Lessee here. I haven't been able to get on Gaia lately, so I'll clear up a few things. Very Doctor Who-related too.
Preface stating that yeah, I'm a Christian, so these things stood out to me like ridiculously obvious and rather intentionally placed. Also saying that most sane religions can agree that a lot of the people preaching said religions are not perfect by any means necessary, and are flawed while the religion in question may not be. [/end]
However, I'm pretty sure the show is not saying the Doctor is God, but rather like a deity due to having ridiculous amounts of power over time and space. A mythology-style deity.
1. The religion and references in Doctor Who were kicked in full-force from
the very beginning of the 2005 reboot.
- S1, Episode 2 - an intercom announcement announces that weapons, teleportation, and religion are banned.
- Nine and Ten have both mentioned that life simply evolves. Rose has referred to an evolutionary standpoint too if I remember right.
- I'm pretty sure the idea of "the lonely god" image of the Doctor started around the same time the show was rebooted -- this being because his home planet has gone and blown up and he's alone, not because he's a bored deity.
The Satan Pit episode in S2 was pretty obviously throwing up the idea of different religions and beliefs. (Notice that the Doctor never directly answered the question "What do you believe" from the beast/demon/Satan.)
Catholicism, or at least some form of Christianity, was played around with being existing in the New New Earth episodes. There are cat nuns, and there's hymns being played. Can't get any more obvious than that.
2. The symbolism in Torchwood has been kicked in full-force as well, They even had a relative of the beast from Satan Pit show up and have Jack do the whole "sacrifice self, dead-for-three-days" thing during the S1 finale.
They play the religion-stomping game quite often. Lots of mentions of how there's nothing after death, or there's darkness, or it's just black. No afterlife.
They repeatedly have the "self-sacrifice-for-another" thing. Which is a nice deus ex machina in of itself because Jack can't really die and stay dead, so we know it's an easy way out.
Now to ask yourself. Apart from the Doctor, and the general same-universe deal, what do these shows have in common?
That would be RTD himself. What do we know about RTD that would lead us to conclude he put in large amounts of symbolism and religious metaphors?
1. He's stated he's an atheist, and that he's anti-religious.
2. Heck, one of his last projects before starting Doctor Who was a miniseries that he wrote, entitled "The Second Coming" (with Eccleston as the lead character). Two guesses as to what that's about. The ending isn't all that great from a religious standpoint either. Very bleak and atheistic.
3.
He admits to adding things of a religious nature in Doctor Who.I suggest if you're really that up in arms about it, rather than have a heated debate about religion (or conversely, a heated debate about the Doctor and religion) - examine the beliefs of the writers and then you'll get a better idea as to where it's coming from, and where's it might be headed towards.
For example, even Wikipedia has a citation for saying that the "loss and loneliness" of the Doctor is linked to the loss of RTD's mother a few years before the reboot of the show. He's all about taking natural emotions and events and ramping them up from the perspective of an individual to make it special and resonating.
As for some of that large 10-things post.
- Churches in England are kind of
everywhere. Personally I think it was cool they used one as a setting. It's gorgeous architecture.
- We should be able to agree that the meaning of life is 42 and just leave it at that.
razz (I jest.)
Don't be hating on the Doctor for what the writer(s) turn him into. He's an outlet for an agenda. I think one of the links I provide below mentions how one of the main writers/showrunners during the Third Doctor's era was Buddhist, and it can be seen (although probably not blatantly) throughout that run of the show. Fun times, guys.
Read this here and then you can complainI now pull a few key quotes from that to your attention (it's a fairly long read but deals with religion in Doctor Who starting from the beginning)
Quote:
Under Davies' influence, however, Doctor Who developed a rather blatant anti-religious stance.
Quote:
Under Davies' watch, the Doctor has transformed from an ingenious traveller into a “Science Messiah” – and never more so than in James Moran's The Fires of Pompeii, which ends with a Roman family venerating the Doctor as a household god (even though
Moran flatly denies any messianic intent, and I am inclined to believe him)
Barry Letts
“I think it’s inevitable because of Britain’s cultural heritage that a long-running programme about the fight between good and evil will have some Christian themes as a backdrop.”
Addendum: I'm hoping that because the reins are being passed on to Moffat, we'll get some of that anti-religion stuff out of the show.
Truth is that any show, book, or form of media will always have a presupposition and bias for/against something, and the blatancy of the agenda is up to the writers and creators to promote.
If you're not already bored of what I've said, go read
this, which focuses mostly on the new series, and
this, which tackles religion solely in Classic Who. If you all have gotten this heated about it, I promise they aren't boring reads.
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