fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2802 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2802 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Warriors]

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[Harry Potter]

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[Sweet Fuse: At Your Side]

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[Stargate Atlantis]

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[Black M]

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[The Lyon's Den]

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[Hannah Simone]

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[Bouletcorp]

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Notes:

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Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In fiction (especially of the fantasy/sci-fi variety), what do you like to see in the made-up religions? Do you like them to be realistic or crazy? Do you like really dark cult-like religions or ones that are really hopeful? Do you like really formal ones, really inventive ones, ones that are thinly veiled for real religions, or anything else? Would you rather there isn't any kind of belief-system at all?

What are some interesting fictional religions you've come across in books/movies/TV? What do you like about them?

And, for fun, feel free to write up your own fake religion - serious or cracky - that maybe you'd like to see somewhere or write yourself some day.

The whole thing with the Force in Star Wars is just really, really awesome. Well, in the Originals it was awesome. In the prequels the Jedis were more a cult that twisted things until they were all wrong, a la fundamentalist Christians. But Yoda's stuff in Empire Strikes Back? Really great. Pretty Buddhist too, actually.

+1 to the original trilogy's version of the Force.

-100 to the prequel trilogy's weird midichlorian version of the Force.

I have a theory that all of the stuff that's twisted and not-right about the Jedi can be traced back to one particular Jedi Master, who died 4000 years before the movies. Odan-Urr rewrote the mantra, which is commonly known as the Jedi Code - and changed it from a series of almost Zen koans ("Emotion, yet peace") to something more repressive ("There is no emotion, there is peace"). This particular Jedi Master also was the keeper of a Sith holocron, which he apparently often carried with him. My guess is that the holocron had a little more influence on him than anyone thought...

I've spent way too much time on Wookieepedia recently.

I am interested in your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Or wookieepedia, whatever.

Sorry to basically ignore the question, but I personally really don't care what they are like as long as they are easy to follow and aren't required reading to understand what's going on, since as in real life, I really don't think that much about religion and stuff like that. When I say this I guess I'm really talking about fantasy games, since they are almost always complex pantheistic religions that don't have that much impact on the game itself.

I like ones that have been completely thought out and make sense within that world. I like the Force in Star Wars, I was fascinated by the Bajoran religion in Star Trek, all the various ASOIAF religions are intriguing, and the different religions on Babylon 5 were pretty cool (and the fact that they were written by an atheist who still created religions that were believable for his fictional races and treated both fictional and real ones with respect was pretty awesome).

I like ones that are realistic. I have a soft spot for fictional cults in paranormal/fantasy stuff but I like hopeful ones in sci-fi/dystopian settings. Formal is good because a lot of religions are formalized. I'm not crazy necessarily about veiled religions because they usually come off as pretty "agenda"-y, like "[X] is better than other religions" or "[X] is totally villainous."

Mercerism is one of the most memorable fictional religions I've come across. The emphasis on empathy and utilization of sci-fi invention is really cool.

I dislike when an alien species only has one religion. They should have a minimum of 5 major ones and thousands of smaller ones. It's fine if a series just wants to focus on one, but they should acknowledge that there are others.

Even in cases like the Bajoran religion, where there is actual historical physical contact between the Prophets and the people of Bajor because they are real aliens in the wormhole; I feel that there should be more sects within it. Like religions that are share a basis/origin but then split and interpret things in various ways (like the Catholic/Protestant/Orthodox Christianity differences). How easy is it to interpret those Orbs a whole bunch of ways? That would have been cool to see.

I also dislike when an alien race is made too homogeneous in sci fi, which all the time. If Earth is so culturally and religiously diverse, why does an alien planet only have one language/culture/religion? /rant

I love the religion in Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series. I'm not really sure why it sticks out in my mind so much though.

When I'm writing my own religions, I have a lot of fun with schisms; imagining the sorts of things that people would disagree over and what would be considered heresy and what would eventually break off into a new branch of the religion and the attitudes each sect has toward the others.

I prefer to see people of varying levels of religious devotion too. There's the hardcore faithful and the atheists and the people who are nominally of their religion but don't pay much attention to it and everything in between.

Religion has been a part of just about every society on earth, so if you've got human or human-like people in your fantasy/sci-fi it certainly adds to the realism to put religion in your work, but it's also neat to hypothesize what life would be like without them.

That said, I find most sci-fi extrapolates on the growing trend toward atheism and posits that in the future that will be the norm, and most fantasy has gods that demonstrably exist, answer their worshippers' prayers in physical reality, etc., which isn't like religion at all. It's cool, though, I mean if you have dragons and ice zombies and all there's nothing wrong with some healing spells as the result of prayer, but it does mean it's neat when someone doesn't do that.

Two examples I can think of? Well in ASoIaF I think it's pretty clear that the gods don't exist, at least not in the "pray for a healing spell" kind of way. There are dark forces at work, but they're all pretty clearly magic tied to the return of dragons, not gods granting prayers to followers per se.

And in sci-fi? Nnnggggh I was so excited when BSG had polytheists with advanced technology, and the robots with their own Machine God. That would be amazing! Just think how that would affect society, and how would machines even conceive of god? Cool! ...No, no sorry the polytheism is just an allegory for fake modern spirituality, the machine god is confirmed to be real, and is just straight up bible!god because the creators of the show are Mormons.

(Though that series sure took a shit all over its original potential in more ways than just that one.)

My favorites were the religions in Andromeda: The bonkers Nietzschean ethos, and the Wayists. But that was due to Robert Hewitt Wolfe's writing.

I'm mugging my way through DS9, and it's really disappointing to me how shallow and inconsistent it is in dealing with religion, Klingon, Trill, and Bajoran.

Let's see here.

Good:
Butler's Earthseed
Slonczewski's Shora
So far Leckie's polymorphic polytheism for Ancillary Justice
Tolkien: I don't agree with his essentially Catholic metaphysics, but I can respect it.

Bad:
D&D: The three worst features of fantasy religion in my opinion: god as vending machine, god as uber-NPC, and everything and the kitchen sink. Then you have the entire theology retconned with each new edition.

I kinda liked the religion in the Dragonlance Chronicles. Fizban/Paladine was cool.

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