Why would I go on a game show with a lose-lose premise?


What a crazy idea for a game show: a Turkish program is looking for 10 atheists to compete for the chance to be converted. What next, a show with healthy contestants competing for the chance to be infected with a disease, and the winner gets a long hospital stay?

The game show producers give their bias away when they announce “We don’t approve of anyone being an atheist”. They’re also planning to have a team of theologians to screen out religious people pretending to be godless so they can get a free trip to the holy site of their choice.

Well, I’m not a fake atheist, but I’m wondering what they’re offering to people like me. We go on the program, we get non-stop harangues from crazy imams, priests, rabbis, and monks, and if we don’t fall for their foolishness, we lose? I’d be tempted to just say “yes!” to the rabbi to really piss off the Muslim hosts, get a trip to Jerusalem, and then annoy the rabbi when I tell him I lied. Or would the theologians also have to confer to determine that your conversion was sincere?