"Secrets of the Bible" is being shown in America on the American Heroes Channel, which is a Discovery Communications minor cable network. Discover Communications likes to describe itself as "The World's #1 Nonfiction Media Company."
That attribution however does not apply to "Secrets of the Bible".
This show is clearly aimed at a demographic who are not looking for a critical evaluation (either through science or history) of the Bible but who are seeking to perhaps reconcile some creeping doubts about their beliefs and are looking for reinforcement. It probably will find an audience in the American Bible Belt. It will also appeal to those who want to steep themselves in mysticism.
As far as entertainment value - it has more than the worst of cable TV programs, but here I find it hard to give rating stars to the program on a network that is purportedly about history when the show is more a constructed drama.
The most recently aired episode, on Sodom, is a classic case of selectively editing supposed "experts" to fit the show narrative. Objectively in modern archeology no one can claim to have identified any such city, and many scholars of the Jewish literature do dismiss Sodom as mythology. Yet "Secrets of the Bible" pushes forward the narrative that Sodom is a real place and builds for us a narrative about a brave rebel archaeologist (Collins) who is fighting the establishment's view about Sodom.
This series may not be without any merit, but again I have to ask - does this show have anything more to do with reality than say all those UFO shows which clutter up cable networks so hungry for viewers that psychics and underwater Alien bases are put up as "history" or "science"? My answer is not really, or not noticeably any better to be worthy of the marketing moniker "The World's #1 Nonfiction".
That attribution however does not apply to "Secrets of the Bible".
This show is clearly aimed at a demographic who are not looking for a critical evaluation (either through science or history) of the Bible but who are seeking to perhaps reconcile some creeping doubts about their beliefs and are looking for reinforcement. It probably will find an audience in the American Bible Belt. It will also appeal to those who want to steep themselves in mysticism.
As far as entertainment value - it has more than the worst of cable TV programs, but here I find it hard to give rating stars to the program on a network that is purportedly about history when the show is more a constructed drama.
The most recently aired episode, on Sodom, is a classic case of selectively editing supposed "experts" to fit the show narrative. Objectively in modern archeology no one can claim to have identified any such city, and many scholars of the Jewish literature do dismiss Sodom as mythology. Yet "Secrets of the Bible" pushes forward the narrative that Sodom is a real place and builds for us a narrative about a brave rebel archaeologist (Collins) who is fighting the establishment's view about Sodom.
This series may not be without any merit, but again I have to ask - does this show have anything more to do with reality than say all those UFO shows which clutter up cable networks so hungry for viewers that psychics and underwater Alien bases are put up as "history" or "science"? My answer is not really, or not noticeably any better to be worthy of the marketing moniker "The World's #1 Nonfiction".
