Jason Colavito has a short summary of this intellectual fiasco (on all sides, really).
Just more insanity from mainstream media. It’s hard to believe what actually passes for “serious” television these days. I guess the BBC is jealous of the way the Fantasy Channel in this country has padded its bottom line with ancient astronaut blather. It seems insulting the intelligence of viewers is now part of how programming is settled.
Wow,embarrassing. I’m saying that as a Brit. I’m not a regular TV watcher but I don’t remember the BBC falling to those levels of desperation. Particularly as they have no sponsors to pander to. We subsidise the thing.
On another note I’ve noticed Jason Colavito has as little respect for Christianity as he does for the Ancient Aliens crowd.
I think Jason might be an atheist, but I’m not sure. Haven’t bothered to ask him.
From what I gathered from reading his website, I have come to that conclusion also.
http://youtu.be/lCaKY0rWwjQ
This is the YouTube link to the BBC 1 program. There is a “hypothesis” posed at the beginning of this program by a very well spoken young man from the “Aetherius Society” that bastion of rational conceptualizing who said: “Jesus and Budha came from Venus, Sri Krishna came from Saturn, St. Peter came from Mars, and so on…”
(It’s the “and so on” segway into his next statement that is so convincing a way to catch his breath before going on to declare these postulations are “more rational” than the orthodox teachings of these figures themselves.)
There is also a young woman who is selected to represent the views of evangelical Christians. She makes a spirited attempt at apologetics for the audience. Unfortunately, she is frequently shouted down by the BBC host.
There is a spirited exchange between the Aetherius society person and the young evangelical Christian woman about what constitutes a loving God who allows eternal damnation. The adversarial nature of the discussion becomes palpable when the concept of damnation for the reason of ignorance of Jesus and the gospel…The idea that just because you never heard the gospel you’re going to hell anyway.
Needless to say this poor woman is forced to defend Christian orthodoxy, casting her pearls before the BBC presenter and his antagonistic ancient alien apologists. Before a holy war erupts before the cameras, the BBC presenter then involves a skeptic who declares that the prior three speakers are all representative authors of disparate science fiction memes, each arguing about their respective unprovable worldviews. Many skeptical members of the audience all seem to be nodding in agreement with this skeptic who heeps scorn and incredulity upon the young man representing the the Aetherius society, especially some of the claims made on their web site.
The Anglican bishop of Southampton then is invited to contribute to the dialogue by the BBC presenter. The bishop then proceeds to extol the virtues of silence, and then make the plug for Christianity as a good worldview that is “A down to earth, lived practice”. He then calls for a more “reticent” attitude towards the meaning of life. He also refers to a great deal of “speculation going on here.” Not wanting the bishop to have the last word on who may or may not be speculating, the BBC presenter then attempts to validate the views of the other speakers by saying that they have also pondered the meaning of life.
Interestingly, the discussion group skirts around the topic of Islam, with one Muslim woman in the audience perking up at one point to get her oar in, but the presenter quickly glosses over her comments and returns to the Islam-free debate that is at hand. When asked if Muhamed was also from Venus, the Aetherius society representative wisely replies “we don’t know”.
Before the discussion ends, the evangelical Christian woman implores listeners to evaluate the evidence themselves that Jesus was the son of God.The skeptic is given the last word who ironically pronounces that human beings are “hard wired to connect the dots”.
There wasn’t time left in the debate to ask him who was doing the “hard wiring”. Perhaps he spoke prophetically (despite being the skeptic), after all Caiaphas was very skeptical about Jesus and, “Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.” -John 18:14.
Perhaps the worst aspect of this debate, which was broadcast on Sunday Morning, was not that a platform for honest-to-god UFO Religions was created, but rather that the Christians who spoke were made a spectacle of, and that the ten ton gorilla in the room, Islam, was completely side staged for fear of immolation or decapitation.
Thanks for the summary; pretty sad.