Atheists in movies

defanatic · Post by **defanatic** » 2005-09-21 12:19am

Well, we've all seen christians in movies, kissing their cross etc. but how are Atheists represented?

Anyone know?

Sorry if this has already been discussed to death.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2005-09-21 12:24am

defanatic wrote:Well, we've all seen christians in movies, kissing their cross etc. but how are Atheists represented?

Anyone know?

Sorry if this has already been discussed to death.

They normaly get eaten by the evil thing from Hell in the first hour.

The Spartan · Post by **The Spartan** » 2005-09-21 12:28am

Or learn that one must have "faith" in order to function as a human being...

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2005-09-21 12:45am

The doubters are always those who are proven wrong in movies. Those who doubt the existance of vampires, of werewolves, of demons, etc. You don't see religious people in films asserting that they doubt that stuff... it's always the scientist types.

If I ever make a film, I'd have some religious guy saying "that's impossible! it's not in the bible!" before being eaten by the monster.

Dooku's Disciple · Post by **Dooku's Disciple** » 2005-09-21 12:52am

More interesting are the conflicted ones. I seem to remember an X-Files episode or two where Scully had trouble reconciling her Christian faith with her scepticism.

DD

Setesh · Post by **Setesh** » 2005-09-21 02:32am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:The doubters are always those who are proven wrong in movies. Those who doubt the existance of vampires, of werewolves, of demons, etc. You don't see religious people in films asserting that they doubt that stuff... it's always the scientist types.

If I ever make a film, I'd have some religious guy saying "that's impossible! it's not in the bible!" before being eaten by the monster.

The original War of the Worlds movie had a priest walk out to the martians beliving his faith would protect him, the martians toasted him.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-09-21 02:38am

Setesh wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:The doubters are always those who are proven wrong in movies. Those who doubt the existance of vampires, of werewolves, of demons, etc. You don't see religious people in films asserting that they doubt that stuff... it's always the scientist types.

If I ever make a film, I'd have some religious guy saying "that's impossible! it's not in the bible!" before being eaten by the monster.
The original War of the Worlds movie had a priest walk out to the martians beliving his faith would protect him, the martians toasted him.

That movie is the last movie you'd want to cite if you're looking for negative Hollywood attitudes toward Christianity.

In general, there are almost no atheists in the movies. There are only Christians who have lost their faith.

Zadius · Post by **Zadius** » 2005-09-21 02:46am

Not a movie, but Dr. House from the TV series "House M.D." is an atheist. House is portrayed as a brilliant doctor, but is very sarcastic and rude and has no social skills (or social life). Dr. Cameron is another atheist from the show, she is actually portrayed well IMO. I rather like that show.

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2005-09-21 03:27am

Hmm, come to think of it, I can't remember ever seeing an atheist being portrayed decently (wihtout being condescended by others).

I guess the constant shrieking about the "liberal media" really refers to them not being Fundie enough.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2005-09-21 08:04am

Zadius wrote:Not a movie, but Dr. House from the TV series "House M.D." is an atheist. House is portrayed as a brilliant doctor, but is very sarcastic and rude and has no social skills (or social life).

We're not missing the fact, of course, that House is also shown as a belligerant drug addicted asshole who only saves lives because he likes a challenge.

I started buying seasons of M*A*S*H* recently, and was rather surprised and delighted how often characters like Hawkeye and Klinger were referred to as agnostics and atheists, respectively. Although they do have their occasional snide 'pray to god' moments, either in stress or sarcasm, they still largely hold their skeptical ground.

zippy · Post by **zippy** » 2005-09-21 08:12am

Just as an aside, how bad is Hugh Laurie's american accent in House anyway. As an Englishman it comes across as very false. Is it in Dick van Dyke territory or not quite that bad?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-09-21 09:39am

It's brilliant. How brilliant? It trumped American actors, I believe they tend to do American accents quite well (Bryan Singer at the audition said "That's the type of American actor we need" only to be corrected by someone else who knew Laurie was British, though Singer had banned Brits from auditioning after a couple had crappy accents).

But House is like that because of a whole load of other things, but mainly because of his leg and likely more serious past experiences. Him being an ace doc and atheist is beside the point, and you still have Dr. Cameron who is the polar opposite.

Funny, I can't really think of any real atheist characters from TV or film. It strikes me as something I'd have at least half a dozen examples for, yet, I can't name one off the top of my head (I admit, the '53 WOTW Priest incineration scene sprang to mind despite the blatant pro-Christ, anti-commie/atheism vibe).

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-09-21 10:12am

Keep in mind that the intent of the "War of the Worlds" priest incineration scene was not "what a dumb-ass", but "what horrible remorseless creatures these Martians are".

The Hollywood template for atheists is the EPA inspector "Mr. Peck" from Ghostbusters.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2005-09-21 10:34am

Jodi Foster in Contact is one great Atheist!

And that move exposes some hypocritical asholes and some loonies.

TimothyC · Post by **TimothyC** » 2005-09-21 10:38am

Kate Foster as Ellie Arroway in Contact [Note: I've never actually finished watching this film so please don't shoot me if I'm wrong]

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2005-09-21 10:46am

Which reminds me:

Winston Zeddemore: "Ray, do you believe in God?"
Ray Stanz: [Shaking Head] "Never met him."

And though he was eccentric, he still had a brain on him and everyone loved him.

Frank Castle seemed to be a bit of an apatheist in Punisher, since he's so fixated on punishing the evil-doers. But there was always the line in my sig: "God's gonna sit this one out."

Hartigan also seemed a bit joky about religion with his, "Yeah, and after I'd accomplished that miracle, I might try to go punch out God," in Sin City.

Al Simmons was apparently an atheist before he became Spawn, though it wasn't noted as far as I know in the movie. It's certainly remarked in the comics, though.

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2005-09-21 11:55am

Hollywood has this obsession with the Dogmatic Skeptic, which is such an oxymoron it's hillarious...

I'm currently working on a series featuring positivly portrayed Athiests in a supernatural context no less. I'd share more, but...well, It's my 4 years in the hole idea and it must be protected.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2005-09-21 12:10pm

Dooku's Disciple wrote:More interesting are the conflicted ones. I seem to remember an X-Files episode or two where Scully had trouble reconciling her Christian faith with her scepticism.

DD

Scully is the fucking moron who for some reason couldnt accept reality.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-09-21 12:15pm

The Contact example is good, I'm kicking myself for forgetting that. Sagan seemed to be getting at the idea that, while Ellie was rationally minded and because of her past had shunned any religion or deity at least, she couldn't use her scientific knowledge to back what she had experienced. I suppose that underscores the frustration of believing in something without proof beyond reasonable doubt that it did actually happen or exist, so she sees what her religious friend was getting at about faith, although I find God hasn't sent many encoded RF signal for amazingly expensive machines lately.

Plus, I love the way that fundie is shown fucking over the world and nearly the project with the suicide bomb to protect Christianity and keep that nasty knowledge from shredding such peoples' views of reality.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2005-09-21 12:23pm

Malcom Reynolds in Firefly comes to mind as a possible or even likely atheist, and River consider's the Bible to be broken and in need of fixing. I'd say those are two good examples.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-09-21 01:07pm

The "broken Bible" exhange between Book and River was classic.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2005-09-21 01:18pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:The Contact example is good, I'm kicking myself for forgetting that. Sagan seemed to be getting at the idea that, while Ellie was rationally minded and because of her past had shunned any religion or deity at least, she couldn't use her scientific knowledge to back what she had experienced.

Actually wasn't there some kind of proof at the end? Not a recording per se but the government hid the truth about some evidence that did support what she said.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-09-21 01:44pm

It was a kind of evidence. It validated her story in one way, but did nothing about the real details. All it was was 18 hours of recorded static that Senator James Woods (whatever the character was called) knew of after the inquiry. Better than the Bible, but not by much.

drachefly · Post by **drachefly** » 2005-09-21 03:04pm

In the book, she had that thing with the aliens telling her an interesting feature about Pi. On the other hand, they used this to suggest that there is a higher power. Graaah.

Haruko · Post by **Haruko** » 2005-09-21 03:08pm

The Spartan wrote:Or learn that one must have "faith" in order to function as a human being...

Just like on the new version of Battlestar Galactica. Gaius Baltar was just looking for God and found him with a little help.

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Atheists in movies

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