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Where are all the normal atheists? TV’s non-believers always let me down
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/26/where_are_all_the_normal_atheists_from_smug_bill_maher_to_icy_sherlock_tvs_non_believers_always_let_me_down/
Toward the end of Tuesday night’s “CNN Special Report: Atheists: Inside the World of Non-Believers,” David Silverman, the president of American Atheists, explains why he recently launched AtheistTV: “Religion is harmful, religion is bad, religion is wrong. We can say that on AtheistTV. We can’t say it on any other network.”
But it’s the other networks that count, I thought to myself. Which matters more in the life of a gay teenager: whether Blaine and Kurt kiss on Fox’s “Glee” or whether “Bewitched” is being rerun on the Logo channel?
For years I’ve been watching for atheists—for people like me—on network TV. And I don’t mean acerbic political commentators like Bill Maher. I mean atheist characters on TV shows with mass audiences. Of course, since they don’t wear scarlet A’s, atheist characters are only identifiable if the producers are making a point.
The point so far seems to be above average IQ, below average social skills. Atheist TV characters include curmudgeons like Dr. Perry Cox (“Scrubs”), undiagnosed cases of Asperger’s syndrome like Sheldon Cooper (“The Big Bang Theory”), and misanthropes like Sherlock Holmes (“Sherlock”) and Dr. Gregory House (“House”). Typical House quote: “Rational arguments don’t usually work on religious people. Otherwise there would be no religious people.” (“House” aired on Fox, by the way, Mr. Silverman.)
Toward the end of Tuesday night’s “CNN Special Report: Atheists: Inside the World of Non-Believers,” David Silverman, the president of American Atheists, explains why he recently launched AtheistTV: “Religion is harmful, religion is bad, religion is wrong. We can say that on AtheistTV. We can’t say it on any other network.”
But it’s the other networks that count, I thought to myself. Which matters more in the life of a gay teenager: whether Blaine and Kurt kiss on Fox’s “Glee” or whether “Bewitched” is being rerun on the Logo channel?
For years I’ve been watching for atheists—for people like me—on network TV. And I don’t mean acerbic political commentators like Bill Maher. I mean atheist characters on TV shows with mass audiences. Of course, since they don’t wear scarlet A’s, atheist characters are only identifiable if the producers are making a point.
The point so far seems to be above average IQ, below average social skills. Atheist TV characters include curmudgeons like Dr. Perry Cox (“Scrubs”), undiagnosed cases of Asperger’s syndrome like Sheldon Cooper (“The Big Bang Theory”), and misanthropes like Sherlock Holmes (“Sherlock”) and Dr. Gregory House (“House”). Typical House quote: “Rational arguments don’t usually work on religious people. Otherwise there would be no religious people.” (“House” aired on Fox, by the way, Mr. Silverman.)
14 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
But then there are shows like Supernatural, which is such a hilarious parody.
