Is anyone else annoyed by these shows? I love Discovery, TLC, and National Geographic channel, but it seems they feel a constant responsibility to disconnect people from any remaining faith they may have by offering a constant stream of shows about "the science of" this or that Bible story. You know the ones, "Who is the Real Jesus?", "The True Story of Noah's Flood", "Why the Bible Sucks and Evolution Rules".
Here is the general formula: lay out the story (more or less) the way the Bible says it. Then begin picking apart the story. Don't be actually hostile toward the Bible, make it more along the lines of "we can't really be sure since it was so long ago and many people differ on the interpretation of the text". With the Bible sufficiently discredited, the next step is to start to spin a yarn about what really happened. There will be elements similar to the Bible story, but the message is clear: the scientific story is the real one and the Bible was embelishing. When done, it is clear that the Bible text which has endured thousands of years is a vague interpretation of the true story, which you have just seen, with fancy computer graphics and a deep-voiced, intellectual commentator who's meer mention of a fact ensures its authenticity.
One example was a show about "What did Jesus Really Look Like". It showed, of course, the blond-haired blue eyed Jesus famous from so many pictures. Everyone knows that Jews don't look like that, and the Bible certainly doesn't describe Him in that way, so it was a bit of a straw man. Nevertheless, it was at the very least a dig at white Christians, the opportunity for which is never to be missed. While the story is unfolding, they show a skull that was dug up and apparently dated to around the time of Jesus. Periodically, we get a glimpse at the face being reconstructed in clay by a forensic artist. At the end of the show, they reveal his face with the deep-voiced narrator (I think it sounded like Avery Brooks, Captain Sisko from ST:DS9) leaves us with the leading question "Is this what Jesus Looked Like?"
So basically, if you dig up an old skull of some unknown guy and slap some clay on it, you can show people "What Jesus Really Looked Like" in distinction to the laughable Bible, which apparently says he was Norwegian.
Is anyone else tired of this sort of thing being passed of as "science"?
2 comments:
While it may be true in a pure sense that science doesn't claim absolute truth, many scientists and psuedo-scientists do it as naturally as breathing.
Howerver, my point is not even to say anything about science, but to point out that shows like the example I used masquerade as science in an attempt to give themselves authority they neither have nor deserve based on their methods. Thus the quotes around "science" in the title.
Science is supposed to be dispassionate, looking only at the facts. Unfortunately much of what passed for science is dogmatic, often more so than some religions.
This is especially true on certain topics, primarily evolution. Before you hastily think of responding to me because I have "dissed" evolution, consider first that you would be proving my point.
I agree with you. What I want to know is WHY? What is the purpose of denegrating Christianity. Who are these people? The secular progressives?
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