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Technorati“We're just the ones exposing it.”
In the movie, actor Ben Stein explores the long-standing controversial debate between supporters of Darwinism and proponents of intelligent design. Through interviews with experts and professors from both camps, he discovers an elitist scientific establishment that punishes the scientific proponents of intelligent design because they reject some of the claims of Darwin’s theory of evolution.
8. PBS to Air 'Bible's Buried Secrets'
A two-hour PBS program that claimed to have “new discoveries that shake the foundation of biblical archaeology” riled conservative critics including the American Family Association, which threatened to take their protest to Congress.
“PBS is knowingly choosing to insult and attack Christianity by airing a program that declares the Bible ‘isn't true and a bunch of stories that never happened,’” stated a petition that was circulated by the conservative group.
“I have often said that PBS should not receive tax dollars,” said AFA founder and chairman Donald E. Wildmon, noting that Congress gives PBS hundreds of millions of tax dollars to help support the network.
"’The Bible's Buried Secrets’ is simply one more reason Congress should stop supporting PBS with our tax dollars.”
When the program finally aired in November, however, most Bible experts agreed that nothing new was presented in the documentary, which they said was actually “well done and well illustrated.”
“[A]nyone who has opened up a commentary or a history of Israelite religion in the last 40 years has had access to everything it contains,” wrote Dr. James E. West, an adjunct professor at the Quartz Hill School of Theology in California, in a live blog during the airing of “The Bible’s Buried Secrets.”
“[N]othing groundbreaking or new or revolutionary” was presented in the film, he added.
“Instead, it simply summarizes scholarship to this point in what I confess was a balanced and fair way,” he said.
For the documentary, Providence Pictures scouted and filmed at archaeological sites throughout the Middle East – including Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria – and interviewed biblical scholars from around the world.
Producers say the interviews – along with historic works of art, ancient artifacts, animations of biblical passages and scenes, and dramatic recreations – provide the latest account of the ancient Israelites and how they found their one God – the God not only of modern Judaism, but also of Christianity and Islam.
9. 'American Idol' Brings Jesus Back to Worship Song
Following a wave of criticisms over an "American Idol" performance that replaced a reference to "Jesus" with "shepherd,” Idol contestants stepped back on stage the next evening, putting "Jesus” back in the song.
In their final performance during the television show's 2008 "Idol Gives Back" charity event the evening before, the white-clad Idol contestants had sung the contemporary worship song "Shout to the Lord," written by Darlene Zschech – a move that some speculate was an attempt to lessen any controversy among the diversely religious American people. But after the charity event, the "American Idol" message board had a hoard of posts that questioned the appropriateness of the finalists singing a Christian song. The show was also criticized for having the contestants sing “My Shepherd, My Savior" instead of “My Jesus, My Savior” – the original lyrics. Continue »
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