I stumbled on (was pointed to, follow the blogs that had them, whatever) two great posts about religion yesterday. Normally I’d link, but I know both authors struggled with whether or not to post them in the first place, so I’ll ask them to step forward and place links in their replies if they’re comfortable with it. I hope they are – both are very good reads.
I agree with both their perspectives on the matter. I’m very live and live when it comes to religion. Which might leave some people wondering where I stand on the spectrum? Well, this is an evolving belief. In fact it’s evolved through at least three names since yesterday alone. This is mostly because I’ve struggled with the acronym. I need something catchy that still makes sense in the grand scheme of things. As of about two hours ago, we are called the First Unitarian Church of our King. We follow one of the original gods of mischief and deception – Loki.
If you’d like to join, come play with us on Twitter or Facebook. Once you sign the blood contract, you get free pie and personal attention from our lord and master.
If you want to know where my actual personal beliefs fall on the religion scale, that’s as close as you get unless you read between the lines in some of my speculative fiction.
Which (much to my surprise) brings us to: is it okay to use your writing as a soap box? I hear a lot of people talk about this, and for the most part people have a distinct opinion about it. I rarely hear someone say “maybe…”. I usually either hear “Yes” or “No”.
I’m in the “maybe” court. I don’t want the lesson to be in my face, but for instance, I’m a big fan of ‘South Park’. For those of you who think it’s just toilet humor, you’ve missed that giant soap box. Please don’t trip over it. Some of the subtle (and not so subtle) points made in that show are fantastic. So I have to say – it all depends on how you’ve delivered it.
If I wanted a sermon from on high, I might not have stopped going to church when I was sixteen. But wrap it in metaphor and sarcasm and I’d love to hear your opinion on something. It’s the same as with all writing. Show me, don’t tell me. I’m much more likely to understand your perspective that way anyway.
Think…Aesop’s Fables. Or Brother’s Grimm. Or..South Park ^_^
Where do you stand on the issue of using your writing to discuss issues?
PIE?
PIE?
ARE YOU KIDDING? CAKE IS THE BEST.
The problem with cake is that the choise is between cake or death…
Anyway, I am thinking apricot pie, the ones that have a plaid over the top… my fav :o)
choice… what is wrong with my spelling today?!?
Yeah, FSM already offered me chocolate cake. That’s pretty much a guarantee that I’ll do most anything.
😉
I’m going to be super vain and assume my post was one of them? I know you read it recently.
I’ll link, what the hell: Agnostic Pause
Gonna talk about it some more this weekend. I actually caught up on my class. Even a bit ahead (!!)
I dunno where I am. I’m just musing. Mostly agnostic, but I might be more atheist. I dunno.
As far as getting up on yr pedestal through your writing, I want to ALL THE TIME, but I’ve been told on numerous occasions that that’s not the way to go. Just let the story tell itself, and stuff like that generally gets through.
People aren’t dumb (for the most…er, for some part? haha), they can sense a forced message and they don’t like to be preached to, much as we may think they ought to listen.
As far as South Park goes, it’s satire. I think that’s a totally different arena when it comes to preaching a message. Also, South Park makes fun of everyone 😀
I ought to change the contract from ‘blood contract’ to ‘by nature of repsonding to my blog’. Not that I would get any more converts that way, but still…
@Ashy and Becks – welcome ^_^
@Lisa – thank you for the link. The discussion you’ve started is diffinitely interesting to follow. I should stop adding my two cents worth and just read because you’ve provoked some interesting response.
They (I think) lend themselves to my theory that people can even turn anti-religion into a religion…but that’s just me ^_^