Grandpa, Do We Come from Monkeys?
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
I ran across this YouTube video clip tonight. I remember this movie! It was in our church library along with many other scintillating children’s movies. Before church on Sundays, the kids who arrived early with their parents would watch a movie. This was never my favorite, but it gives you an idea of the level of sophistication we were exposed to. With this level of quality, is it any wonder I became an atheist?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYsTlbDLvkg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2F]
Tags: Creationism, Granpa Wiser, puppets
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September 7th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
At least the grandpa puppet is holding the Guitar right side up, unlike Kermit who holds his banjo upside down! LOL! I give them credit for that at least.
Not only are Adam and Eve not monkeys, they’re western european as well! Amazing!
Hey! The dark haired boy puppet asked the best question ever! “How do you know?” To bad the puppet grandmother dismissed his question without actually answering it. Just like my questions as I was growing up, “The bible says it and that’s all you need to know!” How sad. Is it just me or does the dark haired puppet boy seems asian? Is there some veiled pejudice or racial stereotyping there? Maybe not. Can’t say by watching a short clip.
Cain and Able are also very Western European looking for someone from the Levant. Seems to me that this video is aimed at white children.
At least there’s a black boy puppet. Too bad he’s demanding that something be killed because his remote ancestor ate the wrong fruit.
It’s amazing that we used to watch stuff like this. Remember Superbook? Ugh!
September 7th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I remember Superbook!! I had forgotten all about it! Haha! And yes, I found a white Adam and Eve rather ridiculous and puppets from other minority races seemed almost like a second thought. On another video, they did a “Jesus Loves the Little Children” song employing every racial stereotype in the book. It was pathetic.
I found the “Do you look like a monkey. . .” then the answer “No, I look like me!” kind of funny. They’re PUPPETS. Nobody is suggesting THEY evolved from anything but a cotton plant!
September 7th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Did you watch Psalty, The Donut Man, or those Hana Barbara movies (I forgot the name of that series)?
September 7th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
The Hannah-Barbera one was Stories from the Bible, I think. I think I’m a little old for The Donut Man, but I have seen a clip from it on Everything is Terrible too.
September 7th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Oh, yes. That’s what it was. I remember my pastor was so proud when I spotted a rather minor mistake in the Moses video: in the movie there were mud puddles but the Bible says they walked on dry land. That was when I was 7. Yeah, let anybody tell me I didn’t know my Bible and THAT’S why I am an atheist. Ha!
September 7th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Was Psalty the anthropomorphic hymnal? Yes! I do remember him! I’d forgotten about that one!
September 7th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Yeah, check out this rather disturbing YouTube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnm3VRUuhhk
Blooper: Puppy or Pedophile?
September 7th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
I also noticed that in the animated sequences, the bad people have dark hair and the good have light colored hair. Is that intentional? Do children pick up on this?
Kind of reminds me of The Book of Mormon where the ancestors of native american developed dark skin and hair as a punishment for sin.
September 7th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I had a hard time watching that! How did I stand that way back then?
September 8th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t watch this video when I was a kid. I would have wanted “Satan” for a pet. The snake is kinda cute.
Look at that face, teeny horns, and all.
Hey, welcome back Lauradee. Best wishes with school.
Love “Adventures in Odyssey,” and the “Donut Man.”
September 8th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Oh, Adventures in Odyssey was our obsession. We had it all. We listened to it before bed, Saturday mornings, on long car trips, etc. I actually don’t mind listening to it occasionally. It helps me focus on housework without the added visual stimulation of the television. I did put in a CD for Julieanne to listen to about a week ago, though. It had been awhile since I’d listened, and I was surprised at how much fighting there was on that disc. I actually pulled it out because she’s only 3 and I didn’t think she needed to listen to it. When she’s older maybe. There was a lot more yelling than we do in our house now, but when I was a kid, it was totally normal and we never thought anything of it. It’s weird.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:25 am
oh, btw, it was one of their earlier episodes. I don’t think it was like that the whole way through. That disc had the episode where Jenny (Whit’s wife) died, and the two part episode where Whit’s grandson Monty comes to town. Lots of drama between his divorced daughter and Whit. Now that I am older, I completely identify with the daughter and understand her frustration! Whit isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy with his kids!
September 8th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I can’t stand Adventures in Odyssey. I caught an episode where there was an atheist, but he just wasn’t very convincing as an atheist.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Everything is Terrible also had some clips from an episode of The Donut Man. On the episode they made a golem out of dough by baking a scripture reference into it and they chanted a bible reference (not the verse). It was very surreal.
September 8th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Noo!! ((Robert))) say it ain’t so. You don’t think Dunkin, at least, is the cutest donut ever.
Playin with ya, Robert.
Seriously, guys, this is stuff geared for kids, to their level of understanding, and there’s some truth there.
The thing that seems concerning to me, and I mean no unkindness here at all, is that we have adult Christians who have not moved spiritually from their perception, and understanding as nine year old children.
And, then, people who may have no spiritual background at all, think this is just what all the Christians believe.
September 8th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
I found the Jesus Loves the Little Children video. I actually remember this one. Funny that it didn’t seem stereotypical to me back then.
http://www.everythingisterrible.com/2009/04/jesus-loves-little-stereotypes.html
September 10th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
OMG! Psalty! I was with a group that led a VBS featuring Psalty many years ago. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wear the cardboard hymnal and play Psalty (that privilege went to one of my friends) – I just got to help teach and conduct the music. Ugh!!
September 10th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
I missed the Donut Man somewhere along the way. My loss.
March 20th, 2010 at 8:57 am
This is an old post, but I have to say this: Adventures in Odyssey is AWE-SOME!
But, no, Whit wasn’t warm and fuzzy with his kids. He was like Nels Oleson on Little House: I’d love to know him as someone who comes into the mercantile, but not as his kids!
Also, I thought young Whit was an intellectual snob. I think of the episode where he met the lady who became his wife.
March 20th, 2010 at 9:09 am
I think Whit is an intellectual snob as an adult, too. It’s still a cute show. There was a new show that came out when I was a teen–Down Gilead Lane. I didn’t listen to it much because by the time it came out, I was older, but my youngest brother did. I liked how it progressed from season to season, unlike AiO. It’s really fundamentalist, though. I listened to an episode I bought for Julieanne back in my Baptist days, and I don’t think I can stomach it. AiO teaches values–very conservative ones, but you can kind of ignore parts of it. Down Gilead Lane, though, you can’t. It’s pretty anti-even liberal Christians. AiO is, too, but they aren’t so blatant. From what I remember anyways; it’s not like I listen to them frequently, nor do I plan to. But I think it’s good to listen/read/watch stuff you don’t agree with occasionally, even with your kids so you can have good discussions about what each other thinks. I think it can teach people to think for themselves when you expose them to multiple viewpoints. I’m probably mostly alone in that, though. :S
March 20th, 2010 at 9:12 am
(Oh, to clarify the above comment. I meant that I am mostly alone in that I actually do it, not that I’m the only one who thinks that, I mean. Most people *from what I have seen* will teach their kids about other people’s viewpoints secondhand. I believe in letting them learn it from the source so that there is no misunderstanding. Steve does not particularly agree with me, though! So I know that not everyone will.)
March 20th, 2010 at 10:39 am
One of my favorite Odyssey episodes was the one in which Connie was the valedictorian and wanted to give a prayer at the graduation ceremony. Granted, I wouldn’t want people to learn the “separation of church and state” view from that episode, but I thought it was cool how Connie in the end chose not to give the prayer. She didn’t side with the religious right faction that wanted to take on the principal, yet, in a sense, she stood by her religious convictions.