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Permalink Reply by Kevin on November 28, 2011 at 1:53pm

I was put off by it. It felt like they took a line directly from a Jack Chick tract (atheists are all pompous, grandiloquent know-it-alls who scoff at the mere thought of something more powerful than they are). Maybe I'm just over-sensitive, I don't know.

 

Here's the tract that came to mind: http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0055/0055_01.asp

 

In reality, any professor who acted this way in an academic setting would lose their job within a week.

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on November 28, 2011 at 8:11pm

I like the Dexter series. I'm behind on it though. I haven't seen that episode yet.

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Permalink Reply by Sam Jones on November 28, 2011 at 8:23pm

It was a great episode.  

 

I think they needed a professor to fit certain criteria so that they could kill him off.... I mean it is a nutjob fulfilling the prophecy in the bible.

 

No need to read to far into it.

 

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on November 28, 2011 at 9:56pm

I really shouldn't read that far into it, but it's difficult not to. Even if it's not an intentional jab at "New Atheists," as they're called, or the public speakers for secularism who are often projected as arrogant and condescending, it perpetuates a negative stereotype that's ultimately detrimental to everyday people who campaign for secularism and humanism. Call me nit-picky, I don't think I am.

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Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on November 28, 2011 at 10:08pm

we're a sensitive lot, no doubt about it.  it's amazing how once you catch the bug, you just can't stop thinking about it.  it was easier to just forget about your non-belief before the information age.  you would come across so few people who were atheists.  now, as soon as i turn on my computer i can connect with thousands of atheists.  i've been an atheist for over 20 years and just now it's become something i can't stop talking about. 

have you ever had a coworker that was just dumb as nails?  whenever i've worked with this kind of person i simply cannot shut up about it.  i find myself, much to my shame, to share stories about his/her idiocy with every single human i come in contact with.  it's amazing to me their level of stupidity.  it's...kinda...the same...with believers.  everytime i hear something religious it drives me to, i guess, want/need to share it with other people - even fellow believers!  i just can't believe what people...believe!

 

ps - i might use part, if not all, of this in a future blog post. 

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on November 28, 2011 at 11:03pm

I do have a coworker who, every time we have a conversation, and no matter the subject... matter... always manages to convert the conversation into a religion debate. Ever since he somehow figured out that I was a non-believer he's been very passive-aggressive about it. He quotes the big names like Oswald Chambers and C.S. Lewis, and always in that very assured, calm and collected tone that only someone who is utterly lost in their own sense of self-righteousness could manage. I'm not the best speaker, I have a stutter, so I'm not always confident enough to debate others face-to-face; but it drives me mad that theists always act (keyword) so self-assured when in reality they've nothing at all to back themselves or their arguments up. Anyway, I can see this getting very off topic. :P

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Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on November 29, 2011 at 8:09am

very off topic, but still interesting!  i've got friends like that as well.  i try, i really try to not bring up religion, etc. but these types (passive agressive) will not let it go. 

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Permalink Reply by Charles Corey Stewart on November 29, 2011 at 5:14am

I just hope the Dexter remains a show an Atheist can watch, religion coming into Dexter is a bad move in my opinion. It's not a show to draw in a christian audience, so why alienate a huge portion of your viewers? Still three episodes to get it right. 

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Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on November 29, 2011 at 8:11am

good point Charles.  it is an odd decision to make this season about religion so much.  who do they think watches Dexter, born agains?  Brother Sam was a good character but I have to admit that sometimes i wanted to rip some pages out of his Bible and shove them down his throat! 

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on November 29, 2011 at 12:16pm

As a character, Brother Sam was great. I actually felt sympathy when he died, however much I expected it. But using "faith" as a foil to Dexter's Dark Passenger just seems lazy and pretentious. As for Dexter remaining an "Atheist" show, I think they're trying to appeal to those faux-religionists or "spirituals" out there who are relatively secular but still believe in some ephemeral, nameless god being.

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Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on November 29, 2011 at 12:30pm

i've never really thought of Dexter as an Atheist show, any more than say "House" is an Atheist show.  i guess the difference is the subject matter - i can't imagine religious people flocking to a show about serial killers, simply b/c they object to violence being perpetuated by TV.  yet a show about doctors is not controversial, even with a hard core Atheist protagonist. 

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on November 29, 2011 at 12:56pm

Christians can watch House because the underlying implication, at least to them, is that one day, at the end of some distant season, his life will straighten out when he comes around to God and knocks the Vicodin. Even the episodes with very heavy religious themes give more weight to the faithful patient, portraying House as a stubborn mule, blinded by his intellect. Whenever religion is brought up in that series, it has a definite formula of "this is my faith, you can't touch it, it's immune to criticism and any ridicule House has is just House being House."

As for Christians opposing violence on television, I don't think so. They'll rant about sex on television all the time, but rarely do I hear a Christian rant about the violence on television. Dexter has a lot of sex in it. I could see how that would deter a Christian.

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