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Atheists Either Don't Exist or Don't Matter

posted 8 years ago by Fire God
4 replies | jump to latest

I LOVE The West Wing, but I do have a significant problem with it. The discrimination and other issues of just about all groups of people are discussed except for one glaring example, and that is atheists. No mention of the discrimination, the ignoring, the disrespect, the ignorance, the ostracization, none of it. In fact, in all 154 episodes, I don't think I saw or heard one mention of an atheist existing in this world. I think you'd have to try pretty damn hard as a writer/director/producer for that to be the case. Just my thoughts. Thanks for reading.

[–] Painbow 8 years ago

Vinick?

[–] gavin_70 8 years ago

Vinick was more an agnostic than an atheist.

I'm not from the US so excuse my ignorance, but to atheists have a much of an influence on politics over there? Going by what's shown in media coverage from here in Australia it seems that politics is very much Christian or at least "go through the motions of pretending to be Christian".

[–] zeostinger 8 years ago

For some reason Atheists seem to get a bad reputation. Sarah Palin once said that the only reason she'd vote for an atheist was if the other pick as a Jihadist. Basically some people think that because atheists don't believe in a good it means that they don't believe in justice or good or whatever.

Officially the United States is Secular. We don't have a particular religion by Constitution, which infuriates some Christians so they do all they can to get is as Christian as they can get away with. And when they can't they whine, because they love feeling persecuted, since its basically their origin story. (and yes i know not all christains act like that)

[–] ringbearer 8 years ago

So your complaint is that atheists are not represented in the show? I can probably name a dozen other specific groups of people that weren't mentioned on the show. I'm not really sure what your point is. Does every religion/race/walk of life need a shout out these days? The fact of the matter is, atheism is still a very unpopular belief system. Despite the growing number of atheists over the past few years, it's still not generally received well by a large portion of the population. Regardless, why do you need atheism mentioned? I guess my point is, it seems silly to me to even bring it up.