Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

For one brief post, let’s talk about religion. Not your religion, my religion, ISIS, Islam or gay marriage, but the concept itself. Whether we agree with it or not, if we want to craft realistic worlds we must come to grips with religion. For good and ill, religious beliefs are a powerful force, shaping cultures, starting wars, inspiring art, or condoning genocide.

From the earliest evidence, it seems clear that man has had religion in some form. Carefully arranged flowers in stone age graves hint that even then we appealed to a higher power. Appeal may not be quite the right word, since we’ve apparently also been trying to influence the gods’ behavior for at least that long. If you doubt this, take a look at cave paintings, Aztec sacrifices, plus the more modern Prayer of Jabez, and Catholic Indulgences. Religion seems to be inseparable from the human condition, and it is imperative that we understand why if we wish to create a world in which it is a believable factor.

So what is it that man seeks from religion? First, we want to know where we came from. Every religion the world over has some form of Creation story, ranging from made by god from dirt, to climbing from the belly of the earth as her children. We want to know how we began, how all things began. Religion aside, observe how strenuously adopted children, even happy ones, will seek for their birth parents, or how hungrily fans devour an origin story. Curiousity combined with a sense of belonging is a powerful thing.

And let’s face it, humans don’t really seem to belong to the natural world. We alone lack the grace and gifts of the animals, we are conspicuously naked in the crowds of furred, feathered, and scaled life, and we alone seem to question our worth.

Which brings us to the second aspect of religion that humans seem to crave, value. Belonging to a religion means that you belong to a god, and in general, that god values you. Most religions refer to their adherents as the “children of god” no matter which god you are referring to. We were all children once, protected by our parents from a scary and sometimes incomprehensible world, and the desire for someone that has our best interests at heart to shield us, or at least advise us, doesn’t go away. Depending on the level of civilization present in your novel, and the environment, your characters may well have a lot to fear.

Is disease rampant? If so, do they understand its causes and manner of spread? Is power within your society unevenly distributed? Are there powerful external enemies, like vicious armies, dragons, or demons? How about an unsettled natural landscape with earthquakes or volcanoes, or frequent famine-producing droughts?

Answering these questions will tell you how afraid the general populace is. The greater the fear, the greater the likelihood that their form of religion will include sacrifice, martyrdom, and the annihilation of that which is seen as “other”. More settled, protected, and unchanging populations still feel the need for religion, but the accidents and deaths are on a smaller scale, and those religions tend to focus on comforting the bereaved, on harvest or hunting, and fertility rather than violence.

Understanding these things, and the very deep seated need to belong, to be “good”, to be safe, and to comprehend the capricious world in which we live lets authors treat the creation of a religion for their characters to follow with some respect and a great deal more realism.

Naturally, these are not the only benefits to actually practiced religion, nor am I espousing any one form over another, or even none at all. These are simply observations drawn from a number of religions, in the hopes that they may be of use to some fellow world crafter, perhaps granting some perspective.

Cheers,

Michelle