Atheists on TV

Cafe Society
1

(I suppose this might end up in GD…but that’s not my intent).

It seems that for the first 50-odd years of network television, you would’ve been hard-pressed to find any TV character openly admitting to being irreligious. But now there are several: House and Foreman on House; Temp Brennan on Bones. And last night’s Brothers & Sisters had a scene with Sally Field explaining that, while she might ethnically be Jewish, her family is Secular Humanist and believes in the ACLU.

Interesting. It’s like the closet door has been kicked open, and all the closeted atheists are pouring out. Comment?

2

Lisa Simpson has been an atheist for years.

3

I always thought of Lisa as more skeptic/agnostic. And a Buddhist (of course, at least one variety of Buddhism is atheistic).

4

Well, I guess Mike Stivic (All in the Family) was the first TV atheist, but I have to point out you can believe in the ACLU and still be religious.

5

Malcolm Reynolds on Firefly. However, he was shown as having been religious at one time and having lost his faith after enduring a tragic loss, and there was a preacher hanging around, so it’s possible there was a rediscovery of faith planned for his future on the show, which we never got to see. On the other hand, the show’s creator Joss Whedon is an unapologetic atheist, so who knows.

6

Wasn’t Dietrich in Barney Miller an atheist?

7

Didn’t Matt on Studio 60 recently call himself an atheist Jew?

8

I think we’re meant to believe that Harriet is unique among the cast because she’s the only religious person about, although Matt has the biggest chip on his shoulder regarding that.

9

Despite her constant exclamations of “God’ll get you for that, Walter” I have a recollection of Maude being an atheist, but I could be mis-remembering.

10

I don’t really remember Maude as an atheist, in that I don’t recall her ever stating it as so. If anything I suppose she was a secular humanist, not a phrase used in those dark times. Even so, Maude was a die hard feminist and we loved her for that.

I do seem to recall some wedding(?) or something in which there was a reverend (or something) whom Mude seemed to revere. Perhaps it was Carol’s wedding, or Blanche and Mr. Drummonds wedding. I can’t recall. I can’t even remember Rue and Conrad’s character names.

11

After John Amos was written out of Good Times, the new love interest for Florida Evans was an athiest.

12

Klinger on MASH was an atheist, although he was on record once as saying “I gave it up for lent.”

13

Klinger said “Allah be praised!” a number of times, but that may have been cultural or even part of his “crazy” persona.

There is some contention about Hawkeye’s atheism. In one episodes Fr. Mulcahey describes him as such. In another (much earlier) episode, Hawk claims that he does things in the OR that he’s not really good enough to do, and implies a divine hand.

14

Of course (and that actually describes my own leanings). The show’s joke, not mine.

15

Yes, and he finds his “faith” in the movie. Ultimately, he believes in the evil of the Alliance enough to die while attempting to break it down.

As he says to the preacher, “No God talk. That’s a long wait for a ship that don’t never come.”

16

IIRC, Maude always called God a she. So, I suspect she was, but I don’t remember anything more specific.

I’ve seen people write about an atheist character in Touched by an Angel of all places.

I wonder if there will be more now that several pro-atheism books have hit the best seller lists.

17

Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting; there was a whole episode about that. Catholic David wouldn’t even let Maddie say she was an atheist.

18

Cameron is more or less an atheist; at the very least, she’s not a member of any organized religion.

19

That’s who I had in mind in the OP – I always get Cameron & Foreman confused (the names, not the characters). Foreman (black guy) is wishy-washy; Chase is devoutly religious.

20

He calls Hawkeye “that crazy agnostic.”