Favorite Fictional Religions?
stonespring
Shipmate
in Heaven
I'm curious if anyone is as interested in fictional religions as I am. I would define a fictional religion as any religion (or significant mutation/amalgamation of one or more existing religions) that exists in a work of fiction that does not exist in the real world and that is not an allegory or narrative basis for a real world religion that the author intends to promote (like the allegorical version of Christianity in the Narnia novels, or like Scientology, which grew out of Hubbard's science fiction).
I also suppose a distinction should be made between fictional religions, where the veracity of the religion is to some extent in doubt in the fictional world, and fictional deities/supernatural beings that the narrative assumes or demonstrates are very real (such as in Tolkien's work), but that some fictional characters might doubt will ever return or become a threat. I'm more interested in fictional religion that fictional people need to take some kind of leap of faith to believe in, and that may have to contend with competing belief systems (although the question of what a religion is might muddy this distinction - what about secular, science-based "religions" found in some sci-fi and fantasy?).
The most famous fictional religions I can think of are those from Dune (although the Bene Gesserit do not believe in the religions they proselytize in the same way that their flock do) and in Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire, where some characters are fierce, even fanatical, believers of their religions and some are not.
What other examples can people think of and why do you like them? What do they make you think about religion, including your own (or your lack of one), and about humanity (or sentient life, I suppose) in general?
If you have your own imaginary religions that you don't believe in but thought "wouldn't it be interesting (if not necessarily pleasant) if this existed?" (I certainly have thought of a few of these), feel free to share them, but if you want to save them to be part of your own published work, I certainly understand!
I also suppose a distinction should be made between fictional religions, where the veracity of the religion is to some extent in doubt in the fictional world, and fictional deities/supernatural beings that the narrative assumes or demonstrates are very real (such as in Tolkien's work), but that some fictional characters might doubt will ever return or become a threat. I'm more interested in fictional religion that fictional people need to take some kind of leap of faith to believe in, and that may have to contend with competing belief systems (although the question of what a religion is might muddy this distinction - what about secular, science-based "religions" found in some sci-fi and fantasy?).
The most famous fictional religions I can think of are those from Dune (although the Bene Gesserit do not believe in the religions they proselytize in the same way that their flock do) and in Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire, where some characters are fierce, even fanatical, believers of their religions and some are not.
What other examples can people think of and why do you like them? What do they make you think about religion, including your own (or your lack of one), and about humanity (or sentient life, I suppose) in general?
If you have your own imaginary religions that you don't believe in but thought "wouldn't it be interesting (if not necessarily pleasant) if this existed?" (I certainly have thought of a few of these), feel free to share them, but if you want to save them to be part of your own published work, I certainly understand!
Comments
Dwarfish spirituality in Pratchett's Discworld explores how even a non-interventionist creator who demands no belief, worship or attention can still form the basis of religious/racial fanaticism. "Tak does not require that we think of him, only that we think".
Another favourite is the Martian religion in “The Fire Balloons”, in Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles”, though I don’t think that story is included in all editions. That is a rather interesting story of a priest trying to work out how to make worship accessible to the Martians but discovering that, being disembodied, they have fewer opportunities for sin and are closer to God than he is.
*I think that’s the correct spelling, but I can’t check my copy at the moment
Strictly speaking there are multiple stories about the origin of the Bastard and debates about whether he is even a god (Quadrenes believe he isn't, Quintarians believe he is though even they mostly try to avoid getting his attention).
“Beloved, god-touched, great-souled… a saint, even? The true sort, who moved through the world as silently as fishes, unnoticed by carnal eyes that focused only on outward domination and display. Never on a small woman in a small town, being kind. Soul by soul.”
Ursula Le Guin has multiple religious systems in different books and in different societies in the same book. In The left hand of darkness there is the Handdara, "a religion without institution, without priests, without hierarchy, without vows, without creed. I am still unable to say whether is has a god or not... It was an introverted life, self-sufficient, stagnant, steeped in that singular 'ignorance' prized by the Handdarata and obedient to their rule of inactivity or non-interference (expressed in the word nusuth, which I have to translate as 'no matter') is the heart of the cult, and I don't pretend to understand it...". Her later book The telling is very much about the clash of religions. Always coming home gives us considerable detail about the spiritual life of the Kesh and again the contrast with the more definitive (but less viewed) religion of the Condor folk.
One I rather like, although we get relatively little sense of the religious life, is from Susan Dexter's The ring of Allaire: "In other lands, folk worshipped things as diverse as serpents and trees and the great sun itself. But in Calandra, and for her, there was only the Word that began it all, and the Twenty Original Grimoires of the mages' dissertations upon that Word. It was not quite a religion, the way the world reckoned such things. The wizards and mages were not quite priests, and what might otherwise have passed for temples were often nothing more than thatched huts, devoted as much to all forms of life and learning as to magic. No, not quite a religion. Only life itself, to the wizards...".
In Diana Wynne Jones Power of three, "The Old Power lies behind the moon and is the Power of death, darkness and secrets. To it belong sufferings and old wrongs... The Middle Power lies behind the sun... It is a fierce Power, of light and life and the present time. And that is the Power which asks most for blood, as all living things need to feed. But it is not unappeasable. It is life, and I do not think it asks for death. As to the New Power, which lies behind the Earth... it is the Power of birth, growth and future time, and the nature of the sacrifice it asks might be different from the others." Quite separately, the gods come on stage in Dogsbody in the form of various stars and the Moon and Earth (and the children of Earth!).
I must stop because this post is already way too long!
Bujold's Five Gods are a close second.
In this world, the worship of Jad, the sun-god, holds a position analogous to that of Christianity in our world; there is also a heretical and eventually banned sect of Jaddite worship in which Jad has a human son named Helidikos, who dies sacrificially to save humanity. The Asharites spring up as followers of a desert nomad who has a vision of the stars, and pose as a threat to Jaddite domination of the known world much as Islam did to Christianity. And the Kindath, who worship that world's two moons as sister-goddesses, live much as Jews did in medieval Europe and the Middle East, people without a homeland, perpetually on the margins of both Jaddite and Asharite societies, and subject to frequent persecution.
Ray Bradbury's depictions of Mars are completely inconsistent from one story to another, which led to some confusion when I read The Martian Chronicles as a kid, as my default assumption(likely bolstered by the fact the book had been made into a uni-narrative miniseries) was to assume it was a novel, rather than a collection of standalone stories.
With that observation as background, I'll note that Bradbury also wrote a story(*) in which astronauts visiting Mars discover that Jesus himself is there, preaching the same gospel as he preached on Earth The implications of this scenario rather contradict the ones in the scenario you mention.
(*) I believe this one was anthologized in The Illustrated Man.
I don't read a lot of fictional prose, but I do watch a lot of fictional cinema, and taking my experiences with both into account:
It occurs to me that most portrayals of fictional religions I've seen are highly negative, with a heavy preponderance of murderous fertility cults somehow still surviving in spooky rural areas, eg. The Lottery, The Wicker Man, Children Of The Corn etc.
I suspect that long novels lend themselves to a more detailed and balanced portrayal of religions, whereas short stories and movies, both for different reasons, work better with simplistic shock themes. And fertility cults are easy to fit into a genre-friendly rustic region.
I’m not sure the knowledge of Maleldil (God) that the various races have counts as a different religion per se than Christianity. For that matter, I’m not sure it counts as a religion in the usual sense—they just know and know about Him.
Spoilers!
"We're a mystery religion for people who have no time for mysteries."
Mine too - except that The Great Pumpkin isn't fictional...
I say that in all sincerity.
On second thought . . . .
Heresy!
This all brings me back to my previous post, and wondering if things like witches' covens as portrayed in art and literature count as fictional religions, or if it has to be something which roughly parallels the way religions are actually practiced in real-life.
re: Santa Claus, while he certainly has god-like qualities, the fact that only young children believe in him and are expected to stop upon reaching a certain age probably disqualifies his following from being a religion per se. Same with the Great Pumpkin, if his cult itself wasn't fictional.
What???
Brilliant.
I have a fondness for Anoia, the Goddess of Things That Get Stuck In Drawers.
I don’t think the supernatural beings in Lord of the Rings were intended by Tolkien as an allegory to promote Christianity, but I don’t really see the LOTR books as having a religion in the sense I wanted to discuss because, as far as I know, there is no need in them for anyone to have faith in the Ainur, Valar, etc, because everyone knows they exist - they may just disagree about whether Sauron or anyone else is a threat and how much power humans and other beings can and should claim relative to those powerful beings.
Are there any fictional religions set in this world or a future version of this world that people like?
In R.A. MacAvoy's Lens of the World trilogy the protagonist, Nazhuret, more or less founds a religion (by accident, and much to his irritation) that is in some respects similar to Zen Buddhism (from details in some of her other books, I suspect MacAvoy is a Zen practitioner).
I should point out that Narnia is not an allegory. Symbolic in various ways, and Aslan is "what if Jesus became incarnate in another world"" but not an allegory like Pilgrim's Progress (or Lewis' excellent Pilgrim's Regress).
And the creation of the world by Eru Iluvatar (God), marred by Melkor (Lucifer) who becomes Morgoth (Satan), and such.
It is meant to take place basically before most of the Old Testament, by countless millennia, of course, so while it is in our world, it's in the vastly prehistoric past, before any of our history.
I don't THINK the apes are portrayed as having a religion, but their horrified attitude at the theory of evolution clearly mimics those of certain biblical-literalists in the contemporary era.
You liked Regress? Ugh, I found it just as heavy-handed and intelligence-insulting as the original. One of the few Lewis tomes I never reread.