{"id":695,"date":"2010-10-06T18:06:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T18:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/glee-does-god.html"},"modified":"2010-10-06T18:06:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-06T18:06:00","slug":"glee-does-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/glee-does-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Glee Does God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Last night, Gleek that I am, I watched the \u201cGod\u201d episode of Glee.\u00a0 There is no question that it was hysterical, what with Finn praying to \u201cGrilled Cheesus.\u201d\u00a0 It was also moving in its wonderful portrayal of Kurt and his father.\u00a0 Atheism was definitely shown as a reasonable position, but on that count the show could have been a bit more balanced.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Atheism, as it is presented in pop culture, is usually the choice of the angry and disappointed.\u00a0 Sue was depicted as particularly angry about the idea of God because of how people treated her mentally challenged sister.\u00a0 Of course, this being Glee, she uses her atheism as another hilarious way to tear down Glee Club.<\/span><\/div>\n
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It is not being angry and disappointed that causes people to reject the idea of a theistic god.\u00a0 Everyone goes through periods of anger and disillusionment.\u00a0 That some choose to cope by their dependence upon the supernatural does not speak to their higher level of spirituality or make their choice somehow superior.\u00a0 The portrayal of Kurt\u2019s atheism was also somewhat anger-tinged, but I can see why the writers chose this.\u00a0 His father was lying in a coma, after all.<\/span><\/div>\n
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One of my favorite parts of the episode was Kurt\u2019s articulation of his lack of faith.\u00a0 The writers even threw in Bertrand Russell\u2019s teacup and a quip about the Flying Spaghetti Monster for good measure.\u00a0 The best reasoning that the writers gave him concerned the abuse that gays receive at the hands of the religious.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Most non-theists whom I know are very happy people.\u00a0 We have been liberated from the reliance on make-believe to give us comfort.\u00a0 We find beauty and meaning in the life that we are lucky enough to live, even if we know that the universe doesn\u2019t exist for our benefit.\u00a0 We know that there is no universal meaning of life and knowing this helps us to craft our own meanings for our lives.<\/span><\/div>\n
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To sum up, I say good for Glee for going there.\u00a0 While I wasn\u2019t completely satisfied, the episode left me in tears when Kurt held his dad\u2019s hand and said, \u201cI believe in you.\u00a0 And in us.\u201d\u00a0 I could not have hoped for a better expression of humanism on a popular television show.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, Gleek that I am, I watched the \u201cGod\u201d episode of Glee.\u00a0 There is no question that it was hysterical, what with Finn praying to \u201cGrilled Cheesus.\u201d\u00a0 It was also moving in its wonderful portrayal of Kurt and his father.\u00a0 Atheism was definitely shown as a reasonable position, but on that count the show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,30],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism","tag-non-theism"],"yoast_head":"\nGlee Does God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last night, Gleek that I am, I watched the \u201cGod\u201d episode of Glee.\u00a0 There is no question that it was hysterical, what with Finn praying to \u201cGrilled\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/glee-does-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Glee Does God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last night, Gleek that I am, I watched the \u201cGod\u201d episode of Glee.\u00a0 There is no question that it was hysterical, what with Finn praying to \u201cGrilled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/glee-does-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-06T18:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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