A Recipe to Ruin All the Good Children’s TV Shows: Insert God

I can get behind this idea… if we start inserting God into little kids’ shows, it will be a lot more obvious that he’s a fictional character.

You know, the other day I picked up a book about how to grow flowers in a garden.  It never ONCE mentioned God. There is no God in my textbook on Computer Programming. No game of Clue will ever point Colonel Mustard  toward his Creator. No matter how far I drive in my car, I will never
bump into the divine. It’s like the whole world was designed by Richard Dawkins!

I was just mentioning to 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/dadsbeyondbelief/ that Veggietales has actually turned out useful, in that it gives me a chance to discuss Christianity with my son.  We watched an Easter one the other day, and ended up talking about Spring/new plants/baby animals/eggs/rebirth/Jesus.

Avatar: The Last Airbender had a good deal of interaction with gods/spiritual beings. So does a lot of anime. Oh wait, you mean your god? Oops.

There’s a simple fix for this.  If you are a Christian and you want your children to get the message about god, then teach it to them yourselves!  It isn’t too hard to say to your kid that Blue’s curiosity is a gift from his creator or that Dora is able to explore so many amazing places because of a divine, intelligent designer.  Don’t pass off your job to educate your child about your beliefs to Sesame Street.

“No clue will ever point Blue toward his Creator. No matter how far Dora explores, she will never bump into the divine.”

I think there is a valuable lesson in here somewhere.

 Hell, I watched Superbook on TV as a kid, and still ended up in the same atheistic boat 🙂

Because Blue was created by 3 people?

Now that I think about it, I should drop by my parents house later.  Never too late to stop and say hi to my creators……

This disturbs me. Manly the fact that I’m getting so used to this kind of lunacy that my first thought was that he got Blue’s gender wrong. 

There is a hell of a lot of god in the Lego Bible, but last I checked, there were a lot of parents pissed that kids might look at it.  Wonder if Vischer has an opinion on that.

Just show them Fullmetal Alchemist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=u6Aenk1ZY18#t=292s

I feel the OCD need to point out to him that Blue is a girl, not a guy.

http://www.nickjr.com/blues-clues/about-blues-clues/blues-clues-characters.html

Dude, Blue is a girl. That’s all the proof I need that this guy doesn’t know the first thing about children’s programming.

How about on GCN when they aired ‘Just The Facts; The Adventures of Enoch” for E/I Broadcasting Credit,  filmed in a studio to look like Beekmans World or Bill Nye The Science Guy but instead of science kept calling the Bible “the ultimate data master” yargh!

Flanders is really the devil.

I grew up with stories of a benevolent son of a God. In fact, I loved the Mighty Hercules as a kid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAMm7XwdD_M

As for Veggie Tales: When I found out that it was religious in nature, I was kind of disgusted. I later heard though that it didn’t really work that well; kids would grow out of it and put in the fictional kids mental bucket eventually. (I hope this is true.) 

It looks like Dora is doing a good job.

When I grew up in the 1960’s, I saw the following:

Race Bannon killed people, lived in a domestic relationship with the unmarried Dr.  Benton Quest, and together they took in some orphan boy from a Third World country without any apparent legal authority to do so.

Fred Flintstone had a compulsive gambling problem.

Jane Jetson stole her husband’s wallet.

Wonder Woman tied people up with her lasso and made them “obey” her.

Roger Ramjet and Underdog both tweaked on “energy pills.”

And a stoner, his talking Great Dane, a lesbian and an unmarried hipster couple debunked “supernatural” illusions used as covers for criminal activities.

So with those bad examples, no wonder I became an atheist.

Wait a minute. That episode makes Daedalus, the one arguably geek character in Greek mythology, a bad guy. Today Daedalus could play a Tony Stark-like character who uses his superior intellect to create technologies to fight the bad superheroes.

I’ll never understand fundie logic. If a TV show (or book, movie, song, whatever) doesn’t mention god(s), that doesn’t make it anti-theistic, it makes it secular. And it seems to me that putting Christianity in particular into entertainment these days always makes it suck. Mainly because Christian music, TV shows, movies, and books focus too much on the Jesus-y message and not even on making quality entertainment.

I would argue that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the best new kids show, and it has no religion in it at all.

In fact if Christians do show up in anime they’re usually bad guys.

… Quigley’s Village… *shudder*

Paul Caggegi –  Springfield has every geographical feature bordering it: a port, a desert, a river, because it’s supposed I be America.

So, It’s Sunnydale.

Anonymous – I think Veggie Tales are actually quite clever and zany in that perfect way that kids love and adults can appreciate

That’s the kind of pandering that makes children’s programing suck so much.  Most kids want to know stuff and don’t need to be tricked into watching.  Those that do need to be tricked aren’t going to get anything out of it anyway.

I’ve always regretted being the wrong age for Mr. Wizard.  I was too young for his first show and too old for his second.  He had no silly costmes, wacky music, or convoluted sets. (I’m looking at you Beakman and Nye), just cool experiments, although they should probably be called demonstrations since the outcome is already known.

And finally, when I was growing up there were no good cartoons being broadcast (That’s all there was) on Sunday morning, just what me and my sister called “god shows”.  Even “Davy and Goliath” were boring and preachy. 

Reminds me of when the Westboro Baptist Church picketed Mr. Rogers funeral on the grounds that- surprise surprise- he wouldn’t turn his show into a pulpit.

I wouldn’t know about how he teaches his math class. Sadly what normally happens in a class room, stays in the class room. I would hope that he would conduct himself professionally while being “on” in the classroom. But I’ve teachers who would curse and got in trouble for it. 

I don’t know about strong correlations but you seriously can’t say that there is NO correlation. There is a correlation between actions and our influences. I know this blog is all about “free thinking” and what not, but you’re not entirely free. For example, you’ve been taught that it is polite to shake hands when you meet someone. That social concept is not held by all, but it is ultimately a product of some influence that you have accepted or are at least conforming to. So your surroundings, what you are taught by different influences. do make a difference. Alcoholism isn’t genetic. It’s a learned behavior. (I know some will try to argue that one). Of course one can rebel against those influences of course. But ultimately, it’s possible that incoming sources of information: language, actions, morals and behaviors, at least have some influence on how to end up. ANY childhood development course would tell you that.

Why are children not supposed to watch rated R movies?

As for (b), of course there is a correlation. “Our of the overflow of your heart the mouth speaks” If every fourth word out of your mouth is the f-bomb, then yeah, your moral character kind of sucks. If the words that come out of your mouth are always gossiping or putting someone down, then yeah, your moral character, again, kind of sucks. 

I would also think that it is easier to slip and say it versus intentionally typing it. But again, they are both wrong and speak to what is taking place on the inside of one’s heart.

Could it be that religious cartoons just suck in general and that’s why kids don’t watch them and there’s no demand for them? Ever try watching Davie and Goliath? Veggie Tales? Or any of the Bible cartoons they show on TBN, local channels or on Sunday mornings? I don’t go searching them out but when you’re flipping through those channels and come across one of them or the creepy puppet/dressed up actor shows, they just simply suck…horribly.

Wish I’d said that… Children’s shows are for ALL children, not for trying to indoctrinate non-Christians into Christian theology. Duh!

Like x 1000

You really should consider expanding your vocabulary.  Fuck is a fucking great word.

This sounds to me like he’s admitting atheism is the default position.

I can’t even understand you. Please explain. What is “wrong” about the word ‘fuck’?

Mainly because Christian music, TV shows, movies, and books focus too
much on the Jesus-y message and not even on making quality
entertainment.

Two types of music I can’t stand are contemporary Christian music and Celine Dion style love ballads.  When you can count on people buying your music because of their devotion to the subject matter, there’s no reason to bother making good art.

I’m a little taken aback by your frequent use of the ‘s’ word.

No, not really.  At least they weren’t especially villainous in least in the stuff that I watch/read, ie. Akuma no Love Song, Haunted Junction, Record of the Lodess Wars, Fist of the North Star… and others.  Strait out Christianity is fairly rare, though.  Mostly you get Buddhism & Shinto though.

What I appreciate though is that there’s rarely heavy-handed morality in even fairly religiously themed work that deals with kami/gods.  It’s much more on par with other fantasy works.  Which is why you can get stories like Saint Young Men or that hilarious story where God was a busdriver who died, and Jesus was a women who was gathering her reincarnated saints. (If someone out there remembers the name, please comment.  I would like to read it again.)

I liked Veggie Tales-especially the silly songs with Larry.  They were 1000 times better than Mcgee and Me or The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible.  Although I don’t always agree with their messages, Veggie Tales at least focus on the story as more than the trappings of a moral-sometimes going completely into silliness.  It’s probably the best of the bunch of Christian-themed kid shows.

However, compared to other kid shows both educational and entertainment centered, it’s fairly average.  Worse, if you disagree with the message they’re presenting.

“But for all the educational strides being made and all the
pro-social “vitamins” cleverly inserted into our kids’ media diets,
there is one ingredient sorely missing. There is no Glorious Leader on
Sesame Street. No clue will ever point Blue toward the failure of democratic nations. No
matter how far Dora explores, she will never bump into the Gloriousness of the Glorious Leader’s wise policies. The
world of children’s media, to put it bluntly, is as decadent as an prohibited materials-due to-containing-evil-and-sedition bookclub. And that missing ingredient will cripple our
children if we let it.”Fixed.

I learned curse words from where young boys are supposed to learn them-from my father, often when he was cut off while driving. When we would get home, there would frequently be little talks in the car along the lines of “O.k., don’t repeat those words I used when that stupid woman cut me off. Especially not the one that rhymes with punt.”

“No clue will ever point Blue toward his Creator.” 
I would actually enjoy seeing the look on Joe’s face when he realized that the round of ‘Blue’s Clues’ he was playing was really Blue’s attempt to convince him that the world was only 6,000 years old. I imagine the clues would be a banana (shaped perfectly to fit into a human hand!), A pillar of salt, and graphic image of rabbits screwing during the cambrian explosion.

It is totally true: kids outgrow Veggie Tales