# Is Atheism on the Rise? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 19, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118 "2008-01-19T04:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118/201 "2008-01-24T22:14:22Z")
[QUOTE=MacTech] The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, specifically the Oolon Colluphid and Babel Fish entries [/QUOTE] Note the phrase, “movies or television shows.” As I recall, neither of those made it into the recent movie version. And while I haven’t seen the BBC miniseries, the context is _American_ media, so wether or not the series included Oolon or the full explanation of the babel fish is moot. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118/202 "2008-01-24T22:20:45Z")
According to imdb’s [quotes] ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/quotes](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/quotes)), the movie included the guide entry on the Babel fish (which gives Oolon Colluphid’s argument for the nonexistence of God), and also separately referred to “Oolon Colluphid’s trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: ‘Where God Went Wrong’, ‘Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes’, and ‘Who is this God Person Anyway?’” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118/203 "2008-01-24T22:30:08Z")
Well, I stand corrected. (In my defence, the movie wasn’t exactly memorable to begin with.) ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118/204 "2008-01-24T23:06:57Z")
[QUOTE=SmartAleq] \ You just don’t go on a debunking show that’s actually NAMED “Bullshit!” thinking it’s going to be all tolerance and lovey dovey meeting of the minds, y’know? If you do, it just proves you’re living in a fantasy land and are way too good at lying to yourself. [/QUOTE] I’ll give you that. > [@](#): > > The other thing is that I’ve seen enough of both Penn and Teller in non-Bullshit related venues to realize that they’re both painfully intelligent, funny, idiosyncratic, and, in Teller’s case especially, damned sophisticated men. I love people like that so I’ll give them a lot of latitude in their personas–better snotty, smart, cutting, funny, confrontational assholes than those run of the mill mindless, stupid, jingoistic, rude confrontational yahoo assholes the entertainment media seem to churn out in endless droves. I guess I just prefer contumaciousness to contumely. And that. It’s not that I disagree with much of what Penn believes in and advocates. To the contrary, his ideas and mine are quite similar. It’s just that I don’t care much for his churlishness in making his points. > [@](#): > > Besides, **Bullshit!** makes me laugh out loud and it makes me think, never more so than when I don’t agree with the premise of a given show. I go out finding cites to refute their points and always end up better informed and more sure of my position–or I end up changing my mind because they were right. Either way, it gets me off my ass…umptions! Brown Eyed Guy loves the show and I’ve watched it with him on occasion. The first few I watched were quite entertaining, but eventually his increasing bluster just made it less fun to watch. I don’t think you need to vilify your opponents to prove them wrong. I don’t know…it’s a matter of taste, I suppose. Vehemence and obnoxiousness seems to sell in this day and age. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118/205 "2008-01-24T23:32:36Z")
[QUOTE=MacTech] The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, specifically the Oolon Colluphid and Babel Fish entries [/QUOTE] The old BBC TV version certainly included this. However, I never thought of Oolon Colluphid as being a “sympathetic protagonist” of the show. (He may have been one in the recent movie, which I blotted out of my memory on account of it sucking horribly.) I don’t think that any of the actual characters were presented as being atheist in any discernable way, not even in the books. (Oh, and Oolon Colluphid’s argument explicity hinges on the fact that God _does_ exist -until then. So I’m not sure it _technically_ counts as an atheist position…) ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118/206 "2008-01-24T23:35:25Z")
Well, maybe Zaphod. 🙂 I don’t think they were presented either way to be honest. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118/207 "2008-01-25T00:36:33Z")
[QUOTE=begbert2] I don’t think that any of the actual characters were presented as being atheist in any discernable way, not even in the books. (Oh, and Oolon Colluphid’s argument explicity hinges on the fact that God _does_ exist -until then. So I’m not sure it _technically_ counts as an atheist position…) [/QUOTE] All discussions of god in the books and the movie - and the radio plays and the TV show, if I remember them - are designed to get the biggest laughs, not to make points. As such they’re mutually contradictory. And I didn’t mind the movie, as a movie. Weak compared to the other material, since it was too short. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118/208 "2008-01-25T00:38:50Z")
[QUOTE=Brown Eyed Girl] Brown Eyed Guy loves the show and I’ve watched it with him on occasion. The first few I watched were quite entertaining, but eventually his increasing bluster just made it less fun to watch. I don’t think you need to vilify your opponents to prove them wrong. I don’t know…it’s a matter of taste, I suppose. Vehemence and obnoxiousness seems to sell in this day and age. [/QUOTE] I watched the first two seasons from NetFlix. I don’t mind the bluster, but in many cases they poisoned the argument by presenting dingbats for the opposition side and reputable and well spoken people for their side. The second hand smoke was one example, as was global warming. Even when it was made there were better spokespeople than some college students at an Earth Day celebration. I finally gave up on it. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118/209 "2008-01-25T03:41:01Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] So, ignoring my original stipulation of “sympathetic,” we’ve got the following explicit atheists from American broadcast media: Jodi Foster in _Contact_ The title character from _House_ Cameron, from _House_ The lead from _Bones_ Chief Garibaldi from _Babylon 5_ Malcolm Reynolds from _Firefly_ Sarah, maybe, from _CSI_ [/QUOTE] It occurs to me that Dr. Cox from Scrubs fits the list too, in a similar “I’m a rather prickly person who has no ability to feel religious sentiment, but as a top-notch doctor, I have great faith in science instead” way to Dr. House. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-atheism-on-the-rise/434118.md?page=10)