The genesis of it all
Don't worry, the bears are now gone. But you will see a few bear crossing signs dotted around Northern Ireland as a pointer to the Blueprint season currently running on tv, radio and online.
While that's going out, I'm busy writing a script for a new project. In a couple of months, Radio Ulster will be broadcasting the entire book of Genesis, in the voice of the actor Jim Norton, with dramatic effects and production courtesy of John Simpson and Studio 3 (who also gave birth to the concept). My role is to write the commentary that accompanies the eight-part series (to be called "In The Beginning"). This is the world of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah’s Ark, the great father-figures of the Hebrew faith -- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Methuselah, the world’s oldest man; the collapsing Tower of Babel; Joseph and his amazing technicolour dreamcoat. I'm currently making my way through chapter 25. Here endeth my coffee sabbatical -- I mean, break.
Comments
That sounds evolutionary, sorry I mean revolutionary!
Is this programme about Genesis intended as penance for making the Blueprint "atheistic propaganda"?
Or is it the other way round? Making Blueprint was an act of contrition for churning out "religious propaganda" for years?
Either way, I doubt if I shall be tuning in for the Moses fest. Genesis is like a 2,000 year-old map. It is not much use for finding one's way around. Anything it does get right it does by accident. Why not use a modern map?
Is this programme about Genesis intended as penance for making the Blueprint "atheistic propaganda"?
Or is it the other way round? Making Blueprint was an act of contrition for churning out "religious propaganda" for years?
Either way, I doubt if I shall be tuning in for the Moses fest. Genesis is like a 2,000 year-old map. It is not much use for finding one's way around. Anything it does get right it does by accident. Why not use a modern map?
Is this programme about Genesis intended as penance for making the Blueprint "atheistic propaganda"?
Or is it the other way round? Making Blueprint was an act of contrition for churning out "religious propaganda" for years?
Either way, I doubt if I shall be tuning in for the Moses fest. Genesis is like a 2,000 year-old map. It is not much use for finding one's way around. Anything it does get right it does by accident. Why not use a modern map?
Les, I see no contradiction in Will making programmes about science and about religion. Both topics are worth serious examination by journalists.
You accuse him of churning out religious propaganda for years. Is that what you think Sunday Sequence does? I listen to the programme but I would not consider myself a religious believer of any sort and I regard it as the most intelligent programme on radio ulster. I also teach literature and the book of Genesis certainly merits examination and study as a foundational text within western literature.
Helen,
Yes, Les has been on Sunday Sequence himself, and so have I. I would say that the programme features an odd mixture of irrational ‘fundamentalist’ religion existing cheek by jowl with intelligent ethics. If you can suffer the former, you can appreciate the latter. Les may well be right about a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú decision to dampen the flack by balancing an ‘evolutionary’ TV series with a reverential creationist/literary radio series.
As for William, presumably his job necessitates him doing what he is told. So he makes a ‘footprint’ in both camps, a fact which is evident in Sunday Sequence itself.
I think I’ll give the Moses fest a wide berth too. The stories are all too familiar – as well as being ridiculous. I long ago lost the capacity for a willing suspension of disbelief in this area.
I am tempted to quote Bertrand Russell: "There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire  - poison and antidote". A bit extreme, perhaps? Georges Simenon thought it was 'perhaps the cruellest book ever written'. Maybe the radio series should be prefaced with a warning for children: "These stories are definitely not to be taken literally".
Helen,
You do not seem to appreciate the meaning of inverted commas. I wrote "atheistic propaganda" because that is how a devout Christian did describe the programmes on another thread. I do not describe them in that way. I think that they are excellent.
Likewise, I referred to Sunday Sequence as "religious propaganda" as a parallel critique by a devout atheist. That is not my description, hence the use of inverted commas. I think the programme addresses interesting topics in a challenging way.
The serious point behind those comments, however, is that the scientific world-view which was being expressed in Blueprint does not place much value on ancient Arabic folktales. The scientific world-view is the "modern map" to which I was referring. Blueprint encourages people to use that modern map and I fully endorse that approach to understanding our world.
You say that Genesis needs more study. I disagree. Those ancient folktales have received far too much attention already. Western culture had a hard struggle to escape from their grip during the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. I would rather hear more about the people who made real contributions to human progress, like Galileo, or Lyell, or Darwin, or Turing, etc.
But I am not stopping you from "enjoying" another dose of Moses and his yarns. Bon appetit!
William : I do hope this isn't in response to Cecil Andrews' ridiculous protest at Blueprint Land ? :
Blueprint is an excellent series and many of the sites visited are where I went on my geology field trips in school. Why anyone would want to protest at what is good science presented in an entertaining way is beyond me.
The bible has of course been dramatised in this way before. UCB TV/Radio (I think Premier broadcast it as well) do the excellent series with actor Max McLean:
I always found it interesting that in the legendary "desert island discs" those guests stranded on the island were always givien a choice of books to take with them. The bible and Shakespeare were complimentary.
William : I do hope this isn't in response to Cecil Andrews' ridiculous protest at Blueprint Land ? :
Blueprint is an excellent series and many of the sites visited are where I went on my geology field trips in school. Why anyone would want to protest at what is good science presented in an entertaining way is beyond me.
The bible has of course been dramatised in this way before. UCB TV/Radio (I think Premier broadcast it as well) do the excellent series with actor Max McLean:
I always found it interesting that in the legendary "desert island discs" those guests stranded on the island were always givien a choice of books to take with them. The bible and Shakespeare were complimentary.
Peter:
It’s pleasing to see that you think the Bible is complimentary to Shakespeare as works of fiction. Perhaps you are even suggesting that the writers of the Bible, like Shakespeare, used mythical stories as allegories to convey fundamental truths about man and the universe.
I think, though, that Shakespeare’s truths are more relevant than the Bible’s. Macbeth teaches us about political ambition and Hamlet about revenge and justice. But I am not sure what the story of Adam and Eve is meant to teach, except that learning and knowledge are bad and women are temptresses. As for Noah’s Ark, it says a lot about 'divine wrath' but nothing about 'divine mercy'.
The comment in post 9 was:
"The bible and Shakespeare were complimentary."
Not *complementary*.
Peter's right, Brian ;-) Personally I think I would probably want to have the bible on my desert island, but I think it's a crazy presumption to think that everyone would. At the least it should be balanced by "The God Delusion" included in the bundle.
Genesis is but one slant on a multitude of Near-Eastern creation/origins myths that was worked over in the 8th-7th centuries BCE. We have copies of other such myths, and Genesis is really nothing special among them. "Word of God" it ain't.
I know this thread is about Genesis and the radio programme and we're not supposed to go off topic, but...
a discussion/comment about favourite book choices and why, might be quite interesting.
In the interests of fairness and to encourage more breadth, we could either assume or exclude, Shakespeare, the bible and The God Delusion as choices.
Any thoughts Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú?