![Kevin Sorbo stars in 'Let There Be Light' [image via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/10/30/660x290/b_502x220x82/kevin-sorbo-stars-in-let-there-be-light-image-courtesy-of-gage-skidmore-wikimedia-commons_1664929.jpg "Kevin Sorbo stars in 'Let There Be Light' [image via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons]")
“Let There Be Light” is a new film starring and directed by Kevin Sorbo, best known for the 1990s TV series “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.” The story concerns a professional atheist who undergoes a Spiritual Awakening after undergoing a near-death experience. The movie also stars Sam Sorbo, the real-life wife of the star, as the character’s estranged Christian spouse. The film is produced by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, which means that he provided the bulk of the financing.
What is a near death experience?
A near-death experience happens when a person dies, with the heart-stopping and sometimes the brain flat lining, but then being brought back by EMTs or doctors in a hospital setting.
People often report leaving their bodies, seeing people working on their bodies below, and then being transported to a wonderful place filled with love and beauty that seems to be some version of the afterlife. Sometimes people undergoing NDEs meet dead relatives or a powerful being that they take to be God.
Scientists and theologians have been debating the nature of near-death experiences for decades. The materialist camp maintains that they are nothing but hallucinations caused by a dying brain. The spiritualist camp counters that NDEs are proof that human consciousness survives after death and is transported to a different plane of existence, Heaven for lack of a better term. Some scientists believe that the presence of an afterlife can be proven through quantum physics.
That view is hotly disputed by scientists in the materialist faction of the NDE debate,
How does the movie handle the idea of a near-death experience?
Sol Harkens, an angry atheist who is world famous for his book “Aborting God,” has an automobile accident. Before he is brought back to life, he has a near-death experience in which he meets his dead son, who perished from cancer a few years before.
Harkens’ son’s death turned him bitterly against God and transformed him into an atheist.
Like many people who undergo a near-death experience, the character undergoes a spiritual awakening. The experience is so powerful, so vivid that Harkens cannot explain it except by concluding that God and an afterlife exists after all.
He starts to reorder his life for the better as a result.
How is the movie doing?
“Let There Be Light” has done well in limited release as of this writing and is due to open wider. The reaction to the movie with critics is somewhat mixed, with many mainstream, secular reviewers finding the film to be maudlin and simplistic. Buttressed by a lot of free media thanks to producer Sean Hannity’s talk radio show and Fox News, “Let There Be Light” is finding a substantial audience with the faith community and should do well going forward.
