Sheldon Cooper grew up going to church, never believing any of its teachings. His mother did not have a problem with that, so long as he went to services every Sunday and did not involve himself in anything ‘sinful’. I say the word in quotations here because there are the deadly ones, and then there are there is Dungeons & Dragons. Anything involving a demon was not allowed in the Cooper household (a statement I’m sure Meemaw would have had a field day picking apart). Mary’s way of going about it did not exactly work out in her favor long-term. By the time period we are now in in Young Sheldon‘s story, Mary Cooper should know better. You have to be very specific about what you want, because Sheldon has never done subtle.
When Mary first sees her son playing a game she deems dangerous, she goes to the parents of his friends for support. Considering one of the kids ate grass and the other came from a Communist country filled with land mines, the other parents don’t much care about what Mary deems a problem. Sheldon doesn’t much care about what God thinks, until Pastor Jeff points out that a good scientist does research before dismissing a study. What most theologists spend decades studying, Sheldon reads and memorizes in about 24 hours. Before Mary’s pride gets the better of her, Sheldon announces his intention to study all religions. Sheldon will never answer to a deity, so why not make it a comparison study?
What Sheldon finds is that Catholicism and Mormonism can make their followers feel bad. However, Tam points out that that is how you know a religion is working. For a minute Sheldon wants to be Jewish because one of Meemaw’s boyfriends points out that both Spock and Kirk are Jewish. I’ll give Mary Cooper credit. It takes a lot of courage for someone who holds her religion so dear to let Sheldon choose his own path. Her God-given patience must have been tested when Sheldon wanted to make up his own religion. It’s not like it’s a new concept. People have created worse theologies to follow than a religion dedicated to unlocking the secrets of a Binary universe.
Sheldon didn’t have many followers for Mathology as a child, but would his membership have increased had he started the practice back up as an adult? Or was that just replaced with university?
