", as Josh points out) and many rebuttals to the Cosmological Argument exist that you'd think he would know about. Josh also does this with his moral argument for God's existence. The only thing he says to support this is quoting the well-known "If God does not exist, then everything is permitted" line from ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'' by Creator/FyodorDostoevsky (it's [[BeamMeUpScotty really]] "if there is no immortality, then everything is permitted", but gets commonly misquoted).

** The popular Christian band "Newsboys" shows up for the GrandFinale. However an interesting take as for a cameo they take up a good portion of the ending to the film. Some critics have joked they believed this entire film was an excuse just to have a Newsboys concert.

* DownerEnding, even for the fundamentalist Christian "[[DesignatedHero hero]]". [[spoiler:Sure, Josh gets some people to believe in God, but by the end of this film, Josh lost his girlfriend of six years, Radisson is killed, Mina doesn't realize that Radisson was killed coming to apologize to her, Martin probably put his entire family at risk because of his newfound belief, Amy is likely to die a painful death from cancer very soon, Ayisha has been disowned and is now homeless, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Dave and Jude never got to go to Disney World]].]] If it wasn't for the upbeat music, one would realize that because of Josh everyone is a lot worse off.

* TakeThat: Generally against atheists, but also against left-wing college professors, and to a lesser degree Muslims.

** The story has a lot of similarities with the ''ComicBook/{{Chick Tract|s}}'' [[http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0055/0055_01.asp "Big Daddy"]]. One review explicitly describes it as [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/crossexamined/2014/03/chick-tract-the-movie-review-of-gods-not-dead-atheist/ this]].

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Josh ''and'' Radisson. Radisson thinks religion is the enemy of reason and that it demands too much obedience from people, as while he forces students to obey and adapt to atheism. Josh meanwhile forces the students to obey and adapt to Christianity, claiming that Christianity is all about freedom.

* VillainousBreakdown: Radisson has one after Josh repeatedly presses if he hates God, [[JerkAss that he knew full well about since Radisson told him that in private along with his mother's death]], declaring that he always hated him since his mother died.

* BeingGoodSucks: According to Marc Shelley, his mother was a generous and kind-hearted woman her whole life but is now stricken with dementia while he himself is proudly a {{jerkass}} affluent businessman who dumped his girlfriend just for testing positive of cancer as he's assured his wealth will attain him another girl. Marc asks his mother why is this so, and his mother replies that Satan exists as well like God does and that Satan gives strength to atheists as a reward for forsaking their belief in God. Though they both overlook that dementia or wealth and morality have nothing in common, implying that Marc himself also believes in karma and God.

** Also, this film seems to take place in four consecutive days[[note]] First day of class combined with the three debates[[/note]]. Most college classes don't usually work like that, as they are spaced out by days (often working like Mon-Wed-Friday, Tues-Thurs, Mon-Wed, Mon-Friday or just one day a week). This is done because the classes can be quite long sometimes, where a two-three hour class is the norm. Alhough there are some classes that are every day of the week, those classes are usually an hour or less. It is highly unlikely this applies to this class, as even with how pompous Radisson is, it is doubtful that he had Josh take up half of his class every day.

** Also this film seems to take place in four consecutive days[[note]] First day of class combined with the three debates[[/note]]. Most college classes don't usually work like that as they are spaced out by days (often working like Mon-Wed-Friday, Tues-Thurs, Mon-Wed, Mon-Friday or just one day a week). This is done because the classes can be quite long sometimes where a two-three hour class is the norm. Though there are some classes that are every day of the week but those classes are usually an hour or less. However it is highly unlikely this applies to this class as even with how pompous Radisson is, it is doubtful that he had Josh take up half of his class every day.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Josh ''and'' Radisson. Radisson thinks religion is the enemy of reason and that it demands too much obedience from people, as while he forces students to obey and adapt to atheism. Josh meanwhile forces the students to obey and adapt to Christianity, claiming that Christianity all about freedom.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Josh ''and'' Radisson. Radisson thinks religion is the enemy of reason and that it demands too much obedience from people, as while he forces students to obey and adapt to atheism. Josh meanwhile forces the students to obey and adapt to Christianity.

* DownerEnding, even for the fundamentalist Christian "hero". [[spoiler:Sure, Josh gets some people to believe in God, but by the end of this film, Josh lost his girlfriend of six years, Radisson is killed, Mina doesn't realize that Radisson was killed coming to apologize to her, Martin probably put his entire family at risk because of his newfound belief, Amy is likely to die a painful death from cancer very soon, Ayisha has been disowned and is now homeless, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Dave and Jude never got to go to Disney World]].]] If it wasn't for the upbeat music, one would realize that because of Josh everyone is a lot worse off.

** Willie Robertson seems to be one too. When he first appears, he asks Amy to understand that he is not propagandizing religion on Duck Dynasty because he and his family openly preach and pray to Jesus, saying that viewers who don't like it can just change the channel, though at the Newsboys concert he pressures the attendees to text at least 100 people whoever they know "God's not dead" regardless of if that person believes in a god or not. Because of Willie's campaigning, Martin decides to send that same message to his father, who is an anti-atheist.

** Willie Robertson seems to be one too. When he first appears, he asks Amy to understand that he is not propagandizing religion on Duck Dynasty because he and his family openly preach and pray to Jesus, saying that viewers who don't like it can just change the channel, though at the Newsboys concert he pressures the attendees to text at least 100 people "God's not dead" which is ''outright'' propagandizing.

* BigBadDuumvirate: [[EvilVsEvil Professor Radisson and Josh Wheaton combined]]. They both believe that God does exist, but selfishly want the philosophy class to take their own side (misotheism or Christianity) on whether God is all-loving or negligent/cruel and uncaring. The two are quite corrupt, as they are reduced to using fanatic tactics such as attacking each other's credibility and flaws rather than arguing why their own side is so much stronger.

* AntiVillain: Ayisha's father, while ultimately one for DisproportionateRetribution, clearly loves his daughter and, it's implied, goes through something of a MyGodWhatHaveIDone in the end.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Reverend Dave at the end should have been arrested and charged for failing to report vehicular manslaughter (the victim being Radisson) as he did not call an ambulance. Instead, he just forced Radisson to convert to Christianity and told him to be grateful that god gave him a few more minutes to live.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Josh. At the beginning Josh admits he isn't fully sure there is a God, then spends all of his time in his debates trying to get everyone to be 100% certain there is a God. For being a "Good Moral Christian" he sure doesn't show it: using screwed up logic, insults, snide remarks and badmouthing Radisson just as much as the "Evil Professor" he is supposed to be morally above and fighting against does.

** Willie Robertson seems to be one too. When he first appears, he asks Amy to understand that he is not propagandizing religion on Duck Dynasty because he and his family openly preach and pray to Jesus, saying that viewers who don't like it can just change the channel. Though at the Newsboys concert he pressures the attendees to text at least 100 people "God's not dead" which is ''outright'' propagandizing.

* BigBadDuumvirate: [[EvilVsEvil Professor Radisson and Josh Wheaton combined]]. They both believe that a god does exist, but selfishly want the philosophy class to take their own side (misotheism or Christianity) of whether the god is all-loving or negligent/cruel and uncaring. The two are quite corrupt, as they are reduced to using fanatic tactics such as attacking each other's credibility and flaws rather than arguing why their own side is so much stronger.

* InformedAbility: Radisson is claimed to be a philosophy professor about to be awarded tenure, essentially the highest position in teaching. From his actions he seems to know absolutely nothing about philosophy. In reference here to the specific issue of the film, for instance, there are many [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existence_of_God#Arguments_against_the_existence_of_God arguments against the existence of God]] he would no doubt be familiar with, likely having argued for them at least in print. The idea that a first-year student would beat a professor in their field of study during a debate is dubious (it would be true if their views were reversed too of course).

* VillainHasAPoint: At the end despite Josh getting Radisson to admit he hates God, Radisson tells him that this doesn't prove anything and he hasn't proven God exists. Which is correct. Everything Josh has stated over the course of the lecture has not given any actual proof. One could say he simply sought to put on a good case for God's existence, a.k.a. a God of the Gaps argument [[note]] [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps Essentially science can't be sure therefore God]] [[/note]], which was arguably his actual intent -- but this is negated as they treat it as ''100% fact'' that God does exist. He also makes a fair point by noting that free will can't explain natural evil (e.g. disasters caused by weather events), a standard counterargument to this, which goes unanswered by Josh.