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Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply A Masterpiece

Sadly Over-hyped

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

First of all I'd like to say I loved the idea for this film. I was really looking forward to seeing a lot of philosophical perspectives from different people, however I was left with the impression that one religion in particular (not one I believe in, so I have no vested interest in seeing it like this) was the victim of bias, whether intentional or unintentional I don't know.I watched this last night with 2 friends. I don't have any religious beliefs and neither does one friend, but my other friend is a Christian. Part way through we paused it to have a discussion and my Christian friend pointed out what she perceived as biases against Christianity in the film. I wasn't sure about it at the time, since I hadn't been watching with that in mind, but when we started watching it again I realised all her points were right.The main ones are:The language used by the film-maker showed his bias as well as the editing. At one stage he even referred to non-atheist perspectives as "superstition".Almost all of the non-religious people were well-spoken and presented in settings like universities or beautiful gardens while the Christians were presented as ignorant, poor, etc. For example there were famous nonbelievers (Richard Dawkins, Richard Carrier, Leonard Susskind, Carl Sagan's wife...) and famous non-Christian religious people (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Arthur Uther Pendragon...) while the supposed representatives of Christianity were devoid of anyone that most Christians would listen to or relate to. The Christians got Jed, the evangelical who even extreme evangelicals would distance themselves from (see the next point) and a seemingly homeless man living in a burned down church who thinks dinosaurs are still alive. A lot of time was given to the evangelical Brother Jed Smock. He appeared throughout the film along with his wife and daughter, despite the fact that most Christians would be just as appalled by him as non-Christians would be. At one stage the filmmaker even shows a long scene of his friend throwing classic "gotcha" questions at Jed, which wasn't exploratory, it only served to demonstrate how ridiculous the filmmaker and his friend think Jed is. Again, please note that I have no religious belief, and I agree that if the filmmaker's friend and Jed were in a debate the friend would win hands-down because his points were huge and Jed had no good reply for them, but I don't think people would start watching this movie thinking "I want to watch an atheist try to demolish the beliefs of a Christian", they will watch it hoping to find an exploration of beliefs in a way that encourages them to draw their own conclusions.I have given it a 3/10 instead of 1/10 because there were some really interesting parts. I loved seeing the scenes in China and India since those religions seemed free of the biases, Carl Sagan's wife's home had some amazing things on display, Leonard Susskind is hilarious and very likable, and there were other good scenes that stopped the film from being a complete waste of time.

I went to a small screening with a bunch of spiritually minded people to see "nature of existence." It's not the kind of gathering I usually find myself in...but went because I was a fan of Roger Nygard's first film, Trekkies. I was not disappointed. First of all, the spiritually minded group, with the exception of one lady with an ax to grind, TOTALLY rose to the challenge of a movie that is PROFOUNDLY INTERESTING SPIRITUALLY and very funny at the same time. This is as engaging an hour and a half as you could spend. And what makes the movie work for me...and what's really unique among documentaries of this type is this one is not condescending in the least...and Roger Nygard, who appears in his own movie isn't smug about any of these experiences. If you showed this film in your high school class you'd be everyone's favorite teacher.I never thought you could make this stuff interesting...and human. But this movie does. I'm actually thinking of buying a copy.

I loved this documentary. I saw it at a film festival last year and am so excited to get all my friends and family to attend. The documentary is a humorous but not mocking, earnest attempt to answer unanswerable questions.The questions are simple, but have profound implications on both ancient and modern belief systems, morality, laws, politics and religion. There are as many answers to these questions as there are respondents. Some are quite interesting or sincere while others are just nuts!!Overall, its a must see movie to start our own discussions about what IS the Nature of Existence! What is our purpose and all those other intriguing questions that sometimes get lost in the everyday motions of life.

I loved this film. I took my mother , who is a staunch Catholic and it was a good way to introduce her to the fact that there are many paths to Spirituality. Why are we Here? Why do we exist? How were we created? This movie tackles the array of possibilities that attempt to give answers to those questions. I personally feel that it's all answered in the end of the film. However, I saw it with my mom & she came up with a totally different answer - that she adamantly feels that the movie totally supports! There are not many documentaries that can do this - that can really appeal to people with totally opposing viewpoints. I guess this is one of them. So, I highly recommend it to everyone and then have dinner afterward & hash it all out!!