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What are your religious views?

Dante Sawyer

Troubadour
Let me start by saying that this thread is in no way meant to bash someone’s particular beliefs. I’m a very open minded person, and I just want to know. I was just once told that most fantasy authors/readers were predominately agnostic or atheist. I was just wondering what the general consensus of this forum is.

I myself am an agnostic. My father is atheist and my mother is a diehard Catholic.
 

Kelise

Maester
I'm nothing, really. One of my parents is agnostic and the other is an atheist. For about a year I went with a friend to his church - Revival Fellowship, but that was basically so I could have friends who didn't drink (as I don't) and I gave that up pretty quickly once they basically said it wasn't right for my friend and I to hang out so much. As a child I went to, uhh... a Catholic church on Sundays, I think, because my friend's family went and I was sometimes at their place during it. And I loved all the crafts they did. The Revival Fellowship I went to was just /too/ social for me after a while. There were meetings on Wednesdays and Fridays for an hour and a half, then two hours on Sundays, then 'youngies' did something on Saturdays for usually about four hours, and then there was usually some dinner or coffee meet during the week. And then band on Mondays if we had something coming up. I'm just not that social.

I don't really have any views for or against anything - I just don't find it interesting. I don't like to hear anyone bashing anyone's beliefs whether it be out in public or in the workplace and I'll usually speak up then, but other than that, I just stay right out of it.
 

Black Dragon

Staff
Administrator
Interesting question.

In my experience, there's a pretty wide range of religious views among fantasy authors. Yes, you will find atheists and agnostics, but I don't think that fantasy authors/readers "predominantly" fall into those categories. There's a lot of religious diversity in the fantasy community.

There's been some discussion of the disproportionally large percentage of Mormon fantasy authors, which is a fascinating question in and of itself:

“Is It Something in the Water?” Why Mormons Write Science Fiction and Fantasy | Mormon Artist

There's also a significant number of Catholic and Jewish authors. For some names, the following page is worth checking out:

Science Fiction/Fantasy Authors of Various Faiths

As for your original question, I'm Eastern Catholic. :)
 
I am agnostic, I would like to think there is a God out there, but so far experiments have been inconclusive at best. There was an XKCD about experimental theology, believing that god or gods exist, but trying to find the boundaries, like when 1 stops being 1 for all practical purposes, and becomes 2
 

Ophiucha

Auror
I'm an atheist, raised by an atheist mother and an atheist father, who were in turn raised by atheists. You'd have to go back to my great-grandparents to find a theist in my direct bloodline. I grew up in a Roman Catholic area, but honestly, most of the people I knew were the sorts who couldn't even pull themselves out of bed on Christmas and Easter to go to Church, let alone every Sunday, and half of my friends weren't even baptised. I basically wasn't exposed to religion (I mean, I knew of religion - Christianity, at least - from classes and the news, but I didn't know much about what religion really was or the beliefs associated with it) until I was in high school.
 
My religious status is rather complicated. I was raised by a Seventh Day Adventist father, and attended church every Saturday for the better part of twenty years, in addition to going to a SDA elementary/high school. That kind of indoctrination is rather difficult to shake. My fundamental beliefs have altered somewhat since I became an adult and stopped attending church out of revulsion with the hypocrisy that runs rampant in pretty much any organized religion.

I have grown too cynical to accept things without proof, so the concept of blind faith 'because the bible tells me so' is right out the window. Yet on the other hand, I can't quite buy into the 'man evolved from the primordial soup' theory either.

Anyway, the short answer is, it's complicated, and I'm not 100% sure myself. Nothing like a good religious debate though. Makes all those brain cells start working trying to come up with logical reasons for stuff you can't explain.
 
It starts... Next thing you know we will be talking about politics. :D

Seriously though, you cannot stereotype fantasy writers into one group or another. As is true with all art forms, they come from many backgrounds and religions. Dragon has already posted some good articles to back this up.

As for my religion... I was raised Roman Catholic and to make a long story short I have my own views and religion has become a private matter for me.
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
I've been pagan (not to be confused with Wiccan, because I am not Wiccan tho I hang with lots of them), and have been for 15 years. One of the fun things about writing fantasy is that I can enter religion into my stories and therefore it can be a little of this and a little of that.... which is kinda how my life is.
I use a lot of pagan or ancient customs/holidays in my books to sort of connect with the real world, but also let my reader know that it's really something different at the same time.
 

myrddin173

Maester
I am an Anglican, and I have gone to church almost every Sunday for most of my life. I do believe in God, but I don't believe in forcing my beliefs on others, they have the right to their beliefs.

I also don't believe fantasy writers are predominantly one thing, they come from all walks of life. Tolkien and Lewis were both Roman Catholic, His Dark Materials' Phillip Pullman is an atheist, and Mistborn's Brandon Sanderson is, if I remember correctly, LDS.
 

TWErvin2

Auror
I am a member of the United Methodist Church. I'm active in its ministry in our community and regularly attened the local United Methodist church.

As has been said, I think you'll find a spectrum of beliefs with respect to fantasy writers.
 
I'm a Jedi :) Haha just kidding, though I think it's bloody awesome that a real life religion has come out of a science fiction film series.
For me, I guess I'm an atheist. I just can't willingly let myself put all my beliefs into something that can never and will never be proven, especially since there is scientific evidence for such things that are told to be work of a god/s, such as the creation of man...Evolution all the way!!
However I have absolutely no issue with anyone's views on religion. To each his own. In fact I applaude those who are truly dedicated to their religion. It's kind of inspiring to see so much faith from people.
But yeah, science has taken away any chance for me to believe in an all powerful being. Santa on the other hand; don't anyone dare say he's not real ;)
 

Telcontar

Staff
Moderator
Brought up in a Catholic family. I myself am anywhere from atheist to some flavor of deist depending on the day. Since I decided that I don't buy into organized religion, though, I've found myself more and more fascinated by studying it.
 

Helbrecht

Minstrel
Moving away from my immediate family, my clan is devoutly Roman Catholic. My maternal grandmother used to take me to church every Sunday and I used to like reading my Children's Bible, but in retrospect I don't think I ever really took what I was reading and hearing as the absolute truth. Conversely, I tend to put my trust in scientific explanations of existence and their backbones of verifiable evidence, but I think it's important to remember that things like evolution and the Big Bang are called "theories" for a reason.

My early exposure to religion might have inspired my interest in theology, but it's inspired little else beyond that. Excluding weddings, christenings and funerals, I'm an agnostic atheist. As far as I'm concerned, this universe is godless until proven otherwise. :D
 
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I am a Mormon though often times not what the sterotype suggests. Though I am, to use the Mormon slang, active in the Church and believe the Doctrine. I am not so dogmatic as to assume only Mormons will make it. I like to take the wait and see approach. I will probably be surpised.
 

Dante Sawyer

Troubadour
Well, thanks to all who have replied.
I guess the person who originally told me the genre is mostly agnostic or atheist wasn't entirely correct. Still thanks for the input.
 

JustSpiffy

Minstrel
I'm an atheist, and if you're an agnostic, you're an atheist too. Agnosticism falls under the category of non-belief, which is also known as atheism. Also, most people misconstrue agnostic to mean a person who says they don't know, but what it actually means to be an agnostic is to say that it's impossible to know, which is different- if only subtlety.

I've heard that atheist has become somewhat of a dirty word in America, due to some particular Christian churches demonizing it, maybe that's why people are so reluctant to self-identify as one? I met an America lady from the buckle of the bible belt once, she was staying in our house in new Zealand, and she told me, “I don’t want to think of you as an atheist. You’re too nice” :/
 
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TWErvin2

Auror
I met an America lady from the buckle of the bible belt once, she was staying in our house in new Zealand, and she told me, “I don’t want to think of you as an atheist. You’re too nice” :/

Take it as the complement that it was meant to be. I strongly suspect she liked you and probably deep down in her heart was saddened by the choice you've made to turn away from what she believes leads to a positive outcome when life ends.
Free will is like that.
 
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