The Story of God with Morgan Freeman

Host Morgan Freeman explores how different religions of past and present answer the question: What happens when we die?

Host Morgan Freeman examines what various faith traditions predict about the End of Days. He journeys to the desert where he pores over the Dead Sea Scrolls, and to Rome to decode the enigmatic Mark of the Beast: 666. A meditative session with one of Buddhism’s holiest men begins to realign Morgan’s perspective—what if the apocalypse isn't a planetary bloodbath, but rather a mental paradigm shift?

Who is God? Morgan begins a quest to discover who God is and how he, she or they have evolved over human history. He traces how gods evolved, from embodiments of the raw forces of nature, to a single omnipotent force, to a supreme being that lives only in our heads. Is God just an idea, if so, can we find evidence of God’s presence in our brains? Could God be inside all of us, even nonbelievers?

Morgan Freeman traverses the globe to ask: Where did we come from, and what happened “in the beginning”? Were we created in the image of God, or are we the result of a 13.8 million-year-old singularity? He meets with papal representatives at the Vatican, takes part in sacred Navajo rituals in New Mexico and goes looking for clues to the Garden of Eden in Jerusalem.

Where does evil come from? Morgan sets out to understand the root of evil and how our ideas of it have evolved over the millennia. Is the devil real? From the underworld of ancient Egypt to a modern-day maximum-security prison, Morgan discovers that evil might be more than a supernatural force. The birth of religion may be inextricably tied to the need to control evil.

Do miracles really happen? Morgan sets out to discover why we believe in miracles and how they shape our understanding of God. Miracles may simply be unlikely events that our brains impose meaning on. But many believe God does intervene in our world. If so, does that mean we are merely God’s puppets, with no free will?