Can an atheist get back on speaking terms with God? Follow Tevya Heller on a quest to reconnect with his own vanished faith by learning to see the world through the eyes of believers.

Giving God A Second Chance

Tevya Heller is an atheist in search of the Almighty in the new ichannel series Oh My God! 

“It kind of sucks being an atheist.”

That’s the conclusion young Montreal-born actor, comedian and producer Tevya Heller has reached. Raised in a devout Jewish household, he lost his religious faith as a teenager, Now, for all his material success, it feels like there’s a gaping, God-sized hole in his life. And in the new ichannel docu-series Oh My God!, he’s out to do something about that.

Produced for ichannel by Toronto-based Stornoway Productions, Oh My God! follows Heller on a quest to reconnect with his own vanished faith by learning to see the world through the eyes of believers. How? By embedding himself in the lives of young people from different Canadian faith communities – from Hindus to Muslims, Christians to Wiccans – and discovering firsthand how they experience God.

CLICK HERE to listen to Tevya Heller talking to The Drew Marshall Show about the making of Oh My God!

Oh My God! is an atheist’s eye-view of faith – but Heller takes pains to distance himself from the militant, religion-bashing school of atheism championed by the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins.

“I’m an atheist who wants God to exist,” says Heller, whose formative experiences include seven years of intensive Hebrew schooling. “I think belief is a gift, and that people of faith are lucky. There’s such a loneliness in being an atheist, because you’re not part of a community. So this show is really about an atheist’s search for a God he can believe in.”

Executive Producer Paul Kemp from Stornoway Productions says Oh My God!’s spontaneity and humour set it apart from most shows that attempt to tackle religion. It’s not a series about what people believe, he explains, but what it feels like to believe – and how having belief informs and enriches people’s lives.

“It takes us deep inside communities that most of us wouldn’t otherwise have access to, and offers a pretty cool glimpse into worlds that viewers don’t often get to see,” he says.

Stornoway Productions (www.stornowayproductions.com) was founded in 1983 and has established a world-class reputation for producing in-depth and provocative documentaries, series, and feature films.