Of course the creators say what they’re sincerely interested in doing is giving the gift of belief in a god, with no regard to the religious practice their contestants may choose to follow, which is why they’re bringing in a rabbi, a priest, an imam and a Buddhist monk to show the benefits of their faiths as if its some sort of offensive bar joke in the making. In their sincere interest though, they didn’t manage to do a little reading and note that their choice of Buddhism as a conduit to a higher power was somewhat misguided. Buddhism is a philosophy of enlightenment and introspection rather than a collection of doctrines for how to get in touch with a deity and it’s actually agnostic, seeking knowledge and self-discipline over dogma.

I’m also curious as to what happens when an atheist says he converted to, oh… Judaism, goes to Jerusalem on the producers’ dime and comes back laughing about the free vacation. The show is supposed to have an experienced team of theologians to determine whether the contestant really is a non-believer or a convert but let’s be serious. It’s not exactly going to be a struggle to trick a theologian asking vague or leading questions and the whole show is based on using personal opinions as if they were facts. There’s really no objective way to tell who’s a real convert and who just wants a VIP trip somewhere exotic, no matter how many theologians you use to interrogate your cast.