Serious answer: It's a comedy show, Brian is an athiest because some of the jokes require an athiest, either to make a joke about religion, or to be the butt of a joke.
Other Answer: Perhaps he is simply applying Ockham's razor. It is far more likely that his visions of Jesus are hallucinations than actually being Jesus, especially when you add in the fact that family guy Jesus is white.
Brian is usually Seth Macfarlene's mouth piece to some degree. Seth does the voice for Peter, Stewie, Glenn, and Brian, but Brian is his regular speaking voice. He tends say alot of what he really thinks as Brian. (I'd venture guess he's really an atheist, agnostic or at very least a servely lapse Cathoic based on what he uses for storylines.) Seth Macfarlene is a liberal, which is extremely obvious, especially considering much of the commentary he makes about republicans on American Dad. There's tons of instances of him sucking off the Democratic party. Such as Bill Clinton is shown as extremely likeable on episode he appeared, in the alternate reality Al gore is president instead of Bush most of America's major problems are solved, and the more recent Obama was shown to be like Elvis when he visited James woods high school.
Because having a conversation with someone does not mean you immediately follow their entire system of beliefs or their presented dogma. It's the same reason you don't chew on bones or chase cats after playing with your dog.
Except that atheism means he doesn't believe that God EXISTS, and as OP points out, brian has met jesus several times, and has in fact also seen God on multiple occasions, both of whom demonstrate supernatural powers.
First of all, Jesus not being a deity, but a man, denotes nothing of Brian's particular brand of theistic belief. As to how he can have met God while still remaining an atheist, I'll put it down to disjointed comedic writing without ensuing intent.
While I do fully agree with the fact that it is "comedic writing without ensuing intent" there is one more option.
Brian is a Deist: He believes in a god (having met him) but does not perscribe to any religion since the god he has met does not fit into the description put forth by any of them (the events of christianity, yes, but the descriptions of god, no) and simply says that he is an Atheist to save himself (and the writers) the explanation. He is also a dog so he looses nothing by being an Atheist since there is no mention of animals going to heaven or hell.
It is the weirdest thing why does Seth McFarlane make one of Brian's belief Atheism when in the show Family Guy he has seen and talked to Jesus multiple times? I know it's just a fictional t.v program I just want to know is there some kind of joke he is doing that I am not getting? Is there?
Atheists don't deny the existence of Jesus, they just say he ain't god and that there's no god, yeah obviously he's got his magic powers in one episode Brian meets him, but I guess that doesn't prove anything to him as far as the creation of the universe goes. Jesus in one episode also says that it's irrelevant which religion you buy into, so there's that.
Other than that, pretty much what the first response was, it's a comedy.
Because having a conversation with someone does not mean you immediately follow their entire system of beliefs or their presented dogma. It's the same reason you don't chew on bones or chase cats after playing with your dog.
Except that atheism means he doesn't believe that God EXISTS, and as OP points out, brian has met jesus several times, and has in fact also seen God on multiple occasions, both of whom demonstrate supernatural powers.
First of all, Jesus not being a deity, but a man, denotes nothing of Brian's particular brand of theistic belief. As to how he can have met God while still remaining an atheist, I'll put it down to disjointed comedic writing without ensuing intent.
While I do fully agree with the fact that it is "comedic writing without ensuing intent" there is one more option.
Brian is a Deist: He believes in a god (having met him) but does not perscribe to any religion since the god he has met does not fit into the description put forth by any of them (the events of christianity, yes, but the descriptions of god, no) and simply says that he is an Atheist to save himself (and the writers) the explanation. He is also a dog so he looses nothing by being an Atheist since there is no mention of animals going to heaven or hell.
Ah, yes, the infamous 'it's so much easier' card, well played indeed. Especially since declaring yourself deist causes people like Peter to get all screwy. I could accept that.
Brian is an atheist because he's supposed to be the stereotypical educated liberal. He is, by any measure, the most reasonable and intelligent character in the show and MacFarlane clearly has an opinion on what stance such a person would take on the religion issue.
As for Jesus, those things tend to be pretty quick and somewhat fourth-wall-breaking.
I imagine he just never thought about this issue. This is some serious fridge logic. That or he decided it wasn't a big enough problem to warrant messing with the characterization of Brian.
Because conversations with the spirit of a nice Jewish carpenter do not necessarily mean on will become Christian. Not to mention with how much Brian drinks there's no guarantee it actually happened. Alcohol-induced hallucinations are a pretty common comedy trope. They just aren't outright stating that's what's happening in this case.
Brian is usually Seth Macfarlene's mouth piece to some degree. Seth does the voice for Peter, Stewie, Glenn, and Brian, but Brian is his regular speaking voice. He tends say alot of what he really thinks as Brian. (I'd venture guess he's really an atheist, agnostic or at very least a servely lapse Cathoic based on what he uses for storylines.) Seth Macfarlene is a liberal, which is extremely obvious, especially considering much of the commentary he makes about republicans on American Dad. There's tons of instances of him sucking off the Democratic party. Such as Bill Clinton is shown as extremely likeable on episode he appeared, in the alternate reality Al gore is president instead of Bush most of America's major problems are solved, and the more recent Obama was shown to be like Elvis when he visited James woods high school.
Good points, but the Bill Clinton episode wasn't exactly flattering; the main trait they showed wasn't so much that he was likeable so much as he was persuasive enough to get basically anyone he wanted in bed -- including, humorously enough, Peter. Also, I remember an episode in which George W. Bush showed up, and he was pretty likeable there, too -- it was basically the same caricature as the one from Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay, which took the "I'd like to have a beer with him" aspect to a whole new level. As for the Obama thing: I haven't seen the episode in question, but come on, the man is about as close to being a rockstar as any politician in recent history has been. Any highschool he visits likely would make nearly as big of a deal out of it as a visit from The King.
ZeroMachine said:
Why do people in South Park debate religion when Jesus has a talk show?
And is a part of a multi-religion super-hero group?
What episode(s?) is that (are those?) from? I've never seen it before. Continuing your fridge logic for a minute, though, Jesus returning and joining superhero team with Gods and Goddesses from other religions would definitely cause a major upheaval in world religion. Assuming for a minute that it was really the biblical Jesus, and that's what he did for his second coming, Christians would have to rethink the whole "no other Gods before me" thing -- changing, at the very least, so the Christian God is no longer the only god they worship, but rather at the head of the pantheon. Polytheists probably wouldn't have much to change at all, but the three Abrahamic religions... man would that be a big deal.
P.S.: wait, I see a censor bar. That's from the episode where a huge deal was made over depicting Mohammed, isn't it?
Family Guy is just a show with little structure or continuity, where the characters often act as mouth-pieces for the creators' opinions to the point of obliterating the fourth wall completely. It can be hilarious, but if you take any of it too seriously you will hate it. So, don't think about it too hard, 'kay?
Brian also slept with Quagmire's dad who he thought was his mother. Then in the next episode Quagmire hates him, all the way through he tries to figure out why and when he finds out. Quagmire hates him because he's a douche. Nothing to do with him doinking his dad.
Also, one of Quagmires main points was that Brain is always trying to get into Lois and that makes him unloyal. That's quagmires entire bit.
Actually, Quagmire obsesses over Lois but he never blatantly tries to steal her from Peter, which Brian does. Quagmire is all too happy to do Lois whenever Peter's out of the picture (such as in the episode when Peter had amnesia and Lois left him for trying to bring another woman into the bedroom because he no longer understood monogamy), but he would never try to steal Lois away.
If you met Jesus in real life I think you'd have trouble equating the person you were talking to with the amazing miracle-slinging mo-fo that he's written to be. I doubt it goes that deep with Family Guy, but you started the thread.
Really? You need to ask? The show that brought us not one, not two, but three extended ten-minute man-on-giant-chicken fights when they couldn't figure out what to do with the rest of the episode?
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
