Picard Vs. Adama for Best Atheist Character in Science Fiction
Posted on: March 5, 2008 - 9:07pm
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Picard Vs. Adama for Best Atheist Character in Science Fiction
Okay, I needed to lighten up a bit, and I thought everyone could too, so I'm holding a contest between Commander Bill Adama of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (which every atheist should watch) and Captain Jean Luc Picard of Star Trek The Next Generation for best atheist character in sci-fi.
“It is true that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. It is equally true that in the land of the blind, the two-eyed man is an enemy of the state, the people, and domestic tranquility… and necessarily so. Someone has to rearrange the furniture.”
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I don't even recall Picard making any atheism references. Due to that, I'd definitely have to go with Bill Adama.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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(Warning: Silly proof follows)
1. Assume that a valid answer exists.
2. Picard > Adama (1, Picard rings more of a bell)
3. Picard > Kirk (2, Kirk has not been mentioned yet)
4. Kirk > Picard (Axiom of Kirk)
5. No valid answer exists (Lines 1-5, proof by contradiction lines 3&4)
"What right have you to condemn a murderer if you assume him necessary to "God's plan"? What logic can command the return of stolen property, or the branding of a thief, if the Almighty decreed it?"
-- The Economic Tendency of Freethought
Adam rules. His problems weren't solved by the end of the hour ether.
I gotta cast my vote for Picard. Durring the episode "Who Watches the Watchers" picard was mistaken for a god by a bronze age people who had abandoned religion generations before. One of the Anthropologists who had been studying them told Picard that he would never get these peope to believe that he wasn't a god and that the best thing to do would be to give them a framework for their new beliefs, a set of commandments, so that the new religion that would inevitably form around him did not get out of hand. Picard absolutely rejected the idea and said in no uncertain terms that he would not foster a belief in the supernatural. He said:
"Your own reports describe how rational these people are. Millennia ago, they abandoned all belief in the supernatural. And now you're asking me to sabotage that achievement... send them back into the Dark Ages of fear and superstition NO!!."
Yeah! Picard is my boy!!!
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."
-James Madison-
Oh I had forgotten that episode! I don't think that Adama has ever had the opportunity to be worshiped as a deity, and thus will also have to cast my vote for Picard.
Adama and lookn forward to season 4. However, Roddenberry was probably one of the greatest atheist sci-fi writers for the small screen so I hate not voting for Pickard.
"Always seek out the truth, but avoid at all costs those that claim to have found it" ANONYMOUS
I'm going with Picard.In "Encounter at Farpoint", and later episodes,Q claims to be a god,but Picard always argues his claim.Despite whatever Q does,Picard never believes he's a supernatural being.
I'm also reminded of Star Trek V where find the alien in the center of the galaxy who claims to be god.This entity is referenced to in the Q Continuum trilogy(non-canon).Here they also disbelieve his god claims.
Actually I would have just gone with Picard anyway,because I love Trek so much
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
I'm casting my vote for Adama, and here's why:
Picard is a noteworthy humanist in science fiction, but he lives in the idealistic Federation in which, among humans anyway, atheism or agnosticism seems to be the norm. Commander Adama has to deal with religious idiots and fanatics everyday in a less-than-ideal situation. He even had to take a stand against the President when she violated the separation between Temple and State. Adama also had to work his way up to being a commander in a military where religious beliefs seem to be the norm. I can't help but think of a young Adama refusing to participate in his squad's prayer meeting during the first Cylon War. So my vote goes to Adama, with Jean Luc Picard as a close runner up.
“It is true that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. It is equally true that in the land of the blind, the two-eyed man is an enemy of the state, the people, and domestic tranquility… and necessarily so. Someone has to rearrange the furniture.”
I've got to wonder, after nearly 20 years of playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard, if Patrick Stewart is one of us. I wouldn't be surprised. I wonder if he's in any of the same circles as Dawkins?
EDIT: Found this in a Patrick Stewart Interview from Back whem X-Men 2 was coming out.
"Look at the situations like the Protestants and the Catholics have in Northern Ireland and the Jews and the Arabs have in the Middle East," Stewart drew as examples. "If they were able to fully respect one another, and combined their talents and creative abilities to build new worlds, what a society there could be! Think of all of that talent, and all of that thrilling, exciting ability. And, it will happen. I firmly believe that it will come. And that's the primary issue that lies behind this X-Men movie."
---Patrick Stewart
Sounds pretty humanistic to me. Maybe a bit naive, but certainly worthy of the Picard character.
“It is true that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. It is equally true that in the land of the blind, the two-eyed man is an enemy of the state, the people, and domestic tranquility… and necessarily so. Someone has to rearrange the furniture.”
I don't remember if Picard as a character ever displayed any Atheistic beliefs neccessarily, however the whole show doesn't usually talk about a God unless it's another race (usually primitive) that's worshiping it.
Either way, if Picard were here, he'd tell everyone about the Prime Directive and how they shouldn't be screwing with everyone else's rights! Props to Picard
Picard never called himself an atheist per se, but for 5 years Picard was largely mouthpiece for Gene Rodenberry, who was an atheist. After Rodenberry's death, the writers stayed pretty true to Gene's conception of who the character was: an explorer who was more of a philosopher than a military man. So while Picard never explicitly called himself an atheist, I think it's safe to say that what consistent philosophy there was in Star Trek during most of TNG's run was pretty atheistic.
“It is true that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. It is equally true that in the land of the blind, the two-eyed man is an enemy of the state, the people, and domestic tranquility… and necessarily so. Someone has to rearrange the furniture.”
What about Stargate's Samantha Carter? She's hinted on at least two episodes that she doesn't believe in gods and the supernatural, and she's certainly demonstrated the ability to kick ass.
No offense, but Stargate sucks. And if it were solely up to kicking ass, Adama would still be our winner.
“It is true that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. It is equally true that in the land of the blind, the two-eyed man is an enemy of the state, the people, and domestic tranquility… and necessarily so. Someone has to rearrange the furniture.”
And the Prime Directive has been interpreted about as consistently as the Bible. I rest my case. Wait, no I don't, there's plenty more on Adama.
“It is true that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. It is equally true that in the land of the blind, the two-eyed man is an enemy of the state, the people, and domestic tranquility… and necessarily so. Someone has to rearrange the furniture.”
I have to vote for Picard. I am a hard core trekker or trekky what ever we are called these days. Never got into battle star. For the most part most characters on star trek seem to be atheists. Unless they are some other species or just weird. I know Gene Roddenberry was a humanist and rejected the idea of a god.
As we know from the show, Picard is an true atheist because he rejects god, even thow he has met him.
I'd throw in my man Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly, but 1) The topic had nothing to do with him, 2) The show got cancelled before he even had enough episodes for comparison, and 3) I guess Mal really wasn't an atheist, he was just really pissed at god.
(Yes, this reply was nothing more than a shameless plug for my all-time favorite show, Firefly )
But I'd have to agree with an earlier response from the OP regarding Adama...he definitely had more religious nonsense to put up with than Picard.
Never really watched the series when it was on, but Serenity kicked ass.
"Always seek out the truth, but avoid at all costs those that claim to have found it" ANONYMOUS
Neither did I. I bought the DVDs after renting Serenity and was just blown away. Best damn show ever, IMHO. If you haven't seen the show, you can usually get it pretty cheap at Amazon...sometimes they have it for $19.95. If you liked Serenity, you'll frickin love Firefly.
I've got to throw my two cents in for Mal. In fact, I have to throw serious props towards Joss Whedon for how he wrote the atheist vs. theist characters. If you watch the whole series, you will notice that Shepherd Book (the theist, obviously) is pretty much always wrong when he invokes God. When he sides with the heathens, things work out for the best, and the most logical course of action is usually (not always) taken.
As for other notable atheist characters, River is also an atheist. There's a scene where she annotates the whole Bible for Book, pointing out all the errors in it.
Contact was a shitty movie, but Ellie (Jodie Foster) is a pretty good character. If the alien hadn't been her damn father, it might have been a better movie, but in fairness, I got a little pissed that the atheist had to be an antisocial grump. Speaking of House...
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I watched the first episode thinking it'd be "Gunsmoke in Space," as that's how Fox advertised it. Boy, was I ever wrong. The first episode to air was "The Train Job." Niska was a great bad-guy character, a perfect James Bond villian. And at the end, when Niska's agent was going on about how he'd hunt Mal down and kill him, and Mal kicks him into the engine intake-- that was priceless, and I knew it was going to be a damned good series.
And it was definitely the best SF show to air in many, many years, of not ever. It was also great character-driven drama, with some very funny moments thrown in.
Too bad Fox didn't know what to do with it. Although Serenity was good, it would've been better had they had a few years to flesh it out.
"I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I <ungh>"
I'd have to go with Mal, too.
"Yes, I seriously believe that consciousness is a product of a natural process. I find that the neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who proceed from that premise are the ones who are actually making useful contributions to our understanding of the mind." - PZ Myers
Thematically, I don't think Book represented religion. I think he represented redemption.
His invocations of God were always half-hearted. God gave him a moral framework from which to act. The show hinted that Book had a deep, dark past, and it seemed his religious beliefs were his own moral life-preserver, rather than an honest belief in a Creator. So the redemption was for both Mal and for Book.
At least, that's how I see it.
Not that this is a FIrefly forum, or anything.
"Yes, I seriously believe that consciousness is a product of a natural process. I find that the neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who proceed from that premise are the ones who are actually making useful contributions to our understanding of the mind." - PZ Myers
I can see an element of redemption in this, but let's be honest. Book had not been redeemed. He was running from his past. Religion was not a particularly effective tool for him, and I think that his redemption, if it came, (had the series continued) would have come from his observation that Mal and company, pirates and lawbreakers, had actually found themselves in their rebellion against the quasi-religious devotion to the government.
Morality, it seems, stems not from adherence to God or government, but from the ability to be true to oneself. This is what I believe the message of Book would have been.
(Also, like so many theists, Book had left one ideology and picked up another! He was still trapped, though his fervor and devotion were permanently diminished.)
I'm curious where you think Mal's redemption would come from. I see him as a tragic character, doomed by his own morality. In a weird twist, I think both Mal and Book are lost in their own ways, and both are destined to be unhappy, each driven from ideology, in opposite directions, almost meeting on the opposite side of a great circle.
I'm not saying you're wrong. I can see where you're coming from, but alas, the damn thing got canceled and we never got to see what was cooking in Joss's brain.
Oh, and Mal > Adama > Picard.
Picard supposedly lives in this really enlightened time when religion is a quaint part of our past, and something we try not to fuck with when we see it in other species. As an atheist character, he has a cushy job. At least Adama has to deal with some religious shit that actually affects his life. Picard, when he deals with it, usually gets to be a benevolent dictator. Hardly compelling, if you ask me.
Oh, and all that Shakespeare annoys the shit out of me. Every time there's some bit about Shakespear in TNG, I find myself thinking, "Dude, Patrick... go do Shakespeare in the Park or something. Get it out of your system and get on with the phasers and warp engines, ok?"
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
He hadn't yet been redeemed, certainly. I believe there would've been a whole thread concerning Book's redemption. There was the whole symbolism of Book receiving benediction from Inara at the end of the original pilot; I believe that was foreshadowing of Book's own tale.
I never thought about Mal's buccaneering as a catalyst for Book's enlightenment. That was certainly there in the series, though.
And I don't think the whole switching ideology was a coincidence. I think Joss Whedon had something planned that would've been true to the character, and very interesting.
Excellent observation of the Mal/Book duality. I would never have realized it, but that's certainly there.
My thoughts:
Mal would've been redeemed exactly as he was in Serenity -- in service to loyalty and individualism. I'm pretty sure Joss Whedon had that plotline figured, at least as an ending to a season, if not the series. But it would've been built up so that it would've been personally meaningful to Mal. From what I could tell of his character, his morality revolved around loyalty first to your friends, but even to humanity at large. In that respect, he was living out the stated ideals of the Alliance, but doing so in a mostly-selfless manner. Without meddling.
Serenity (the ship) meant not just freedom for him, but freedom for his crew. One the best scenes in the entire series (other than pretty much all of the first half of "The Message" ) was in Ariel, when Mal has Jayne in the airlock, ready to blow him out into the atmosphere. Jayne says, "Don't tell them what I done. Make something up." That's how cool the show is: two simple lines to say that the rest of the crew is important to Jayne, and that is the difference between death and forgiveness in Mal's eyes.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. It's too bad the show ended as quickly as it did. I think there would've been many, many new SF fans if Fox had given it a chance. And it certainly raised the bar for science fiction.
Just as a quick aside: anybody else notice the Serenity cameo in the Battlestar Galactica pilot? She flies by the window when Laura Roslin is in the doctor's office on Caprica.
"Yes, I seriously believe that consciousness is a product of a natural process. I find that the neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who proceed from that premise are the ones who are actually making useful contributions to our understanding of the mind." - PZ Myers
Wow, Hamby & Nigel, some truly shiny Firefly observations...some of the best I've ever read.
But I still wonder, was Mal truly an atheist, or just pissed at God for what happened at Serenity Valley? Big difference, IMHO.
Thanks for the great insights...my Firefly fanboyness is eatin' it up.
Oh, and I had the Firefly-Gallactica cameo pointed out to me on one of the Firefly boards. I didn't notice it when it aired.
It's a very solid question, and I'm not sure if there's a clear answer from the series. In the flashback scenes from Serenity Valley, we do see him conspicuously wearing a cross, so it's obvious that he has had faith at one time.
My feeling is that he is an atheist, mainly because it makes more sense with the Book/Mal duality. Book is a man who has done very bad things and has turned halfheartedly to religion, but he has lost his faith in himself. His attempt at religion is an attempt at penance more than a search for truth. Mal, on the other hand, is a man who tried very hard to do the right thing, and because of it, a lot of people died. His morality was his downfall. His inability to stomach the hypocrisy and blind faith in the government caused his own downfall. Now, he tries halfheartedly to be the loner who's only looking out for himself and his own, but he cannot escape the part of him that led him down the path in the first place.
So, a man of true faith loses his faith after witnessing the evils of blind acceptance, and a man of blind acceptance tries faith after losing himself in his own sins. It's a really awesome dichotomy.
Of course, it wouldn't suck if Mal was just mad at god, but I think we get clues from the other characters, and from the plots themselves. I mentioned the time when River gave Book the annotated Bible, but there are other clues. For one thing, when we do encounter religious believers, they are invariably back woods types. The house of non-guild prostitutes was full of theists, and they were on a back water planet in old west conditions. Whenever we see religion, it's almost like an ancient artifact. This gives me a clue about the feelings of the writer. If he feels that way personally, it would make more sense that he conceives of Mal as an atheist, not a disgruntled believer.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I'd like to say Jean-Luc, simply because I'm not familiar with the other character. I'd like to throw in The Doctor, I assume he must be atheist. I dunno if you can call the Doctor a single character though, since everytime he regenerates (i.e. morphs to avoid death (its a plot device to enable new actors to take over the role)) he changes quite significantly. You yanks are missing out on Doctor Who.
Atheist Books
Thanks. I do like talking about the show with other folks. Not many people around me love it the way I do.
I'm not sure about Mal's beliefs. He might've really believed in God while claiming he didn't, while Book didn't really believe while claiming he did. That's one possibility.
I think Mal realized that any God that allowed the Alliance to win was no God of his. So, a little of both.
That's how I first came to realize I didn't believe in God -- the God of the Bible was no God of mine. He's a petulant, self-agrandizing (but who wouldn't in that situation?), immature, selfish prick, who would rather fuck with a few million lives to teach them proper respect for Him, rather than treat those He professes to love with respect and patience. (That's not the only reason I don't believe in God, but it's the one that got me thinking.)
Anyway, the character of Mal was complex and troubled. For me, this was just one more way he held contradictory ideas.
"Yes, I seriously believe that consciousness is a product of a natural process. I find that the neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who proceed from that premise are the ones who are actually making useful contributions to our understanding of the mind." - PZ Myers
Well, he wasn't just wearing a cross, when asked if he thought they could shoot down the sciff, he pulled the cross from his shirt, closed his eyes & kissed it, responding, "you even need to ask?". (or something like that).
Anyway, I'm beating a dead browncoat into the ground here. He definitely lost his faith at Serenity Valley, and it wasn't likely coming back to him.
Something else I found interesting (and it's something I'm likely to explore over at my Firefly RP site), is that christianity seemed to not only survive the exodus from Earth, but was possibly still going strong. (sorry OP, seems I've derailed your thread...I'll start a new one if needed).
Nah, we eventually get Dr. Who via the SciFi Channel on this side of the pond. I forget the span of the UK-US delay though.
Picard. Star Trek rules...FTW!!!!
I would have to say that I agree that Picard didn't really have to deal with religious beliefs incorporated into how his ship, starfleet's governance, and his crew's personal ordeals(for the most part). Religion in the Star Trek world is looked upon as folksy and its relevance into the course the Enterprise ultimately takes as to how they accomplish their search for new worlds and new civilizations lets them see an incredible amount of incompatible and irrational belief systems. It is fairly easy to be an atheist in the post-religion Starfleet environment since just about everyone on the crew deals with science and its marvels on a daily basis.
Bill Adama has to live within the constructs of a human society in which if one of the society's adherents are religious they subscribe to only one pantheistic religion with sects of varying interpretations of scriptures. The Cylons have a monotheistic GOD, but for the bulk of humanity's existence in this society(pre-Cylon invasion) there was only pantheism in the Lords of Kobol or atheism. One of the twelve colonies, Sagittaron, believes medicine an abomination, a sin against the gods. Geminon, another of the colonies, is "known for their literal interpretations of the Sacred Scrolls. Most of the population of Gemenon was apparently very strongly opposed to the federal laws legalizing abortion. Traditional Gemenese law declares children to be the property of their parents"(battlestarwiki). Adama is living in not in a post modern world, like that of Picard, but rather a reflection of certain parts of current American society. He has to thread the needle of creating a delicate balance between military and governmental control, and his decisions often cross over military lines and into political lines. These decisions as Admiral of a fleet of ships, Captain of the Galactica(and sometimes sole arbiter), and defacto Co-President of humanity really make him walk a fine line when it comes to dealing with the issues of abortion, and using scriptures he doesn't believe in to guide the search for earth. I would say these qualifications make him the Best Atheist character of the two. Don't get me wrong TNG was great, but the realism of BSG transcends the stand alone episodic format of TNG and allows for more multidimensional character development(just my opinion).
As for Mal, I would say the archetype he most reminds me of is Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump. The show didn't go on long enough to finish his character arc, but I believe the direction it was going in was one of reconcilliation with God rather than knowledge of his non-existence. That being said, I think personal redemption for atrocities he committed in war and regaining a faith in humanity were probably more at the forefront than reconciling with God, but that conflicted, "pissed at God" persona was just part of his personal evolution of the infancy of his character development.
As for Samantha Carter, I would say Dr. Weir was hotter than her, a better leader than her, and better than her even if she wasn't smarter than her. I don't think Stargate or Atlantis can hold a candle to TNG or BSG as far as best atheist character is concerned.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
It's kinda hard to compare these two. Adama comes from the heavily 70's "disco" oriented sci-fi genre - flower-power, mirror ball version of space fiction (and not really an athiest, I'd have to say with teh constant "gaia-variant" references)...., and Picard comes from the 90's "diversity brainwashed", NCC-Dilbert-1701 space enterprise. These guys are worlds apart. I couldn't even begin to compare them
I was referring to the present Battlestar Galactica's William Adama played by Edward James Almos who is indeed an atheist. Here is the BSG wiki page where it clearly states that as well. http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/William_Adama
To not even try to compare two male spaceship commanders in the future who happen to be atheist based on who was a better character is kind of a cop out. The fact they are literally universes apart doesn't mean they are not worthy of comparison. Besides, I find oranges much tastier than apples eventhough I can acknowledge that while oranges and apples are both round, pleasantly tasting, edible fruit they do have differences, but a distinction between the two based on personal opinion as to one's preference between them is not an impossible request.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
You know, I think it really depends on my mood on any given day. Some days, I feel certain that both Book and Mal were finding their own meaning while moving away from God. On other days, I tend to agree with you. The real world part of me notices that House was a very successful atheist character, and this would not have been unnoticed by Whedon. I want to believe that he was prepping us for the non-religious salvation of both characters, but the necessity of the movie, and the early cancellation of the show, made it necessary to kill Book for purely plot-driven reasons.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I have been looking forward to Torchwood starting here, but only on BBC America which I don't get. Hope it comes on SciFi soon. I haven't seen any proof the Doctor is an atheist, but if he's a believer he doesn't wear it on his sleeve.
"Always seek out the truth, but avoid at all costs those that claim to have found it" ANONYMOUS
The plot for ST V was lifted with some moderation from a story idea writen by Harlan Elison for the original series in which Kirk & company were to bump into god, and Spock was to be noticably unimpressed... (It was nixed by the network of course).
I think we've forgotten the original skeptic, whose only 'religion' was the relentless pursuit of logic, Mr Spock.
LC >;-}>
Christianity: A disgusting middle eastern blood cult, based in human sacrifice, with sacraments of cannibalism and vampirism, whose highest icon is of a near naked man hanging in torment from a device of torture.
Spock was a great skeptic and had a good moral framework ala "live long and prosper." He was not human though, I am not sure if that excludes him from the debate, but he already stands tall on his own merits.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Adama because Battlestar is a much better show than star trek. Star Trek was awesome when it was in its prime but Science Fiction has evolved and this new show has better characters that aren't Mary Sues, better writing, a setting that is a convenient utopia, and a deeper, more political, more topical, more subversive storyline.
My favorite atheists in all Sci-Fi are the Edenists from Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. They're genetic engineers who figure out how to transfer human consciousness to artificial neural structures prior to natural death and subsequently get excommunicated from all extant faiths. Luckily for them, they're already living in a habitat orbiting Jupiter, where they mine Helium-3 and sell it to a desperate, energy-starved Earth at exorbitant prices. The role reversal's kinda nice.
"The whole conception of God is a conception derived from ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men."
--Bertrand Russell
Given those two choices, I would have to say that Adama is the more impressive atheist, for the reasons that others have already stated.
However, Adama is not my favorite Battlestar Galactica atheist. That would be Brother Cavil.
The monotheistic Cylons are even more zealous about their religion than the polytheistic humans. I like that there is a nonbeliever among them. (Of course, his atheism doesn't stop him from being as ruthless as the other models so far as oppressing the humans is concerned.)
Also, atheist ministers are my favorite kind. Further, I like Dean Stockwell.
Here's an article I found that examines and criticizes the atheism in Star Trek, which the author contrasts with Firefly. The article's not great, but it might be interesting if you're already intrigued by the religious or irreligious themes of those shows.
A. Dean Stockwell rocks on BSG. I especially like the scene in jail where his twin model comes in as he is confessing his innocence, then sees the other model, and gets a "sorry brother" as he just stops the charade. Classic.
B. That article was well articulated, brought up good points about Trek's progressively collectivistic utopia versus Firefly's capitalistic dystopia, and had a unique perspective. I found the pro conservative and pro religious overtones a bit preachy and not readily verified, but then again, it was just an article about scifi tv shows. What more could you expect from a website dedicate to the Friesian view of philosophy? I'm not bashing the philosophy, just saying it has definite viewpoints concerning these topics that heavily influence the writer's perspective.
Perhaps these meanderings about scifi articles and different atheist characters in science fiction shows and literature should be moved to a different thread, because this one is meant to address Adama vs. Picard as best atheist character in scifi. Just my 2 cents.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda