God of Wonders (2008)

          Essential plot rundown:  This documentary shows how all of creation is a testament to God's existent.  I was just browsing Netflix, seeing if there was anything of religious content that looked interesting.  God of Wonders and ...And God Spoke were two that stood out.  But, for today, I chose the former.

          The main theme of this documentary is the teleogical argument for God's existence: the fact that there is creation denotes the need for a creator.  One thing I liked about this documentary was the use of science.  A lot of religious propaganda is anti science.  But, here, they use it to support their claims.  It talks DNA and other science stuff.  However, the science is used to a bear minimum.  Basically, they say that such-n-such thing is too complicated to have evolved, so it had to been God.  I did like the fact that they tried for a scientific approach; I just wished they went deeper.

          It takes different parts of nature and uses them to exemplify different aspects of God.  DNA is super complicated and way more effective than our computers; therefore, God must be a God of wisdom.  Butterfly wings are highly intricate and stunning; therefore, God must be a God of beauty.  However, during the last 20 minutes, it does get a little preachy, saying that the greatest thing that God has done is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Up until then, they only talked about God as a creator with no subtext as to "which" God they are referring too.  If the Bible passages were removed, any person believing in a higher being would agree with what was being said.  But, at the end it was like "Just kidding, we only speak of the Christian God.  You must believe in Jesus or go to hell."  And that bothered me, though I should have seen that coming.  I feel that it would have been a more efficient documentary if specific religions weren't brought up.

          However, if all of the religious aspects were removed, it still makes for an interesting nature documentary.  Obviously, there is a lot of footage of cool looking animals and time-lapse photography of plants.  There were a lot of interesting things I learned.  (The coolest part was when they were talking about how a caterpillar makes its chrysalis.  I didn't know that).  It also puts a lot things into perspective:  the size or our sun compared to other stars or how much information is stored in DNA.  So, I found all of the nature aspects really interesting, even if it's probably nothing you couldn't find elsewhere.  Like HERE for example.

          So, overall, it's an interesting documentary, but nothing special.  It would probably be fun to watch for those of Christian faith.  But it won't do anything to persuade those that are not.

     But that's just my opinion...