American Atheists Media AlertWednesday, February 8. 2006 ELLEN JOHNSON ON MSNBC SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY — TONIGHT (FEBRUARY 8, 2006) “THE DAVINCI CODE” — BLASPHEMY? Ellen Johnson, President of American Atheists will be the guest tonight (Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006) on the popular MSNBC program “Scarborough Country” with host Joe Scarborough. Tonight’s discussion topic is the hit book “The DaVinci Code.” The movie version is due in theaters shortly. Squaring off against Ms. Johnson will be a representative of Catholic Outreach, who claims that the book by Dan Brown is “blasphemy” and an “attack” on religion. Ellen Johnson says that while “The DaVinci Code” is a work of fiction, some religious groups are over-reacting, and that scholarly inquiry about religious claims and history is the real issue.
Well, for my 2 cents. In reality, there is no concrete evidence that DaVinci ever existed, so I agree. It is a work of fiction.
By the way Dave…”it’s that so, so popular program on MNBC”. Microsoft read the writing on the wall and sold there interest in MSNBC. No one watches it.
ick, Scarborough. That show’s worse than the Factor.
Give ‘em hell, Ellen!
*there* should be their..before everyone jumps….
Phreedm is phumbling again….
Um Phreedm, Jesus never painted a masterpiece, wrote a book on human anatomy, constructed gear-powered robotic monsters, or drew up plans for medieval flying machines. Your analogy/joke doesn’t have much to stand on.
I’m gonna watch and I’m gonna hope she makes us proud. I read the book and thought it was great fun and very interesting. My book club agreed and no Catholics were harmed in any way.
i’ll tune in to see how it shakes out.
hey phreedm, how do we know that you exist? j/k
phreedm:
Hey, I gave up the spelling crap long ago.
You make enough laughable, & deplorable statements, to make the typos vanish.
RA:
“Hey, I gave up the spelling crap long ago.
You make enough laughable, & deplorable statements, to make the typos vanish.”
that’s classic….. hehehehe
I will be watching!
I am watching, and am compelled to go see The Davinci Code movie until it gets boring (Yay for my ability to pass off as a 10 year old).
-J?r?me
Great job, Ellen
I don’t like how Scarborough (my what a delightful sounding name) made comments like “Are you and your organization happy that the Catholic Church is being ridiculed.” I am just paraphrasing on that one but it is pretty accurate.
-J?r?me
Did you notice how Joe pronounced “atheist”? I felt he was talking about a weird cult.
Yes he did. I don’t think he was being entirely truthful when he said he respected Atheists.
-J?r?me
By the way, for those who missed it the first time around, it’s coming on again at 1:00 central. I’m TIVOing it.
Gotta love TIVO.
ditdit thanks for the tip will have to tune in
Wow, got lucky, my wife is still home and set the DVR. I wish we had a better heads up on this stuff. It’s the same with FFRF. They send email alerts when I’ve shut off my computer it seems like.
oops, 1 am last night it repeated. Oh well, the transcript will be here later today.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3719710/
Great job Ellen, you looked great and I LOVED how you brought up the FACT that the catholic church is a secretive organization! They had nothing to say about that did they? hehe
Is it possible for American Atheists to post those apearances on their page (like you guys do with the in house TV show)? I dont have a TV, and I rarely have a desire to watch, but I would have liked to see that. Maybe someone could mail me a tape (please please!)
The problem with doing these shows for any atheist or skeptic is that they will edit down the questions and comments to fit the “formula” that the show itself is presenting.
When any show on aliens or ghosts comes on the skeptic is always muzzled. They will tell exactly why the myth is false and the aired version just has an offhand comment. Most of these shows sell mystery and entertainment. An informed explanation would ruin the ratings. The mystery; real or imagined is pumped up to the extreme, and that is the “marketability” of the show. Reality only sells if people are jumping from a burning building.
I just watched the part of the show Ellen was in. what a load of crap. As a former Catholic, I still have a great deal of respect for the Catholic church as a whole. But, I think everyone is over-reacting to the book. It’s a BOOK!! This is no different than those crazy fundies who refuse to let their kids read Harry Potter because it “promotes” witchcraft.
Did these people react this way when the Omen movies were released? Geez.
Zac: Wish I’d read your post before I watched. I just deleted it from my TIVO. Sorry.
Whether it’s a book or cartoon, for anyone taking their religion seriously, they can’t just sit back and ‘let it go’ – tolerance is the characteristic of someone with no convictions. If you truly believe what Islam or the Catholic Church are teaching you, it’s time to reach for some means of forcefully correcting/punishing the nay sayers.
This is exactly why religion is so dangerous and I have ZERO respect for ANY institution that can only survive by spreading it’s own lie.
Wait, Zac, I may have it on my DVR still, let me check.
-J?r?me
I will watch it on 2/8/06.
The catholic church a secret organization. You bet your a– it is. So many people involved in the catholic church are involved in politics, gov’t jobs. Not to obvious.
Get more atheists in clerical, computer gov’t jobs and you will see the little guy at the bottom gets away with screwing off during working hours, gets more raises than their co-workers. The higher ups well they either get elected into office – no matter how low done the political totum pole- or get jobs in the executive positions. Just going to political meetings isn’t enough. Noooo get into the catholic church and watch how high up you can go.