This got a little watered down as the strip continued, and Linus isn’t quite as intellectual in the various cartoon adaptations (his Bible monologue in A Charlie Brown Christmas notwithstanding), but he has a theologian's knowledge of the Bible and can pontificate like a Ph.D. in philosophy. It's fair to wonder just how many ridiculously precocious kids in Western fiction owe some part of their inspiration to Linus, both on and off the comics page.