Questions religions as original god-given stories, arguing the Christian religion specifically is mainly derived from other religions, astronomical facts, astrological myths and traditions in turn derived from or sharing elements with other ones. In furtherance of the Jesus myth hypothesis, this part argues that the historical Jesus is a literary and astrological hybrid, nurtured politically in the interest of control.
The film Zeitgeist : The Movie offers explanations for some of these common attributes. To explain the origin of the alleged December 25 birth, the film points out that the Winter solstice has the shortest day, and therefore the shortest amount of sunlight of the year, and that about three days after it, sunlight time could be seen growing, thus marking the birth of a God of light or Sun God, another Christian-astrological similarity, according to the film is that the three stars in Orion's belt(called the Three Kings) align with Sirius on December 25, the brightest star in the sky, and point to the Sun's rise on the horizon. This is equated to the Nativity of Jesus, where, according to the film, three kings follow the star in the east to locate the birth of Jesus. Furthermore, around December 25, Sun rises in the vicinity of Virgo, the constellation known as Virgin, which refers to the origin of Jesus virgin birth. Comparison of sunset in the vicinity of Crux and Jesus death on the cross is based on similar principle. In addition, parallels as walking on water (reflection at dawn/dusk) and turning water into wine (ripening of grapes) are shown as metaphoric miracles, explained as the influence of the Sun.
Christianity is then said to be a Gnostic myth, historized by the Roman Empire for social control of Europe through doctrines established at the First Council of Nicea. The Dark Ages, the Inquisitions and the Crusades are given as events which maintained Europe's submission to The Vatican through Christianity.
The following is said in conclusion :
"Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems empowers those who know the truth, but use the myth to manipulate and control societies. It reduces human responsibility to the effect that God controls everything and in turn awful crimes can be justified in the name of Divine Pursuit. The religious myth is the most powerful device ever created, and serves as the psychological soil upon which other myths can flourish."
The World Staged
My favorite part, integral footage of several 9/11 conspiracy theory films to portray the September 11 attacks as either orchestrated or allowed to happen by elements within the United States government in order to generate mass fear, initiate and justify the War on Terror, provide a pretext for the curtailment of civil liberties, and produce economic gain. These claims include that the U.S. government had advance knowledge about the attacks, the response of the military deliberately let the planes reach their targets, and the World Trade Center buildings 1, 2, and 7 underwent a controlled demolition. The film claims that six of the named hijackers are still alive, that Hani Hanjour could not have flown Flight 77 into the Pentagon, that no substantial plane wreckage was found at two of the three crash sites, that the Bush administration covered up the truth in the 9/11 Commission Report, and that the mainstream media have failed to ask important questions about the official account.
Men Behind The Curtain
This argues that three wars of the United States during the twentieth century were waged purely for economic gain by what the film refers to as "international bankers". The film alleges that certain events were engineered or were allowed to happen as excuses to enter into war include the sinking of the RMS Lusitania (a factor in the U.S. decision to enter World War I two years later), the Attack on Pearl Harbor (which was the opening attack of the Japanese on the U.S. in World War II), and the Gulf of Tonkin Incident (which led to the escalation of the Vietnam War).
According to the film, the U.S. was forced by the Federal Reserve Bank to become embroiled in these wars, not to win but to sustain conflict, as it forces the U.S. government to borrow money from the bank, allegedly increasing the profits of the international bankers. The film gives a history of the Federal Reserve, claiming it engineered the Great Depression to steal wealth from the American population and was responsible for the assassination of Louis McFadden, a congressman who attempted to impeach the Federal Reserve Board. The film then goes on to claim that the Federal Income Tax is illegal.
This section also claims the existence of a secret agreement to merge the United States, Canada and Mexico into a "North American Union" and to replace the Canadian dollar, United States dollar, and the Mexican peso by a new currency, called the "amero". The creation of this North American Union is then alleged to be a step towards the creation of a "One World Government", which would be formed by the merging of the North American Union, the European Union, the African Union and a hypothetical Asian Union. The film speculates that under such a government, every human could be implanted with an RFID chip that would be used to monitor individuals and suppress dissent. The film ends with several quotes from Carl Sagan, Bill Hicks and several others.
Sequel : Addendum
Zeitgeist Addendum cites citing the specific process of fractional-reserve banking as detailed in Modern Money Mechanics, released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In detailing the process of money creation, the film suggests society is manipulated into economic slavery through debt-based monetary policies by requiring individuals to submit for employment in order to pay off their debt. Money was created out of thin air. Without dept, there would be no existence of money.
Part II is a documentary-style interview with The New York Times best-selling author and activist John Perkins based on his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, in which he describes his role as a self-described economic hit man. In that capacity, he claims to have helped the CIA, as well as various corporate and political entities, to undermine or corrupt foreign regimes that put the interests of their populations before those of transnational corporations. Perkins denies the existence of a conspiracy, because he sees the U.S. as a corporatocracy, in which there is no need for a plot, as politicians like Dick Cheney (who first served as the head of a construction company Halliburton and afterwards became Vice President) are alleged of working under the same primary assumption as corporations: that maximisation of profits is first priority, regardless of any social or environmental cost.
Part III is a documentary-style interview with futurist Jacque Fresco. The film looks at Fresco's proposal of a "resource-based economy", which he claims would create abundance, is environmentally friendly and sustainable. He goes on to discuss technology which he sees as the primary driver of human advancement and he blames politics as being unable to solve any problems, because of what he claims is lack of "technical capabilities". Fresco claims that his approach is not perfect, but that "it's just much better than what we have. We can never achieve perfection".
Part IV of the film suggests that the primary reason for what it sees as society's social values ("warfare, corruption, oppressive laws, social stratification, irrelevant superstitions, environmental destruction, and a despotic, socially indifferent, profit oriented, ruling class") is a collective ignorance of "the emergent and symbiotic aspects of natural law." The film suggests several actions for "social change", which include: boycotting banks who are claimed to make up the Federal Reserve System, such as JPMorgan Chase and Citibank, turning off TV news, not joining a military, refusing energy from energy companies in favour of making homes self-sustainable with clean energy and rejecting the political structure. The film closes by asking everyone to "eliminate the divisionary, materialistic noise, we have been conditioned to think is true ... while discovering, amplifying and aligning with the signal coming from our true, empirical oneness."
