{"id":7316,"date":"2017-01-16T14:55:47","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T19:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=7316"},"modified":"2017-01-16T16:31:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T21:31:02","slug":"morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html","title":{"rendered":"Morgan Freeman launches Season 2 of &#8220;The Story of God&#8221; tonight on NatGeo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/exposure\/content\/photo\/photo\/2112002_the-chosen-one_k232xnrjr444fqp26d2u7ykduvtoozzodsvnjnsmyanchkomgqza_247x139.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Story of God Season 2 with Morgan Freeman premieres tonight (1\/16) at 9:00 PM (ET) on\u00a0 NatGeo.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The highest-rated series in the network&#8217;s history continues to explore humankind&#8217;s search to understand and relate to the Creator in a three-episode second season.<\/p>\n<p>Each of the three episodes in the new season will explore a different major theme: \u201cThe Chosen One?\u201d \u201cProof of God\u201d and \u201cHeaven and Hell.\u201d In each episode Freeman meets with individuals, faith leaders, scientists and archaeologists to help him understand these big topics, including the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A 9-year-old boy in Minnesota who Tibetan monks believe is the reincarnation of a lama, a Buddhist spiritual teacher<\/li>\n<li>Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the keeper of the sacred pipe of the Nakota, Lakota and Dakota tribes<\/li>\n<li>Kenneth Bae, the American Christian missionary held captive for two years in North Korea<\/li>\n<li>A woman whose heart stopped for more than eight minutes, who describes in great detail the feeling of heaven she had in that time<\/li>\n<li>Theoretical physicist Ard Louis, who believes that you can find God in scientific knowledge. The deeper he goes into his studies, the more he sees signs of the divine.<\/li>\n<li>A visit to a New Mexico church where followers worship by speaking in tongues<\/li>\n<li>An archaeological excursion to the Dunbar caves in Tennessee to see recently discovered depictions of heaven and hell from ancient ancestors of the Cherokee<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I had the opportunity to speak with Freeman who told me that while all religions are different, it&#8217;s also remarkable how similar they are though also radically different&#8211; virtually of them, for instance, offer some sort of representation of what happens after death (the subject of next week&#8217;s episode). Freeman says last season&#8217;s episodes (as evidenced by the ratings) were overwhelmingly well-received by the audience.<\/p>\n<p>Season two episodes are the following:<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>The Story of God with Morgan Freeman: The Chosen One<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Premieres Monday, Jan. 16, at 9\/8c<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Almost every faith has a figure its followers think was chosen by God. Muslims have Muhammad. Christians have Jesus. Jews have Abraham and Moses. Why do we rally around these chosen ones and how do they guide our faith? Morgan Freeman goes in search of the chosen people walking the earth today, including an American boy from the suburbs who is believed to be the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama who has been returning in different bodies for almost five hundred years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<u>The Story of God with Morgan Freeman: Heaven and Hell<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Premieres Monday, Jan. 23, at 9\/8c<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What are heaven and hell? Do they await us in the afterlife or are they here and now? People of all faiths and backgrounds have contemplated these conundrums for thousands of years. Morgan Freeman sets out to learn how these unseen places have changed the way we live, by descending into the ancient Native American underworld, investigating the phenomena of exorcisms and the gift of tongues, and meeting a woman who believes she has seen heaven.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>The Story of God with Morgan Freeman: Proof of God<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Premieres Monday, Jan. 30, at 9\/8c<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Have we cut God out of our modern lives or are there still special moments when the divine breaks through and makes its presence known? Morgan Freeman meets a man who felt God\u2019s presence on Sept. 11, learns how Muslims hear God\u2019s voice in the Quran, comes across a tribe whose members believe they can channel the healing power of the divine and encounters a physicist who has faith that science will lead him to God.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Story of God with Morgan Freeman<\/strong> is produced by Revelations Entertainment for National Geographic. For Revelations Entertainment, Morgan Freeman, Lori McCreary and James Younger are executive producers. For National Geographic, Michael J. Miller is executive producer; Kevin Tao Mohs is vice president, production and development; and Tim Pastore is president, original programming and production.<\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The Story of God with Morgan Freeman \u00a0Season 1 on DVD January 10, 2017 and Season 2 premiers on National Geographic, January 16th.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media. The Story of God Season 2 with Morgan Freeman premieres tonight (1\/16) at 9:00 PM (ET) on\u00a0 NatGeo. The highest-rated series in the network&#8217;s history continues to explore humankind&#8217;s search to understand and relate to the Creator in a three-episode second season. Each of the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1171,4222,9168],"class_list":["post-7316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-morgan-freeman","tag-natgeo","tag-the-story-of-god"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Morgan Freeman launches Season 2 of &quot;The Story of God&quot; tonight on NatGeo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Morgan Freeman launches Season 2 of &quot;The Story of God&quot; tonight on NatGeo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media. The Story of God Season 2 with Morgan Freeman premieres tonight (1\/16) at 9:00 PM (ET) on\u00a0 NatGeo. The highest-rated series in the network&#8217;s history continues to explore humankind&#8217;s search to understand and relate to the Creator in a three-episode second season. Each of the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-16T19:55:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-16T21:31:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/exposure\/content\/photo\/photo\/2112002_the-chosen-one_k232xnrjr444fqp26d2u7ykduvtoozzodsvnjnsmyanchkomgqza_247x139.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Morgan Freeman launches Season 2 of \"The Story of God\" tonight on NatGeo","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Morgan Freeman launches Season 2 of \"The Story of God\" tonight on NatGeo","og_description":"Here&#8217;s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith and media. The Story of God Season 2 with Morgan Freeman premieres tonight (1\/16) at 9:00 PM (ET) on\u00a0 NatGeo. The highest-rated series in the network&#8217;s history continues to explore humankind&#8217;s search to understand and relate to the Creator in a three-episode second season. Each of the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2017-01-16T19:55:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-16T21:31:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/exposure\/content\/photo\/photo\/2112002_the-chosen-one_k232xnrjr444fqp26d2u7ykduvtoozzodsvnjnsmyanchkomgqza_247x139.jpg"}],"author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html","name":"Morgan Freeman launches Season 2 of \"The Story of God\" tonight on NatGeo","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/exposure\/content\/photo\/photo\/2112002_the-chosen-one_k232xnrjr444fqp26d2u7ykduvtoozzodsvnjnsmyanchkomgqza_247x139.jpg","datePublished":"2017-01-16T19:55:47+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-16T21:31:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/exposure\/content\/photo\/photo\/2112002_the-chosen-one_k232xnrjr444fqp26d2u7ykduvtoozzodsvnjnsmyanchkomgqza_247x139.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/exposure\/content\/photo\/photo\/2112002_the-chosen-one_k232xnrjr444fqp26d2u7ykduvtoozzodsvnjnsmyanchkomgqza_247x139.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/01\/morgan-freeman-launches-season-2-story-god-tonight-natgeo.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Morgan Freeman launches Season 2 of &#8220;The Story of God&#8221; tonight on NatGeo"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7316"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7322,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7316\/revisions\/7322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}