fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2323 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2323 ⌋

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I'd need clarification on what you mean by "based on religious themes." Having the majority of your stories set in religion, IE writing about priests, churches, etc., is different from plot lines that have, say, a messiah character, or a similar "theme" as the Bible (or any other holy book or myth, for that matter). And both of those can be different from writing about angels, demons, gods and goddesses.

I would agree with the first comment up there on all counts, though - chances are, most writers are not doing it to "cash in" or to mock. You don't have to believe in a religion or adopt it as your own to appreciate its stories, messages, myths, and symbolism.

Further, for an add of asshole-remark, an atheist (which I'm not), could argue that all religion is fiction and/or fantasy, and drawing from those old stories and themes is no different from drawing from any other themes.

Edited 2013-05-13 23:20 (UTC)

Same thing I said above:

"I didn't mean all writers, and I didn't mean the general themes that people are referring to above. I meant the authors (mostly fan authors) who either brag about their atheism or bash religion.

Religion gets a LOT of hate on the internet, so it's frustrating that the only time it can be discussed is in fiction, because you can then dismiss it as fiction (I hear the term "kid's stories" often)."

Yeah, when I started writing my comment, there was literally only one other comment posted. Slow me. :-/

I'm borderline agnostic-atheist. I pretty much think people who brag about their atheism / bash religion are just angry and haven't sorted their own shit out yet.

I believe in (a) god and I'm all for bashing religion.
Belief in a higher power =/= religion.
I'm no member of any church, cult, clan, what have you and I also don't have holy texts that tell me what to do. And yet I believe.

Just because there are good people who in turn do good via using their religion doesn't mean relidion itself can't be heavily critisized or "bashed" as you call it.

Also, religious texts can be "dismissed" as fiction just fine as we still lack evidence for 90% of the things that took place according to them.
Oddly enough, while the Holy Bible (but I forgot which version/translation) mentions that unicorns are real, all Christians I know would laugh at me if I told them I believed in unicorns. Because that's just humbug. Unlike a guy who walked on water and turned water into wine or a guy who heard a donkey talk to him (yup, that's in the HB as well).

this. If someone asks me if I'm religious (or what religion I belong to) I really don't know what to say. I can't imagine not believing a higher power, but I always have to side-eye organized religion, though I can understand its benefits. I have been helped A LOT by the Catholic Church and I really love the people I know who are Catholics, and I do find beauty in some of the Bible/rituals/images, but the organizational structure as a whole I can't really get behind. Power can easily lead to corruption, and religious leaders/institutions are no exception. And quite honestly, I could never accept spoon-fed dogma. I don't just blindly accept what I'm given, and quite honestly, I feel that my search for answers has gotten me a lot closer to God than if I just blindly accepted everything. There is no One True Religion with an answer key; there's just us, the brains we are given, the world around us. And God, which (I believe) in all those things.

And I do strongly believe that religion MUST be criticized in order for reform to be possible. We can't just tiptoe around matters that seriously need to be addressed. How else would progress be possible?

Criticism and bashing aren't the same thing.

And many Christians see the former and interpret it as the latter.

On your thing about "No One True Religion", I am nominally a part of an organised church (nominally, because I haven't attended in years, but I'm still technically a member and think myself as being one), and my church has a lot of stuff about the "True Church", but doesn't believe that means one particular denomination. It's believed to be a far more amorphous collection of True Believers that could belong to any church or creed, but manage to be, well, True Believers.

[ SECRET POST #2323 ]

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