Despite the religious right's claims to the contrary, explicitly atheist characters are a rarity in television science fiction. Gaius Baltar starts off an unbeliever, but then seems to have religious visions. Adama, as well, in the reboot, has some atheist sounding ideals, but does not make atheism part of his daily life or experience. The only character I can recall from tv sci-fi that was explicitly stated to be an atheist was Michael Garibaldi from Babylon 5. JMS did a great job in making Garibaldi a 3 dimensional character, whose atheism was only a part of his character and did not define him in the way that religion defines the purveyors of the religious right. Garibaldi's occasional statements about atheism often provided some of the best lines of the show, and B5 was fully capable of showing both the best and worst aspects of Garibaldi's skeptical nature.
All this being said, there are a number of shows that do have a skeptical view of the universe that is in keeping with atheist thought. TOS and STNG often portrayed Kirk and Picard destroying alien gods, often computers or advanced beings. Generally, at least until Ds9, the metaphysical explanation in Star Trek was always the wrong one. But perhaps the most proudly skeptical series, and justly so, was Blake's 7. Blake's 7 (as well as its successor Firefly) always assumed the worst of people. The crew of the Liberator did not even care about metaphysical issues. According to the series, all the churches had been destroyed centuries ago. The one episode about religion in B7, "Cyngnus Alpha", portrayed a cultic leader who controlled the people of his religion using a fake medicine. One of the reasons I love B7 is its the only series I know of where the characters sincerely consider becoming drug pushers in order to support their cause!
I think science fiction needs to open up the portrayal of atheist characters. Some series have pointed in that direction, particularly Andromeda's fascinating portrayal of the Nietzscheans in their first few seasons. Atheists, like LGBT characters, need 3 dimensional portrayals. Garibaldi is a start, but I hope to see more such portrayals. At the same time, sci-fi really needs to open up to non-Western religions as well, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism. More complex portrayals of Muslim characters would also be a bonus, as of now there are literally none, a very unrealistic viewpoint.
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It almost seems that they use atheist characters as characters that want to achieve godhood themselves. It was in one of the B5 movies I believe that Garibaldi made an atheist comment to Zach and Zach called him out on "to each their own."
ReplyDeleteDidn't JMS put a number of atheist in Jeremiah, as well?
Yea, it depends on the series. I think B5 is the only series to be respectful of atheists per se, even though a lot of the other series have an atheist outlook implicit, but not explicit, in their writing.
ReplyDeletejohn
American television is very much a product reflected by its likely and its potential audience. I'm sure it is the same with Brit TV but I don't know the zeitgeist of Brits.
ReplyDeleteAmericans are wide and varied but the a huge majority are religious. Being from NYC I'm used to religion generally being a private matter, but being in the south the vibe is that you are positively demonic or an object of pity unless you are Christian [preferably Baptist/Evangelical].
Atheists, secular humanists and liberals [being one and the same] are political boogeymen to be scared of and/or ridiculed.
This attitude only reflects a portion of America but it is strong and loud.
With this culture how easily could a TV writer get away with creating a atheist who is a good guy?
Dear Nick,
ReplyDeleteI agree to an extent, but I think it's a little more complex than that, myself. My experience is that in general, atheists and fundamentalists are the most marginalized groups in TV science fiction, and are never portrayed positively (nor are Scientologists, but I frankly don't care whether they're portrayed positively or not, since I think it's questionable whether Scientology is really any more than a pyramid scheme). TV science fiction tends to accept New Age theology, Catholicism, and liberal Judaism (but primarily the first two) as the norm, along with skeptical "seekers" of non-descript faith\non-faith (even more this than New Age and Catholic). But characters who live out their lives explicitly as atheists or fundamentalists, like Gaius Baltar (in the reboot BSG) and Vedek Winn (in DS9) are used mainly for laughs. I think both series were hurt by their inability to fully develop these characters.