Conworlders' religious influences on conworlds
Posted: 30 Jun 2018 04:52
In this thread, I'd like to discuss how a conworlder's religion influences her/his conworld.
First, there are the Christian conworlders -- J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and J. K. Rowling being perhaps the most famous today. I often see Christian conworlders on the Web. Sometimes their confiction is allegorical for some arcane interpretation of what Christianity is about. I've seen Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Anglicans/Episcopalians bathe in these arcane Christian musings on the Internet before . . . I'm not sure I've seen a Mormon do it. But there probably are some Mormon conworlders out there -- after all, the Deseret alphabet is a con-script!
Much has been written about Christian themes in Tolkien's Middle-Earth, although all I've read by him is The Hobbit, so I don't have much to say on it. Lewis' Narnia, though not as intricate and complex as Middle-Earth, is a rather in-your-face allegory for Christianity. Aslan, the lion (the animal at the top of the Chain of Being!), dies and is resurrected. Even Edmond dies and gets resurrected, from what I recall. Just as Christianity has the world created in seven days, the children's entire time in the wardrobe lasts only one hour in our dimension.
Then there's Rowling, with her Harry Potter wizarding universe. A lot of Fundamentalist Christians are vocally opposed to Harry Potter, because of the Wiccan trappings and because Rowling has admitted Dumbledore is gay. But, as a collaboration of editors at Conservapedia wrote:
(Spoilers ahead!)
Then there are Jewish conworlders. I know a number of people here who are ethnically Jewish: Shemtov, Peterofthecorn, Helios/Zontas, Khemehekis. I'm sure a number of us practice the religion. And I recall Shemtov saying that one of his concultures or conworlds was inspired by his religious beliefs (I don't remember much more of it, perhaps Shemtov can join in the conversation).
What would an Islamic-themed conworld be like? A Wiccan-themed conworld? A Scientology-themed conworld? And what about the Dharmic religions (Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jain)?
Then there are all those atheists out there. Conlanging and conworlding attract a lot of nerds, and large percentages of nerds are atheist. A lot of atheists create strictly scientistic conworlds, but I recall how Ahzoh's Vrkhazhian conculture had a lot of macabre fascination with death (at least in the past, I'm not sure if he's changed it since). And then there's this observation by Zumir, in the thread How NOT to Conworld (speaking of preaching in conworlding): It's bad enough if their superiority is based on something we can all agree with, e.g nonviolence or universal cooperation, but all too often they become mouthpieces for the authors' personal views. It becomes pretty unforgivable if these views don't even make sense for the setting of the story (for example, atheists in a high fantasy setting).
I'm not sure on agnostic and ignostic trends in conworlding.
Then there are the deists, among which I count myself. I make God quite possibly real in the Lehola Galaxy, although of course, God (assuming S/He is real), is the creator of the entire universe, and not just one galaxy. I don't have immortal Elves, nor healing magic spells, nor bags of holding -- Lehola is not and never was an elf-dwarf-and-orc (or an elf-Worf-and-dork?) conworld. It is based on New Age and UFO beliefs, and includes planets with Greys and reptoids, in addition to humans and several original sapient species.
Aside from the unremarkability of FTL travel, the only real deviation in Lehola from the current Terran understanding of science is the iteli, or God-created guiding force (from the Kankonian word for "guide") for evolution. Scholars on Lehola's planets have noted how there seems to be a force guiding evolution throughout the universe, as identical species have evolved independently, multiple times, on several different planets. There are "bioswaths", taxa that appear to evolve together on similar planets, such as the cetacean bioswath, which evolved on Earth, on Kankonia, on Cetonia, and on Tayaon, among other planets. Another example of bioswaths is entire chordologue (vertebrate-analogue) phyla which pop up independently, with the exact collection of extant and extinct species in the phylum being unique to each planet. The same chordologue phylum evolved independently on Saros and Ispatchi, for instance, so both planets have animals like the dokux, the soxus, the thep, the rasu, the dopon, the s'futh, the phinep, and the fichod.
I have at least one very deistoid traditional religion in the Lehola Galaxy. From my description of the Sumakhar religion of Kolotha on the planet Shanu:
First, there are the Christian conworlders -- J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and J. K. Rowling being perhaps the most famous today. I often see Christian conworlders on the Web. Sometimes their confiction is allegorical for some arcane interpretation of what Christianity is about. I've seen Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Anglicans/Episcopalians bathe in these arcane Christian musings on the Internet before . . . I'm not sure I've seen a Mormon do it. But there probably are some Mormon conworlders out there -- after all, the Deseret alphabet is a con-script!
Much has been written about Christian themes in Tolkien's Middle-Earth, although all I've read by him is The Hobbit, so I don't have much to say on it. Lewis' Narnia, though not as intricate and complex as Middle-Earth, is a rather in-your-face allegory for Christianity. Aslan, the lion (the animal at the top of the Chain of Being!), dies and is resurrected. Even Edmond dies and gets resurrected, from what I recall. Just as Christianity has the world created in seven days, the children's entire time in the wardrobe lasts only one hour in our dimension.
Then there's Rowling, with her Harry Potter wizarding universe. A lot of Fundamentalist Christians are vocally opposed to Harry Potter, because of the Wiccan trappings and because Rowling has admitted Dumbledore is gay. But, as a collaboration of editors at Conservapedia wrote:
(Spoilers ahead!)
Spoiler:
What would an Islamic-themed conworld be like? A Wiccan-themed conworld? A Scientology-themed conworld? And what about the Dharmic religions (Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jain)?
Then there are all those atheists out there. Conlanging and conworlding attract a lot of nerds, and large percentages of nerds are atheist. A lot of atheists create strictly scientistic conworlds, but I recall how Ahzoh's Vrkhazhian conculture had a lot of macabre fascination with death (at least in the past, I'm not sure if he's changed it since). And then there's this observation by Zumir, in the thread How NOT to Conworld (speaking of preaching in conworlding): It's bad enough if their superiority is based on something we can all agree with, e.g nonviolence or universal cooperation, but all too often they become mouthpieces for the authors' personal views. It becomes pretty unforgivable if these views don't even make sense for the setting of the story (for example, atheists in a high fantasy setting).
I'm not sure on agnostic and ignostic trends in conworlding.
Then there are the deists, among which I count myself. I make God quite possibly real in the Lehola Galaxy, although of course, God (assuming S/He is real), is the creator of the entire universe, and not just one galaxy. I don't have immortal Elves, nor healing magic spells, nor bags of holding -- Lehola is not and never was an elf-dwarf-and-orc (or an elf-Worf-and-dork?) conworld. It is based on New Age and UFO beliefs, and includes planets with Greys and reptoids, in addition to humans and several original sapient species.
Aside from the unremarkability of FTL travel, the only real deviation in Lehola from the current Terran understanding of science is the iteli, or God-created guiding force (from the Kankonian word for "guide") for evolution. Scholars on Lehola's planets have noted how there seems to be a force guiding evolution throughout the universe, as identical species have evolved independently, multiple times, on several different planets. There are "bioswaths", taxa that appear to evolve together on similar planets, such as the cetacean bioswath, which evolved on Earth, on Kankonia, on Cetonia, and on Tayaon, among other planets. Another example of bioswaths is entire chordologue (vertebrate-analogue) phyla which pop up independently, with the exact collection of extant and extinct species in the phylum being unique to each planet. The same chordologue phylum evolved independently on Saros and Ispatchi, for instance, so both planets have animals like the dokux, the soxus, the thep, the rasu, the dopon, the s'futh, the phinep, and the fichod.
I have at least one very deistoid traditional religion in the Lehola Galaxy. From my description of the Sumakhar religion of Kolotha on the planet Shanu:
So, how have your religious beliefs (or lack thereof) influenced your conworlding? Are there any religious influences on famous conworlds I've missed in my OP? Discuss here.Sumakhar does not teach that God is an anthropomorphic man with ten fingers and ten toes; rather, it sees the concept of God in virtues and good works, and interprets God as meaning the fact that a certain act or quality is good or bad, right or wrong. Sumakharis see God, for instance, in the fact that theft is wrong.