Yes that’s right… discontented with the lack of overt religious themes in mainstream superheroes such as Superman or Spiderman, CBN has created a series called “Bibleman”. Part Jedi Knight (who, judging from the choreography hasn’t even mastered the simple Shii-Cho form) and part former security guard turned holy avenger, Bibleman battles stereotypical one-sided supervillains, some of whom have been effeminized to imply that they are homosexuals.

In the beginning, Bibleman’s sidekick Cypher (the African-American in the picture) fights off thieves who intend to steal bibles from a Christian bookstore and burn them… for no particular reason whatsoever except maybe that they hate religion or something.

We soon find out that the real enemy is someone named ‘The Wacky Protester’ (the ridiculous-looking thing at the left of the poster), who has a machine that generates a portal to a virtual world where “there is no God”. The Protester essentially wants to lure little kids into his ‘funbox’ (nothing wrong there…) and convert them into atheists, as if there isn’t any indoctrination coming from anyone in the religious community and just being an atheist were some sort of horrible atrocity. It is at this point where the film makes a pathetic attempt at pop culture, when the talking computer that is the Wacky Protester’s partner in crime compares his virtual world machine to “The Matrix”.

Two kids are quickly abducted from a Christian summer camp, lured inside the machine, and converted into atheists by the virtual world’s subpar 3D graphics and random buzzing CGI bees… somehow. But unfortunately for the Protestor, Biblegirl – despite being a creationist and biblical literalist – is able to spout out a bunch of Treknobabble in Bibleman’s pseudoscience lab to determine what was happening to those two kids who became atheists.

Bibleman and Cypher then engage in a battle royale with the Wacky Protestor – if you consider a crappy musical number and lightsaber choreography more pathetic than any Star Wars fanfilms that I’ve seen a ‘battle royale’ – to save the souls of those two children. Of course, God always wins in the end, so despite the Protestor and his swarm of CGI bees’ best efforts, Bibleman prevails and those two kids can continue to be good fundamentalists who will grow up voting Republican because of ‘family values’ issues.

It’s ironic that Bibleman – A Fight for Faith implies that atheists are out to indoctrinate young people into not believing in Christianity when the film itself is doing the exact same thing towards atheism – essentially indoctrinating kids, who form and hold opinions much more easily than adults, that atheists are all elitist college nerds who should be feared. But I would argue that this film also teaches kids a far more dangerous lesson – that people different from your conservative Christian self are somehow ‘out to get you’; replace ‘atheist’ with any other religion or ethnic group and this film would be just as reprehensible. On the other hand, the effort (or lack thereof) that CBN put into special effects made the film more hilarious and bearable than otherwise intended.

Overall, for promoting negative stereotypes about atheists and to aim it towards the most susceptible audience possible, Bibleman – A Fight for Faith gets 4.5 out of 5 popped collars.

Seriously though – I may not be any connoisseur of wrestling, but these people are pretty good; they even have the chairs-and-ladders-being-used-as-weapons thing down:

Now all we need is a fake plot with a powerful and amoral wrestling industry mogul to turn this into a man-drama.

My friend, Brian Dunning (from the excellent Skeptoid podcast), is in the process of creating a new TV show called The Skeptologists. They’ve just finished the pilot episode. Hopefully it gets picked up and we get more of this awesomeness!

From the Skeptologists site:

We’re not willing to just accept stories of the paranormal or supernatural. We want proof. Each week, we’ll take on a handful of wild claims — from the Bermuda Triangle to Bigfoot sightings to haunted houses — and apply accepted scientific practices and experiments to see if these ideas really hold up. Whether in the field or in the lab, we’ll literally put these subjects to the test in the hopes that one day we may find something that can’t be explained. Each episode will investigate one or more popular paranormal, supernatural, or other type of phenomena, in favor of evidence-based science.

The cast includes:

• Yau-Man Chan, 4th place contestant on Survivor: Fiji and Cheif Technology Officer for UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry
• Mark Edward, a professional mentalist specializing in magic of the mind.
• Dr. Steven Novella, a academic clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine, president of the New England Skeptical Society, writer of the Neurologica blog, and host of the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast.
• Dr. Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, writer of the Bad Astronomy blog, and a renowned astronomer, author, lecturer, and blogger.
• Dr. Kirsten Sanford, holds a PhD in physiology from UC Davis and is known more for her Sexy Geek nomination from a Wired magazine contest than for her intelligence.
• Dr. Michael Shermer, historian, author, monthly columnist for Scientific American, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine, and Executive Director of the Skeptics Society.
• Brian Dunning, host and executive producer of The Skeptologists and producer of Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomenon podcast and book of the same title.

They have a one minute sneak peak trailer out on Youtube. Here it is:

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You can HELP the Skeptologist by sending an e-mail of support to skeptologists@newrule.com. Write-in in support of this show idea and let them know why you would watch a show about critical thinking, science and skepticism. The e-mails will be collected and used to help with the show getting picked up. (They won’t use your e-mail for anything other than this purpose by the way.)

Let’s hope we see this on the air soon!

This description from the Stuff Happens site really makes me want to watch the show ASAP:

Stuff Happens examines the everyday stuff of our lives, and the far-reaching effects our actions have on the planet. From cashmere sweaters causing dust storms in China, to American pig farmers inadvertently aiding the global collapse of anchovy fisheries, Stuff Happens explores the surprising twists and unintended consequences of all the stuff in our lives.

This exciting half-hour series engages the viewer with astonishing information, easy-to-follow science, lighthearted demonstrations, expert interviews and connective story-telling to amplify growing problems in the environment and important solutions we can all take to make things better. With trademark good humor, Bill Nye helps viewers get a grip on big topics and presents positive, upbeat solutions to the critical problems facing us all.

In an nutshell: Stuff Happens explores how our daily lives affect the environment and how we can reduce our negative impact on. I can’t wait to start watching it! It premieres Tuesday, September 2 at 9pm ET.

And, if you didn’t know already, Bill did have another TV show awhile back called The Eyes of Nye. It was essentially Bill Nye the Science Guy but geared more towards adults and would talk about science and discuss the ramifications of science and technology.

Man, Bill Nye is so cool. Although…it really was weird when he wanted to get a restraining order against his ex-wife because of allegations dealing with poisoning…

Nevertheless, he’s still so cool to me.