Just saving some thoughts

[jarandhel]

This is more or less a memo to myself dealing with a subject I intend to discuss with others in the near future. Feel free to comment on it, if you wish, but it may not make a great deal of sense outside of its natural context.

A writer writes about the tenets of a fictional faith or philosophy. Dealing with unprovable concepts such as the nature of the soul, or the place of the soul within the universe, it cannot be proven to be true or false scientifically. And some people feel that it makes a great deal of sense to them, and begin to practice this faith in real life. They believe the tenets of the religion, though they know it originated in fiction. They think that, on purpose or by complete accident, the author created something of true merit when that fictional religion was designed. Is this belief logically equivalent to other faiths which are equally unsupportable by scientific facts? Does its "fictional" or "unreal" origins automatically count against it? If so, why? If not, why not? What standards can reliably be used to judge a system of belief which is not based on objective or quantifiable facts? Can beliefs even be compared logically, or is it impossible to find fair criteria by which to make such a comparison?

Hmm... perhaps arguments about the relative "validity" of different spiritual beliefs ultimately comes down to very different criteria being used to compare them by the different sides?

Comments

[arhuaine.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of how many people list "Jedi" as their religion. And also Scientology which was initially created for one of Hubbard's science-fiction books. You could even claim that Christianity, being based on the Bible, might also a fiction-based religion (depending on whether you believe the Bible is true or not). I think that fictionality alone doesn't invalidate a set of beliefs, as you say there's no way to scientifically validate any religion whether fictional or not. And if you think about it, and go back far enough, every religion or belief-system on Earth was originally "made up" by somebody.

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

FWIW...I do think fiction can hit on truth. Prolly happens more often than people realise.

(As for Jedi stuff...George Lucas *did* loosely base the Star Wars saga off Akira Kurosawa stories, so I'd be shocked if some of it DIDN'T rub off. If you ask me, the whole "Jedi religion" thing is a *perfect* example of something being fictionalised and in the process "reinventing itself" (though this would probably make traditional samurai and Taoists blanch, I'm sure).

(Scientology...has its own issues, and was actually based on a bet between Hubbard and Heinlein as to whom could start a religion back in the 50's...a lot of Hubbard's writings do reflect it, it's just hard here to tell which came first, the chicken or the egg. I'm not real sure this is a good example, if only because of L. Ron being generally quite mentally unstable (a good parallel in otakukin terms--Maduin).)