NZ gets a cameo in Morgan Freeman’s series on God

Friday, April 29th, 2016

Actor Morgan Freeman is fronting a series called The Story of God.

It is presently going to air on the National Geographic Channel on Sky on Wednesdays at 8:30pm.

In Wednesday’s episode, in which he explored the concept of evil, Freeman comes to New Zealand, where a researcher shows us that children, when convinced that there is an invisible princess watching them, act significantly more ethically (in this case not cheating in a game) than children who believe they are alone.

“It’s good enough research, I think.”

“And it shows that children around the age of 5 can benefit from being lied to in the short run,” says reviewer Justin Whitaker.

“I’m not so sure how it relates to the rest of us.”

“Getting beyond the superficial, we find that religions around the world – people around the world – faced similar problems and often came up with similar solutions in terms of myths or ideas about the nature of the person and the world,” says Whitaker.

“This isn’t to overlook the differences.”

“In fact it was the differences and the unique insights of both Kant and early Buddhism that drew me to my line of study.”

It is not clear why Freeman had to come to New Zealand for this segment of the programme. The experiment has been carried out frequently in places closer to home.

The Story of God produced by Freeman, Lori McCreary and James Younger, takes viewers on a trip around the world to explore different cultures and religions on the ultimate quest to uncover the meaning of life, God and all these big questions in between.

Freeman seeks to understand how religion has evolved throughout the course of civilisation, and in turn how religion has shaped the evolution of society.

Although in our current geopolitical landscape, religion is often seen as something that divides, the series illuminates the remarkable similarities among different faiths, even those that seem to be in staunch contrast.

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