Talk:List of fictional atheists and agnostics

Is this a joke?
I series question some of the entries on the list. What exactly is is the criteria? I'd think it would be a character specifically saying they don't believe in God or they question his existence, but some on this list seem to be based on a belief in evolution or something similar. Belief in evolution is not the equivalent of atheism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.106.209.61 (talk) 16:19, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Garibaldi of TV series Babylon 5 (I am using a computer network that does not allow me to go to youtube to find the episode, it was in one of the early ones) and to the "joke" comment above: I do think it is necessary to list things like that because of the situation in the US. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.174.11.19 (talk) 08:50, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Joey Tribiani
Should Joey Tribiani from US sitcom 'Friends' be on this list? Although it is only mentioned in one episode, he states his opinion that he 'don't believe any of that' and that 'when you're dead, you're dead. You're worm food'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.151.177.21 (talk) 2009-08-07T11:42:07

Not believing in a afterlife doesn't conclusively rule out belief in god.Squeakymutation (talk) 02:35, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Dean Winchester
should dean winchester from supernatural be on this list? despite the fact that he stated he didn't believe in angels in a (season 3?) episode, he was proven wrong later on, in fact has encounters with them in nearly every episode (castiel). so i doubt he's atheist now. 64.118.18.27 (talk) 00:22, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly, Serenity)
Malcolm Reynolds trusted his god to help the rebels win the battle of Serenity Valley, and when they lost he became angry at his god and stopped trusting it, but he still believes it exists. In other words, he is a maltheist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.47.95.215 (talk) 12:22, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

focus of article
Is there an article "Atheism in fiction"? I was more expecting characters from classic novels, like by Leo Tolstoy for instance. Steve Dufour (talk) 15:36, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Is this article fake?
Really it states that charecters in childrens cartoon series Pokemon are atheists. --EvilFlyingMonkey (talk) 09:54, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Can you cite where the show says some of the characters in the Pokemon series are atheist? --Squeakymutation (talk) 02:23, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

"Notability"
Atheists are a grossly underrepresented minority. There are thousands of Black and Hispanic and women characters but you can probably list the "out" atheist characters who have appeared on television on one hand. Maybe two. Steve Landesburg's landmark Dietrich and Hugh Laurie's Gregory House are two of them. The significance of this web page is to record that atheists are, indeed, as much brushed under the carpet in modern times as they were in ancient. It's also worth noting the unfortunate stereotyping of atheists as profoundly emotionally screwed-up intellectuals. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.91.195.249 (talk) 18:12, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Tara Thornton on True Blood
States she was an atheist in the season 4 finale — Preceding unsigned comment added by Idxcue (talk • contribs) 09:43, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Cleaned up some
Ok, I've gone through and reorganized everything by media. If anyone would like to know, I've removed a couple of duplicates and these two entries (neither were easily sortable nor had references, so if someone wants to reference them and put them back in here they are,


 * Eragon Shadeslayer, from the Inheritance Cycle.
 * Cliff Fittir, supporting character in Star Ocean 3.

Also: I'm going to go ahead and challenge all unsourced entries on here and delete them sometime in the next week today. If you believe a character /should/ be on the list please reference properly. Thanks! Ncboy2010 (talk) 16:08, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

I've decided that I'll go ahead and remove everything that's not referenced and post the list of unreferenced characters here so they can be referenced and re-added. (my decision changed because I see the factual accuracy has been disputed since 2010 and no one's really addressed the issue.) Thanks! Ncboy2010 (talk) 16:11, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Removed Entries
Below you will see a list of entries I have removed sorted by the section they were removed from. If you want to and can reference and re-add something from this list, please feel free to remove it or strikethru. Thanks! Ncboy2010 (talk) 16:25, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Literature

 * Aaron the Moor, villain in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
 * Mikael Blomkvist, protagonist of the Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.
 * Phillip Carey, the protagonist in the novel Of Human Bondage, by W Somerset Maugham
 * Tyler Durden, from the novel Fight Club
 * Ivan Karamazov, from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
 * David Lurie, protagonist of the novel Disgrace.
 * Lestat de Lioncourt, main character in most of The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.
 * Terry McCaleb, a former FBI agent featured in Michael Connelly's 1998 novel Blood Work.
 * Joe Rose, protagonist of the novel Enduring Love
 * David Rain, protagonist of the novel The Fire Within
 * Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell's 1984

Comics

 * Lex Luthor, archenemy of Superman.
 * Gertrude Yorkes, deceased, the daughter of time-traveling criminals from Runaways.

Video games

 * Flynn, Blackhawk pilot in Battlefield: Bad Company 2
 * John Marston, protagonist of the video game Red Dead Redemption
 * Andrew Ryan, antagonist in BioShock, created Rapture partially as a refuge from a world consumed by religion.
 * Terrence Sweetwater, a character in Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Film

 * Ruth Buggs (played by Kristen Wiig), from the film Paul
 * Donnie Darko (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), from the film Donnie Darko
 * Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt from the film Fight Club
 * Clive Gollings (played by Nick Frost), from the film Paul
 * Märta Lundberg (played by Ingrid Thulin), from the film Winter Light
 * Paul (played by Seth Rogen), from the film Paul
 * Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis from the film There Will Be Blood
 * Graeme Willy (played by Simon Pegg), from the film Paul

Television

 * Jonathan Ames (played by Jason Schwartzman), from the show Bored to Death
 * Karen Brockman (played by Ramona Marquez, from Outnumbered
 * Jake Brockman (played by Tyger Drew-Honey), from the show Outnumbered
 * Allison Cameron (played by Jennifer Morrison), from the Emmy and Peabody-winning American medical drama House
 * Brenda Chenowith (played by Rachel Griffiths), from the show Six Feet Under
 * Sheldon Cooper (played by Jim Parsons), from the show The Big Bang Theory
 * Sally Draper (played by Kiernan Shipka), from the show Mad Men
 * Debbie Gallagher (played by Rebecca Ryan) from the British TV series Shameless.
 * Ronnie Gardocki (played by David Rees Snell), from the American drama series The Shield
 * Michael Garibaldi (played by Jerry Doyle), from the American science fiction series Babylon 5
 * Ben Harper (played by Robert Lindsay), from the British comedy show My Family
 * Kurt Hummel (played by Chris Colfer), from the show Glee
 * Patrick Jane, the titular character from the American detective show The Mentalist
 * Sid Jenkins (played by Mike Bailey, from the British TV show, Skins
 * Gabe Lewis (played by Zach Woods), from the show The Office
 * Oscar Martinez (played by Oscar Nunez), from the show The Office
 * Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall), from the show Dexter
 * Daria Morgendorffer (played by Tracy Grandstaff), from the shows Beavis and Butt-Head and Daria
 * Maxxie Oliver (played by Mitch Hewer), from the British TV show, Skins
 * Dennis Reynolds (played by Glenn Howerton), from the show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
 * Malcolm Reynolds (played by Nathan Fillion), from the show Firefly and the film Serenity
 * Sara Sidle (played by Jorja Fox), from CSI
 * Michael Stivic and his wife Gloria Stivic from the TV comedy All in the Family
 * Effy Stonem (played by Kaya Scodelario), from the British TV series Skins
 * Tony Stonem (played by Nicholas Hoult), from the British TV series Skins
 * Neil Sutherland (played by Blake Harrison, from the British comedy TV series The Inbetweeners
 * Tara Thornton from the TV show True Blood.

Animation

 * Cleveland Brown, Jr. from Family Guy and The Cleveland Show, though he states his aversion for the term "atheist".
 * Brian Griffin (voiced by Seth MacFarlane), from the show Family Guy
 * Lisa Simpson, (played by Yeardley Smith), from the animated television series The Simpsons.
 * Hayley Smith (played by Rachael MacFarlane), from the comedy series American Dad!
 * Roger Smith (played by Seth MacFarlane), from the comedy series American Dad!
 * Setsuna F. Seiei, the primary protagonist of the show Gundam 00.
 * Heero Yuy, the primary protagonist of the show Gundam Wing.

Literature....
The thinness of the literature section is really problematic. Is there a notability criterion? There isn't any way to limit ourselves to "serious" literature, so I suppose 'has a Wikipedia article' is our notability bar. Alas. But in any case: many characters in books are portrayed as atheists (and agnostics, but I find the 'and' problematic as it implies they are mutually exclusive positions). Surely we can't use all of them, but as this article currently stands it would appear there have only been two in all of fiction.Zythe (talk) 23:14, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Some potential additions
Sorry, I really can't give a certain reference for this characters but:
 * Sara Sidle, from CSI, stated she's is an agnostic. That happened in an episode in which the forensic team was investigating in a convent (she had this conversation with Grissom, when he stated he is a "Christian of the origins" or somenthing similar).
 * Spartacus from the Starz's series of the same name, stated repeatedly he doesn't believe in any god.
 * I'm pretty sure that Billy isn't the only Battlestar Galactica's atheist character. I remember Will Adama is too, but maybe some other (his son?).

Sorry, I can't provide references on the web, but I'm sure of what I saw in these series, and I hope someone else can find a sure source in order to add them to this list. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.59.198.88 (talk) 14:22, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Sarah Jane Smith
Could someone provide a reference to support the claim that this character is an atheist or agnostic? A supporting quotation from a show she appeared on would be good. --Smcg8374 (talk) 03:50, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

Pokémon
Is there ANY source or evidence for the statement that Ash Ketchum is an atheist? I've watched especially the older episodes of Pokémon and there is no mention of religions whatsoever, so how can we tell he is an atheist? Where are the statements mentioned in this list from?--31.16.72.21 (talk) 22:49, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

Angel Clare
I thought the addition of Angel Clare was important as a central figure of agnosticism in literature. My description could possibly use more about his character rather than just his agnosticism, but I put what I thought was relevant to the page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lilith Rosabella (talk • contribs) 22:16, 20 May 2023 (UTC)