Headscratchers / God's Not Dead

• What makes Josh think that God would be proud of him bossing around other people into accepting that the latter exists? Why doesn't Josh ever think "Okay, other people's religions and beliefs are none of my business. I should clear away and avoid making enemies out of those people."?
  • Because converting other people is an important part of Christianity, as it is in many religions. Hence why this movie exists.
  • Also because it’s a dumb movie written by biased people who think of Christianity as the one true religion and everyone else as wrong for not embracing it. Of course they aren’t going to write in something so nuanced.
• Really? Praying for your broken car when it's on a dead battery will fix the problem?
  • Those with faith will move mountains. It wouldn't be out of God's power, just his perhaps his will to reveal himself or solve petty problems. And they could be praying for another solution to present itself, like a taxi or person with jumper cables to come by.
    • Is it so hard just to call an Uber?
    • And those with faith in the FSM will...
• Josh tells his girlfriend that god is the most important person in his life, not her. She dumps him, but he gets upset about that. So what did he want? To be with her but still ignore her?
  • No, he wanted her to actually respect his Christian beliefs to the point that she wouldn't have a problem with him wanting to stand up for them after his professor denigrated them in front of the entire class. Not that hard of a concept to grasp.
    • In real life, if a professor espouses views you think are offensive or inappropriate for the classroom, there are many reasonable courses of action you can take, such as simply taking a different class and / or reporting the professor to the proper authorities. What you wouldn’t do is waste a good chunk of the class’s time debating the professor one on one. Josh’s actions show him to be a narcissist with a god complex. He thinks he knows better than his professor and will do anything to “win”, even if it comes at the expense of his fellow students and girlfriend (who, this troper would like to remind everyone, gave up multiple opportunities at other colleges just to stay with Josh). All she was asking for in return was for Josh to set aside his pride and need to be the hero for one semester. As if that wasn’t enough, Josh and his girlfriend have apparently been dating for six years, so you’d think Josh would be at least a little more sympathetic to her concerns, but no, he chooses an unethical and probably illegal debate over her and shows absolutely no signs of regret or missing her afterwards. Some guy. She deserved better anyways.
• Josh claims that one reason why god exists is because "Without god, then everything is permissible". Isn't this more of why god should exist, not why god does exist?
  • Josh probably isn't as smart as he thinks he is.
  • Unitarian theologian Hosea Ballou had a rather pithy reply when presented with a similar quandary by a Baptist minister.
    Baptist: Brother Ballou, if I were a Universalist and feared not the fires of hell, I could hit you over the head, steal your horse and saddle, and ride away, and I'd still go to heaven.
    Ballou: If you were a Universalist, the idea would never occur to you.
• If you ask me, making a debate against a Philosophy professor on God's existence is a really lousy decision to make. Why can't Josh just report to the chief administrator^note This is set in a college, for heaven's sake! on what Radisson is doing to his students, namely demanding them to believe that "God is Dead", and have Radisson get fired? If that happened, many of the events, like Josh breaking up with his girlfriend, would have never happened. Besides how the so-called "atheists" are portrayed in the second film, don't get me started on THAT.
  • Revenge Before Reason. He's not satisfied simply with just complaining about Radisson to the school's administrator, he's also wanting to break down Radisson mentally and get him to "confess" that a god does exist. Both Josh and the professor are selfish man-children who want the class to do whatever they want himself to do.
  • Even so back in my college years, my own professor admonished me for my own opinion on religion personally and in front of the whole class, and he never got fired. I'm an atheist by the way, my professor said he was christian. Professors don't seem to get fired that easily for just one little thing like that.
  • So a complete reversal of this movie. What are the odds?
  • Who knows, maybe the administrator was an atheist himself or didn't see this as grounds to fire Radisson.
  • You’d be surprised what teachers and college professors can get away with. Also most schools wouldn’t fire a professor in the beginning of the year, unless they had to (he was able to date a student, she wasn’t in his class but they had an age difference and he was an ass so it’s still creepy) so if he can keep his job while dating a student then he’d keep his job if a kid went to the higher ups to complain… As for why Josh didn’t do that the professor could make his semester a living hell, and as for why he didn’t drop the class, you got me.
• Why the hell would they kill off the teacher. Turned out he wasn't actually an Atheist, but a Nay-Theist who has a personal grudge against God. But as Cinema Snob points out, he was clearly on the path towards redemption, and it could have been far more powerful if he had a Heel–Face Turn and had his faith restored.
  • Well, so much for "God is good, all the time." -_-
  • This movie exists for no reason other than to be an Author Tract. That's the only reason anything happens. That's the answer to any question you could ask about it, at least in terms of plot.
  • From the outside looking in, this universe’s God seems to be very, very petty at best, more sadistic than Satan himself at worst. “Oh, your mom died, so you hated me for years, burying it beneath fake atheism? Here, have a cushy job as an Intro to Philosophy professor. But not so fast. I’ll be sending a trouble student your way, so you can freely admit that you hate me. Oh, you’re going to apologize to your ex-girlfriend and former student (respectively)? Not before I pour a little rain on you! Hmm, what’s that noise? Could that be a— Ooh, yep, that’s a hit-and-run driver, yes sir! Well, got anything to say before you depart from the Earth? Hmm? Speak up, can’t hear so well on account of not existing. Oh, you accept me? Hmm, I guess I can allow you into Heaven. But remember, none of this would have happened if you hadn’t stopped believing in me when you were a child and your mom died.” …Yikes.
• The Muslim girl listens to sermons by Franklin Graham, and that is presumably what converted her. I don't know off the top of my head every position Graham has ever taken, but I do know that he is very outspoken about being a political conservative, and feels especially strong on social issues. Given that social conservatives in the United States aren't known for having very charitable views towards Muslims, regularly declaring that any Muslim who denies wanting to kill you is practicing taqqiya (an obscure Shia doctrine that says you can deny your faith to avoid persecution), wouldn't Graham's views, or at least the views of American fundamentalists, be a huge stumbling block to Ayisha adopting his theology? Did she hear him say the phrase "Jesus loves you" and instantly become enamored with fundamentalist Christianity?