One of my all time biggest pet peeves with historical(ish) fantasy is when the writer constructs a religion with a clear bias that it's stupid and false and therefore only the Stupid People and/or commoners believe in it and all the smart/elite main characters are like, quasi-atheists or otherwise just routinely flout established religious conventions of orthodoxy and/or orthopraxy because they're Too Smart for it or etc.
It's usually an extension of assumptions that people in the past were just less intelligent than in the contemporary, just being like "I know that the sun is a star millions of miles away that the earth orbits, but this ancient religion describes it as a chariot flying through the sky" and not really bothering to learn the context and just (consciously or subconsciously) settling on 'that's a crazy thing to think and was probably believed in because they were Stupid'.
And that whole attitude pisses me off so much. People were as 'smart' 10,000 years ago as they are today. These beliefs aren't just desperate, random flailing to explain phenomena that could not directly be accounted for either, it's not like people just looked at the sun and went "Uhhh I don't know what the fuck that thing is, actually. I guess it might be a chariot or a boat or something?? Yeah let's go with that." and based entire religious practices on this. Every well-established belief system exists within broader contexts of cultural values/subjective perceptions of reality/knowledge systems/etc, and exist as part of a historical continuum of religious practices that came before. Even when not Materially Correct, they have context and internal logic, they're not always dead literal with zero levels of allegory, and they're never a result of stupidity.
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Damian, handing Bruce a piece of paper with a very neat calendar on it: father, I will be taking a step back from my participation in our nightly patrols. I have carefully considered factors such as, but not limited to, school tests, most likely days for breakouts and when other people will be available. Here is my schedule.
Bruce: any particular reason you are stepping back from Robin?
Damian: I have reached an acceptable age and am by far mature enough, so I will be participating in Ramadan this year, father. Afterwards I will pick my duties up as normal, but with changed sleeping and eating patterns, this is the most logical step for now.
Bruce, who grew up with a jewish mother and christian father who were intent to raise him on some weird mix of the two, then a second father who was atheist, proceeded to lose his entire way in any form of religion due to losing himself in his teen years, took in Jewish boy, then a catholic one with religious trauma, then an atheist one who had no idea how to even approach the idea of religion, followed up by a pagan girl and already making seven different mental lists of things he will need to research, how to add aspects of Islam into their weird family holidays and trying desperately to show his support for his son: ....hnn
Damian: thank you father
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When your best friend is a bilblically accurate angel
They are all in the same situation guys (Yes I headcannon Pix as a watcher, since the Empires x Hermitcraft crossover hghgh)
They are three stages of one expierience
Mumbo: confused, shocked, kinda uncomfortable when around Grian in his full form, starts getting used to it
Impulse: Used to it
Sloy: Literally. Doesn't care. "You're a watcher? Cool."
Also this meme
That's the vibes I get from them
Ngl "My best friend is a biblically accurate angel" sounds like a good movie/book title
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It was dinnertime in the House of Lamentation. Conversation petered out as everyone focused on the hot food in front of them, leaving a quiet lull interrupted only by clinking silverware.
“I’ve always wanted a traditional church wedding,” you said, entirely unprompted.
The clinking came to a stop as the seven brothers processed what you had just said. They turned their eyes towards you.
Beelzebub was the first to break the silence despite his mouth full of food. “Huh?”
“I just always thought it would be nice. A quaint wedding in a nice little church. Maybe a chapel.”
Leviathan briefly choked on what he was chewing.
“Oh I totally get it!” Asmodeus empathized. “Rows of pews with white flowers, those high arched ceilings, the evening light of the human world sun shining on us through a beautiful stained glass window as we kiss? Oh!” He clutched his shoulders, “it gives me chills just imagining it!”
“Asmo, we can’t enter churches,” Satan stated matter-of-factly. The knife handle gripped in his fist started to bend.
“Hah!? What? Lucifer, is that true?” Mammon slammed his fork down and just about jumped out of his chair as he shouted at the oldest.
“Sit down, Mammon.” Lucifer rubbed his temple and tried to perform damage control before the inevitable headache set in. “What brought this on suddenly?” he asked you.
Keeping a straight face was immensely difficult but you pulled it off. “I was just thinking about weddings and stuff, y’know. It’d be nice. Ever since I was little I thought a church wed-”
Belphegor interjected with “You’re not even that religious.”
A flood of complaints washed over the table as everyone started loudly protesting.
“You… You’re not allowed to get married anywhere without me!” Leviathan shouted.
“Does it have to be a church? What about a restaurant instead?” Beel suggested, looking worried. “I know a lot of pretty ones.”
“We could build a mock church in a studio and get married there,” Asmo fantasized. “The stained glass could be you and me as cherubs, we can ask Luke to be the flower boy. He’d be so cute in a little tux!”
“You wouldn’t even need a ceremony with me,” Belphegor said. “If you really want one, we can have it outdoors under the stars.”
Satan’s knife was bent at a 90-degree angle. “What a stupid thing to say. Libraries are just as quiet and nice as churches. Probably. They sure suit you better than a church.”
“The restaurants also have in-house catering,” Beel continued.
“That ain’t gonna happen!” Mammon bounced his knee, shaking the entire table as he lamented, “I ain’t lettin’ my human get married in some church! We can go anywhere you want! Anywhere else!”
”There’s a church in my game!” Leviathan gasped. He thought an in-game wedding would be just as good as a real one. “I can show you! We can go now! Lets make you a character!”
Lucifer cleared his throat once. Then twice. The third time was a warning that got lost amid all of the whining. “Enough,” he finally growled. The room went silent for him. “You’re not getting married in a church. End of discussion.”
“Oh.” Weird of him to decide that on his own, but you were at your limit. A wide grin had already spread across your face. “Yeah, ok. By the way this roast you made is delicious.”
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Found in Boulder, CO goodwill. Alt text: God does not say to his children "Go to War", Enslave your Brother & Sister, and trust a Symbol over the reality of generic jobs to control free spirit and make souls absorb fear & submit rather than Love. This Church tells us to Pray but never to meet Pain in the Eyes. My God is a Women (sic) that Creats (sic) Life, Sings, Dances, Loves, and Discovers!
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The thing is - in order for me to trust you as a religious person, I need to know that you support apostates of your faith. ALL apostates of your faith.
The ones who left because they faced spiritual abuse, the ones who left because they didn’t think the religion was true, and the ones who left because they simply didn’t like it. The ones who are open and angry about their religious abuse. The ones who still participate in cultural events and the ones who completely cut contact with the faith. The ones who left because their community was sexist, racist, homophobic, or transphobic. The ones who converted to a different religion and the ones who decided they would just rather assimilate and the ones who don’t give you a reason.
And when your reaction to an apostate, ESPECIALLY ones who left because of abuse and conservative communities, is stuff like “well, the people who hurt you weren’t REAL [X]s”, or “well, actually if you interpret this religion the RIGHT way (by joining MY community) then it’s totally not bigoted at all -” or “well you can’t let your bad experience taint a whole religion” or “you shouldn’t talk about your bad experience because it gives the rest of us a bad name” or “then I guess you never REALLY had faith” or “the idea that you can leave a faith in a meaningful way is a Western colonialist ideal” or “if you leave this faith then you are committing voluntary cultural genocide” - the last two of which are real things I saw real people say recently - then it’s very obvious you care more about protecting your religion and its power over its adherents than about caring for the individual people within it.
Nobody owes it to you to stay in your religion. And if you can’t 100%, wholeheartedly respect that, then I'm not going to trust you or your opinions about religion.
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