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Charles Schultz in the "Atheist" video

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I notice that the last person shown in the "Atheist" video, as being an atheist, is Charles Schultz, the man behind the long-running Peanuts comic strip.

I thought Schultz was a Born-Again Christian....
 
I think you are confusing him with John Hart, who writes BC & Kingdom of ID. He is the one with the reputation for being a Xtian cartoonist
 
He seems a bit of a paradox according to his wikipedia entry. He was reaised Lutherian and taught Sunday School at a United Methodist Church, and yet told one of his biographers "that he identified with Secular Humanism"
 
Charles Schultz, who did "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!" and "It's the Easter Bunny, Charlie Brown!"?
 
StewartP said:
He was reaised Lutherian and taught Sunday School at a United Methodist Church, and yet told one of his biographers "that he identified with Secular Humanism"
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Speaking as a former-United-Methodist-(though technically still a member)-turned-agnostic, it's not much of a leap from Methodism to Secular Humanism. Due to Methodism's emphasis on individual interpretation of scriptures and personal reflection, it's possible to "believe" in Secular Humanism and not run afowl of Methodist doctorine or practices. I did for a long time.
 
hey! Charles Schultz was perfect.

Well, at least Snoopy is perfect.
 
He certainly had religious and philosophical interests.

I have two books of very early (1961-64) Charles Schulz [Note: no "t", just "Schulz"] single-frame cartoons about church youth groups and leaders. The characters look like -- are you ready for this? -- teenaged and adult "Peanuts" characters. =o.O= The teenagers and adults you never saw in "Peanuts." [edit: There are some very Peanuts-y children in a few cartoons.]

The one I can put my paw on instantly is "What Was Bugging Ol' Pharaoh?" IIRC the other's name is "Young Pillars." Strangely bound books; paperbacks held together with a couple of staples through the spine from front cover to back cover.

[edit again] The pages are of cardstock, not regular paper. Hence the odd binding. And not all the cartoons are churchy, some are about teenagers and their relationships with each other and adults.
 
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NobbyNobbs said:
Charles Schultz, who did "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!" and "It's the Easter Bunny, Charlie Brown!"?
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Easter Beagle. Incidentally, that one had nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus, unlike A Charlie Brown Xmas, which quoted the King James Bible.
 
I always assumed that he was religious because Linus is quite the little Theologian.
 
Well, two things are without doubt: Schulz definitely was religious up to some point and had a considerable amount of Biblical knowledge. While "identifying with secular humanism" implies some degree of areligiousness, it's not quite explicitely stating one's lack of belief in god either.
 
Even in the overtly religious cartoons I mentioned above he's got a strong strain of... well, if not cynicism something like it. Disillusionment? That was one of Schulz's favorites, wasn't it?

A joke late in the book has the fluffy-haired teenaged protagonist who appears in most of the cartoons flipping through his Bible, explaining that he's looking for verses that support his preconceived notions. :-D
 
The video is somewhat silly imo. Let's take an example of an atheist calling theists a fool and do a video about that. I bet one could make the video like a 5hr rebuttal at least.
 
T'ai Chi said:
I mean, do such videos reallysolve anything?
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I dunno, I'm the belief that the more opinions you throw out there, the more seeds you plant.

Whether you throw rotten seeds (I.E., blatantly insulting talk points), or you throw out good seeds (I.E., a reasoned debate) is one thing; whether you have fertile soil (I.E., a mind that's open minded enough to take in your points, and in the end agrees with them), or infertile soil (I.E., a mind that's unwilling to take your points), is another.

Still, I think there is an overall effect by becoming more and more vocal about atheism, for good or for bad -- the more it becomes "acceptable" to argue over atheism, the less afraid people will become about expressing their beliefs.

Of course, what I'm talking about is more over a general level... as for the specific video... well, it wasn't that bad, really. It could've been a lot worse. :)
 
I live in Santa Rosa, CA, which just happens to be the same place the Shulz lived. I confess to never being a big fan of his work, but everything I have ever heard about him supports the theory that he was a Christian but didn't really like talking about it very much. It did come through in some of his work though.

Again, I'm not really an expert by any stretch of the imagination. We do have a museum here www .schulzmuseum.org that I've been meaning to take my son to see. On that website, if you check out the "biography" section and then look at the bottom, they have "selected bibliography". Go there to find a bunch of books that might help you find a definitive answer.
 
Videos do help. Years ago, I saw the Nova episode featuring James Randi. I already did not believe is the paranormal, but the episode helped me understand why other people did. I also saw how believers use all sorts of convoluted illogic to justify their beliefs, even when faced with overwhelming evidence that they are wrong (unsinkable rubber ducks). I've been showing my son the various skeptic videos on YouTube and Google, as well as the various Creationist videos and he is learning quite a lot from them. I want him to know that believers aren't just 'stupid'; they can actually be quite smart and still believe in nonsense.
 
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