Atheists to launch the first TV channel dedicated to godlessness (Hate the headline)

[WillParkinson]

Atheists to launch the first TV channel dedicated to godlessness

American Atheists are taking their Cranford, N.J.-based production to the big leagues with a new Internet TV channel for non-believers.

Atheist TV is coming to Roku American Atheists, www.atheists.org AtheistTV will present exclusively atheist, humanist, and freethought programming.

Believe it.

A New Jersey-based atheist group is starting the first on-demand TV channel dedicated to godlessness.

AtheistTV will be launching this summer with big plans to reach out to atheists, humanists, freethinkers, and folks who are looking for a way out of faith.

Members of American Atheists, the organization behind the endeavor, think it’s about time.

“There’s a glut of religious TV programming out there, from televangelists to Christmas specials,” spokesman Dave Muscato told The News. “But there’s no atheist channel. We wanted to fill that void.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/atheists-launch-tv-channel-dedicated-godlessness-article-1.1785168

[RussBLib]

1. there is already a wealth of TV, video, movies out there with a freethought perspective

I hope they will have enough money to fund it well.

[Warpy]

2. Or even that lack the constant godly crap

Even the 50s sitcoms fell into that category. There are two things the average sitcom family never did: watch television or go to church.

So did the westerns, the only godly people being portrayed as uptight, intolerant and humorless--which was a little unfair but religious people were made of sterner stuff in the 50s and mostly didn't mind. They'd all met Miss Prunella and Mister Puckerbutt at their own churches and knew the reason behind the stereotype.

The cloying "Touched by an Angel" won't be appropriate fare, however.

They will be able to run all sorts of science stuff.

[onager]

4. "Ward, you were a little hard on The Beaver last night..."

So the Fifties sitcoms did discuss sex occasionally!

But you're right, and I never thought about that. Those people on TV never went to church. Or if they did, it was just a generic reference about "going to church."

I took a college course once on the history of television and learned all sorts of neat stuff.

The way the 3 major networks and their affiliates were set up back then, the shows probably didn't dare mention any specific cults. That was a time when Southern network affiliates would sometimes cancel shows if they even showed a white person onstage alongside a black person. (IIRC, that happened when Frank Sinatra had Leslie Uggams on a variety show. He kissed her on the cheek and all hell broke loose in Dixie.)

Then there were the advertisers, who had enormous power.

One of the weirdest stories I remember concerns Rod Serling, who wrote a teleplay set in a Nazi concentration camp. The script referred to victims being gassed.

Serling had to carefully re-write the script because one sponsor complained - a natural gas company.

[AlbertCat]

12. The cloying "Touched by an Angel" won't be appropriate fare, however.

Unless they do a "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" thing with it.

[awoke_in_2003]

13. "Miss Prunella and Mister Puckerbutt"...

You must have gone to church at one time

[AtheistCrusader]

3. I find this annoying.

I'm already fielding annoying insinuations and questions on facebook from my theist friends.


You know what? There was already a fucking 'atheist' channel. NAT Geo, Discovery, NOVA, etc

[Curmudgeoness]

5. This is not the same as the channels you mention.

It says this is an "on demand" internet channel. Not something that your theist friends will just stumble upon while flipping through the channels on their TV.

But with that said, I would assume that this would be more focused on atheism than just science. (Not that I can say the commercial channels these days are focused on science either.)

[AtheistCrusader]

6. I know, I'm just...

annoyed.

This is another bit of ammo for the 'atheism is a faith just like ours' crew.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. Just tell them

that when we start waking up early on Sunday to go to our church, then they are allowed to call us a religion.

They just need to find a way to rationalize. But I always tell them that they think of their faith and their god often, and I never once think of my atheism until they bring up religion. It would never cross my mind that I don't have any supreme power to look up to if I was not bombarded by religion. It wouldn't surprise me that most atheists would be the same way.

[Lordquinton]

9. Sports have a million channels

and they don't claim that about sports (which is so less progressive than religion anyways). Movies have channels, do they worship them? Cartoons? Kids? Travel? Rich people?

[WillParkinson]

11. Well, yes...

Most of them worship rich people.

[LiberalAndProud]

10. It's interesting to notice how many things the religious relegate to their faith.

It seems to be a rather greedy little gremlin. If you take away all the trappings: televangelism, social gatherings and the various rituals, is there anything left of faith?

If they choose to think that it takes faith to not believe, that only speaks to their inability to conceive of a state outside of faith. After all, what believers think they perceive doesn't change reality, does it?