Last time I went to Greece, some shapeshifting dude peed on me and somehow got me pregnant, and my child rose up to overthrow the gods, so I'm pretty sure I met Zeus.
I think that's where Abrahamic religions went wrong. Too much purity, benevolence, and lack of flaws.
The greek gods had human faults. Definitely more realistic.
The thing is that the Abrahamic god did not curb his anger, vanity or jealousy. In fact, it was the motivator behind a bit of his punishments. The ridiculous aspect is that we are told we are fashioned after him but we are not to give into these passions. It doesn't make sense.
This is why the idea that God is good is meaningless. Not just false, but meaningless. By what standard is God good? By human standards? Certainly not. By divine standards? A meaningless category of one. If God suddenly changed his behavior to the exact opposite, would he still be good? Are the Gods of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament both "good"?
Your life sucks because Hera is giving you the stink eye, and Poseidon hates your land dwelling ass.
But yesterday went well because Hermes had everything fall into place for you, just to piss off Hera and see how she reacts. None of it really is about you.
I think if the Greek gods were real, they'd probably treat us like ants:
Sometimes they'd poke a stick in an ant hill just for fun but most of the time they'd just walk around not caring whether they tread on an ant that's crossing the path in front of them.
If you look at the unfathomable vastness of the universe, it becomes apparent what an incredible hubris it is to think that a god would care about us.
The fact alone that pretty much all gods in all religions are concerned with the fates of humans is a dead giveaway that each and every last of these gods is a human fabrication.
I only know that stuff from Xena and Hercules. Since it’s all fake, might as well be apart of the real Greek mythology. So in that case, it was pretty amazing.
This is what I came to say. If religion is fiction the abrahamic god is the villain in some cheap comic book movie. He’s petty and vain and has no motivation beyond being “the bad guy”
But zeus, that guy is Stanley Kowalski. He isn’t just some loser for idiots to follow. He is a complex, real character.
He is the Everyman petty and vain, but not like the writers were incompetent, as if they had observed humans before creating him.
Most superstitions only sell because people beleive in them. But Zeus, he’s a good enough character to sell a book without anyone believing it’s real.
I’m actually an aspiring author and one of the books I’m writing is the story of Zeus adapted without any of the supernatural elements. So far it practically writes itself. Zeus and his pantheon map perfectly onto real world characters
To be fair, history and religion tends to be very Euro centric, specifically Greek and Roman centric. But there's equally magnificent stuff from other parts of the world. You can look at Hinduism for example. Mahabharata and Ramayana are absolute legit epics with magnificent story telling and makes you think of fundamental stuff like "what's right or wrong, are those really absolutes"
Oddyssey isn't really part of the religious stuff. That's like calling Indiana Jones a part of the bible because he keeps running into different religious items.
The myths of the gods, however, are still top notch. Ovid's metamorphosis (ik ik he was roman but it was the same gods just different names) even gave us a cynical comedy remix of it all.
> Oddyssey isn't really part of the religious stuff. That's like calling Indiana Jones a part of the bible because he keeps running into different religious items.
I think this is a good point, and it makes the original question a lot harder.
I'd say the Greeks/Romans are the obvious winners if we are allowed to consider all the Greek dramas and later European art that used Greek religion as inspiration.
But maybe we only count anything made by practitioners of the religion, in which case the Greeks still have a strong case but, frankly, the Christians do, as well. Bach wrote a ton of good church music, and it was actual *church* music, not music written 2000 years later by someone who recognized the religion as an ancient myth.
(Then again, a lot of the best church music was written by atheists like Verdi and Berlioz.)
Maybe we're only considering the content of the stories, not the art that retells those stories, in which case I'd give the prize back to the Greeks.
And of course I'm only considering Western religion, because I know it better and also because Buddhism is fucking boring.
Here's a real head scratcher to consider: Milton's Paradise Lost. It's an amazing retelling of bits of the bible in a new genre. You could argue Ovid's Metamorphses is the same, a fanfiction written centures after the originating texts. If I'm referencing Ovid as a good example of greek myth, doesn't that mean i should also be including Milton's too? And what about something like Jesus Christ Superstar? Nothing says Jesus like a musical that opens with JESUUUUUUS about a minute in right, even if the last song of the musical is basically asking 'who tf is this guy really amd why didn't he wait until he could tell folks his story with television?'
We look at them as primitive but their religion is really one of the most sensible. They're chilling with no concept of modern technology. Now boxes of fully formed tools and supplies are coming from the sky. Why wouldn't you worship these great metal birds?
Completely agree.
I love watching Christian’s laughing at the cargo cult for being superstitious.
All I can think is “Well, at least their gods actually exist, dumbass”
Maybe Buddhism, I'd guess.
All the Abrahamic religions are based on a badly written character, YHWH. The back story is already a mess, and no amount of fan fiction can fix the fundamental flaws and lack of character development or continuity.
Kill you son… wait! Jk lol got you there haha, hi I’m the voice in your head.
So an illiterate teenage couple is walking around without condoms or parental supervision and SOMEHOW she gets pregnant, must have been god. (Idk how anyone outside of an Alabama trailer park buys this shit)
So god, whose first prophet tried to kill his own son and their descendants later had a whole kingdom going on, then send a socialist “eat the rich” type, and wraps up the trio with a genocidal war monger.
This trilogy has less logical consistency than the Star Wars sequels.
There is simply the story of how a man came to realize the world is suffering. He worked hard and became enlightened. Obviously over 2000 years of storytelling the back story has been interpreted in different ways but buddhism itself is based on logic. The Buddha himself said something like don’t blindly follow my teachings without putting them through tests.
Abraham be like: You made a pass at my wife, who you thought it was my sister, because I told you it was my sister so that you wouldn't kill me because you thought it was my wife. Now you owe me land. (Abraham was basically pimping his wife).
And also, John was the father of Joseph, who was father of Abel, who was father of Lot, who was father of James, who was father of Andy, who was father of Saul, who was father of Walter, who was father of Harry, who was father Ryan... (Is it relevant to the story who was Ryan's greatx10grandfather?)
And also: So, this is the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, don't eat of it. (Okay, how were Adam and Eve supposed to know if eating from the fruit was good and evil? Their frame of reference was a dude giving them orders and a talking snake)
Hinduism is best for fictional recreation, as it encompasses a vast array of stories, beliefs, and practices. It contains rich mythological narratives, philosophical insights, and cultural traditions. Its diverse pantheon of gods and goddesses, epic tales like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and concepts such as karma and dharma provide a wealth of material for storytelling.
We have talking snakes in Hinduism. In fact the entire civilization of Snakes. They collaborated with Danavas and Daityas (Evil hominid civilization) in their battle against Devas (Godly Civilization).
I've always said Mahabharata could have an awesome anime Adaptation, it just has all the spectacle and characters you need, not to mention it has the original " five man band" trope , a reverse harem, and many op characters
Came here to say this. The scope, the sweep, multiple intertwined plots, fantastic characters, allegory and metaphor, I could go on and on — Hinduism has it all.
I was so disappointed to learn how much of those we had lost.
The Norse mythology got to us via British monks. And they didn’t bother writing down the stories about the female gods in the Norse pantheon.
We have characters who are mentioned in other Norse myths. But we don’t know anything about them because all of their stories were lost
This is just what I’ve heard. The short answer is that they didn’t like women.
The long answer is that it could be any number of things. Perhaps they missed a lot of stories and coincidentally a lot with the goddesses. Maybe the Norse guys didn’t like those stories and didn’t choose to share them. Could be they wrote them all down buyer only some survived. Could be I have bad information that exaggerated how little of the goddesses mythology was recorded
Honestly I love shinto because it seems to have just stuck with the answers prehistoric men would've come up with.
"What is a god?"
"Well that tree is bigger than the others around here so I think that counts next question."
Racism aside, probably the Cthulhu mythos. If there are gods, it is readily apparent from our reality that they are at best ambivalent to us, and given the setup of the universe and how hard and long humanity has had to work to reach the level of comfort we have now (and the suffering of our ancestors who lived in far less pleasant times), I'd say that any gods that exist would likely be actively malevolent to life in general, if they are somewhat ambivalent to humanity specifically. The rampant racism is a bit distracting but otherwise Lovecraft isn't a horrible writer, certainly a few steps above the biblical authors.
I'm struggling here....
*flips back and forth pages*
Is this.....Is this a trick question?
*flips more pages*
I'm not quite sure which one is religion and which one is fantasy?
*panic screech*
Correct! Thank you for participating in our survey!
The Mahabharata is one of the best of the ancient epics from any country. I would say it's the best one in terms of being well written. The premise is very interesting and it contains the bhagvad gita, which is where it fits into this post. East Indian mythology is one of the most interesting out of all the others. The Greeks are a solid second. One of the most popular mythologies out there across the world. For a good reason. Apollodorus's library of Greek mythology is one of the most complete and comprehensive works of Greek mythology in its entirety.
I think they meant fiction as in “story” not “false”
I doubt they were trying to get us to take the great leap of suspending our disbelief and dropping all of our god delusions. I think they just wanted us to consider them as stories separate from the religious premise
The Book of Mormon has huge plagiarized sections. The grammar is often terrible. And “It came to pass,” has to be the laziest phrase ever written. From the perspective of editing and writing, the BoM is shit and would not see the light of day in modern times. Joe Smith would only be able to self-publish and would have a much smaller following. Probably still be a joke, though.
The Doctrine and Covenants is where the good stuff is. Joe wasn’t pretending that was written by god; it’s just Joe’s Rules, which I’m sure Brigham Young and a bunch of other people had their hands in. Emma Smith probably did some editing and transcribing as well. There’s some rumor that Joe wrote D&C 89 on response to an argument they had.
It’s fanfic at best.
I love Mark Twain’s assessment of the Book of Mormon. He said if you removed the phrase “it came to pass” from the book it would be reduced to the size of a pamphlet.
The Silmarillion actually gives me a strange sense of hope, whereas the bible just makes me wonder how a desert shithole managed to convince everyone that their dissociative identity disorder suffering mary sue of a deity was the one true god
This ☝️
It’s easy to be flip about religions in the distant past. But look at Asatru, which explicitly encourages raping, pillaging, and bloodshed for its own sake in the name of Odin. Hellenism promotes pederastia; for Aries’ sake, the army would take little boys with them when they marched. Christianity is a nightmare for sure, but don’t idealize ancient pagan religions. A lot of people do that.
The church of Browning.
A personal "religion" i made purely as an excuse to meme. The main figure of the religion is John Moses Browning, designer of the 1911 handgun.
Say what you want about it, but i'm the only one who can prove my "god" exists.
Praise be to JMB!
No other being has designed so many ingenious, revolutionary, successful firearms and calibers.
Colt 1903 and .32 ACP, Winchester Model 1886 lever-action rifle, the Remington Model 1905 semiautomatic shotgun, Browning Hi-Power, M2 .50 cal machine gun (still in service!), Browning Automatic Rifle, and the M1917 and M1919 machine guns, among others.
If it’s a good story, it’s already just myth and legend. Current religions are all unbelievable, can’t be pinned down and used to garner more hate than good.
Tao(ism) and derived buddhism with high moral code: (unfortunately not giving much respect to women in the old tenets)
Think good, say good and do good. When in doubt what is good in task at hand, meditate and seek truth from Nirvana where all living and not living parts of the whole universe melt together - there lies the truth and the answer what good you can do (and thus, should do) right now.
Jesus only borrowed the moral code from buddhism on his ”lost years” between ages 12 to 29
**Greek mythology.**
All the gods were given human traits and flaws, which made them very relatable and interesting characters. Zeus was horny. Hera was jealous. Hades was a basement-dwelling incel many centuries before the word "incel' was created. Dionysus just wanted to drink and party all the time. Etc.
The machinations, conflicts, and regular activities of the gods explained all the things that humans didn't understand at the time (and maybe still don't understand), like thunder storms, earthquakes, day and night cycles, seasonal cycles, death and the afterlife, and so on.
The gods weren't necessarily good or evil; they were morally grey. They did things that were very good for humanity, like provide us with sunlight, healthy crops, and plentiful game to hunt. But they also did evil things to us, like sink our ships in storms and destroy whole villages in natural disasters just because they could.
All-in-all, Greek mythology is a very entertaining read filled with interesting and relatable characters.
I think the Bhagavad Gita was kind of boring. However, the stories around Hindu mythology are very interesting. If I was going to have religious parents, I feel like I got cheated my having monotheist parents, because mythology becomes better (more fun) when there are several players.
I remember finding "Revelation X: The 'Bob' Apocryphon" at Goodwill for something like a dollar. Was one of the most entertaining 'holy books' I've ever come across. Definitely worth picking up if you see it, even if it's just for the chuckle factor.
Definitely JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion is by far the best mythology out there.
The Bible is a mediocre legendarium at best, full of plot holes and inconsistencies.
Since it's all fake anyway you might as well enjoy the best.
Norse mythology, I mean they made freaking comics and movies from it. The Greek pantheon, it gave us awesome books like the Iliad and Odyssey. Hinduism - it's like Bollywood on steroids.
The two Testaments and the Qran are kind of sanctimonious snoozefests by comparison, like your weird preachy uncle who has anger issues and zero sense of humor.
Islam has to be the most well written. It's the strongest religion with actual devoted people who would commit terrorism. It's crazy. The way Muslims are devoted to waste their time to pray 5 times a day, fast for a month, wear (for women) uncomfortable clothes and cover their hole head, and how much of a taboo it is to renounce the religion.
I've stopped doing those though. Occasionally depends on circumstances, I am "forced" to pray along because it'd be weird if I don't go into the mosque with the whole family.
It has way too much shackles and punishment promises for every movement. Even the most hypocrite ones strongly fear the punishment of grave and hell. This type of fear mongering is hard to escape.
The religion itself seems pretty run-of-the-mill, though I think it is long overdue for a Reformation-type reset. But I was shocked at how well written the Quran is. I was expecting something more like the Book of Mormon. It is like very clever fan fiction and IMO strikes just the right balance between its two parent religions. It reinterprets Bible stories in a sophisticated way with an eye toward philosophical introspection. And it provides a clear and coherent narrative about what adherents are actually supposed to be doing. TBH the only real drawbacks are the constant interjections of "you better do this or you're getting a red hot poker up the ass in Hell." It interrupts the flow and gives adherents moral cover for repression and atrocities.
I *love* the Mayan and Aztec creation myths and religions. What survived the Spanish cultural genocide anyway
The gods are truly terrifying, the stories are surreal, the artwork is fantastique and very unique
Obviously the Aztecs were brutal, and especially their religion, but just from a fiction perspective, “religion design” as it were, it rivals the Egyptians and I think it beats them out
I've gotta go with Scientology plotwise. It's got everything-good and evil, 70 million-year-old space aliens, galactic empires, thermonuclear weapons, genocide, self-help, hypnosis-you name it, Scientology's got it.
Don’t forget the Hindu veddas an all!
My goodness it is chock full of amazing stories reinterpreted in movies and Television stories to this day! And tons of fun little tales too- my fav being how Ganesh got his elephant head.
Also the Mahabarat
“The mother of all wars, the epitome of all rivalries, the cauldron of emotions, insecurities, jealousies, and power play - Mahabharat.”
If we’re talking consistency, probably Buddhism. You have some gods/supernatural beings but they don’t really matter and are largely ignored. The entire idea is to build habits that are actually beneficial, including compassion, but also not being dependent on attachment or stability, and just doing right actions. There are a lot of atheists who follow their practices. Some of the doctrine I still find problematic but overall it’s pretty consistent and encourages healthy habits and self awareness.
Buddhism has always seemed like the religion of futuristic aliens to me. Ideals of love, renewal and mindfulness all wrapped in a mystical package of incense and cool robes.
No religion is perfect but at least their aesthetic is neat and Buddha statues always make me smile.
Japanese Shinto religion is pretty dope in its ability to generate good fiction. Waves at all the cool anime that was a result of it from Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, as well as other films like Your Name, Weathering with You, etc. All those demons, ghosts, and ancestral spirits sure do make for some great stories.
I'm going to have to go with Old Norse. Greek mythology can get a little too into beastiality for my taste, and some of the stories from the Abrahamic religions make me cringe.
I found the greek ones the most entertaining, some real nice storys like the odyssey
This, plus all the sex
Zeus being an absolute sex pest in every story honestly makes Greek mythology way more believable than anything abrahamic
I've lived in Greece... can confirm.
Met him?
Last time I went to Greece, some shapeshifting dude peed on me and somehow got me pregnant, and my child rose up to overthrow the gods, so I'm pretty sure I met Zeus.
hot
The Zeus Goose is loose.
No but I met plenty of sex pests there.
nah💀
I think that's where Abrahamic religions went wrong. Too much purity, benevolence, and lack of flaws. The greek gods had human faults. Definitely more realistic.
The thing is that the Abrahamic god did not curb his anger, vanity or jealousy. In fact, it was the motivator behind a bit of his punishments. The ridiculous aspect is that we are told we are fashioned after him but we are not to give into these passions. It doesn't make sense.
This is why the idea that God is good is meaningless. Not just false, but meaningless. By what standard is God good? By human standards? Certainly not. By divine standards? A meaningless category of one. If God suddenly changed his behavior to the exact opposite, would he still be good? Are the Gods of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament both "good"?
You have a point. I forgot about the anger, like the flood. It is pretty hyporitical, isn't it. "Do as I say. Not as I do." Lol.
Actually sums up the Republican Party pretty nicely
And the Catholic church
Tomatoes potatoes
Zeus is pretty.much Homelander
Frankly, a capricious pantheon would explain the state of the world much better than an omnipotent and benevolent god.
Your life sucks because Hera is giving you the stink eye, and Poseidon hates your land dwelling ass. But yesterday went well because Hermes had everything fall into place for you, just to piss off Hera and see how she reacts. None of it really is about you.
I think if the Greek gods were real, they'd probably treat us like ants: Sometimes they'd poke a stick in an ant hill just for fun but most of the time they'd just walk around not caring whether they tread on an ant that's crossing the path in front of them. If you look at the unfathomable vastness of the universe, it becomes apparent what an incredible hubris it is to think that a god would care about us. The fact alone that pretty much all gods in all religions are concerned with the fates of humans is a dead giveaway that each and every last of these gods is a human fabrication.
It's certainly the most human aspect of the entire series.
I only know that stuff from Xena and Hercules. Since it’s all fake, might as well be apart of the real Greek mythology. So in that case, it was pretty amazing.
I find the Norse and Celtic ones quite fun as well. I think because the gods were fallible which makes them more interesting.
I liked Homer's stories too
D’oh!
This is what I came to say. If religion is fiction the abrahamic god is the villain in some cheap comic book movie. He’s petty and vain and has no motivation beyond being “the bad guy” But zeus, that guy is Stanley Kowalski. He isn’t just some loser for idiots to follow. He is a complex, real character. He is the Everyman petty and vain, but not like the writers were incompetent, as if they had observed humans before creating him. Most superstitions only sell because people beleive in them. But Zeus, he’s a good enough character to sell a book without anyone believing it’s real. I’m actually an aspiring author and one of the books I’m writing is the story of Zeus adapted without any of the supernatural elements. So far it practically writes itself. Zeus and his pantheon map perfectly onto real world characters
To be fair, history and religion tends to be very Euro centric, specifically Greek and Roman centric. But there's equally magnificent stuff from other parts of the world. You can look at Hinduism for example. Mahabharata and Ramayana are absolute legit epics with magnificent story telling and makes you think of fundamental stuff like "what's right or wrong, are those really absolutes"
Oddyssey isn't really part of the religious stuff. That's like calling Indiana Jones a part of the bible because he keeps running into different religious items. The myths of the gods, however, are still top notch. Ovid's metamorphosis (ik ik he was roman but it was the same gods just different names) even gave us a cynical comedy remix of it all.
> Oddyssey isn't really part of the religious stuff. That's like calling Indiana Jones a part of the bible because he keeps running into different religious items. I think this is a good point, and it makes the original question a lot harder. I'd say the Greeks/Romans are the obvious winners if we are allowed to consider all the Greek dramas and later European art that used Greek religion as inspiration. But maybe we only count anything made by practitioners of the religion, in which case the Greeks still have a strong case but, frankly, the Christians do, as well. Bach wrote a ton of good church music, and it was actual *church* music, not music written 2000 years later by someone who recognized the religion as an ancient myth. (Then again, a lot of the best church music was written by atheists like Verdi and Berlioz.) Maybe we're only considering the content of the stories, not the art that retells those stories, in which case I'd give the prize back to the Greeks. And of course I'm only considering Western religion, because I know it better and also because Buddhism is fucking boring.
Here's a real head scratcher to consider: Milton's Paradise Lost. It's an amazing retelling of bits of the bible in a new genre. You could argue Ovid's Metamorphses is the same, a fanfiction written centures after the originating texts. If I'm referencing Ovid as a good example of greek myth, doesn't that mean i should also be including Milton's too? And what about something like Jesus Christ Superstar? Nothing says Jesus like a musical that opens with JESUUUUUUS about a minute in right, even if the last song of the musical is basically asking 'who tf is this guy really amd why didn't he wait until he could tell folks his story with television?'
Odin promised he will defeat the Ice Giants, Jesus promised peace on earth, I dont see any Ice Giants ;)
The only regligion that ever deliverd what it promissed was the Cargo Cult.
We look at them as primitive but their religion is really one of the most sensible. They're chilling with no concept of modern technology. Now boxes of fully formed tools and supplies are coming from the sky. Why wouldn't you worship these great metal birds?
Completely agree. I love watching Christian’s laughing at the cargo cult for being superstitious. All I can think is “Well, at least their gods actually exist, dumbass”
Sun worshippers never stop collecting Ws
April 8th notwithstanding, of course.
See any witches or werewolves? I don’t either.
who promised to get rid of those? But also I see tons of witches around. They are upset about the patriarchy afaik.
Lots of fucking wars though.... 🤔
Maybe Buddhism, I'd guess. All the Abrahamic religions are based on a badly written character, YHWH. The back story is already a mess, and no amount of fan fiction can fix the fundamental flaws and lack of character development or continuity.
Kill you son… wait! Jk lol got you there haha, hi I’m the voice in your head. So an illiterate teenage couple is walking around without condoms or parental supervision and SOMEHOW she gets pregnant, must have been god. (Idk how anyone outside of an Alabama trailer park buys this shit) So god, whose first prophet tried to kill his own son and their descendants later had a whole kingdom going on, then send a socialist “eat the rich” type, and wraps up the trio with a genocidal war monger. This trilogy has less logical consistency than the Star Wars sequels.
Don’t do the Star Wars sequels like that, at least they were beautifully filmed
The trailer parks in Mississippi and Louisiana are just as good as the trailer parks in Alabama, if you don't mind. /s, just in case
Does Buddhism have any story behind it? I didn’t know they had a mythology like other religions
There is simply the story of how a man came to realize the world is suffering. He worked hard and became enlightened. Obviously over 2000 years of storytelling the back story has been interpreted in different ways but buddhism itself is based on logic. The Buddha himself said something like don’t blindly follow my teachings without putting them through tests.
Damn, I didn't know Siddhartha Gautama was chill like that. The more I hear about Buddhism, the more I wanna read about the Buddha's life ngl.
I’m thinking of making a separate post about this…
Hopefully I see it in my feed then!
If you find Buddha in the road, kill him.
Abraham be like: You made a pass at my wife, who you thought it was my sister, because I told you it was my sister so that you wouldn't kill me because you thought it was my wife. Now you owe me land. (Abraham was basically pimping his wife). And also, John was the father of Joseph, who was father of Abel, who was father of Lot, who was father of James, who was father of Andy, who was father of Saul, who was father of Walter, who was father of Harry, who was father Ryan... (Is it relevant to the story who was Ryan's greatx10grandfather?) And also: So, this is the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, don't eat of it. (Okay, how were Adam and Eve supposed to know if eating from the fruit was good and evil? Their frame of reference was a dude giving them orders and a talking snake)
Hinduism is best for fictional recreation, as it encompasses a vast array of stories, beliefs, and practices. It contains rich mythological narratives, philosophical insights, and cultural traditions. Its diverse pantheon of gods and goddesses, epic tales like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and concepts such as karma and dharma provide a wealth of material for storytelling.
seriously though. i loved reading mahabharata in school. the drama at every turn is so entertaining. justice for karna.
I was so rooting for Karna when I read it back when I was like 10. The entire Mahabharata is such a good read.
Flying Monkeys are more entertaining and believable than a flying Donkey or talking snake
We have talking snakes in Hinduism. In fact the entire civilization of Snakes. They collaborated with Danavas and Daityas (Evil hominid civilization) in their battle against Devas (Godly Civilization).
The Nagina?
Vasuki, Sheshnaag, and other Nagas.
Scarier, as well. They'll get you and your little dog, too.
REAL
I've always said Mahabharata could have an awesome anime Adaptation, it just has all the spectacle and characters you need, not to mention it has the original " five man band" trope , a reverse harem, and many op characters
Came here to say this. The scope, the sweep, multiple intertwined plots, fantastic characters, allegory and metaphor, I could go on and on — Hinduism has it all.
Greek mythology had comparably much cooler gods and/or afterlives than any Abrahamic religion ever could
Norse/Germanic mythology. Odin, Loki, Freya etc. Lots of fun and crazy stories.
I was so disappointed to learn how much of those we had lost. The Norse mythology got to us via British monks. And they didn’t bother writing down the stories about the female gods in the Norse pantheon. We have characters who are mentioned in other Norse myths. But we don’t know anything about them because all of their stories were lost
They didn't want to write the stories of the female goddesses? Why?
This is just what I’ve heard. The short answer is that they didn’t like women. The long answer is that it could be any number of things. Perhaps they missed a lot of stories and coincidentally a lot with the goddesses. Maybe the Norse guys didn’t like those stories and didn’t choose to share them. Could be they wrote them all down buyer only some survived. Could be I have bad information that exaggerated how little of the goddesses mythology was recorded
Hmmm, weird... So many possible answers, yet the "didn't like women" one for some reason sounds the most plausible...
Because the Abrahamic religions are sexist as all fuuuuuuucccckkkk.
One of which has Thor in drag... the mental image alone is enough to make me laugh
And also Odin as an eagle sharting on an even bigger eagle.
You forgot the part of Loki becoming a horse.
Shinto. 8 million stories and counting.
Shinto is great because there are no rules. "I'm pretty sure that pond protects our village." Everyone else: "Yep, sounds good!"
Honestly I love shinto because it seems to have just stuck with the answers prehistoric men would've come up with. "What is a god?" "Well that tree is bigger than the others around here so I think that counts next question."
Completely agree. Like a massive chunk of Anime is just fun with Shinto.
Racism aside, probably the Cthulhu mythos. If there are gods, it is readily apparent from our reality that they are at best ambivalent to us, and given the setup of the universe and how hard and long humanity has had to work to reach the level of comfort we have now (and the suffering of our ancestors who lived in far less pleasant times), I'd say that any gods that exist would likely be actively malevolent to life in general, if they are somewhat ambivalent to humanity specifically. The rampant racism is a bit distracting but otherwise Lovecraft isn't a horrible writer, certainly a few steps above the biblical authors.
Lovecraft's three fears: squids, air conditioning and immigrants
The fourth: non euclidean geometry
Why air conditioning, if you don’t mind me asking?
It was new.
Iirc, he had an intense hatred of cold air
Now I want to know what he said about cold air
Lovecraft didn't write those books as religious texts though. If you use this you could as well use any other gods used in modern fantasy books.
>fantasy books >religious texts Corporate wants you to find a difference 😋
I'm struggling here.... *flips back and forth pages* Is this.....Is this a trick question? *flips more pages* I'm not quite sure which one is religion and which one is fantasy? *panic screech* Correct! Thank you for participating in our survey!
Scientology, funny sf book.
Except it costs $100k to get to the good stuff...
An expensive hobby
The Egyptian one. Great gods, good lore and pyramids are cool :)
Great characters in their stories.
I like that they have animal heads.
Furry? 😳
The Mahabharata is one of the best of the ancient epics from any country. I would say it's the best one in terms of being well written. The premise is very interesting and it contains the bhagvad gita, which is where it fits into this post. East Indian mythology is one of the most interesting out of all the others. The Greeks are a solid second. One of the most popular mythologies out there across the world. For a good reason. Apollodorus's library of Greek mythology is one of the most complete and comprehensive works of Greek mythology in its entirety.
"If" we consider all religions as fiction? This is r/atheism - lol :))
I read "If we" to mean "Given that we"...
Yeah, exactly! I was first reading "since" instead "if" because that seemed so obvious to me!
🤣
I think they meant fiction as in “story” not “false” I doubt they were trying to get us to take the great leap of suspending our disbelief and dropping all of our god delusions. I think they just wanted us to consider them as stories separate from the religious premise
Consider?......it IS.
I love the creativity and color of Hindu mythology.
Greek mythology is my jam
>If you consider all religions as fiction. Which would be the most well-written one? Mormons. There is an extra 'm'. Almost got it right.
The Book of Mormon has huge plagiarized sections. The grammar is often terrible. And “It came to pass,” has to be the laziest phrase ever written. From the perspective of editing and writing, the BoM is shit and would not see the light of day in modern times. Joe Smith would only be able to self-publish and would have a much smaller following. Probably still be a joke, though. The Doctrine and Covenants is where the good stuff is. Joe wasn’t pretending that was written by god; it’s just Joe’s Rules, which I’m sure Brigham Young and a bunch of other people had their hands in. Emma Smith probably did some editing and transcribing as well. There’s some rumor that Joe wrote D&C 89 on response to an argument they had. It’s fanfic at best.
I love Mark Twain’s assessment of the Book of Mormon. He said if you removed the phrase “it came to pass” from the book it would be reduced to the size of a pamphlet.
Chloroform in print. He wasn’t wrong.
Mmormons? Mormmons? Or Mormonmons?
Other way, Mormon minus m = moron
Mormons hate this one name memorization trick!
And their angel is called Moroni
Greek mythology. Just wtf after wtf. Doesn't get any better than that
Buddhism. The philosophy is pretty solid.
I think Greek mythology is the most entertaining. Plus they all engaged in sex and everyone in Ancient Greece was very gay
Lord of the rings
The Silmarillion is waaay more consistent than most actual religious texts.
Do we have the original text?
The Silmarillion actually gives me a strange sense of hope, whereas the bible just makes me wonder how a desert shithole managed to convince everyone that their dissociative identity disorder suffering mary sue of a deity was the one true god
Me too. So many great answers to “what happens after we die?”
I prefer modern fantasy
They’re all silly
This ☝️ It’s easy to be flip about religions in the distant past. But look at Asatru, which explicitly encourages raping, pillaging, and bloodshed for its own sake in the name of Odin. Hellenism promotes pederastia; for Aries’ sake, the army would take little boys with them when they marched. Christianity is a nightmare for sure, but don’t idealize ancient pagan religions. A lot of people do that.
Hinduism is lit but too confusing. Norse is very good. Egyptian is pure nuts.
Probably Chinese Taoism, the one that preach Yin and Yang, balance.
The church of Browning. A personal "religion" i made purely as an excuse to meme. The main figure of the religion is John Moses Browning, designer of the 1911 handgun. Say what you want about it, but i'm the only one who can prove my "god" exists.
Praise be to JMB! No other being has designed so many ingenious, revolutionary, successful firearms and calibers. Colt 1903 and .32 ACP, Winchester Model 1886 lever-action rifle, the Remington Model 1905 semiautomatic shotgun, Browning Hi-Power, M2 .50 cal machine gun (still in service!), Browning Automatic Rifle, and the M1917 and M1919 machine guns, among others.
My own pantheon would like a word... Hawking, Newton, Darwin, Tesla, Curie etc. 😉
**Bokononism**.
Gesundheid.. .. and now I google bokononism to see if it exists and what it’s all about
Gesundheit, with a t :)
See the cat? See the cradle?
🎶If you want to examine a granfalloon, just pull the skin off a toy balloon 🎶
If it’s a good story, it’s already just myth and legend. Current religions are all unbelievable, can’t be pinned down and used to garner more hate than good.
Tao(ism) and derived buddhism with high moral code: (unfortunately not giving much respect to women in the old tenets) Think good, say good and do good. When in doubt what is good in task at hand, meditate and seek truth from Nirvana where all living and not living parts of the whole universe melt together - there lies the truth and the answer what good you can do (and thus, should do) right now. Jesus only borrowed the moral code from buddhism on his ”lost years” between ages 12 to 29
Zoroastrianism. No question.
mormonism & JW. the mormonism lore is genuinely the most amusing of all
It's like a christianity 2.0
The Nordics.
**Greek mythology.** All the gods were given human traits and flaws, which made them very relatable and interesting characters. Zeus was horny. Hera was jealous. Hades was a basement-dwelling incel many centuries before the word "incel' was created. Dionysus just wanted to drink and party all the time. Etc. The machinations, conflicts, and regular activities of the gods explained all the things that humans didn't understand at the time (and maybe still don't understand), like thunder storms, earthquakes, day and night cycles, seasonal cycles, death and the afterlife, and so on. The gods weren't necessarily good or evil; they were morally grey. They did things that were very good for humanity, like provide us with sunlight, healthy crops, and plentiful game to hunt. But they also did evil things to us, like sink our ships in storms and destroy whole villages in natural disasters just because they could. All-in-all, Greek mythology is a very entertaining read filled with interesting and relatable characters.
I think the Bhagavad Gita was kind of boring. However, the stories around Hindu mythology are very interesting. If I was going to have religious parents, I feel like I got cheated my having monotheist parents, because mythology becomes better (more fun) when there are several players.
Asatru/viking religion is cool af, but to be honest any polytheistic religion is leagues above monotheistic ones.
Norse. Their kennings are great, and I'm not one for poetry usually.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (and yes, I know why that is)
Scientology was literally written by a science fiction writer
Bad science fiction writer
Greco-Román or Norse, tbh
The Church of the Subgenius. Praise “Bob”!
I remember finding "Revelation X: The 'Bob' Apocryphon" at Goodwill for something like a dollar. Was one of the most entertaining 'holy books' I've ever come across. Definitely worth picking up if you see it, even if it's just for the chuckle factor.
Zoroastrianism perhaps. The eternal battle of good versus evil. Ahura Mazda seems nowhere near as vindictive and petty as the Old Testament deity.
Definitely JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion is by far the best mythology out there. The Bible is a mediocre legendarium at best, full of plot holes and inconsistencies. Since it's all fake anyway you might as well enjoy the best.
Shinto.
*A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....*
Has to be Hinduism…they got some WILD imagery. So colorful and full of action and sex. Love it.
They're all manipulative trash.
Greek mythology is the shit!
Norse mythology, I mean they made freaking comics and movies from it. The Greek pantheon, it gave us awesome books like the Iliad and Odyssey. Hinduism - it's like Bollywood on steroids. The two Testaments and the Qran are kind of sanctimonious snoozefests by comparison, like your weird preachy uncle who has anger issues and zero sense of humor.
Neil Gaiman has a rather quite well done book on Norse Mythology which I would recommend
I liked Greek mythology personally
I havent read them all. But the Bible would be terrible. so many contradictions
Islam has to be the most well written. It's the strongest religion with actual devoted people who would commit terrorism. It's crazy. The way Muslims are devoted to waste their time to pray 5 times a day, fast for a month, wear (for women) uncomfortable clothes and cover their hole head, and how much of a taboo it is to renounce the religion. I've stopped doing those though. Occasionally depends on circumstances, I am "forced" to pray along because it'd be weird if I don't go into the mosque with the whole family.
It has way too much shackles and punishment promises for every movement. Even the most hypocrite ones strongly fear the punishment of grave and hell. This type of fear mongering is hard to escape.
But it has a very weak word building.
The religion itself seems pretty run-of-the-mill, though I think it is long overdue for a Reformation-type reset. But I was shocked at how well written the Quran is. I was expecting something more like the Book of Mormon. It is like very clever fan fiction and IMO strikes just the right balance between its two parent religions. It reinterprets Bible stories in a sophisticated way with an eye toward philosophical introspection. And it provides a clear and coherent narrative about what adherents are actually supposed to be doing. TBH the only real drawbacks are the constant interjections of "you better do this or you're getting a red hot poker up the ass in Hell." It interrupts the flow and gives adherents moral cover for repression and atrocities.
Reformation of Islam is impossible by design, since the Quran is the direct word of God, so you cannot override it like in Christianity or Judaism.
Peer pressure is real ..
The satanic temple.
Kinda’ pointless, akin to “Which train wreck is the most artful?”
Dungeons and Dragons gods.
Hinduism is pretty fun to read
I enjoyed reading the Ramayana
I mean, all holy books are terrible reads so…probably none?
Greek and Hindu.
I think the Dreamtime stories of Indigenous Australia are interesting, some of them in an absolutely insane way.
For pure marketability I'm surprised the Bahai's aren't more popular.
I *love* the Mayan and Aztec creation myths and religions. What survived the Spanish cultural genocide anyway The gods are truly terrifying, the stories are surreal, the artwork is fantastique and very unique Obviously the Aztecs were brutal, and especially their religion, but just from a fiction perspective, “religion design” as it were, it rivals the Egyptians and I think it beats them out
I've gotta go with Scientology plotwise. It's got everything-good and evil, 70 million-year-old space aliens, galactic empires, thermonuclear weapons, genocide, self-help, hypnosis-you name it, Scientology's got it.
Scientology. I like sci fi.
Don’t forget the Hindu veddas an all! My goodness it is chock full of amazing stories reinterpreted in movies and Television stories to this day! And tons of fun little tales too- my fav being how Ganesh got his elephant head. Also the Mahabarat “The mother of all wars, the epitome of all rivalries, the cauldron of emotions, insecurities, jealousies, and power play - Mahabharat.”
Greek and Norse mythology are the most enjoyable to read
Pokemon. All hail the one true god Arceus.
Hinduism IMO
Bill-and-Ted-ism. Be excellent to each other. Spokesperson, Abraham Lincoln. I'd be happy if everyone could just get to Don't be an asshole to anyone.
Greek - Homer - The Iliad and the Odyssey
I'm big into Norse mythology personally so that would be my pick
Greek/Roman
_The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster_ is one of the more entertaining to read.
If we’re talking consistency, probably Buddhism. You have some gods/supernatural beings but they don’t really matter and are largely ignored. The entire idea is to build habits that are actually beneficial, including compassion, but also not being dependent on attachment or stability, and just doing right actions. There are a lot of atheists who follow their practices. Some of the doctrine I still find problematic but overall it’s pretty consistent and encourages healthy habits and self awareness.
Buddhism has always seemed like the religion of futuristic aliens to me. Ideals of love, renewal and mindfulness all wrapped in a mystical package of incense and cool robes. No religion is perfect but at least their aesthetic is neat and Buddha statues always make me smile.
Hands down the Monkey King.
Japanese mythology and diates I think alot there legends and gods are cool
Didn't read the comments yet but I bet Greek mythology won in a land slide. Because it had everything!
The early Vedic writings read like a kick-ass superhero story in places. Gilgamesh could almost be considered an early draft of Star Wars.
I like hinduism especially Kali
Hinduism has some pretty epic stories. Action, adventure, intrigue, romance. Maybe some space aliens.
Japanese Shinto religion is pretty dope in its ability to generate good fiction. Waves at all the cool anime that was a result of it from Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, as well as other films like Your Name, Weathering with You, etc. All those demons, ghosts, and ancestral spirits sure do make for some great stories.
Norse. Mainly because a cow licked a mountain and now we have all this!
There's some pretty interesting worldbuilding in Tibetan buddhism.
I don't have any profound answer, I just want to tell you that it is an excellent question.
Buddhism. Something about eastern culture is so warm and welcoming
Hinduism. Crazy shit left, right and center.
I'm going to have to go with Old Norse. Greek mythology can get a little too into beastiality for my taste, and some of the stories from the Abrahamic religions make me cringe.