Less Than Great Expectations

(Hat tip: Atheist Media Blog)

How predictable are these godbotherers, anyway?

PBS funds a two-part documentary, airing in November, about what archaeologists -- real scientists -- have discovered about who wrote the Bible and why.

And crepey-creep Donald E. Wildmon of the "American Family Association" instructs his flock to petition Congress to take away the network's public funding.

Because evidence is blasphemy, doncha know.

Trailer for the show is here.

Of course this isn't the first time PBS has been forced to defend itself, nor is it likely to be the last.  I expect the network will continue to have staunch allies among those Americans who don't wish to lose The News Hour, Sesame Street, or The American Experience, among other things.  Our local PBS affiliate, TV Ontario, does a Saturday Night at the Movies series that's a steady draw, and a Big Ideas series for the bookishly inclined.  (Technically, Ontarians could manage well enough with a PBS broadcast from Buffalo, but Canadians have this thing about supporting our own cultural outlets.)

Perhaps Wildmon's real problem with PBS -- and with science, for that matter -- isn't that it's as "liberal" as he alleges.  Maybe the problem is that programs like NOVA Science Now don't tell him what he expects to hear.

Daniel Dennett suggests that what believers are afraid of is a "breakdown of consensus."  That is, learning that their neighbors don't share their most basic beliefs about the nature of things is frightening to those who believe certain things, and especially to those who believe without necessarily understanding what they believe or why.

Of course our society is founded partly on ritualized hypocrisy.  Everything from "no, dear, you don't look fat" to "fine, thanks, and how are you" to "have a good day" is known to be an untruth  to some degree, and is nevertheless expected in polite interaction.  When people hear something that they weren't expecting, it can be difficult for them to fit the unexpected into their previous understanding.

Shared belief contains a large element of "I know, and you know, and I know that you know, and you know that I know this is nonsense but it gives us a reason to get together regularly so that makes it worthwhile whether it's true or not" -- but this is a truth that must not be spoken aloud.  What a waste of time and brain cells.