Whether right or not, there's a growing trend IRL to say that Atheism or alternatively agnosticism is the "logical choice".
But what about comics? In a world where Angels, Demons, and all manner of mythotheological beings walk the Earth how can a sane, intelligent person like Mister Terrific stay atheist? FFS he was inspired to become a superhero due to the advice of the Spectre.
There are other examples I'm sure, but his is the most glaring.
__________________
“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
Mr. Terrific accepts that the Spectre exists, he just views him as a being who's made of/uses unusual forms of energy not currently fully understood. Which is a fairly rational stance, considering how most superpowers have vague explanations at best, and I think Batman's stance isn't much different. In other words Mr. Terrific accepts what's there, he just takes a secular stance on it's nature.
Dr. 13, on the other hand, doesn't accept magic as existing at all. This is fairly irrational and can only be maintained because he more-or-less has an anti-magic aura around him that keeps him from meeting magic, according to the Phantom Stranger.
Mr. Terrific's bent is quite rational and explains the DC world just fine, while Dr. 13's is not (at least not since he got folded into the DCU proper, he was invented more separately).
It's a reflection of the industry in general. A fairly significant portion of industry giants are secularist/atheist/agnostic, and by extension, some have no problem reflecting that in their works.
Whenever Thor has strong feelings of self doubt, he's for that time an atheist.
He need's to believe in himself again to become a theist.
Though seriously. I was going to say "When you're best friend's with thor it's kinda hard to not believe in gods." Then I thought, well, "what about thor himself?" And instantly those jokes above popped into my head.
Gender: Male Location: I'm not giving my name to a machine
I think in the realm of comics you have even more reason to doubt there's an actual Biblical God and not just another super powerful thing messin' up someone barbecue. Real life's kinda got it good in that there's no crazy variables like that. Imagine the effects of people going to church and finding out the crazy guy from creeper Avengers team did half the stuff in the Bible and Thor, who ended up being real, just beat him to death with a hammer.
__________________ Originally posted by -Pr- a great big penis.
I don't know how any superhero in marvel could be part of christianity or other current religions. They've all seen who the upper echelons of the universe's management are, and it sure isn't Jesus or angels. At least thanks to time travel there aren't any creationist superheroes.
In a What If, Korvac stopped Jesus from interfering with earth using a force field.
Just like in the real world the Bible can't be taken literally, its nothing but a bunch of fables and tales of morality... but it terms of broad strokes, it would be difficult to argue against the big picture. Sure the earth isn't 6000 years old, and evolution can't really be argued but in Marvel / DC the soul is a real concrete thing, we know that several heaven and hell dimensions exist and creation seems to have an architect. That's Christianity... without all the useless fluff in the Bible. Average Joe citizen in Marvel / DC likely doesn't know this, but most if not all of the hero community does... seems pig headed to ignore it.
I think Marvel "God" offed himself though... which is what caused creation to happen in the first place.
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As threeboot Brainiac 5 can tell you, the soul is just an energy signature. Which he can trap in a forcefield. And then successfully revive the individual with. SCIENCE!
And this goes back to the OP. I think it's an industry thing that's reflected in the medium. Hell just look at most of the responses here. This is how a large portion of comic subculture thinks.
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Aug 24th, 2010 01:37 AM
