I am a person of faith, and furthermore of a minority faith and culture in the States, so for me, the religious makeup of the world has always stood out for me. A lot of Athiests and Agnostics tend to forget or ignore that they were raised in a Christian religious culture, and that they still share in that, whether or not they left the faith, or are even second or third generation non-Christian. That's not only not my religion, it isn't my culture either, but that doesn't even occur to most non-Jews, because Christian culture is so firmly the default. Books where religion doesn't exist almost always push everybody into the default, which leaves a sour taste in my mouth (and is boring). For this reason, because I am outside the default, and usually reminded of it at every turn, I can't project my on cultural/religious views onto characters as easily, which in turn makes me notice it.
where all the protagonists are atheist and the only people of faith are backwater colonists
Yes. And all the people of faith follow the exact same religious beliefs in the exact same way, because you know, all those religious backwater people are just sheep.
Christian fiction where everyone in teh futar realizes they're wrong and embraces the love of blah blah blah.
The scary thing, is that I'm pretty sure this does ring true to Fundamentalist Evangelicals. They really do believe that if you just heard the word of God, you would fall down on your knees and convert. When people don't, they see it as a challenge to their faith, or you being sinfully, willfully blind, or something like that. This is part of what I mean about religious culture. There are plenty of Atheists who feel that way too, mostly from culturally Christian backgrounds. Almost no Jewish kid, for example, grows up thinking they could, or even should try to convert people to their way of thinking. It's a sort of "I think you're wrong, but I don't need to convince you to be right, or even bring it up," kind of worldview that most people don't necessarily associate with religion.
I'm also a sucker for cultural meeting, and one of the fun things I'm doing in the novel I mentioned in the post is I've got two other main characters of the same faith as the protagonist, but a completely different cultural background, which changes the way they look at and interact with their faith. Nominally they're he same culture, most outsiders would see them as the same culture, but they really really aren't.
I haven't quite forgiven Kate Elliot for writing a Medieval Europe analog, with counterparts for nearly every single group, except the Jews.
If an author doesn't find religion all that interesting, it gets written out, but a dystopia without religion, unless there's a good in-story reason for it, is very jarring to me, because in times of stress and desperation, a lot of people cling more tightly to their faith. Scott Westerfeld's Uglies had a dystopia where religious faith had nearly disappeared, but that was because the kind of brain damage the government inflicted on its citizens made people stop looking for the transcendent. It was just about the only thing about those brain legions that made sense.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-10-06 04:56 pm (UTC)where all the protagonists are atheist and the only people of faith are backwater colonists
Yes. And all the people of faith follow the exact same religious beliefs in the exact same way, because you know, all those religious backwater people are just sheep.
Christian fiction where everyone in teh futar realizes they're wrong and embraces the love of blah blah blah.
The scary thing, is that I'm pretty sure this does ring true to Fundamentalist Evangelicals. They really do believe that if you just heard the word of God, you would fall down on your knees and convert. When people don't, they see it as a challenge to their faith, or you being sinfully, willfully blind, or something like that. This is part of what I mean about religious culture. There are plenty of Atheists who feel that way too, mostly from culturally Christian backgrounds. Almost no Jewish kid, for example, grows up thinking they could, or even should try to convert people to their way of thinking. It's a sort of "I think you're wrong, but I don't need to convince you to be right, or even bring it up," kind of worldview that most people don't necessarily associate with religion.
I'm also a sucker for cultural meeting, and one of the fun things I'm doing in the novel I mentioned in the post is I've got two other main characters of the same faith as the protagonist, but a completely different cultural background, which changes the way they look at and interact with their faith. Nominally they're he same culture, most outsiders would see them as the same culture, but they really really aren't.
I haven't quite forgiven Kate Elliot for writing a Medieval Europe analog, with counterparts for nearly every single group, except the Jews.
If an author doesn't find religion all that interesting, it gets written out, but a dystopia without religion, unless there's a good in-story reason for it, is very jarring to me, because in times of stress and desperation, a lot of people cling more tightly to their faith. Scott Westerfeld's Uglies had a dystopia where religious faith had nearly disappeared, but that was because the kind of brain damage the government inflicted on its citizens made people stop looking for the transcendent. It was just about the only thing about those brain legions that made sense.