Happy Atheist Forum

We just got the September 7 issue of Entertainment Weekly today, with Jodie Foster on the cover.  The Jodes... LOVE her, have for 36 years.  And she says it, right there, in black and white:  "I'm an atheist."  I was so excited, I had to call my hubby right away to share it.

***
EW:  Are you religious?

JF:  No, I'm an atheist. But I absolutely love religions and the rituals. Even though I don't believe in God. We celebrate pretty much every religion in our family with the kids. They love it, and when they say, ''Are we Jewish?'' or ''Are we Catholic?'' I say, ''Well, I'm not, but you can choose when you're 18. But isn't this fun that we do seders and the Advent calendar?''

****

Isn't she the dreamiest?   :wink:   I knew she was a non-believer of some sort... all of that came out when she did "Contact" with Matthew McConnaughey, but I can't remember if she put it out there like that.  I wrote a letter to EW tonight saying how refreshing it is to see a personality not dodge that kind of thing in these conservative Christian times... she's so classy.

Here's the whole article online:

Jodie Foster Interview in EW Magazine (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20054140,00.html)

Wow that excites me so much!! I've always loved her as an actress and a person.

http://www.celebatheists.com/index.php?title=Main_Page (http://www.celebatheists.com/index.php?title=Main_Page)

This website has a list of atheist celebrities and quotes in which they have 'come out' in favour of atheism. I don't know how complete or accurate it is though. Some of them are pretty obvious but there are a lot of pleasant surprises.  

Jodie Foster just scored some points with me too. But I have to say, all this celebrating of ritual and letting her kids choose at 18... sounds like she is an atheist UU like me! ;-)

Its funny how my opinion of celebrities changes when they've "outed" themselves as atheists.  Makes me wonder if I'm guilty of prejudice?  For example, up until now I really didn't think much about Jodie Foster --- didn't particularly like her, didn't particularly dislike her.  So I find it troubling when I discover she's an atheist, and my ears perk up, and I find myself thinking "Really?  Hey, that's pretty cool, right?".

Eh - guess I'm just not into celebrities too much - the way people fawn over them seems far too "religious" for my tastes.  That, and the fact that the bulk of them seem depressingly hypocritical.  Anyway, I'm not about to "worship" anything; especially not other human beings.

Man, I must be feeling just plain grouchy or something lately....  :wink:

CelebAtheists was gone for quite awhile, glad to see it back.  I had made my own list and only put on those whom I could verify by finding quotes in reliable interviews, news sources, etc.  I knew I'd read those quotes from her during the "Contact" media frenzy... I love that she speaks her mind.  So many other celebrities may not believe but they wouldn't deign to admit it to the press.

It's also important to note (at least to me) that she is a highly intelligent person who has plenty of education under her belt.  I get the feeling from her interviews and press, however, that she would probably be an atheist anyway.  :-)

SteveS, you sound like my husband.  LOL!  He's not so much into any type of hero-worship, but he "loves" Jodie Foster, admires her talent and intellect.  He too let out a "YES!" when I told him her quote.  ;-)  

Me, she was already the number one actress on my list of favorites (next to Susan Sarandon), so this was just icing on the cake, so to speak.

I don't know, that new movie she's in looks terrible.

Although, in re: SteveS' prejudice, I only have it when someone's talking about something they've done/accomplished and they thank god.  If they're athletes I immediately hope they lose every game/competition they ever enter.

So, Jodie is an atheist...good for her!  But she loses points for this quote from the article:

QuoteHere's my commentary: I don't believe that any gun should be in the hand of a thinking, feeling, breathing human being. Americans are by nature filled with rage-slash-fear....

She doesn't believe in using guns, but she will take a huge paycheck for running around with weapons in a movie.  That's convenient.

Quote from: "donkeyhoty"If they're athletes I immediately hope they lose every game/competition they ever enter.

Man - I heard that!  Okay, here's a geeky story, when I was in high school I was in the marching band (only because I really wanted to play in the symphonic band, but you don't get a choice: if you wanted to be in band you had to accept the marching season - but at least I got to watch the football game for free).  Anyway, marching bands have marching band competitions (oh what fun), and I was at one of these where a competing school was Catholic.  During the judges announcements, a girl from that band stood up, closed her eyes, and held up a crucifix at arms length.  I remember being utterly horrified!  Give me a freakin' break!  Believing in god is bad enough - believing god, if he existed, would actually give 2 shits about who won a marching band contest is just outright ridiculous!

Oh attributing everything to god really creeps me out.  I believe in personal responsibility, regardless if it's good or bad.  

Maybe that's why we have tsunamis and floods that kill people, because god is busy helping that marching band win.

It would be interesting if someone kept a list of atheist celebrities.

Quote from: "scepticus"It would be interesting if someone kept a list of atheist celebrities.

http://www.celebatheists.com/?title=Main_Page

Those last two posts made me laugh hysterically.

Thanks Squid it's refreshing to see so many of my favorites on the list.

Quote from: "scepticus"Thanks Squid it's refreshing to see so many of my favorites on the list.

No problemo.

I got an email from EW that they wanted to print my letter!  Woohoo!  If they DO print it, it will be in the next issue!

Good old Jodie Foster. Hannibal would have been infinitely better if she'd been in it (and if the character's personality hadn't been completely reformed to that of an archetypal 'tough-gal', for that matter). Not to say that Hopkins alone didn't make it brilliant Still... Richard Burton would have been better if he'd still been alive.

Never mind...

Mister Joy--NO freakin way--HAD to be Anthony Hopkins.     had to.  I just love him.  i don't care much about celebrities, but any movie with Anthony Hopkins, i'm gonna watch that.  Or Morgan Freeman.  That voice...

But while we are on celebrities and people thanking god for stuff--Hey, did any of you catch that comedian Kathy Griffin got bleeped out of some kinda celebrity award show for saying something like, "Everybody is coming up here and thanking god for their win, but i just want to tell you, god had nothing to do with this win!" or something like that....BLEEPED IT OUT!!!??  Maybe there was a cuzz word in there that i missed...

Oh, conga-rats to you, rlrose!!  for getting something pro-atheist published !  WOO-HOO!!

Speaking of tsunamis and god, oh, i don't know her name, some lady on some talk show, Bill Maher pointed this out on HIS show, that she said she had just left that beach in Sri Lanka the day before, adding, God did bless me. blah blah.

 Maher added, "What?  God didn't like the other 2000 people that just died?  Only you?  HOw conceited!!"

Here's the full quote:

"Can you believe this shit? I guess hell froze over. ... a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. So, all I can say is, 'suck it, Jesus.' This award is my god now."

Link to footage (the clip of the speech is a few seconds in... it's a Larry King interview, worth a watch):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgHxutPl ... ed&search= (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgHxutPlxk8&mode=related&search=)

The Catholic League is so pissed off... they want defamation of their Lord to be a crime.  Yup, free speech be damned.  They don't realize we've always been here... it's just that we've had enough and we're speaking out against them.  And they don't like it.

I love Kathy Griffin.  :-)

Oh... and we got the new Entertainment Weekly yesterday... with Masi Oka on the cover in his Heroes garb.  My letter was the first one in the letters for the Jodie issue!  Woohoo!  Might seem silly to most everyone, but I'm tickled pink.   :lol:

Okay - sorry to be the spoil sport, but I came across a copy of the Jodie Foster EW in our lunch room at work, so I read it.  Eh - sort of reinforces why I don't like celebrities.  I mean --- these people make movies.  They are good at what they do --- which is make movies!  That's it, right?  But - the fact that they are mere entertainers doesn't stop them from blabbing about all sorts of pseudo-intellectual crap.  Here's a snippet for reference:

Quote from: "EW Magazine"EW What do you think is the larger social commentary of The Brave One, which in some ways plays as a straight-up Dirty Harry revenge movie?

JF Here's my commentary: I don't believe that any gun should be in the hand of a thinking, feeling, breathing human being.  Americans are by nature filled with rage-slash-fear.  And guns are a huge part of our culture.

Okay (leave off the "breathing" part, because I'm not sure what that adds to the equation) what in the world is the problem with a "thinking, feeling" human being having a gun?!?  If she had said "an unthinking, unfeeling" human being - sure;  seems bad.  But - if the unthinking unfeeling human beings are packing heat, wouldn't it be okay for the thinking feeling human beings to arm themselves?

And, I just don't get "Americans by nature are filled with rage-slash-fear".  WTF?  I'm American - I'm not filled with rage.  I'm not filled with fear.  Neighbors don't seem to be either.  How did she come to this conclusion?  I mean - compared to whom are we rage/fear filled?  Do you think your average American is more filled with rage and fear than your average Iraqi?  Than your average Palestinian?  Than your average Bosnian Serb?  Statements like this just seem superficial to me - if I rip on Americans I must be smart, right?  Because only bold intellectuals throw barbs at the hallowed halls of their own culture, right?  Gimme a break!

If guns are a "huge part of our culture", I'd say this is because personal liberty and personal responsibility used to be a huge part of our culture.  The police have no legal responsibility, or authority, to protect me personally.  Only I have that responsibility.  How can a society force me to defend myself and take away my means to do so?  Rights without responsibility, responsibility without rights; both are doomed to failure.  Same problem with government - if only the state is allowed to hold weaponry, then how can the people stop the state from enslaving them by force?  If guns are wrong to have - then why should the government have guns?  What would a "thinking, feeling" government have to fear from a "thinking, feeling" populace?  If we are all "thinking, feeling" people - are we going to shoot others just to take their cash?  Rob liquor stores at gun-point?  Of course not.  Foster made her own case against her view quite effectively with this pap - if the "thinking, feeling" people are disarmed, then only the "unthinking, unfeeling" people are armed.  Sounds like a great solution to me  :roll:  

The final point, to me, is that there is no social commentary in this movie - its entertainment, fun to watch if you like that sort of thing.  The fact that we make movies like this might be social commentary, but the movie itself is just a movie.  So, why not criticize the movie even if you star in it?  Like the self-culture-bash above, this proves you're an intellectual, right?  As long as you don't turn down the script because of your principles or anything....

Okay - I've bashed on Jodie Foster - I'm sorry.  I just view these celebrities in a harsh light ---- they have way too much access to spout their mouths off without ever having to face a determined rejoinder.  This situation appears to make them believe they're a whole lot smarter than they really are (IMHO of course  :wink:  ).  I'm prepared to receive criticism as a result....

QuoteMy letter was the first one in the letters for the Jodie issue! Woohoo!

Post it here, please!

Quote from: "SteveS"Okay - I've bashed on Jodie Foster - I'm sorry.  I just view these celebrities in a harsh light ---- they have way too much access to spout their mouths off without ever having to face a determined rejoinder.  This situation appears to make them believe they're a whole lot smarter than they really are (IMHO of course  :wink:  ).  I'm prepared to receive criticism as a result....

 :cry:  You bashed The Jodes!  How DARE you!

 :lol:

Honestly, if I had a nickel for every time I rolled my eyes at some celebrity's "social commentary," I'd be rich.  Everyone has a stance on something and a good portion of the population will disagree with it.  

I don't like guns... I know it's the people who kill, not the weapon, but I still don't like them.  I think I'd stand by "people can be irresponsible and, therefore, handguns are not a good thing" but I agree, the "thinking, feeling" part is kinda silly.

But I don't admire Jodie Foster, specifically, because of her views on weaponry.  I do admire her for stating her opinions, no matter how reviled or unpopular they are.

Quote from: "MommaSquid"

QuoteMy letter was the first one in the letters for the Jodie issue! Woohoo!

Post it here, please!

Here it is:

***

Dear EW:
 
I have been a fan of Jodie Foster for 36 years ("Courtship of Eddie's Father").  She is the most fascinating, beautiful, genuine star in Hollywood today.  She has always handled herself, both publically and privately, with grace and wisdom.  This article was no different, from her gentle deflection of the inquiry into her always-questioned sexuality to her pointed and honest "I'm an atheist" when asked about her religion.  
 
Most personalities would have buried that fact in double-speak or denial, but not Jodie.  She was forthright and honest, as she has always been.  
 
I will continue to admire her, no matter what she does in the future.  She has made me smile, cry and laugh many times over the years... and no doubt she will continue to do so for as many years as she cares to.
 
***

They pared it down to two sentences (I'll have to go find the magazine to quote what the left in).

Quote from: "rlrose328"You bashed The Jodes! How DARE you!

I know, I said I was sorry...  :wink:  

Quote from: "rlrose328"But I don't admire Jodie Foster, specifically, because of her views on weaponry. I do admire her for stating her opinions, no matter how reviled or unpopular they are.

Fair enough.  I guess she at least seems honest (shrug).

Eh - I just really don't like actors/actresses that much (off the screen that is), and I was feeling like a good rant!

Quote from: "SteveS"Eh - I just really don't like actors/actresses that much (off the screen that is), and I was feeling like a good rant!

And I, for one, love your rants, so rant away.     I'm rant-free this evening.   :lol: