My Lion King Forum

I was watching The Lion King with Justin the other day and I heard Timon and Pumbaa laugh at Simba's story of The Great Kings of the Past and I have never seen Scar mention them at all.
The comment that offended Simba was "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard, what mook made something like that up?!" and Pumbaa just laughed continuosly after that!
So are Timon, Pumbaa and Scar atheists?

I don't think that atheists is the correct term lol. They were never introduced to the concept of the great kings of the past so it was natural that they would find the idea ridiculous. As for Scar, he never mentioned them in the movie so we can't really tell. Also, atheism = lack of faith in a deity or deities. There's no deity in TLK, all we know about the, err, spirituality of the TLK universe is that the past kings of the Pride Lands look down on the living when they die. It's not even mentioned if the rest of the animals go to an afterlife in the movie. x]

^Kops basically said it all

An atheist is "a person who denies the existence of a God". The Great Kings of the Past are not to be mistaken as gods or a God, but just the ancestors of the Pride Lands looking down on the living. However, there is spirituality in TLK universe as the definition of "spirituality" is a belief that the dead can communicate with the living through a medium, which takes place when Mufasa returns to Simba as a spirit.

So, Timon and Pumbaa shouldn't be described as atheists because the Great Kings of the Pasts aren't gods nor deities. As for Scar, I'm sure his father taught him about the Great Kings, as Mufasa mentions his father told him about them when telling Simba, but it's unknown if he actually believed in it, so we shouldn't say Scar is an atheist.

Uh, no, they're not atheists. I don't see why you came up with that. XD

Well as far I know, Mufasa said that story was told to him by his father, but never let to know that Scar heard it too, and I think that thing was something between father and son, so I'm not suprised that he didn't mentioned it.

About Timón and Pumbaa, I think was like ''How those points will be a lot of dead kings who look at us?'', besides that, they're not into royalty stuff.

I don't think that the stars story are something to believe in like gods, I think was just like something to soften what actually is the death, or ''never feel alone, you're always accompanied by those past kings that are watching you from the skies''..

So I'd say no, they're not atheists

....Atheist would've been Scar walking up to Simba after Mufasa died saying "WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?"

XD


(Sorry, just had an instant gigglefit over the mental image. )

A bit ridiculous concept at first, but it's believable.

Timon and Pumbaa did not have a family for so long, believing nothing could help them because nothing did. They left their families and stuck together. So as far as I know, they're thinking about being best buds and the jungle(and later pride rock) as their place to stay. There probably never even thought about their death, taking into realization that they believe in "Hakuna Matata" as what will solve all their problems.

Scar on the other hand, probably believed at first since he was taught at a young age. But then with all the bad things happening to him later on (getting the scar on his face and to be forever called "Scar" to remember his horrid deed, not being chosen as king) he lost all hope about "the great kings of the past." I wouldn't say he's atheist, but it seems to me his experiences made him believe the kings will never assist him, that he must do everything himself.

By technical definition (a lack of belief in a god or gods), yes. Yes, they are. However, as others have stated, there are no actual mentions of any deities in the Lion King universe. As such, none of them would have any need for such a term; much less a desire to coin a definition for it.

Thats thinking a bit too far.....XD

I think Blitz's posts has merit, but I don't think that was the writer's intentions. And for Scar, he never rejects it, so you can't assume he is one.