Charles Schultz, an atheist?  Hmm, not sure I believe that.

The “evil” examples were really heavy on the movie and entertainment industry, which is unlikely to sway the Christianists.  They’d be likely to say; “Ha!  I told you so!”

“Thomas Edison, who invented the electric light bulb, among a great many other things...” That’s the understatement of the last century.

The most compelling example to me was Bill Gates.

The most compelling example to me was Bill Gates.

Bill Gates is an atheist?  No wonder he’s so evil…

I agree with decrepitoldfool, most of the “evil” people doing “good” were actors, sure they keep people entertained, but have most done anything necessarily “good”?

Also, anyone notice about 1/4 of the “fools” usually had something to do with evolution, paleontology or some other related science.  Once again, not likely to sway any Christians.

Good idea, but could have used a few more well thought out examples.

Well I don’t think the evil part was meant to exactly coincide with the listing of the entertainers. Note how for the fool part he included fool in their descriptions but he didn’t include evil in the entertainer’s descriptions.

Just think of it as a list of atheist innovators/geniuses and a list of atheist entertainers.

Well yeah he didn’t mention evil in their description, but he gave the lead in of: “‘Evil’ people, who do ‘no good’… (according to the bible).” Just like he did a lead in with the “fools” part.

DOF: Charles Schultz, an atheist?  Hmm, not sure I believe that.

Judge for yourself. Here’s an excerpt from an interview Schulz did in 1999 with David Templeton:

Schulz revealed that in the years following World War II he’d been quite involved in the Church of God in Minneapolis, occasionally dabbling in what he called “some very lousy preaching.”

Though his philosophical views evolved over the years--"The term that best describes me now is ‘secular humanist,’” he explained--his characters continued to quote biblical passages, occasionally musing about the darker inconsistencies of religion. These thoughtful reflections were never heavy-handed; rather, Schulz had become the reigning master of the lighter-than-air, spiritually resonant comic-strip koan.
...
“I despise those shallow religious comics,” he said. ”Dennis the Menace, for instance, is the most shallow. When they show him praying--I just can’t stand that sort of thing, talking to God about some cutesy thing that he’d done during the day. I don’t think Hank Ketcham [Dennis’ creator] has any deep knowledge of things like that.”

He cringed when I mentioned Family Circus, the strip by Bill Keane that is strewn with cutesy references to Jesus (who wants to protect children on school buses, but can’t because of laws about separation of church and state!) and those sickly-sweet images of invisible deceased grandparents looming protectively over the kids.

“Oh, I can’t stand that,” Schulz laughed. “You could get diabetes reading them, couldn’t you?”

Then there’s his Wikipedia entry:

...In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God (Anderson) as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. By the late 1980s he told one of his biographers (Rheta Grimsley Johnson, 1989) that he identified with Secular Humanism. In the Sixties, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, as he (Short) explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts. Schulz did not endorse Short’s specific interpretations and often said that “the only theology is no theology,” yet Schulz gave permission to use many of his strips in the book, and his newspaper comics continued to have enough theological themes to fill many Sunday School lessons. Schulz seemed concerned about having the focus of his strip viewed as being narrowed to be a religious themed comic, when it had many more simple insights into life that went beyond a specifically defined theology.

So perhaps he never specifically cited himself as an atheist, but it seems pretty clear that, at least in his later years, he was one.

As for Gates, he’s listed as an agnostic on the Celebrity Atheist List:

Gates was interviewed November 1995 on PBS by David Frost. Below is the transcript with minor edits.

Frost: Do you believe in the Sermon on the Mount?

Gates: I don’t. I’m not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I’m a huge believer in. There’s a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very very positive impact.

Frost: I sometimes say to people, do you believe there is a god, or do you know there is a god? And, you’d say you don’t know?

Gates: In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don’t know if there’s a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid.

There’s another citation at the link that contains this priceless Gate’s quote:

“Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.”

Amen to that, Bill.

I believe in evolution and science, and I am a strong supporter of both, but there is one question I have not been able to answer.  Where did the universe start, or how did it start?

Schulz did in 1999 with David Templeton:

Fascinating.  I had no idea.  He certainly went letting everyone think he was a Christian, though.  Wonder if newspapers would still be running his strips years after his death if he’d come out in the strip itself. More likely that would have been the end of him.

Where did the universe start, or how did it start?

Quantum scientists are currently looking at String Theory.

As far as we know, the universe has been here forever and has no beginning. It has, of course, expanded since the Big Bang but it did not, as some say, “come from nothing”.

I thought it was an excellent video.

One thing, though--isn’t Seth Green Jewish?

Where did the universe start, or how did it start?

It’s a cosmological/religious question that results in a sociological mystery.  The Bible says: 

1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

The Earth didn’t exist yet: it was without form, and void.  Allowing for some poetic license, this is a good description of The Big Bang. It is really quite moving to imagine God poking little holes in the boundaries of one universe to cause the explosion that starts another.

And yet; the one big scientific theory that seems to support the Biblical version, Christianists oppose as strongly as they possibly can.  That’s a mystery to me in itself.

Unfortunately, I have made no progress in understanding string theory, etc.  I tried to read Hawking’s “Brief history of time” - and even then tried Gonick’s cartoon version of it - and couldn’t follow.  Just a little dim, I guess. (Homer’s description of Bart)

Not that it matters, but I actually lived across the street from Carl Sagan when I was in college.  Never saw him though, just his crappy Volkwagen.  His house was pretty hidden too and was featured in Architectural Digest back around ‘94 or so.

Seth Green may be Jewish, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he believes it.  I have always found the term ‘Jewish’ interesting as I think it is one of the only terms that describes ethnicity and/or a religion.

When I saw the “evil people doing no good” section with the actors I thought it was going to end with some sort of stat about how much money the group as a whole had contributed to charity. When it didn’t happen, I realized that it would have been a great point to make. I don’t know if all of the actors shown are big time givers, but Bill Gates sure would have bumped up the total.

Even more so because, while the total is important, how intelligently the money is ‘given’ matters even more.  Bill Gates has set a new standard on that scale.

Chad - I thought Sagan drove a Porsche 914? (often derided as the ‘VolksPorsche’) Did it look like this?  Of course, he may have had more than one car…

I would love to have a 914 - just the right balance between my Beetle and the over-the-top 911.  But I would take a 911 if you gave me one. 

One thing, though--isn’t Seth Green Jewish?

Like Woody Allen, Sadie?  If you were going to make a comment about this, I would have thought he was the obvious one.

Loved the prison stat.  So amoral athiests are less likely to break one of the laws ‘under God’.  I wonder how many ‘evil fools’ voted for Daddy Bush. Would they have done if they knew his views. (there are those who would say voting for Bush is an entry requirement to ‘Evil Fooldom’ )

Well, either atheists are less likely to break laws, or they’re less likely to get caught.

It’s well-known fact that the third stone tablet was dropped. The 11th Commandment is actually:

Thou shalt not get caught.

Getting caught is not on the list of ten things the TB’s are not supposed to do, therefore…

I believe in evolution and science, and I am a strong supporter of both, but there is one question I have not been able to answer.  Where did the universe start, or how did it start?

I don’t know how or where my parents met, but I do know that it was probably a real-world event, and not some mythological fantasy.

EVERY time a mystery has been solved by science or reason, it has turned out to have a real-world solution. Not once has magic, or supernatural stuff, been involved.

This is so mundane a fact that when police attempt to figure out who committed a crime, they never ever consider a disembodied spirit as the first suspect, and they never suspect the crime was carried out by magic.

Nothing in my life hinges on knowing how my parents met, or how the universe started. I do care to know how the universe started (if it did), but I don’t DEMAND to know before I can accept that this is a universe of physics and not of magic.

The real world is the REAL world. Every other mental model is less.

It’s well-known fact that the third stone tablet was dropped. The 11th Commandment is actually:

Thou shalt not get caught.

Getting caught is not on the list of ten things the TB’s are not supposed to do, therefore…

No.. the 11th commandment is “Psyke”

dof, maybe he drove 914 at one time, but when I was there he drove a Golf (or Rabbit).  Being a car nut myself, I am definitely sure of this.

Acckkk!  Water-cooled, front-engine VW… apostasy.  I… I just need a moment here…

DoF- my favorite car was a ‘72 VW bus.  Air-cooled, rear engine orthodoxy.  Kinda slow up hills.  Relax.

Actually, I was rather fond of my ‘57 Eldorado, too…

Well, either atheists are less likely to break laws, or they’re less likely to get caught.

Or, as has been pointed out before, GM, perhaps religion is a ploy to get paroled.  Maybe all criminals are atheists.

Where did the universe start, or how did it start?

Where?  Everywhere.  How?  No one knows, not even Scientists, Christians, or God.

It was interesting seeing peoples reaction to my question.  I do not necessarily believe in a “God”, but I, like most people that believe in science, also believe that something cannot be created from nothing.  So at some point I think the universe was started by someone or something.  What I do not know, nor do I necessarily intend to find out, but I can be happy and content knowing that I do not have to follow a specific belief structure to get through this life.

I do not necessarily believe in a “Godâ€?, but I, like most people that believe in science, also believe that something cannot be created from nothing.  So at some point I think the universe was started by someone or something.

But Webs- if “something” cannot be created from “nothing”, where did this “someone” or “something” who/that started the universe come from?  If you find it easier to believe that some sort of God or Creator doesn’t need a Creator Himself, but the universe does, you’re in good company- this is a standard “argument” of fundametalists.

It doesn’t really make sense, though, does it?  What it amounts to is saying “I can’t imagine how the universe got here.  But an unimaginably intelligent/powerful Creator can imagine it.  And this God/Creator, being omnipotent, could have created Himself, or been here Forever.  Therefore, there must have been such a Creator.” In other words, “There’s a question I can’t answer.  Thus, there must be Someone who can answer the question.” Not very logical.