New reality TV show (Turkey): converting atheists

[pimpernickel]

I can't wait to see the Imam kill then Infidel every time he doesn't get picked.

[Medievalguy]

This is so insulting....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090703/od_ ... meshow_odd

[Girlysprite]

The greatest gift is 'a belief in a god'?



I think a show with this roles turned around would be funnier. A small panel of atheists trying to de-convert people

[Aca]

nah, i think muslims trying to convert jews or christians or otherway around would make for a good show - good enough for Jerry springer :D

[CJ]

I'd love to see a Big Brother where there are 12 contestants all devout theists, 4 Jews, 4 Muslims, 4 Christians each a pair of men and women. No games, no teasing just left in there to get on with each other. No evictions for the first 4 weeks. Then all voted for each week, for the following 6 weeks and 2 go each week. Winner gets 10% of the phone-in revenue to give to a non-theistic charity.

[Skylarking]

I'd love to see a Big Brother where there are 12 contestants all devout theists, 4 Jews, 4 Muslims, 4 Christians each a pair of men and women. No games, no teasing just left in there to get on with each other. No evictions for the first 4 weeks. Then all voted for each week, for the following 6 weeks and 2 go each week. Winner gets 10% of the phone-in revenue to give to a non-theistic charity.

THIS

[Skylarking]

The greatest gift is 'a belief in a god'?



I think a show with this roles turned around would be funnier. A small panel of atheists trying to de-convert people

Or a small panel of hard core creationists, each from another religion, trying to convince an atheist why their creation story is the one true reality. Actually, I think I would like to see that done in a public debate, on national television...

[bert]

Sorry, won't happen. Strict rules apply in some countries when it comes to TV: No reality shows.

Bert

[kapkarabirkedi]

oh my bolly god in turkey in a private channel , there is a new competition.

one christian priest , jewesh priest , one imam and one budhist priest and 10 atheist is going to discuss. and try to change atheist to their religion. they are going to discuss every program and if they beleive in god,

the prize is not money. going to kudus , mekka , vatikan , or tibet with that priest.

i dont know what to say.

[kapkarabirkedi]

whop :D i did not see that :D sorry

but i am sure the imam is going to won , and beat that strict atheist and they will go to mekka in peace. do you know why because it is in muslim country. and if the christian priest wons , there might be a chaos

[Skylarking]

whop :D i did not see that :D sorry

but i am sure the imam is going to won , and beat that strict atheist and they will go to mekka in peace. do you know why because it is in muslim country. and if the christian priest wons , there might be a chaos

Even without the challenge of converting the atheist there would be chaos.

I give the fundies about an hour together before the bloodshed starts. Actually, given the track record of inter-religious violence... I give them twenty minutes.

[Acantha]

I'd love to see a Big Brother where there are 12 contestants all devout theists, 4 Jews, 4 Muslims, 4 Christians each a pair of men and women. No games, no teasing just left in there to get on with each other. No evictions for the first 4 weeks. Then all voted for each week, for the following 6 weeks and 2 go each week. Winner gets 10% of the phone-in revenue to give to a non-theistic charity.

I'd watch that for sure, with gusto!

[kapkarabirkedi]

i have to say that. lots of turkish people are angry to this program. even the muslims.

[yoo-tope-ee-ah]

When does it finish?

[Skylarking]

When does it finish?

When the theomites manage to kill each other off.

[armagandenizci]

What a publicity stunt for Kanal T, the Turkish channel that announced this show. Nothing eventually seems to have come of it since the release of the news article in late June 2009.

For starters, the mechanics of the game including the questioning and religion shopping phases, and finally the reward part sounded too fishy. What's with Buddhism? Wikipedia sources Christian Encyclopedia's 2001 figures for the number of Buddhists in Turkey as 71,159 in a population of appr. 70 million. So I guess the creators of the show must have thought some orange garb in the studio would mix and match well with green and black. And as for the rabbi bit, it is a dead giveaway about the seriousness of this enterprise. Is not Judaism an exclusive club?

I wasn't even sure whether the tv channel itself existed; their web site at <www.kanalt.com.tr> looks deserted although it features some well-known names of Turkish television on their roster. Also, there is no mention of the Petinents Compete show. So I went ahead and dialled their advertised phone number both to validate the authenticity of the channel (you see, I don't have cable tv at home) and to ask them about the show. The operator said this particular show had indeed been announced some time ago but has been cancelled since, and she could not give further information. So at least I learned from a primary source that the whole thing wasn't an urban legend or a hoax.

On another note, the fact that this piece of sensational news has garnered international attention goes on to show that there actually is some religious tolerance in Turkey, at least to the extent that it is guarded by the constitution if not by the majority of the population at the moment.

I was surprised to see a wikipedia article devoted to the show (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penitents_Compete). The wiki piece says "The Guardian and CBC News have remarked some people may see the show as promoting a further intolerance towards atheists in Turkey" but I disagree. Apart from the fact that it was never aired eventually, I think even the announcement of a show like this should be seen in a positive light nevertheless. I see a good in this. To me, this means some creative brains with outlandish ideas are not censored despite expected reactions from all quarters. The more of them, the merrier.

I know that such a controversial piece of tv programming sounds paradoxical when it emanates from Turkey but this country never fails to surprise you; some transsexuals like Sisi a.k.a. Seyhan Soylu a.k.a Ilyas Tatar get detained for political conspiracies (for complicity in the Ergenekon trials) and then they go on to stir some buzz concocting game shows like these (which, if you ask me, really would be an excellent platform to pit one religion to another by a level headed atheist, but of course the entire show is staged in these things). Others like Sayin Divam Bulent Ersoy wear a headscarf and pray with their hands up and wide flaunting their faith to the religious housewives on national tv and even breastfeed a baby (!) on their music videos while distancing themselves from the randomly stigmatized and persecuted transgender community.

Then again, tv shows of this sort would still be a tad risky in most countries in this tense and clashy climate, don't you think? Except maybe in northern European countries, but even then the news would spread to the rest of the world like bushfire to be followed by protests and flag burnings and slipper whackings and what not. Disposition to take offense knows no bounds. Who knows what zealot from which denomination on any side of the aisle would hear voices with explicit instructions to burn down a tv studio?

[NuclearWarfare]

Hello there. I'm NuclearWarfare on Wikipedia, one of two people (along with User:Awadewit)). We saw a couple of the news articles while talking about something unrelated and decided to write it. I saw your post while looking for more sources, and I saw a couple of notes I wanted to discuss:

"The wiki piece says "The Guardian and CBC News have remarked some people may see the show as promoting a further intolerance towards atheists in Turkey" but I disagree."
---To be fair, that is what the sources said.

"Apart from the fact that it was never aired eventually"
---Do you have a source for this? I have looked all over, but I cannot seem to find one. If we could add it to the article, it would be very helpful.

"I think even the announcement of a show like this should be seen in a positive light nevertheless. I see a good in this. To me, this means some creative brains with outlandish ideas are not censored despite expected reactions from all quarters. The more of them, the merrier."
---Definitely agree.

Regards,
NuclearWarfare.

P.S. If you do reply, could you please post a note to that regard to the following page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Penitents_Compete

[armagandenizci]

Hello there. I'm NuclearWarfare on Wikipedia, one of two people (along with User:Awadewit)). We saw a couple of the news articles while talking about something unrelated and decided to write it. I saw your post while looking for more sources, and I saw a couple of notes I wanted to discuss:

"The wiki piece says "The Guardian and CBC News have remarked some people may see the show as promoting a further intolerance towards atheists in Turkey" but I disagree."
---To be fair, that is what the sources said.

"Apart from the fact that it was never aired eventually"
---Do you have a source for this? I have looked all over, but I cannot seem to find one. If we could add it to the article, it would be very helpful.

"I think even the announcement of a show like this should be seen in a positive light nevertheless. I see a good in this. To me, this means some creative brains with outlandish ideas are not censored despite expected reactions from all quarters. The more of them, the merrier."
---Definitely agree.

P.S. If you do reply, could you please post a note to that regard to the following page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Penitents_Compete

First, I would like to thank and congratulate you for following up on your articles at wikipedia.


"Apart from the fact that it was never aired eventually"... And do I have a source for this? Yes, as I mentioned in my first post under this topic, I phoned Kanal-T and asked their representative whether the show was ever aired at all. She said no. The phone number is there for all to dial.



It seems that some wiki editors have bitten the publicity bait of a very insignificant Turkish tv station on the stray cues of a couple of press sources such as The Guardian and CBC News. There are probably other news outlets that amplified this story as well, but I'm not aware of them. Maybe some curious soul may trace the evolution of this news piece back to its very source, along with specific mutations at each sourcing, sort of like the game of Chinese Whispers.

I wish wikipedia had elected to write about this unaired (i.e. failed at planning phase) game show after having exhausted the entire list of of all past and currently aired actual game shows on Turkish television channels. Of course, the title and claimed content of this particular show were just too juicy to miss. Precisely what the PR wizards at Kanal-T had aimed! What is sadly ironic is that as soon as a clever PR tactic finds its way into wikipedia, however inadvertently, its veracity immediately becomes sanctioned. I strongly guess that wiki editors are often reminded about sagacious use of their editing rights because of wiki's claim to authority on "encyclopedic information" at their disposal. At any rate, the Penitents Compete should go down in history as a minor sensation at wikipedia and the Internet at large, so let's all fugetaboudid.

[Mysturji]

Seyhan Soylu, a famous transsexual known as "Sisi," is the mastermind behind the new religion-themed program and will be moderated by well-known female newscaster Gülgün Feyman. The show’s producer is model Ayşe Önal.

I didn't think they would allow transsexual to even be alive in turkey, let alone come up with game shows.

*edit* I wonder if you get a free circumcision with that trip to jerusalem

It depends on the "direction" of the transsexualism.

By the way... that reminds me of a pub quiz I attended many years ago...
One question was:
Q. "Are all transsexuals homosexual?"

I thought about this, and decided that the only answer was:
A. "Before or after?"

[NuclearWarfare]

"Apart from the fact that it was never aired eventually"... And do I have a source for this? Yes, as I mentioned in my first post under this topic, I phoned Kanal-T and asked their representative whether the show was ever aired at all. She said no. The phone number is there for all to dial.

Ah, I see. A pity that kind of information cannot be properly included in Wikipedia with a reliable, secondary source, but I have added it in to the article with a citation needed (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =315819513) tag.

And what a shame that this was never aired. I was really looking forward to seeing what this would turn out to be.