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Amazing answer. Not at all what I asked. My intent here is to determine if Christians generally avoid programming that is available, only because it's content, i.e.: modern scientific discoveries, offends their beliefs.
forestbeekeeper, I'm sorry you lost the old analog signals. Us too. We went for digital Direct satellite TV so as to not lose touch with the world. Yes, your situation does mean you do not have to be subjected to the tiresome flood of painfully stupid advertisements, but it also prevents you [or your children, if that's the case...] from seeing a truly wonderful show on, say, the plight of the cheetah in Africa, or coverage on The Mars Rovers, or on how volcanoes form islands in the Pacific, or how single-celled organisms recently discovered under the ice of Antarctica are, proven, from a family type that is well over 100,000 years old.
All of this in spectacular High-Def color and detail. It's a window on a world that actuallyis out there, undeniably, but that most of us cannot ever hope to visit unless we're billionaires. In yuor case, you don't even have the option of visiting via excellent TV documentaries.
Hard to deny that, huh? Unless you'd rather not experience the depths of the natural world around you. Or perhaps that some of the "assumptions" in those presentations affront you?
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Seems there's some mis-interpretation here, tho' I thought I'd made my question clear. So here it is, plain and simple: my motive. I'm wondering if Christians tend to avoid such shows because, often, they assert natural evolution, an ancient universe, and/or alternate explanations to the formation of the universe, planets, etc. than God's version.
In other words, do your personal religious convictions effectively prevent you from seeing the larger,colorful, and truly wonderful world you'll otherwise never see (Face It: how many of you have perched on the edge of a Pacific volcano, or have sat out on the African veldt watching lions and cheetahs, or visited the home of the snow leopard, or walked alongside the Mars Rover?) What's that you say? "You'd rather not"? Hmmm...
(BTW, for you Christians who do watch this stuff in complete fascination, good on yah!)
When TV broadcast can to us 'free' it was 'nice'; however the boobtube is addictive.
Having been career military, we have lived overseas a few times, so we have broken that addiction a few times before.
Now we are faced with paying for TV.
So we find that we must ask ourselves is question: "Is the programming worth the expense?"
We could pay for a dish, to once again get hooked with the programming.
Thus far, we have decided not to. It has been a year. Neither of us seem to really miss it much.
We watch a few movies online.
We determine what we wish to program into our minds each day.
We feel that paying someone else to decide what to program into us, is handing over control of our minds.
I enjoy watching these types of shows, I can agree with some and disagree with others this is my choice. Just because it is on tv doesn't make it the truth, it just presents a perspective. A quote the Dalai Lama made in reference to science: "If science proves beyond a doubt that a belief is incorrect, then one must address that belief"
A very good show that was on PBS last night, "The Buddha" I would recommend it to all.
When TV broadcast can to us 'free' it was 'nice'; however the boobtube is addictive.
We determine what we wish to program into our minds each day.
We feel that paying someone else to decide what to program into us, is handing over control of our minds.
Agreed on all counts. We do have to fight the urge to just watch "something" in the evenings when we wish to settle down after the day's efforts. But then, more and more, I insist on avoiding "Two and a Half Men" or "Friends" and turn to NOVA or Nature instead for a real treat!
By that process, my family learns something. BTW, fbk, you can always rent (NetFLix) or rent DVD sets of Nature, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Terryj
I enjoy watching these types of shows, I can agree with some and disagree with others this is my choice. Just because it is on tv doesn't make it the truth, it just presents a perspective. A quote the Dalai Lama made in reference to science: "If science proves beyond a doubt that a belief is incorrect, then one must address that belief"
A very good show that was on PBS last night, "The Buddha" I would recommend it to all.
Also agreed! You certainly don't have to agree with everything they say, and these are, in some cases, just fantastic graphic simulations of someone's theory. You have to be cautious of being convinced of some TV producer's or scientist's as-yet unproven pet theory.
But the current series LIFE, for instance, does not "proselytize" about evolution or, frankly, anything! It just shows the amazing diversity of life on this planet, and you can come to your own conclusions about how that happened. Better than missing it entirely, and then making uneducated pronouncements. Right?
I caution my kids that even tho' those graphics special effects are "neat!", that does not make it so. Just like Lord of the Rings: is Golom real, I ask them? But it's just the same when listening to some Sunday Morning TV evangelist's prognostications and prophecies: if they don't pan out, then they are only speculation. Or worse.
But also, some of the more complex astrophysics or biochemical stories cannot easily be explained without such amazing graphics. The reasoning behind Kepler's determinations that the sun, not the earth, is the center of our solar system, was very obvious when explained with wonderful 3-D graphics just this past week. To the point that a still-skeptical person could then go out with their binoculars and make a few notes on planet and star locations for just a few weeks and come to the same, obvious conclusions themselves.
I do wish one of the more ardent fundy Christian women here, who still believes the entire universe revolves around a flat Earth as the bible asserts, could have watched it. Of course, she probably still wouldn't believe it, and would simply dismiss it as "Lies and more damned lies by those assumptive, evil scientists!"
Some simply don't want or can't handle such information, I realize that. Those folks are, of course, intransigent. Permanently so.
Location: planet octupulous is nearing earths atmosphere
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i'm a serious science show junky!!! i wonder how many devoted religious sheeples watch the show, "how the earth was made" i like nova to.. i've been watching nova shows for over 20 years. i hate it when two good science shows come on at the same time and i have to make a choice
i always liked carl sagan, he had a nack for explaining things in a clear and concise way..
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