Freethought Nation

I have become increasingly disappointed in the History Channel. It appears they want to pander to the unsophisticated and uneducated by broadcasting such shows as "Ice Road Truckers", "Swamp People", and Christmas stories about the Bible instead of delving into deep topics of history, especially topics surrounding the Christian mythology.

PBS sometimes has programming that broaches the subject of Christian mythology, but no one wants to face the topic directly. I suppose rating would drop when believers begin complaining about using tax dollars to produce shows that don't follow main stream society, and the History Channel would likely lose sponsorship if they broadcast similar programming.

Doesn't anyone in our world have the intestinal fortitude to produce a programming of lively debate and facts regarding this topic?

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"We are the people our parents warned us about" --Jimmy Buffett

You're spot on. It would appear that the answer to your last question is no. At least, not yet. PBS certainly has the integrity and intellectual honesty to create non biased, non bigoted and non prejudice shows though. However, they seem to have been forced to stop due to the defunding from the republican religious right wing in Congress who wants to turn the country into a Christian theocracy. It appears they don't care about accuracy, facts or evidence when it proves them wrong:

The Bibles Buried Secrets - PBS Documentary

400 years of astronomy part 1

PBS Doc: An Atheist Mom Goes to the Supreme Court - and Wins

'Christ Conspiracy' & the Ancient Astronaut Theory - this one is largely in regards to the History channel show entitled, "Ancient Aliens."

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2013 Astrotheology Calendar
The Mythicist Position
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection
Stellar House Publishing at Youtube

I made similar comments regarding the History Channel just the other day to a co-worker.

I used to love the History Channel back in the 80s and 90s when they regularly ran "History's Mysteries" and "Mysteries of the Bible". I learned so much about the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery, and I'm surprised today that the general public has no knowledge about them.

What in the world has happened to the History Channel of last few years? Has all the history been told? Or is it really the religious right putting pressure on them?

A show on PBS I always tried to watch was Stargazer. Mr. Horkheimer is no longer hosting, but his past broadcasts were real lessons in "naked eye astronomy". I would love to see a series based off them that ran his past broadcasts for atleast a half hour. The broadcast I got only lasted a few minutes.

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I am the Wind that blows over the Sea;
I am the Wave of the Deep;
I am the Bull of the Seven Battles;
I am the Eagle upon the rock;
I am a Tear of the Sun;

Marathon prophecy programming going on today consisting of the Mayan calendar, Nostrodamus and astrology. Currently a program on the Essenes is playing.

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I am the Wind that blows over the Sea;
I am the Wave of the Deep;
I am the Bull of the Seven Battles;
I am the Eagle upon the rock;
I am a Tear of the Sun;

For several years I was a regular on The History Channel, History of Christianity forums until they were closed down. New management came in and started putting fake, staged "reality shows" on TV instead of history programs, and they received many complaints from the history fans on the boards, so they closed down all of their forums.

The new management tried running a fake reality program as an archaeological investigation called "Apocalypse Island". The program was so bad and silly that The History Channel was swamped with complaints while it was being shown for the first time. The fake "archaeologist" who was the main character in the program and was explaining the discovery came onto the forum to defend his program, but when the obvious discrepancies were pointed out to him, he then tried to blame the director for screwing up the TV coverage of the event.

One of my favourite programs on PBS is the "Closer to Truth" half hour series by Robert Lawrence Kuhn. If you have not seen it, most of the programs compare the answers from science to the answers from the religions.

I also enjoyed a series about the history of Atheism that was shown on a local PBS station, but when I contacted PBS to find out when it would be shown again, they told me they did not have that series, and the decision to run that series was done by the local station and not by the national PBS organization.

I have noticed that some of the programs about Christian history on the National Geographic Channel do occasionally say that certain parts of Christian history are "claimed" and not verified truth, but most of their Christianity programs are more like Christian propaganda.