Works that promote good ol' atheist values

[OtakuJeannie]

I apologize in advance if there is another thread like this but I didn't see one in the past few months.

What shows, books, movies, songs, video games, anime ect ect do you think promote atheism or at least deconstruct some of the tropes that the religious use to add pro-religion messages to a work (For example, instead of an Atheist who's angry at god for killing his little sister, someone who's clinging to faith as the only way to deal with a dead little sister)  

[MiniSiets]

Well, anime-wise I would say Gundam 00 does to some degree as well as Fullmetal Alchemist. Both shows have some pretty good secular humanist messages and overall paint religion in a fairly negative light. In fact, right in the opening scene of Gundam 00, the main character says several times, "In this world, there is no God," as he is caught in the middle of a gruesome holy war. Gene Roddenberry was also an atheist, and he specifically intended all of the main characters in the Star Trek universe to be atheists; the idea being that in the future people recognized religion as a primitive and unnecessary way of seeking truth. Although, as far as I can remember there weren't any particular episodes that really "promoted" an atheist message in that show. I still highly recommend Voyager and TNG though! biggrin

Bill Maher's "Religulous" is also a pro-atheist movie, but he didn't do the best scholarship with it. Still a decent watch though.

For books, there's Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" that's good. There's a bunch more from other atheist authors but I haven't read them yet so I don't know if I could recommend.

Best ever though is The Atheist Experience show live from Austin, TX. They get theist callers all the time and have debates that pretty much address every issue on religion. They're very insightful and have helped countless people come to accept themselves as atheists just from watching their show--myself included. You can watch new episodes streaming over the internet live every Sunday and you can watch older ones uploaded on their website: http://www.atheist-experience.com. Lots of good short clips and highlights on Youtube too if you just search for them.  

[Miz Sharpe]

Grandia II.

Masterpiece of an RPG. It's bursting at the seams with melodrama, but I love it anyway for its message (and FRIGGIN' EXCELLENT GAMEPLAY).

HIGHLIGHT FOR EPIC SPOILERS (but the game is so old and hard to find you might as well just read it)

You play as Ryudo, a cynical mercenary who hates the church but ends up as an escort for Elena, a sister from the Church of Granas. His job is to first take her to a sealing ceremony at an old tower, and after that fails, to see the Pope. If anyone frequents TV Tropes around here, their religion is basically Crystal Dragon Jesus.

A lot of stuff happens. xDDDDD

Later in the story you find out that both Granas and Valmar (the god of light and of darkness, respectively) were once men. They artificially turned themselves into gods. Granas brought prosperity to the world, but suppressed the people's ambition and ability to dream. They became automatons that almost never ceased praying.

Only a few people sensed that anything was wrong, and found power in Valmar. Their goals weren't squeaky clean either, of course, as they wanted to "unmake the world." So both gods were corrupt in their own way.

Granas and Valmar warred against each other until finally, Granas died, and Valmar was scattered in independent pieces through the world. You spend most of the game re-collecting these pieces with the aid of Millenia, the Wings Of Valmar. Eh, it's complicated.

The Church of Granas is mostly unaware (except for the evil corrupt Pope and a few select henchmen) that they're worshipping a dead god, who wasn't even actually a god in the first place.

At the veeeeeery end, the evil pope of doom revives Valmar and tries to become a god, but fails miserably (unless you're so pathetic at the game that you can't beat the sort of disappointingly easy surprise final boss).

In the epilogue, Elena, once a very faithful songstress of Granas, is now a traveling performer. The game ends with the message (delivered by Elena!) that we should make our own meaning in life instead of relying on gods and religion.  

[The Emoholic]

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Yus.
/shot rofl  

[D i v i n i t y]

I think the anime, Darker than Black is a bit nice towards atheism. The main character is this "contractor" which is basically a person with superpowers and is super logical. All contractors are very rational and logical. In an episode he is quoted saying that he does not believe in God during a lie detector test. I wouldn't say so much that the anime is a pro-atheism movement anime, but just thought I'd give my two cents biggrin
At least the anime doesn't seem to put down atheism Lol. There are too many Christian faith movies out where some miracle happens and the atheist repeatedly denies the "truth" until the truth is inevitable at the end and the atheist realizes that he was being ignorant the whole time... Ugh there's this one movie like that with Jesus' blood and some grumpy atheist. It was a horrible movie but I forgot what it was called.  

[OtakuJeannie]

Thanks for the contributions, I'll probably get around to checking them out sometime.

I can think of two video games that have some great atheistic messages in them.

Final Fantasy X, where you have a corrupt church, needless religious persecution of a people who despite being blamed for the existence of the Big Bad while the supposed 'goddess' is behind it and it's only by going against the church and finding the truth that the heroes can truly save a world trapped in a spiral of destruction.

I also think you have a wonderful deconstruction of a messiah in the MGS series with The Boss. Spoilers below

Despite being screwed over before by her government, she takes on a mission to pretend to defect to the Soviet Union, with an almost religious devotion to her government. In the course of this mission she has to kill her estranged lover - and it appears to have torn her up-, betray and get the apprentice that she sees as a son to kill her, lead her old team whom she calls 'her sons' to their deaths and be added in this with her own stolen child and die branded a traitor. Oh and the group that stole her baby, it uses the money they recover with this mission to return to power after she's killed.

The group who knows the truth for their own group, one that's supposed to be dedicated to her ideals, only it doesn't work out like that. They fight between themselves and loose sight of her goals, her chosen successor never recovers and spends the rest of his life with deep mental wounds and takes a path almost opposite to his mentor's with disastrous results.  

[Lethkhar]

On the subject of video games; Medieval 2: Total War. Seriously, the Pope annoys the crap out of you. I just assassinated him last night because I had had enough of it. xd  

[Rosculus]

The movie "Oh My God" portrays atheism in as close to a positive light as it can, while still being "watchable" by theists. It actually portrays a bunch of different groups' views on the concept of gods and the afterlife pretty equally, and it's a pretty interesting watch.  

[LimeIzMyFaveColor]

I love Final Fantasy X. And I did see those elements as I was playing the game.  

[Caffeinated Tea]

MiniSiets

Well, anime-wise I would say Gundam 00 does to some degree as well as Fullmetal Alchemist. Both shows have some pretty good secular humanist messages and overall paint religion in a fairly negative light. In fact, right in the opening scene of Gundam 00, the main character says several times, "In this world, there is no God," as he is caught in the middle of a gruesome holy war. Gene Roddenberry was also an atheist, and he specifically intended all of the main characters in the Star Trek universe to be atheists; the idea being that in the future people recognized religion as a primitive and unnecessary way of seeking truth. Although, as far as I can remember there weren't any particular episodes that really "promoted" an atheist message in that show. I still highly recommend Voyager and TNG though! biggrin

Bill Maher's "Religulous" is also a pro-atheist movie, but he didn't do the best scholarship with it. Still a decent watch though.

For books, there's Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" that's good. There's a bunch more from other atheist authors but I haven't read them yet so I don't know if I could recommend.

Best ever though is The Atheist Experience show live from Austin, TX. They get theist callers all the time and have debates that pretty much address every issue on religion. They're very insightful and have helped countless people come to accept themselves as atheists just from watching their show--myself included. You can watch new episodes streaming over the internet live every Sunday and you can watch older ones uploaded on their website: http://www.atheist-experience.com. Lots of good short clips and highlights on Youtube too if you just search for them.

Definitely Fullmetal Alchemist. o:
It's a major part of the story, in fact.  

[Captain_Shinzo]

There was this documentary/comedy I saw called Religulous.
I thought the way it was made was fantastic. Mostly because it didn't try to give Atheism a good name until the end.
Pretty much, the guy goes to most of the popular religions today and does some research on them. One of them was the religion that was a branch of Christianity that had some major ties with weed. it was life to them.
Another was Islam and a few others.
Pretty much, it was a story of an Atheist man studying present history and popular religions and compare it to Atheism. I loved most the jokes he made when listening to the religious people.
He went to Iraq and heard they made this wall to stop Jesus because they thought he would summon an army of undead. Teh-heh. >3<

The message gets serious at the end. I think it MIGHT be offensive to religious people only because it doesn't stand for their beliefs. I can't say for sure but the meaning at the end isn't as powerful unless you have no religious prejudicial cell in your body. A skeptic I suppose.

Check it out sometimes. It leaves you thinking and you break a lung and few ribs from the comedy.  

[LimeIzMyFaveColor]

Captain_Shinzo

There was this documentary/comedy I saw called Religulous.
I thought the way it was made was fantastic. Mostly because it didn't try to give Atheism a good name until the end.
Pretty much, the guy goes to most of the popular religions today and does some research on them. One of them was the religion that was a branch of Christianity that had some major ties with weed. it was life to them.
Another was Islam and a few others.
Pretty much, it was a story of an Atheist man studying present history and popular religions and compare it to Atheism. I loved most the jokes he made when listening to the religious people.
He went to Iraq and heard they made this wall to stop Jesus because they thought he would summon an army of undead. Teh-heh. >3<

The message gets serious at the end. I think it MIGHT be offensive to religious people only because it doesn't stand for their beliefs. I can't say for sure but the meaning at the end isn't as powerful unless you have no religious prejudicial cell in your body. A skeptic I suppose.

Check it out sometimes. It leaves you thinking and you break a lung and few ribs from the comedy.

actually he never admitted he was an atheist. He was an apatheist who doesn't like religion.  

[Lethkhar]

Captain_Shinzo

There was this documentary/comedy I saw called Religulous.
I thought the way it was made was fantastic. Mostly because it didn't try to give Atheism a good name until the end.
Pretty much, the guy goes to most of the popular religions today and does some research on them. One of them was the religion that was a branch of Christianity that had some major ties with weed. it was life to them.
Another was Islam and a few others.
Pretty much, it was a story of an Atheist man studying present history and popular religions and compare it to Atheism. I loved most the jokes he made when listening to the religious people.
He went to Iraq and heard they made this wall to stop Jesus because they thought he would summon an army of undead. Teh-heh. >3<

The message gets serious at the end. I think it MIGHT be offensive to religious people only because it doesn't stand for their beliefs. I can't say for sure but the meaning at the end isn't as powerful unless you have no religious prejudicial cell in your body. A skeptic I suppose.

Check it out sometimes. It leaves you thinking and you break a lung and few ribs from the comedy.

Honestly, I really didn't like Religulous. He just harasses religious people and, while there are a couple of funny scenes, really doesn't do any good for atheism. He's an a*****e throughout the whole movie, and I got the feeling that any religious person who watched it would come away thinking that all atheists were arrogant pricks.

I mean, he spends the entire time telling you with this conceited, typical Bill Maher tone that you should think for yourself and not listen to anyone who preaches or tells you what to think. But then the last fifteen minutes of the movie was just a montage of religious s**t with him basically preaching to you about the evils of religion and telling you what to think.

I admit that it was funny in places, and from an atheist point of view it was at least entertaining, but overall I thought it was a very poorly done documentary that wasn't going to convince anyone of anything.  

[Levis Pennae]

Assassins Creed and Dune. Dune was the book that changed my thought process about theology,  

[chemos32o8]

The only category which has not been mentioned is music especially the song Imagine by the John Lennon. If any one else can think of any other songs feel free to add to the list.