#[ so she'd be a theist i believe ]

[bibiana112]

I've grown a bit protective over my theist Akane headcanons lately because everyone I've seen dismiss her as definitely making more sense as an atheist after the experiences she had seem to almost.... i dare say whitewash her faith? it's why I only use the word Theist she seems to believe in Some kind of god but that really really doesn't automatically imply a capital G western God that is characterized as fatherly and all powerful and all good it does not even imply values ascribed to western saints, I've been agnostic since elementary school and listen to atheism podcasts all the time I say this cause I'm the last person who will be attached to a character for them being religious but I also live somewhere where one of the better known religious minorities is polytheistic and of african origin and completely outside of the eurocentric conception of spirituality and since I have friends who converted to that and suffered prejudice about it I know very well what it looks like when people are projecting God vs Devil worshipping stuff on a belief that does not frame itself with those binary axes at all

I don't even think Akane would strictly follow the Shinto traditions she grew up surrounded by but it's what would have framed her early life and it's a completely different framework and understanding of spirituality and ok I will probably be a bit reductive here but as I understand it Shintoism has many subdeities yokai many superstitions baked into it that are incredibly varied and specific to each community and place and rituals and perfomances are the main expression of this faith (which the kanji for ceremony/ritual is literally in her name! which could be showing she sees her own nonary game as one big ritual I think the ideas behind the Kurashiki etymology are honestly really fun) so with that basic context plus the fact she literally does have her prayers answered, she literally does pray over her doll while crying in the incinerator and that's what saves her I don't know if she'd be mono or poly theistic but her believing in Something doesn't feel like much of a stretch

Sure, people will say, but it didn't Completely save her she still suffered she was still all alone in there in some realities but for goodness sake there is not anything that could more accurately apply to the meme of teehee I'm god's most specialest suffering soldier than what martyr complex ass mindset Akane developed I think she just made up her own understanding of divine intervention right there right with getting her future sight and morphogenetic powers and shit her prayers were answered and the person she wanted by her side talked to her and saved her even from nine years in the future because the forces at be allowed it on the condition that she played her part because the pain and death was supposed to be all there was to it but she performed this display of faith and it suddenly miraculously wasn't a dead end anymore and she was allowed to live if only with the weight and understanding that fate will work in its own mysterious ways and it's up to her to appease it and do whatever ceremonial bloodshed it demands over and over again to salvage at least one timeline out of many that fall into certain doom without her intervention... or at least that seems to be her perception of it she would probably also get ocd from all that but I don't have much say on the subject myself

Her line in ztd is hypocritical but I still don't think it's internally contradictory for her and I will die on this hill

[atheautistic]

Making a Rock Garden

I had no idea how much fun it could be to have christians come to my door on a Saturday morning until i became an atheist!

A young woman came to the door with her family in tow (very cute kids btw. I think it was hubby's job to watch the kidlets, so i didn't get to talk to him much.

We had a very pleasant conversation. She asked me how i came to be an atheist. Now, if you're a theist, i don't recommend that question. It's an invitation for that atheist to preach, and you definitely don't want that. Not if you like your faith. But, i was sweet, don't worry! Here's the condensed version: Christian for 38 years, learned stuff, doubts, logic problems, learned more stuff, atheist.

Then she asked, "So you don't believe in the Bible?" It was so damn cute. I don't think she'd ever spoken with an atheist before. I kindly let her know that the Bible is a collection of books written by men, translated by men, interpreted by man. I further pointed out that based on the fact that no religion agrees with another, there is no reason to assume that any of the texts they choose for the remaining 66 (72 for you catholics out there!) books of the bible are the inspired word of god, assuming he exists at all.

She sweetly took this criticism and didn't take the bait. It was probably too big a topic to tackle. I think she got the idea that'd I'd done some thinking about that already. She's an excellent tactician! She knew I wanted to go down that road. Honestly, by this time, i think she had figured out she wasn't going to get me, so she switched tactics and went right for the Hail Mary. The infamous christian mental terror attack!

"Jonathan, you have insurance on your car right? Don't you think you should have a heavenly insurance policy for your soul?"

Guys... The abject pain of holding in my mirth almost killed me. Also, ANGER. I mean, this seems awfully similar to extortion right? "Hey, you don't want all this to burn up right? Our little organization can help you wit' dat. Just 10% of your income my man."

Well, i don't pay rent, punk.

But, reason prevailed. I thanked her very sweetly for caring about my soul. Then i told her that her premise was flawed because you can't really analogize anything to God, because there's nothing like him right?

When all i got was a confused look, i told her that i KNOW i need insurance for the car i KNOW exists because i have EVIDENCE that driving can result in accidents that i cannot afford to pay for. Therefore i have car insurance. I haven't seen anything indicating that i need to waste my time and money on an insurance policy that will keep your God from torturing me for eternity for my finite crimes.

I told her she was referring to Pascal's wager which essentially says that it's safer to just believe, in case hell is real. Which is impossible for me because i CANNOT believe without evidence. I'm interested in truth, not fantasy. I also mentioned that if god were to exist, I'm sure he would know i wasn't fond of him. Which wouldn't be very safe for me, would it?

That was the death knell of hope for my soul in her mind I'm sure. She didn't really know what to say, so she sweetly wished me a good day, and left with the kiddos while i wished them better luck.

Although that visit didn't go the way she had hoped, most good christians assuage the worry of that failure by reminding themselves that they planted the seeds of faith in my mind. Problem is that my brain is much too complicated and logical for faith to survive there. I have Many Questions.

But the Christian plays a dangerous game when trying to sow the seeds of faith in the stony minds of atheists recovering from religious trauma. I think that a strange sort of psychological Locarde's exchange principal1 happens during productive discourse. It's a sharing of ideas, isn't it? So i get to plant things in her garden too. My beautiful rocks...

Rock 1: A 38 year Christian fell from the Faith, but seems happy. Says he feels free...

Rock 2.: everything that guy said was with authority and i couldn't challenge him (that's important to theists)

Rock 3-6 : He pointed out logical problems i don't know the answer to.

Rock 7: This man is clearly educated. He seemed to suggest that learning led him away from the faith. Why is that the educated people are often atheists?

Rock 8 - 12: He pointed out several times that God adds no explanatory or predictive power for understanding the world around us. God is not necessary to explain anything. I couldn't refute it.

Its just a few pebbles of course. But pretty good sized ones!

One day i hope she'll see them, and see how real they are. How beautiful they are. I hope she gets more of them. I Hope she gets some training and comes back for round two so i can sow some more rocks. I hope they slowly choke the weeds of faith that have taken over her mind and finally set her free from the ugly overgrowth of religion. Hopefully, she'll end up with a beautiful rock garden too!

1. Locarde's exchange principal is usually applied to forensic science, so it's not a perfect analogy I'm afraid. But the idea is that; everything that makes contact with another thing leaves evidence of that contact on each thing. So, i touch a surface, which i leave a fingerprint on, and my finger gets dust on it from the surface.

[cindrelle]

tbh i like that fuu is religious but open - minded to others so long as they’re good people. she doesn’t like people who use religion as an excuse for poor actions. also she’s very curious about others’ beliefs and has accumulated things over the years like tarot cards and other means of divination.