Atheists and Christians may not have much in common philosophically, but they do have this to share: Both tend to get the shaft when it comes to popular media portrayals.

The typical onscreen atheist is a broken-spirited cynic. She may have been a believer in the past, but an unbearable personal tragedy has darkened her outlook and shattered her faith.

Rarely will you see a non-believer on film who has arrived at an optimistic atheistic worldview through her own reason and agency. Instead, her atheistic beliefs are forced upon her by circumstances beyond her control.

As PZ Myers, a professor of biology and a prominent atheist says, “The acceptable atheist is the one who has faced so much tragedy, whose life has been damaged by cruel fate to such a degree that his declaration that there is no god is understandable.”

Myers wrote this after seeing “I Am Legend,” which features Will Smith as one of the few survivors of a plague that has wiped out most of humankind and turned all but a tiny fraction of the survivors into vicious, zombie-like monsters. When he later encounters another survivor who shares her belief in God with him, he angrily recounts these events and declares that God cannot exist.

A similar portrayal is found in Mel Gibson’s performance as an ex-priest in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs.” Gibson’s character loses his faith after his wife’s death in a car accident and her seemingly arbitrary dying words to him (“Swing away”).

Atheism, then, is like a deep wound, always unfortunate and never to be celebrated. Atheist characters are rarely found in movies, but when they are, they almost always conform to this stereotype.

Christians don’t fare much better. While not quite as narrowly pigeonholed as atheists are, none of the multiple stereotypes of Christians is very flattering. In movies and television, Christian characters are typically either stupid, crazy, humorless or some combination of the three.

Think of the uptight Angela from “The Office” or Ann Veal from “Arrested Development” (humorless), Freakshow (the guy with the hideous boils) from “Harold and Kumar” (crazy and possibly stupid) or Eli from the recent “There Will Be Blood” (totally insane). Don’t get me wrong-these are all great shows and movies, and the stereotypes they employ make for great entertainment and important plot developments. But they are stereotypes nonetheless.

Some might disagree with me that Christians are portrayed in this way. There are certainly counterexamples, but my argument is about a tendency, not a certainty, and the tendency is to conform to these stereotypes.

Others might say that the stereotypes are accurate-Christians really are stupid, crazy and humorless! To be sure, there are plenty of stupid, crazy and humorless Christians around, but to paint with such a broad brush is unfair and irrational.

A more subtle (and slightly more reasonable) variation of this view is that only some Christians behave this way, and it is these Christians who are being mocked in the examples I gave above. No need for a Christian to be offended then, unless he is himself stupid, crazy or humorless. Hopefully the way I have characterized this view should make its implausibility painfully obvious.

It is as absurd as claiming, as Rudy Giuliani did, that the normal majority of Muslims should realize that they are not the target of rants about “Islamofascism,” so they need not take offense. Both of these views tar entire groups with negative associations, and both are unacceptable.

I expect that some will accuse me of ignoring the plight of other more disadvantaged groups and wonder why I bother defending atheists, and especially Christians, who form a majority in this country. Let me be clear-of course it is much harder in America to be a black person, a gay person, a Muslim or a woman than it is to be a Christian. But most of you, enlightened college students that you are, already realize this, and I’m writing for Student Life, not USA Today.

And as Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has pointed out, “[Christian evangelicals] constitute one of the few minorities that, on the American coasts or university campuses, it remains fashionable to mock.” This is consistent with my experience at Wash. U.

The beliefs and arguments of atheists and Christians are fair game for respectful criticism. But character traits are not beliefs and tarring them with negative stereotypes is unfair and unjustifiable.

Bill is a senior in Arts & Sciences and a forum editor. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Forum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.