Second prize: a visit to the piranhas
Even funnier than Sarah Palin.
A Turkish game show is challenging atheists to reassess their views and win “the biggest prize ever”. Penitents Compete will bring together an Islamic imam, a Jewish rabbi, a Buddhist monk and a Greek Orthodox priest seeking to convert the atheists. The prize for any converted contestants is an expenses-paid pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen faith.
But that’s not a prize unless you do in fact convert, so it’s not going to function as a prize for the people who are supposed to convert because they won’t want the thing offered – it won’t appeal to them – in fact it will repel them. It’s like saying the prize is a bowl of shit, or a week in Evin Prison, or two tickets to a wrestling match. It’s like the old W C Fields joke – first prize is a week in Philly, second prize is two weeks in Philly.
A free ‘piligrimage’ to a ‘holy site’ of one’s ‘chosen faith’ – if you’ve converted that could be enough to convert you right back again, don’t you think? You have to be gentle with these things! Someone who’s just converted from atheism to Islam or Greek Orthodox Christianity on a tv game show is in a fragile state in the ‘faith’ department – I don’t think instantly thrusting a ‘piligrimage’ to a ‘holy site’ on such a convert is a very sensible idea! You want to take things step by step, not shove people off the diving board and watch them sink. To an atheist, or to someone who was an atheist until five minutes ago, a ‘piligrimage’ to a ‘holy site’ sounds like being locked in a ship’s cabin with a few thousand people all of whom you detest. It doesn’t sound like a nice holiday – or a prize. It sounds like…you know…torture.
[I]f any are genuinely convinced by a faith, they will be sent on a pilgrimage – new Muslims to Mecca, Buddhists to Tibet and Jews and Christians to Jerusalem. The TV cameras will follow the winning contestants as they go on their pilgrimage. “They can’t see this trip as a getaway, but as a religious experience,” the deputy director of Kanal T, Ahmet Ozdemir, told Hurriyet.
See? It’s not a prize.
Is genital mutilation part of the package? Or will the “winner” be informed after converting. Could be a great ratings driver as well as a tangible religious experience for the convert.
Shouldn’t the person who convinces them to convert be the one who gets the prize?
We’re constantly hearing about how important it is to tackle the best arguments/representatives for a position. Ditchkins doesn’t do that, apparently. Bad Ditchkins, bad.
So, naturally enough, I hope the atheists involved will be extremely intelligent and already well-informed about the faiths in question. You know, so that they won’t be fooled by a version of a faith that’s been cherry-picked and sanitised for the cameras.
Hopefully they’ll all be ex-believing atheists, the kind who lost their faith after intensive study of what their religions (and religions in general) are really about, and who have encyclopedic knowledge of the holy books, like Matt Dillahunty or John W. Loftus.
I’d love to see if they can agree on an answer to the question “Was Jesus the son of god?” If they get the Buddhist to agree to that, that’ll be very impressive.
Yes! An expenses-paid pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen faith and free genital mutilation – such a deal!
This is actually quite offensive. Perhaps we should riot.
If there’s no genital mutilation, I’m not going. I don’t want some pansy version, I want the real thing!
Preferably there’ll be some sort of regular ritual self-flagellation as well.
At the very least you should get to wear funny hats.
Really – the BBC was putting in a good word for Opus Dei’s self-flagellation only yesterday, so I don’t see why Turkish tv can’t keep up.
Free pilgrimage, holy site, genital mutilation, self-flagellation. We’re beginning to get something worth having here.
Hey Mark, I’ve just been going through my horribly neglected email Inbox and I found stuff you sent me – links to articles – that I never acknowledged – I hate that! Thanks!
Anybody I’ve neglected to thank for stuff – Mags, Melanie, Roger, Karel, anyone – sorry!
What a shrill and strident apology!
But seriously, you’ve clearly been busy sorting out all the messages that say “GOD doesn’t hate women, it’s the MEN who start religions that do” or “Why are you asking about what God thinks, if you don’t even BELIEVE in GOD? CHECKMATE atheist!” or “what about all the GOOD things that religious people do? You don’t mention THAT in your book. Probably. I’ve not read it, obviously, but still…”
Heehee – and the ones that say ‘I can tell how bad the book is without reading it’ and ‘I’m not going to read the book but did you include the wisdom revealed in this blog post?’ and ‘Were you born militant, or what?’ Yes it all keeps me busy.
Yeah,
militant atheists with their books and arguments. They’re exactly as bad as the most murderous religious lunatic.
Doing nothing more than writing a book that’s strongly critical of the beliefs and actions of certain publically visible groups of people is EXACTLTY the same as killing a doctor, or a filmmaker, or a Japanese translater in cold blood. Those atheists are MILITANT! They’re MILITANT! BE AFRAID OF THEM! Don’t read their books, because YOU MIGHT DIE! THAT’S HOW MILITANT THEY ARE!
Mecca has never been on my list of places to visit, even for free. It’s been years since I was in Jerusalem, but I recall mooching around the Old City was enjoyable enough. Probably not so much now, especially if you are schlepping around sacred sites with an orthodox priest/rabbi. Tibet though…might think about that one. And converting to buddhism doesn’t really commit you to much, not even theism.
Now if they could arrange a trip to R’lyeh, I would definitely go for that.
The whole getting crushed to death by a sea of hysterical religious fanatics thing kind of puts me off going to Mecca. It’s like the Hillsborough disaster, but every year.
Some places become holy sites because they are amazing. I wouldn’t say no to a free holiday to Adam’s Peak or that stone arch in Monument Valley…