awesome sift. i used to live in the area and parts of it made me laugh. definitely sub-suburban Dallas. my favorite part was earlier on when they take her to see the "mega-church" Prestonwood. the locals call it the jesus-dome.

I have never seen a "mega church" except for in clips online (root of all evil, jesus camp etc..)

Why did they have to choose such a doughnut for the Christian father of the family.

FAITH is not bassed on annything

Oh man, based on some geographical clues, the christian family lives a few blocks from where I lived about a year ago. Always funny to see your neighborhood, etc on screen.

I'm an atheist, and when that fact came out at work, the guy I shared an office with was shocked, because I seemed like a good, moral, nice person to him. I think it was a broadening experience to him to see that an atheist was a regular person.

It's amazing how many of these questions I've been asked, phrased exactly like this. What did jesus ever do to me that was so bad. What bad thing happened to me to hate god? Many christians actually seem to think that I believe in God but that I reject him for some reason. If I don't believe in god, do I just believe in "nothing"?

It is too bad that there is no atheist churchs.

I also love how people like to question things that are way over their heads such: Where the universe come from? In top of that they expect to know the right answer without having any clue about the known sciences such quantum mechanics and such. I mean is that rediculos or what? What a jock. I think the world will be a much better place if people will spend that energy in learning and researching science.

I really wise that there was a God it will make things sooo much easier. But if you want to know the truth then you just have to go where facts takes you not where you wise they take you.

morgan spurlock makes me feel all kinds of vomity

This was interesting even though I am a Christian. Reality show + documentary.

They established a "church" of free-thought?! These people are even more crazy than the fundamentalist Christians. Or worse, they are the same.

This is a good show... I think there's two seasons. They cover all kinds of topics and beliefs.

It's tough to be an elitist on either side when you're forced to live together. The only way to find out what someone truly believes is to spend time with them personally, which is the genius of this show.

Sure, the Christians here identify themselves by The Ten Commandments, but do they live by them? Who knows? I'd argue the atheist actually follows them and The Golden Rule better.

(Incidentally, that Holy Land "fun park"? Horrifying.)

They established a "church" of free-thought?! These people are even more crazy than the fundamentalist Christians. Or worse, they are the same.

I dont think so, you have to look at it from their place in the world, the bible belt where the church is a central part of society, and seen as something positive ie: Church=community of people of the same faith. And therefore naming it church is probably an attempt to normalize atheism "we are just like you guys, good and all, its just that we dont believe in God" and I think this show clearly shows that that is needed.

Its startling to see the kind of ignorance towards atheism some of them have. That quote that Brenda wasnt quite as open-minded as them was just classy.

I've had to tell my Roman Catholic Family that I was now an atheist. While most of my brothers and sisters were ~okay~ with it, I have a sister who is now going southern baptist who was not. My mother was definitely not okay with it either.

My mother was definitely not okay with it either.

Thats sad, I hope you work it out. Good luck to you on that. Guess its pretty wierd being in that situation for all of you, if they are convinced you are sending yourself to hell and stuff like that.. Thats the problem with religion, if you believe it strongly enough, it doesnt really leave any room for accepting other opinions, it completely baffles me that when believers do get on the defensive, they accuse non-believers of being intolerant, when intolerance is one of the main reasons we need to speak out against religion..

@westy

...i haven't watched the clip, so maybe i am missing some context....but i challenge your notion that FAITH is not based on anything. When i choose to sit in a chair, i have FAITH beforehand that the chair will hold me. This faith is based on previous experience with that and other chairs, my general knowledge of how gravity behaves (again based on previous experience), perhaps the advice and council of other people whom i have reason to trust, and any number of other factors. The truth is , however, that each and every time i chose to sit in the chair...i am trusting it to hold me, and i can never be absolutely certain that it will....until i demonstrate my FAITH, and commit to the action. FAITH involves acting (ie thinking, believing) in that which we are not CERTAIN of...no doubt....but that FAITH does not exist in a vaccuum...it is encouraged and strengthened by our experience.

YoDaDeeOh:

I think westy is referring to Dawkins use of the word "faith" as a word that is not equal to believing. Faith in that sense is defined as "belief without (real) evidence" in this context, old scripture such as the Bible, the Quran, book of mormons and so on, does not qualify as real evidence.

While thinking that a chair will hold is something based in extremely strong empirical evidence, chairs that look solid enough dont usually break, so there is no incentive to believe this particular time will be an exception. This makes it "rational belief", and not a mere matter of faith

BTW: I dont know exactly what he meant with that statement, because obviously faith is based on things in their own way.. a better way to put it would be something like "There is no good, logical, rational reason to put all your faith in things like the bible."

...if that is the definition we are assigning to FAITH....then the statement is correct...though not terribly meaningful...i see faith as neccessarily having two part....belief + action. The Bible records these words in James 2:14-18

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds.Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do."

Faith that is not demonstrated is not yet truly faith...

The criteria for what defines "(real) evidence" is a very individual one as well.

this will be in two parts since it won't let me post the whole thing

1) The first time Moses came down from Mount Sinai with commandments, he merely recited a list (Exodus 20:2-17), which is the version most churches today erroneously call the "Ten Commandments," although they were not engraved on stone tablets and not called "the ten commandments."

2) The first set of stone tablets was given to Moses at a subsequent trip up the mountain (Exodus 31:18). In this farcical story, Moses petulantly destroyed those tablets when he saw the people worshipping the golden calf (Exodus 32:19).

3) So he went back for a replacement. God told Moses: "Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest." (Exodus 34:1) Here is what was on the replacement tablets (from Exodus 34:14-26):
1) Thou shalt worship no other God.
2) Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
3) The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep.
4) Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest.
5) Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks.
6) Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the Lord God.
7) Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.
Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left until the morning.
9) The first of the firstfruits of thy land shalt thou bring unto the house of the Lord thy God.
10) Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

Keep this in mind next time you are tempted to boil a goat.

This list differs, obviously, from the one in Exodus 20 (was God's memory faulty?), but it is only this list that is called the "Ten Commandments": "And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." (Exodus 34:28)

my point was (to theo47) which version of the 10 commandments do these people follow ? most people don't know there are several versions and that they confliuct with each other as I've posted above. Let's also keep in mind that "most" christians ignore the fact that the punishment was death

I'm sure these people follow the most traditional version of the Commandments, which, apart from the mystical Invisible Man stuff, are pretty much corollaries of the Golden Rule, something which is innate to creatures that think logically, like we do.

The assertion the guy in the Christian household makes, that atheists don't have a moral code because it isn't from an old book and neatly divisible by ten is, of course, ludicrous.

Civilization started way before Christ and before Rome. Give human beings some credit, for crying out loud.

I think there is a far greater number of atheists than these "statistics" cite. The number is usually 3% or 5%, but I suspect it is probably closer to 20% or more. I'm a "closet" atheist I suppose. I don't just come out and say "hey I'm an atheist," but at the same time I don't deny it. I know my family doesn't know it, and most of my friends don't either.

As to the question of where do we get our morals, I believe it is in our instinct, just like other animals. Just take a look in nature, gorillas are a good example. They live in close families, work together to achieve the survival of the family. They rarely have murders. The males compete for dominance, but only because they instinctively know that the group as a whole will have a better chance of surviving with the strongest as the leader. They do all of this without having read the bible, or believing in a supernatural being.

Puuuuke.

"...if that is the definition we are assigning to FAITH....then the statement is correct...though not terribly meaningful"

That's the definition YOU assigned to faith(which is more rational thought/logic than pure faith) initially in your comparison. You beautifully illustrated that what you described with your chair reference is nowhere near the same thing with monotheistic religion. Contradicted yourself there, hombre.

Only a couple minutes into the clip, but where the hell did they find these people? Both families seem to be made of total fucking idiots who can barely string a coherent sentence together. While an interesting idea for a show, the people need to be able to say something meaningful if their interactions are to have any meaning to the viewer. So far it looks like it's just going to be scattered thinking and nearly incoherent babbling.

Another thing I noticed. The christian parents voiced their concerns about the atheist's kids being brought up without religion. I don't remember their exact wording, but it was something like they hoped the atheist parents would give their kids the opportunity to explore religion. I wonder if these christians would give their kids the opportunity to explore other religions or even the choice of non religion.

It also looked as if the atheist woman was frightened throughout the whole experience. She seemed to stay calm though, I doubt I could have remained that calm if I had to live with those people for 30 days.

Morgan Spurlock! Haha!

@scottishmartialarts - its impossible not to find weird people who are willing to do something like this, unless there is some huge monetary payoff at the end.

I love this series. The first series featured a devout Christian from South Carolina living for 30 days with a Muslim family in Dearborn. He had to live and worship as a Muslim.

A must-see sift. Is anyone else here creeped out by Mr. Beard-and-Glasses? If anyone's going axe murderer, it's him. I feel bad for the pregnant wife; she picked a real winner.

"It says in god we trust. We actually like that. It says in god we trust. It says in god we trust. I live here, in the U.S. It says in god we trust."

It's like debating with a brick wall. A stupid brick wall.

"If it bothers you, move."

...let me (hopefully) clarify...

the initial (westy's) assertion was that faith is inherently irrational. I countered that i believe rationality is inherently faithful. It is the (for lack of a better term ) "Dawkins" definition of faith (belief without evidence) that i am disputing. At least i can say that the belief i have (in God) is based on evidence...so i have faith (in God).

I like the way the jesus guy keeps pretending like he can't figure out what the athiests are teaching their kids. Like, "do they hit them on the head and say the sky is orange??? I'm so confused???? What are they saying??? AHHH!!" I think he's faking 'cause he thinks it makes a point.

*dead

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by jwray.

Awarding mauz15 with one Power Point for fixing this video's dead embed code.

*blocked *religion

This video has been flagged as having an embed that is Region Blocked to not function in certain geographical locations - declared blocked by mauz15.

Adding video to channels (Religion) - requested by mauz15.

*dead, video has expired

This video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by LarsaruS.

Awarding geo321 with one Power Point for fixing this video's dead embed code.

*unblocked *length=45:10 *controversy *documentary

The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 45:10 - length declared by geo321.

This video has been declared as having a corrected embed that is not Region Blocked - unblocked by geo321.

Adding video to channels (Controversy) - requested by geo321.

*findthumb

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - findthumb requested by eric3579.

It's unfortunate that the episode/series was not true to its thesis. In this episode, we were not really given 30 days in the footsteps of a Christian but instead were given a very biased mutual experience/ debate. MS should've just done 30 days in the life of an Atheist because obviously that was the intent of this episode. In the Christian/Muslim episode, the Christian had to walk 30 days in a Muslim's shoes. He even had to pray a prayer that basically made him renounce his faith. Not all Muslims or Atheists are bad, right? Similarly, not all Christians are bad either. This episode did not seek to illustrate this as it had for other groups. Most importantly this episode violated the premise of the show with the most obvious bias I have ever seen. Too bad no one got to see 30 days in the footsteps of a Christian. MS has no right to call himself an objective documentarian.