Wednesday WTF: Religious Reality TV

Note: I've always liked the idea of doing regular features. So this is the start of my Wednesday WTF series, which will be a collection of the recent events, stories, and experiences that have made me stop and go WTF.

You know this joke, right? It goes: A rabbi, an imam, a priest and a Buddhist monk walk into a TV studio... Well, I haven't made up a punchline yet, but the story (via) supplies it for me pretty nicely. A Turkish TV station is planning a new reality show wherein the aforementioned religious officials each try to convert ten atheists, who have all been pre-screened for genuine lack of belief by a "team of theologians", on-camera. The converts will win a trip to their new religion's holy land: Mecca, the Vatican, Jerusalem or Tibet. WTF? So you "pre-screen" people to make sure they really don't believe in god (because, y'know, it's totes impossible that someone could lie about that), and then you let a few religiony dudes have at them, and if they can get the atheists to say "Ok, I'm in!" the newly-religious wins a free vacation (albeit one with supposed religious significance)?

Oh, yeah. Totally no potential for lying, cheating, and abuse of the "system" in this. All the "converts" are gonna be 110% truly converted and committed to their new faith, yep yep. Because NOBODY would even THINK to profess faith they don't feel when it'll get them a free trip. Not to mention, where exactly is the entertainment factor in this? Seriously, who finds it entertaining to watch people get preached at? WTF?