What the HELL is wrong with the Discovery Channel???

My wife and I were enjoying a quiet evening yesterday flipping through our favorite channels (usually those you can learn something from) and stopped on the Discovery channel. They were doing a story on the "Antichrist".

Now, I thought it might be interesting, and they did start it off with a little bit of history and even some biblical quotes to support their evidence.

Then they pulled out their 'experts' for interview. Jesus H. Christ (irony intended)!!! The so-called experts were not theologists, historians, literature experts, or even recognized church leaders...but the freaking fundies. The list of their 'experts' was a role call of fundie-freaks: rapture ready, Reverend Billy Bob the revelations expert and so forth. I was surprised that Phelps wasn't there claiming that the Anti-christ is/was a homosexual. (Then again we turned it off about 10 minutes in...)

These people are not experts of anything other than sheer idiocy and paranoia. They have (and displayed) no historical concepts and were simply voicing their scary un-educated "jebity-jebity-jebus" shit over and over and over... We were sickened. What the hell is wrong with the Discovery channel? I though Discovery Communication's goal was to educate with facts not to

These people were worse than the UFO nuts that the channel shows sometimes...how is this 'educational TV'???

There was a real rash of Christian propaganda this cycle, much more so than normal, IMO. Did it appear to be that way to you as well?

but now it appears that this is going well beyond that.

Are you talking about the 'bible science' drek? Actually, slightly interesting in some ways and somewhat a slap in the face of the fundies when they look at some miracles as normal meteorological events.

Yes though, I do concur with the recent severe over-religionizing of the channel. I liked it before...perhaps they are trying to simply get more ratings. Maybe it's working...but they are losing me.

and it was about Mary of Magdelene. I've always felt a strong connection and to know more about her for whatever purpose so I wanted to see what they had to say about her. That wasn't too bad. I didn't see any of the other specials. I figured they'd probably rerun or be on the History channel or something.

no one really seemed to enjoy Christmas (whatever you use) this year. Some people were excited, but it wasn't like the last few years at work.

I still had a nice Christmas and enjoyed time with my family, but the fundies just ruin things for people by making a big deal out of nothing. We were sort of jokingly talking about it at my grandma's and my brother asked my aunt if my uncle (who works at WalMart) could say "Merry Christmas" and she was like "oh yes!". It's sad how so many of them, like O'Reilly and Gibson, are lying through their teeth about this and lying is a sin. Matthew 5:37 Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

I didn't watch it, I don't need confirmation that W is the antichrist!

;-)

http://www.historychannel.com/

tonight is even more fanatic wacko stuff with
Hell the devils dominion


Seem like when ever a New year is around they do this.

Just wait till 2012! lol people will be a in frenzy.

They said the antichrist will be super intelligent, good looking and charismatic. As soon as they said that it dropped georgie off the list of possibilities. :)

That alone rules out Dubya...

lol

Or is it Clinton's Penis!

And they seem to think it was the cause of all the world's troubles. So, you just might be right about that.

I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to pin it on him! But you get positive vibes from Clinton. He really does care about people etc.

would the evil one be so stupid? I don't think so. They have different feels to them. Bush is very very negative, as he's always been in other past lives, but he isn't the antiChrist. Sometimes I wonder about this new Pope too since I have funny feelings with him. ;) But not joking on the funny feelings. I just have weird vibes as compared to Jon Paul II and other religious (true) leaders.

If so, you can count on a lot more of this stuff in the future....

Sigh. Sad when it gets floated by on an *educational channel*....like it is any more than opinion.

from the first time they aired, like The Learning Channel and the History channels. Although History still sometimes airs ancient history without a bias.

I don't know why the fundies would want to own even more channels. They seem to have all the religious channels sewn up. I've been begging my satellite company to give me some decent news channels in their place like from Canada and overseas.

I thought it might be interesting and, as you say, it was in the beginning. Then it went straight to hell...so to speak.

The only thing I got from it was that the whole "Antichrist" thing is not going to happen. I don't think that was the intention of the producers of the show, but that's what I got out of it. I'm not saying that I thought it was going to happen, but the show seemed to reinforce my beliefs.

Or were they just more fundies?

I don't know if I would consider him an "expert".

I have to say though, they talked a lot about how Danial and The Book of Revelations pointed toward things that have already happened. Basically using people like Nero when they wrote a lot of that stuff. They also stated that it was written to say that the people who were around when it was written would witness Armageddon... it didn't happen. :eyes:

Just marketing to these freaks.

Even other Christian's I used to know online asked about the "Left Behind" series and others said to not take it as factual. He bases it on Biblical verses but it's fiction.

the college class at my church went through this book called "Why the Church of Christ?" which is the church I belong to. The guy started out not beliving in anything and than somehow started beliving in the Christian faith. He checked out other churches but found the Church of Christ to be closer to the Bible than others. In one part of the book he talks about the 1,000 rule reign supposivley that's going to happen. He concluded it won't happen because of clues Jesus gave in the gospel books such as in Matthew six. Earth isn't Jesus' home and when he died he died once and for all. The next time you'll see Jesus will be on judgment day when you die.

More saucepans to distract them.

funny book I've ever read.

Are becoming infected with all sorts of propaganda and bullshit. They regularly broadcast propaganda puff pieces on the military, both past and present, along with loads of Christian propaganda, and other such BS. It is quickly getting to the point where I'm going to give my satellit subscription the heave-ho. The only thing that keeps me on it now is sports and movies, the rest is simply 500 channels of junk for the most part.

Many people I know don't own TV or simply don't have cable service, but rely on the internet/computer as entertainment...

I am beginning to see just why and just who is really watching...

Is it so wrong to want quality educational entertainment???

it came to a part where one of their contributors was televangelist Benny Hinn. It was then that I reached for the remote, having found out just what kind of dog n pony show this was.

I don't even like that myself. I like it when it's from actual scholars and professors. People who have studied this in depth.

I've noticed far less "science" on these channels than there was a decade ago.
Evolution, dinosaurs, plate tectonics, "life on earth" stuff is just not there that much anymore. Replaced with religious garbage.

for being the self-loathing Roy Cohn-esque type that he is. No way this dickless fucker can be straight.

The whole "End Times" prophecy thing is relatively new in the history of Christianity. Antichrist is treated more figuratively in the liberal denoms. It doesn't make good TV to hear quotes from someone talking about what other people believe about "the" antichrist. I wouldn't judge them too harshly. It may very well be they were setting up a folklore background before getting into the historical treatment.

I read Discover mag cover to cover and can't bring myself to believe their purpose here was to give some platform to fundies.

The preacher at my church has only talked about Revelation at least twice or so since he's been at our church and that's been several years now (about ten or so I believe). He does more on spiritual lessons that can be applied to your daily life. That's what I like.

I watched the first hour. Oddly enough, they did point out much of what is preached about the "Edn Times" has little to no basis in Biblical writings.

are going to spew end of the world stuff they would actually read their Bible's. My grandmother on my dad's side was saying how people need to actually read their Bible's. It's like with the three wise men. If you read through it there isn't mentioned how many men actually came. Just three gifts and people have made it into three men with a gift each.

(which was the last time I saw them) because between the oafs making unrideable motorcycles and the oafs wrestling crocodiles, there was nothing there to discover.

Remember when:

Discovery had science and history documentaries?

Ditto The Learning Channel?

History had history other than World War II?

A&E had British and Australian dramas and arts documentaries?

Bravo had foreign films?

AMC had uncut, uninterrupted movies?

MTV had music?

The Travel Channel showed places other than Las Vegas?

CNN was THE place to go for news?

It's hard to believe, isn't it, when you think of the 90% crap that these channels now offer.

Now even the digital channels are getting dumbed down. The All-War-All-the-Time programming is starting to leak into History International as well, and the former Discovery Civilization channel is mostly government propaganda since becoming Discovery Times. Biography shows the same five or six episodes of Inspector Morse over and over amidst stories of houses that are haunted by the ghosts of celebrities or profiles of serial killers.

The only channel that seems to have improved in quality is BBC America, after viewers complained vociferously and endlessly about the proliferation of DIY shows and Benny Hill reruns. They are now showing more dramas and newer comedies, but I'm coming to the conclusion that one channel is not enough reason to keep subscribing.

I can't stand this crap anymore...

I just don't watch much tv anymore myself now days. I have a couple shows I enjoy. I like reading more days now. :)

I turn on the Biography Channel, and all I see are mystery shows. Where the hell are the biographies?? I thought that's why they created it since they stopped showing the biographies on A&E.

With the exception of HBO and the Sundance Channel, cable is crap now.

History Channel too.

It's sad, I loved both of these channels for a couple years. Then they kind of slowly morphed into Republican TV.

If it wasn't for those stoopid build a motorcycle shows that my kids watch we would never turn on the Discovery Channel at our house.

The founder and largest individual shareholder of Discovery, John Hendricks is consistent supporter of Democratic candidates. The current president of the channel, Judith McHale, is a longtime Democrat, a confidant of Hillary Clinton, often mentioned as a possible campaign manager if she makes a run in 2008.

onenote

And if shitheel religion sells that's what they're selling.

I am glad their largest shareholder is a good Dem supporter. But watch for awhile. You'll see what I mean. That motorcycle show is a GREAT example.

Having only watched a few minutes of any of the various motorcycle shows that are on Discovery, I don't find them very interesting, but I also didn't see anything that made them paricularly "RW". I'm assuming that you're not suggesting that they're RW simply because they're about motorcycles.

onenote

NICE comments. One of the shows has a picture of him hanging in the office. So does Dawg The Bounty Hunter and I used to like that show LOL.

They have done several shows about building 911 bikes for firefighters in NYC. Which is nice, but the shows are peppered with pro war remarks.

born with two heads, anti-christ, etc.

i fuckin HATE it -- i watch trading spaces, wywo, martha -- and that's about it -- they have NOTHING on that's good anymore.

frustrating -- since i will only pay for basic cable.

It was on the History Channel. Different channel. Different ownership. Different.

onenote

religious dramas about the crucifixion of christ too.


on the history channel i want shows about history.

but that's just me.

is because of how "great" the discovery channel is. if i want to start a fight with the missus, i ask her when was the last time you heard something there that you didn't already know from national geographic, scientific american, or the NYT science section?

that's when it gets pointed out that i love to watch the sonics get trounced & the first 5 minutes of the daily show. yeah, that's worth $600/year.

Both have become virtual propaganda networks.
Shame, Shame on GE. Shame on NBC

NBC has no ownership interest in Discovery. Until earlier this year, Discovery was owned 50 percent by Liberty Media, and roughly 25 percent each by Advance Newhouse and Cox Communications (with John Hendricks, the channel's founder, holding around 1 percent). Liberty spun off its interest into a separate publicly traded company, Discovery Holding. As noted in a separate post, Discovery's founder (Hendricks) and its CEO (Judith McHale) are staunch Democrats. Yes, the channel's programming has gone downhill, but there is no evidence that it has anything to do with politics.

And for the record, yes, NBC owns 25 percent of A&E, which owns History Channel. But it is the smallest stakeholder. Hearst and Disney each own 37.5% of the channel. Again, I'm no fan of the channel's programming, but History has always been the "tank" channel.

onenote

The problem is that the "better" shows are on the Digital channels & the former educational channels have been dumbed down a bit.

However, the maligned Discovery Channel runs a LOT of shows supporting Evolution. Pre-Dinosuars, Dinos, Post-Dinosaurs & Early Man are all popular subjects.

My bad!

They had the usual assortment of right-wing nutjobs, but they also had some more moderate religious figures, and even threw in the Islamic view of antichrist. They also had scholars talking about how the antichrist was a way for early Jews and Christians to deal with Greco-Roman persecution (particularly the emperor Nero). The more moderate ones felt that antichrist was a metaphor, that it's something that exists in all of us, sort of a yin/yang thing if you will.

What was realy funny was that they pointed out that many fundies have applied the Antichrist label to presidents, and they talked about how some felt Reagan was the antichrist (all 3 of his names - Ronald Wilson Reagan - have 6 letters - 666). They also showed a clip of Bush, and said how some people feel that the United States has become the antichrist.

But I switched the channel when Benny Hinn started talking... Shouldn't even give freaks like him and the rapture ready retards the time of day.

The show was on the HISTORY CHANNEL.

Funny, but when I watched it, they said the point of view given by Hal Lindsay represented the fundamentalist mindset. They did talk about the popularity of his book and how many people got their view of the "end times" from it. But they never ever implied they considered him to be more of an expert than anyone else.

And the idea of the AntiChrist being handsome, intelligent, etc. is hardly a fundy notion. Remember that the original concept of Lucifer is that he was the most beautiful angel and God's favorite. However, pride got the better of him and look where he landed!

And yes, they did show how the concept of the anti-Christ has changed over the years, and how whoever was the villain of the day tended to get high consideration as being the antiChrist. One guy remarked about how when Protestantism was getting started, many adherents considered the Pope the antiChrist while the Pope returned the favor by speculating that maybe Protestant leaders deserved that honor.

You probably were watching another show.

got interrupted with a phone call - but it was seeming to be pretty balanced. Personally, I have always felt Bush is the reincarnation of Nero but the one thing that I did get to see and was struck by was the fact that Armeggedon in Greek (I believe) means (and I don't remember this exactly) but I believe they said it meant "revealing". The Bible was originally a Greek document. So that gave me great hope that in fact what we are living through now is the "end" of the lies and deceipt which we are being fed daily and in fact a whole lot WILL be revealed and then these fundies can go back and re-evaluate along with all the Bush ass lickers. I wish I could have caught the rest, it actually looked pretty interesting.

who were NOT fundies. The HISTORY CHANNEL showed the fundie point of view and showed the more rational point of view that the anti-christ was usually some historical person like Domitian and Nero. Or that anti-christ is not really a person, but the opposite nature of Jesus.

I do agree that a show on the Anti-Christ, fueling all this fundie fervor, is ridiculous.

I am well aware it was the History Channel. Oops!

We couldn't get beyond Benny Hinn...he and the other fundies were too much for us. I am glad it did show a more rational POV eventually.

Frankly, I don't think the fundies should have even been allowed a few seconds to spurt thier insanity.

I usually enjoy watching and learning about anything but not when it's so biased like that. I'm a Christian but I'm not a fundie. I love to question and explore things myself. Even in Proverbs King Solomon told and warned to always check things out yourself and not to blindly follow someone. That's actually one of my favorite books in the Bible personally because there's a lot of great common sense advice there such as that. I personally don't worry about the antiChrist and the end of the world. I still have freewill and things like that. And all the people who put too much time into the "end of the world" theories are just wasting their time. Even the Bible tells you that: 1 Thessalonians 5 1Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

4But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.

You can read more at biblegateway.com But whenever someone brings up the end of the world and the antiChrist I show them that little verse(s).

How dare the History Channel run a program that questions their view of the Antichrist! Of course the Antichrist is a literal figure, the Left Behind books tell me so! That does it, I'm calling up my cable company and cancelling my account.