Scooby Doo and religion

[Ark]

There are just a couple hints of religion when it comes to Scooby Doo. Nick Palatas is openly Christian in the interview hosted here. Also, Scooby and Shaggy say their bedtime prayers in one of the Globetrotters episodes. Are there any other connections I'm missing?

[barneynedward]

For some reason Velma strikes me as being an atheist. With many of the things she has said in various movies and episodes, I can't see her believing in any gods.

[russm]

Interesting question. There's no reason why Velma has to be an atheist, a lot of scientists hold religious beliefs. What she is unlikely to hold are some of the more literal interpretations of scripture e.g. a literal interpretation of Genesis 1&2 (she's in good company St Augustine argued against it as well).

[snesgamer83]

Then again, she has several times faced real supernatural entities/beings, and is presumably interested in the cultures and mythologies of many different peoples. Who knows? Maybe a god has piqued her interest somewhere down the line?

That said, her being such an analytical and straightforward character, I do think her being atheist fits in better with her character.

Though, as with most other Scooby characters, I prefer them to be "religion undisclosed" (even if that "religion" is atheism), it's not necessary to their characters and would only serve as distractions to the plot if ever introduced.

[scoobnick]

i doubt religion plays any role in the characters makeup. they are more interested in the supernatural, than in the question of faith.

[ShaphneLegacy27]

I would prefer if they made cartoon characters without any religious views. This is like the only flaw of most adult cartoons in my views. They always seem to Christianize the main family when it comes to adult cartoons when I wish they left them religious-free. Cartoon characters can be more relatable if they don't have a religious view.

[russm]

It's not something that needs to be explored in the show. However it is done people would just get annoyed. IIRC Velma talks about creatures evolving in WNSD's Reef Grief and I'm surprised some creationist group didn't get all worked up about that

[Ark]

Ooh I forgot about Wicca and the hex girls

[Ark]

Sorry, I guess I'm just curious. I do see where this is more distracting than useful.

[snesgamer83]

Sept 13, 2017 15:53:07 GMT -5 russm said:

It's not something that needs to be explored in the show. However it is done people would just get annoyed. IIRC Velma talks about creatures evolving in WNSD's Reef Grief and I'm surprised some creationist group didn't get all worked up about that

I don't know how, but there are plenty of Christians willing to jettison the first few chapters of Genesis and embrace evolution.

For me personally as a logical-minded person, I don't see how it's possible to be Christian without also having a belief in infallibility of Scripture, seeing as how there are no fully-valid historical accounts of Jesus and the Bible is the only source.

[scoobnick]

Scripture cannot be taken literally snesgamer. for instance. there are men in Scripture who live 300, 600, even 900 years. this is 3 to 8 times longer than the longest lived person we have records for, which is 122 years of age. most of scripture is allegory, or parable, and cannot be taken literally. infallibility only covers the popes, and only under very limited circumstances, in the modern era.

[russm]

Well I'd never thought I'd be quoting St Augustine in a Scooby Doo forum but here goes...

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the
other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size
and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of
the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and
this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a
disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the
meaning of Holy Scripture, talking non-sense on these topics; and we should take all
means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance
in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual
is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held
such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of
our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian
mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his
foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters
concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of
heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves
have learnt from experience and the light of reason?

St Augustine - On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis

Anyway, let's do what they suggested in Star Wars and turn our targeting computers back on and stay on target. In essence there is nothing in what they do that prevents them having a faith or none, it may constrain the expression of that but that is all. What you'll never see outside of fan fiction is expression of that faith, it would just go down so badly and would IMO do so much damage to the franchise as people, especially in the US, just get so worked up about it.