Patterns of Evidence: Moses Controversy
Original title: Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
165
YOUR RATING
A filmmaker searches for scientific evidence that Moses wrote the first books of the Bible.A filmmaker searches for scientific evidence that Moses wrote the first books of the Bible.A filmmaker searches for scientific evidence that Moses wrote the first books of the Bible.
Photos
Timothy P. Mahoney
- Self
- (as Tim Mahoney)
Storyline
Featured review
This is a bad documentary. It attempts to push a specifically US-style form of fundamentalism, by trying to prove that Moses wrote the first five books of the bible.
It interviews evangelicals at southern US seminaries and pretends they have the same level of expertise as actual doctors, professors, and researchers at places like Israeli universities (who all disagree with the agenda pushed by the documentary maker).
It completely ignores the evidence and research demonstrating that the Torah was written by at least four different authors. It ignores how contradictory passages are interspersed with the different authors even using different names for god, describing contradictory events. It instead concludes that Moses was able to write the Torah because ancient Israelites invented the alphabet via divine intervention.
The documentary intentionally asks the wrong questions, so it can evade actual research and evidence. For example, it spends about half the run time trying to prove the ancient Israelis invented the alphabet. It fails at this, but apparently it felt the need to go this route because the makers thought it proves the books were written by Moses. To it's credit (and why I gave it a 2 instead of a 1), it actually shows real experts clearly stating the hypothesis is nonsense. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide them much opportunity to explain all the reasons it's nonsense.
This is not a documentary, it's US-specific religious propaganda. Only watch this if you're an anthropologist studying US culture.
It interviews evangelicals at southern US seminaries and pretends they have the same level of expertise as actual doctors, professors, and researchers at places like Israeli universities (who all disagree with the agenda pushed by the documentary maker).
It completely ignores the evidence and research demonstrating that the Torah was written by at least four different authors. It ignores how contradictory passages are interspersed with the different authors even using different names for god, describing contradictory events. It instead concludes that Moses was able to write the Torah because ancient Israelites invented the alphabet via divine intervention.
The documentary intentionally asks the wrong questions, so it can evade actual research and evidence. For example, it spends about half the run time trying to prove the ancient Israelis invented the alphabet. It fails at this, but apparently it felt the need to go this route because the makers thought it proves the books were written by Moses. To it's credit (and why I gave it a 2 instead of a 1), it actually shows real experts clearly stating the hypothesis is nonsense. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide them much opportunity to explain all the reasons it's nonsense.
This is not a documentary, it's US-specific religious propaganda. Only watch this if you're an anthropologist studying US culture.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Also known as
- Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $765,361
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $217,327
- Mar 17, 2019
- Gross worldwide
- $765,361
- Runtime2 hours 20 minutes
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Top Gap
By what name was Patterns of Evidence: Moses Controversy (2019) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer