Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman's new documentary series, The Story of God that was commissioned last year will start on the National Geographic Channel (DStv 181) in South Africa and Africa on Sunday 3 April at 20:05.
Besides being the presenter of The Story of God, Morgan Freeman is also the executive producer of the 6-part global TV series produced by Revelations Entertainment in which he travels the globe to explore different cultures and religions on a quest to uncover more about the meaning of life and what God means to different people.
Through The Story of God Morgan Freeman wants to understand more about how religion has evolved throughout the course of civilisation, and in turn how religion has shaped the evolution of society - looking at some remarkable similarities among different faiths.
"Over the past few months I've travelled to nearly 20 cities in 7 different countries on a personal journey to find answers to the big mysteries of faith," says Morgan Freeman.
"I've sung the call to prayer at a mosque in Cairo, taken meditation lessons from the Buddhist leader of the oldest line of reincarnating Lamas, discussed Galileo with the head of the Papal Academy of Sciences and explored the first instructions for the afterlife rendered in hieroglyphs inside the pyramids," says Morgan Freeman.
"In some places I found answers and others led to more questions. The constant through it all is that we're all looking to be part of something bigger than us. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that we certainly are," says Morgan Freeman.
Morgan Freeman visited Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, India's Bodhi Tree, Mayan temples in Guatemala and the pyramids of Egypt, and also travelled with archaeologists to places like the 7500 BC Neolithic settlement Çatalhöyük in Turkey.
"As we put this series together, we sought answers to some of mankind's biggest questions, but in the end what surprised us most was to find how personal those answers were for each of us," says Lori McCreary, co-executive producer.
"We hope The Story of God will open an interfaith dialogue about ideas and values that we all share, not that we disagree on."
Each episode of The Story of God with Morgan Freeman is centred on a different big question about the divine.
Creation – Are there similarities among the religious creation stories from around the world? How do they compare with the scientific theory of the creation of the cosmos and the dawn of civilisation?
Who Is God? – How has the perception of God evolved over human history? Is God just an idea, and if so, can we find evidence of a divine presence in our brains?
Evil – What is the root of evil and how has our idea of it evolved over the millennia? Is the devil real? The birth of religion may be inextricably tied to the need to control evil.
Miracles – Are miracles real? For many believers, miracles are the foundation of their faith. Others regard miracles as merely unlikely events on which our brains impose divine meaning. Belief in miracles, however we define them, could be what gives us hope and drives us to turn possibility into reality.
End of Days – Violent upheaval and fiery judgment fill popular imagination, but was the lore of apocalypse born out of the strife that plagued the Middle East two millennia ago? The true religious meaning of the apocalypse may not be a global war, but an inner revelation.
Resurrection – How have beliefs in the afterlife developed, and how has our reaction to the afterlife changed the way we live this life? Now that science is making such rapid advances, we may soon be confronted with digital resurrection. What will that do to our beliefs?
