Family Programming, Religion, and Insensitive Atheists

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-10-02 12:43am

Stofsk wrote:I've noticed that before. Very strange, as JMS says he's atheist.

If his writing is any indication, we can come to one of two possible conclusions:

He is an atheist but he still believes religion is a useful and necessary tool for social control, because most people need it.
He doesn't believe that, but he knows most people believe religion is necessary and he put that into the plot in order to pander to that mentality.

At the end of the day, mass-market media reflects what the mass market wants to see, and I suspect that a film in which an atheist actually makes atheism look good would be shunned by the viewing public, especially if it's for kids.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2006-10-02 01:06am

Darth Wong wrote:At the end of the day, mass-market media reflects what the mass market wants to see, and I suspect that a film in which an atheist actually makes atheism look good would be shunned by the viewing public, especially if it's for kids.

Hmm. I was about to mention the movie 'Contact' but even there, they add in the not-so-subtle message at the end of throwing out Occam's Razor and Jodi Foster's priest friend is the only one who believes her story.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-10-02 02:06am

Nephtys wrote:Lennier was all around an un-fucked up character,

I'd say his inability to move on from Delenn, to the point of leaving Sheridan to die, would count as being fucked up.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2006-10-02 06:19am

Darth Wong wrote:
Dooey Jo wrote:Well, Ray in Ghostbusters says, when asked by Winston if he believes in God, that he's "never met him". Considering his job and education, one would think he would have thought about that question quite a lot, so I'd say his answer is just a nicer version of "hell no". He also rolls his eyes when the bishop-guy says he thinks all the stuff happening in the city is a sign from God.
That's not a very good example because if he is an atheist, then he's proven wrong, as usual in Hollywood.

Well yes, he is proven wrong in so much that a Babylonian god existed, but the movie doesn't seem to make a big deal about it, and then again they kill that god. Winston suggests that perhaps it's the events described in Revelation that are taking place, but that actually turns out not to be the case. But even so he is different from the usual "angry with God" bullshit. If some idiot had made Ghostbusters today, his line would probably have been "son, one time believed, but then I saw how crazy the world is blah blah", right with his glorious conversion at the end (if they would even feel the need to bring in Biblical references).

This is actually one of the things I find most annoying with American movies and television. Over here, the only place where I see people thinking that atheists are people that are angry with God etc. is on moronic message boards from moronic fundamentalists. That stereotype just doesn't exist on Swedish television (or rather it used to be that way, but I think I'm seeing a slight American influence and I can't say I'm very happy about it).