Turkish TV Gameshow Looks to Convert Atheists

By Daren Butler, Fri July 3rd, 2009

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?

Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers.

The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion -- Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists.

But religious authorities in Muslim but secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality game show format and the Religious Affairs Directorate is refusing to provide an imam for the show.

"Doing something like this for the sake of ratings is disrespectful to all religions. Religion should not be a subject for entertainment programs," High Board of Religious Affairs Chairman Hamza Aktan told state news agency Anatolian after news of the planned program emerged.

The makers of "Penitents Compete" are unrepentant and reject claims that the show, scheduled to begin broadcasting in September, will cheapen religion.

"We are giving the biggest prize in the world, the gift of belief in God," Kanal T chief executive Seyhan Soylu told Reuters.

"We don't approve of anyone being an atheist. God is great and it doesn't matter which religion you believe in. The important thing is to believe," Soylu said.

The project focuses attention on the issue of religious identity in European Union-candidate Turkey, where rights groups have raised concerns over freedom of religion for non-Muslim minorities.

Detractors of the ruling AK Party government, which is rooted in political Islam but officially secular, accuse it of having a hidden Islamist agenda, a charge it denies.

Some 200 people have so far applied to take part in the show and the 10 contestants will be chosen next month.

A team of theologians will ensure that the atheists are truly non-believers and are not just seeking fame or a free holiday.

Julia Sweeney's Letting Go of God

Part I here.
Part II here.

Track list:

Part I-

1. There is no Santa Claus
   
2. The Mormon boys arrive
   
3. My religious history in a nutshell
   
4. I wish I were a nun
   
5. I rededicate myself to the Church: The O.T.
   
6. Sodom & Gomorrah: Abraham & Issac
   
7. The Ten Commandments
   
8. The New Testament
   
9. St. Paul & the Book of Revelation
   
10. Psychologically true
    
11. Jesus suffered, But so did a lot of people
    
12. Father Tom blesses me & I get out of there
    
13. I begin to drift east, spiritually speaking
    
14. God is nature: The Galapagos
    
15. Sister Charatina's Theory of Evolution & God is not nature
    

Part II-

1. God is love
   
2. Deepak
   
3. I'm becoming so cantankerous!
   
4. How the mind works
   
5. Intelligent design
   
6. What if it's true?
   
7. Good-bye to God
   
8. So, I'm just another animal
   
9. Mom & Dad freak
   
10. Mulan arrives and Dad is sick
    
11. A funeral
    
12. More Mormon boys

Paleontologists Brought to Tears, Laughter by Creation Museum

By Britt Kennerly, AFP – 6/30/09

Petersburg, Kentucky —

For a group of paleontologists, a tour of the Creation Museum seemed like a great tongue-in-cheek way to cap off a serious conference.

But while there were a few laughs and some clowning for the camera, most left more offended than amused by the frightening way in which evolution -- and their life's work -- was attacked.

"It's sort of a monument to scientific illiteracy, isn't it?" said Jerry Lipps, professor of geology, paleontology and evolution at University of California, Berkeley.

"Like Sunday school with statues... this is a special brand of religion here. I don't think even most mainstream Christians would believe in this interpretation of Earth's history."

The 27 million dollar, 70,000-square-foot (6,500-square-metre) museum which has been dubbed a "creationist Disneyland" has attracted 715,000 visitors since it opened in mid-2007 with a vow to "bring the pages of the Bible to life."

Its presents a literal interpretation of the Bible and argues that believing otherwise leads to moral relativism and the destruction of social values.

Creationism is a theory not supported by most mainstream Christian churches.

Lisa Park of the University of Akron cried at one point as she walked a hallway full of flashing images of war, famine and natural disasters which the museum blames on belief in evolution.

"I think it's very bad science and even worse theology -- and the theology is far more offensive to me," said Park, a professor of paleontology who is an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

"I think there's a lot of focus on fear, and I don't think that's a very Christian message... I find it a malicious manipulation of the public."

Phil Jardine posed for a picture below a towering, toothy dinosaur display.

The museum argues that the fossil record has been misinterpreted and that Tyrannosaurus rex was a vegetarian before Adam and Eve bit into that sin-inducing apple.

Jardine, a palaeobiologist graduate student from the University of Birmingham, was having fun on the tour, but told a reporter that he was disturbed by the museum's cartoonish portrayal of scientists and teachers.

"I feel very sorry for teachers when the children who come here start guessing if what they're being taught is wrong," Jardine said.

Arnie Miller, a palentologist at the University of Cincinnati who was chairman of the convention, said he hoped the tour would introduce the scientists to "the lay of the land" and show them firsthand what's being put forth in a place that has elicited vehement criticism from the scientific community.

"I think in some cases, people were surprised by the physical quality of the exhibits, but needless to say, they were unhappy with things that are inaccurately portrayed," he said.

"And there was a feeling of unhappiness, too, about the extent to which mainstream scientists and evolutionists are demonized -- that if you don't accept the Answers in Genesis vision of the history of Earth and life, you're contributing to the ills of society and of the church."

Daryl Domning, professor of anatomy at Howard University, held his chin and shook his head at several points during the tour.

"This bothers me as a scientist and as a Christian, because it's just as much a distortion and misrepresentation of Christianity as it is of science," he said.

"It's not your old-time religion by any means."

Kentucky Pastor Welcomes Guns, Their Owners, to Church

Louisville, Kentucky (AP) —

For one day, at least, it was OK to pack heat in church.

More than 200 people answered gun-toting Pastor Ken Pagano's call to celebrate the Second Amendment at New Bethel Church in Louisville on Saturday. There was just one rule for the several dozen who brought their guns along: No bullets.

"We are wanting to send a message that there are legal, civil, intelligent and law-abiding citizens who also own guns," Pagano said during the 90-minute event, which was open to the public. "If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country would not be here today," he told the crowd, drawing hearty applause and exclamations of "Amen!"

The "Open Carry Celebration" included a handgun raffle, patriotic music and screening of gun safety videos. Some gun owners carried old-fashioned six-shooters in leather holsters, while others packed modern police-style firearms. Kentucky allows residents to openly carry guns in public with some restrictions.

"I just believe in the right to protect ourselves," said Liz Boyer, who had a bright pink Glock in a black holster at her side. The 41-year-old isn't a member of the church but teaches a class on gun safety for women at a local range.

Brittany Rogers, 23, feared guns as a child. But her fiance encouraged her to go sport shooting with him about a year ago, and she said she has been hooked ever since. On Saturday, she brought her tiny Kel-Tec P-32 to church.

"It was a fear of the unknown," Rogers said, "but now I love it."

Pagano's Protestant church, which attracts up to 150 people to Sunday services in a conservative neighborhood of southwest Louisville, belongs to the Assemblies of God. He thought up the event after some church members expressed concern about the Obama administration's views on gun control, though the president hasn't moved to put new restrictions on ownership.

Across town, a coalition of peace and church groups concerned about Pagano's appeal to gun owners staged their own gun-free event.

"I think when people first learned about this invitation to wear guns to church, many people were deeply troubled," said Terry Taylor, one of the organizers. "The idea of wearing guns to churches or any sacred space I think many people find deeply troubling."

Pagano's event also troubled his church's longtime insurance carrier, which declined to insure the event and informed him it won't renew the policy. He found a new carrier at a cost of $700 for the day, but guns had to be unloaded.

Despite that snag, he said the event went off without a hitch. Asked what type of gun he himself was carrying, he smiled and touched a bulge on his hip.

"Cellphone," he said.

Assignment: Literature Analysis Essay

Prompt:
Throughout The Rapture of Canaan, people or things are consistently bound. For example, Grandpa Herman and the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty Baptizing Wind make it their primary goal to bind different aspects of the community together, including Ninah and James. Explore three examples of boundness, either literally or figuratively, in The Rapture of Canaan. Use specific examples from the novel to support your thesis.

Requirements:

• MLA format, including parenthetical citation
• 2.5 pages minimum

Due: Monday the 6th—Draft 1 (bring three copies); Tuesday the 7th—Final draft

Week 3

M 6.29
Read: RC, pg. 251-273
Class: Book discussion; presentations: Mariela T. (Catholic Molestation Scandals); Preview—Comparative analysis essay (Midterm); Watch—“Muslims and America” from 30 Days

T 6.30
Read: RC, pg. 274-317
Lab: Book discussion; Presentations: Jospeh V. (Transubstantiation), Ann Y. (Conservatives and the Morning After Pill), Stephanie R. (The Gnostic Gospels); Preview—Literature analysis essay

W 7.1
Listen to/Read: LGG, 0:00-1:00; Excerpt from Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Class: Monologue and short story discussion; Presentations: Alex T. (Scientology vs. Anonymous), Freddy P. (Corporal Mortification)

Th 7.2
Listen to: LGG, 1:00-2:06:30
Lab: Comparative analysis essay (Midterm); Guest speaker: Tim Buchanan, Christian youth worker
Journal 3 Assignment: Open topic—Write about whatever spirituality-themed subject you like.
Due: Journal 3