BBC Drama Bonekickers Gets Atheism Dead Wrong
Two weeks ago I wrote about the epic failure that was the new BBC archaeology drama “Bonekickers“. It attempted to combine CSI and Indiana Jones which is a fair combination if you get it right. Unfortunately, the first episode concerned religion and went about it in a very bizarre way. The second episode was much better, focusing on an American Presidential election which included a black candidate (foreshadowing anyone?), and a conspiracy to prevent black people from becoming the leader of the USA. I found this episode to be very watchable and entertaining.
The third episode aired a few days ago and was concerned with the Roman Baths at Bath, which was great and brought back fond memories of visits to the city. The episode was centred around a Roman inventor Marcus Quintanus (fictional) and Boudicca, the English warrior queen. Quintanus invented what were essentially hand grenades, a simple small clay pot that separated two volatile liquids inside. Once the pot is thrown and broken, the two liquids mixed and exploded. The story went that Quintanus was enlisted to help find Queen Boudicca who was in hiding after losing a battle. He was so upset that his weapons had caused so much death and destruction all for finding one woman that when he eventually found her in Bath, he hid her under the Celtic springs that would eventually become the Roman Baths. They fell in love, etc. etc.
It was a fun story to follow and the episode was great, but I have one tiny complaint concerning the character of Quintanus. The character was an atheist as revealed by a member of the archaeology team, and when the details of his life were discovered, including his disgust at the massacre he had a hand in, one of the team, Professor Gregory Parton remarked
No wonder he was an atheist. Who would want to be judged by god after that?
This seems to me like a very poor description of atheist attitudes and a common misconception among non-atheists. The concept that we don’t believe in gods because we don’t want to be judged is the most idiotic argument ever. Its the same as not believing in cars because you don’t want to be hit by one. At the end of the day, if cars exist (which they do) then you will get hit by one if you cross the road without looking, nomatter your beliefs.
In fact, for atheists to disbelieve in gods because they don’t like the idea would be a terrible reason, and would be very irrational. Atheists don’t believe in gods for many different reasons; lack of evidence, circular arguments, general incompatibility with science (at least with the theist gods), and many more. Not believing simply because we don’t want to is certainly not one of them.
Now, if the character had been real and this was actually his view I wouldn’t have much to complain about, other than the show not pointing out in some way that this type of belief is unique and viewed as nonsense by the atheist community. Rather, I am annoyed because the character was fictional, and so the BBC have a grossly misinformed writer on their staff. Perhaps it was intentional and the writer is an atheist-hating bigot, but that would be unlikely. Nevertheless, he made a massive mistake in what was an unimportant character trait. There was no reason to even make Quintanus an atheist in the first place, and I fail to see how it was important to the story unless he was taking a cheap shot.
Hopefully next weeks episode will be better.
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One thing that’s worth considering is that Romans of the period were polytheistic and recognized the gods of many different civilizations during their conquests.
In some cases, there is evidence that these gods were accepted as real deities but rejected. Indeed, it was common for families or individuals to adopt specific gods they hoped would provide them with things like protection, fertility, strength, vitality, power, etc.
If Quintanus were a real person, his rejection of gods may not have included a disbelief that they were real. For him, “atheist” would have, quite literally, been “without gods.”
It’s always very difficult to evaluate an ancient culture since we’re always clouded by the lenses of our own. For you and I, atheist not only means “without god(s),” it also means that we believe everyone else is also without gods.
Still, I share your skepticism of Bonekickers. I finally just decided to let it go and enjoy the show.
Yenald Looshi
26 Jul 08 at 5:19 am (GMT)