Fellow atheists, do you agree with this statement from a Christian website?

It doesn't take much channel-surfing for parents to realize that television is in moral free fall. And sadly, America's children are spending more time than ever watching it, often without parental guidance.

Now don't get prejudiced and refuse to answer properly just because it's a Christian article. I think that they may have made a good point somewhere in there.

What channels are they getting?

In a Democracy, you need to create illusions. Necessary Illusions to keep the mob from acting up. Religion and bad TV compliments each other.

Also I disagree with 'children are spending more time than ever watching it'. Need real data.

Without parental guidance. Parents need to set the controls. Very simple. If you don't like certain programs on T.V. don't watch them. Changing the Chanel is quite easy. A lot of T.V. is garbage but a lot of it is very educational. I try to put thought into what I want to watch.

TV has been around for a very long time. So far the world has not ended.

I would be more concerned about the Internet.

Without reading the quote, it's safe to assume not.

The phrase "without parental guidance" is the operative problem that they want to blame on the TV, and by extension, society. They refuse to take responsibility for their own failures as parents.

Is this from the 80's, because I see less TV watching and more testing lately.

I agree that shows are promoting some child sexuality stereotypes that I don't like. Every children's show now seems to feature kissing and lusting.

No. I think parents should make sure their children are watching age appropriate programs, but I can't stomach moralistic rants about television programming.

I don't know, I don't live in America, but I imagine that all those religious channels can't be healthy for the mind.

That's pretty accurate wording

And its getting worse everyday..BUT that's the Parents fault, not the TVs or the networks...they shouldn't own one if they are not going to supervise what their kids watch.

I can't say that I do. Many of the Christian families I know do not even own a television set and those that do are usually too busy taking their children to various events.

Christianity doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to "morals."

Yeah, the good point they made is "without parental guidance". Had they gone on to say parents need to take responsibility for that and not blame TV then I would agree. My TV watching was always supervised and there were many programs that were off limits to me.

I don't really see what could possibly be so bad on American television that it would be considered "moral free fall". Did they elaborate? Also, could you provide the link to this article?

Not really. Studies have shown that people watching violent TV or playing violent games do not really react violently, at least not physically, it's really just another change the world is young through, we need to adapt to it

Yes, morals in society are ever-changing, and not always for the best. But somehow I can remember feeling cheated when I watched the icky-sweet garbage that Leave It To Beaver always put out! Maybe a healthy compromise would be in order.

Television is such crap. I don't subscribe to any programming. In my apartment, my roommates and I use Netflix as our entertainment.

No commercials, just what we want to watch. Get my news from on line. That's all we need.

TV is taking away all our children's creativity. In my day it was a challenge to figure out how to find my dad's nu die books. Now there is no challenge to it.

I think its a generalized statement, it carries no religious meaning. I dint quite get why you are addressing atheists and why the statement would carry prejudice? Your post needs more info or more to go on here to create a valid point or argument.

People have been saying that ever since TV started, my mother told me that they also said it about radio before that, before radio people used to be shocked at the morals in novels.

Its the condition of the conservative to be in continual shock at the lack of morals in whatever popular media is around in their day

oh man, i think a more importing point that a christian might make is that the world is doused in sin, that no man here has been without it, and that good works will never counter act this.


away with you false prophets, with your proper living God denying attitudes.

i would rather die to my sin, then have the heights of the Antichrist lead me

I don't think you should have phrased the question in this way, it really isn't at all relevant that this statement came from a Christian website, or whether your responses come from atheists. This is an issue anyone can appreciate.

My answer:

Well, it depends. This isn't a black-and-white good/bad issue, and almost nothing is. Anything is bad for you in excess, or if you use it improperly. For example, you shouldn't let very young kids (i.e. toddlers) watch a lot of TV. Research has shown that spending all their time sitting in front of a TV stunts young children's emotional and psychological development. They need to spend a lot of time bonding physically and emotionally with other people at such a formative stage in their life, when their minds are easier to mold than at almost any other stage. Enrichment is so, so crucial at that stage, that I would severely limit their TV time. It numbs their minds. And it doesn't matter if it's educational. I know two very unfortunate kids whose parents are well-off and have good hearts but have terrible parenting skills, and those two kids spend a lot of time in front of the TV instead of spending time learning things from their parents and interacting with them. A lot of what they watch is educational, like "Little Einsteins", "Dora the Explorer", "Ni Ha, Kai-LAN!", etc. But guess what? They're severely delayed, developmentally, because TV is not a substitute for parenting. Pretty much everything you'd expect a kid to learn by the time they start school, they learned late, because their parents couldn't be bothered to teach them. From toilet-training to basic language skills to social skills.

And obviously TV is a bad influence if it is taking away from important aspects of your life. It's not like the Internet where you can be doing something you would do in real life anyway, like read (or write!) a book, play a game, talk to people, have an engaging discussion. You can actively think on the Internet. There's really no outlet for mental engagement through television, so if it's interfering with life activities, then yes it is a "moral free fall". It's like an addiction ? it's too much, and it's encroaching on your life.

But I don't think TV is intrinsically bad. It's just a matter of what, when, and how much. I do think lack of parental guidance can be a huge problem, as this article says. Without parental guidance, who's going to make sure they don't spend too much time watching it? Who's going to make sure they aren't watching something totally inappropriate or way too violent? And more importantly, who's going to engage them, talk to them about what they're watching and what they think about it? I wouldn't be worried so much about my kids directly picking up violence from TV, I'd be worried about the violence they see damaging them emotionally. And thus I would find communication important. I'd talk to them about the violence they see, what they think about it, whether they should watch it. So yes, parental guidance is absolutely important.

And lastly, I do think that although TV's not intrinsically bad, it does by its nature lend itself to becoming an addiction, just like alcohol, drugs, or the Internet. That's why we need to be careful. But I don't think we should slap a "moral free fall" label on it.