#it was. more religious than i remember.

[doodlboy]

I gotta draw this guy

[soath]

It is genuinely not surprising that Ashton has such a strong The Gods Are Going To Kill Us take on the situation, given what they specifically have seen and what they have to relate to. They're about two weeks out from 1.) getting done violence onto them by an angel and then 2.) being told they have a bit of a dead thing that the gods tried to kill inside them. Then they go and put a lot of effort into getting that dead scrap to wake up (with disastrous consequences illustrating how incredibly volatile its power is). Then they have their only religious friend blow up in front of them. Then they watch a movie trilogy where the only non-god main character is another earth genasi broken-walking-timebomb whose main purpose on the mission is to explode when the gods need him to. They don't see the Lawbearer weep for her son, they only see the Emissary, a child, crying because he's afraid to die. Then they go to Vasselheim, the city of the gods, and see the corpse of a Titan, the dead thing the gods killed, yanked out of the earth and puppeted by one wannabe god and now desecrated in death by the overconfident followers of all the others. They're making something beautiful out of it, they're living on it, and normally he'd be in favor of that but they don't even know its name. They're building new temples on the corpse of the old world, hollowing it out and starting fresh, and Ashton is a part of that old world. They cannot stop being connected to a power the gods seem to, at best, be willing to weaponize. That would make anyone paranoid; given their background it's impressive that he's not more combative, tbh.

[hyperlexichypatia]

**Cracks knuckles and wades into The Discourse**

"Can atheists be culturally Christian?" is entirely the wrong question.

Of course they can! Plenty of people don't believe in the religious doctrines of Christianity, but still do things like celebrate Christmas or Easter, have church weddings, and other culturally Christian activities. Take for example, me -- I'm a Deist who is also culturally Christian. Christianity is the religious lens I understand best, even if I don't necessarily agree with it.

Plenty of atheists and broadly-secular people who live in majority-culturally-Christian places, like most of the U.S., also are often oblivious to the Christian basis of their cultural practices, and may think of culturally Christian practices are "universal" or "secular" or "for everyone." This comes up every time someone brings up the inappropriateness of public schools/places celebrating Christmas, when people come out of the woodwork to insist that of course Christmas isn't religious, they know plenty of secular people who celebrate it! (Note: This is often blamed on ex-Evangelicals, but I don't think that's fair. Ex-Evangelicals know what Christianity is. This is something I see more from people from secular families in mostly-secular areas who don't think about religious diversity because it's not relevant to their lives.) (Additional Note: Do not @ me with "WELL, ACTUALLY, Christmas is PAGAN--" No. Your history is oversimplified and bad. You are not celebrating Yule. You are not celebrating Saturnalia. You are celebrating Christmas, a heavily secularized Christian holiday with some cultural influences from European Pagan traditions.)

Additionally, many atheists/secularists/non-religious-people whose primary reference point for religion is Christianity (whether because they're ex-Christians themselves, or just because that's what they know from cultural osmosis) make broad, inaccurate assumptions about All Religion based on their projected understanding of Christianity, e.g. "I'm not religious because I don't believe that an omnipotent God controls everything in the universe and rewards or punishes people when they die." Okay, cool, but not all religions teach that, not all religious people believe that, not even all Christians believe that.

So, of course atheists can be culturally Christian, maybe without realizing it or thinking about it. Anyone who says they can't isn't paying attention! And that's why "Can atheists be culturally Christian?" is entirely the wrong question.

The right questions are "Is it reasonable to assume by default that anyone who lists their religion as 'atheist' or 'none' must actually be culturally Christian?" and "Is it reasonable to blame anything you don't like on 'cultural Christianity'?" and no! It's not!

Sometimes simply does not have a religious affiliation. And that's okay! There is a tendency to interpret "none of the above" as "Oh, so, the default thing, but a milder version of it," and that is... not accurate.

There's this vague sense that non-religious people aren't really a religious minority, that they're really just play-acting at being religiously marginalized, because after all, they're actually just non-devout Christians. Discrimination against non-religious people doesn't necessarily look the same as discrimination against religious people (like, there aren't atheist holidays that people are being denied time off work for), but it's still very real, and falls the hardest on non-religious people with the fewest cultural ties to Christianity, the very people erased by "Atheists are just cultural Christians" discourse.

Furthermore, the traits and beliefs and ideologies and biases that get called "culturally Christian" are often not actually unique to Christianity at all. Certain concepts, like an emphasis on redemption through death, are culturally Christian (although even that one is sometimes found in other religions), but to hear the people calling everything "culturally Christian" tell it, no other religion, culture, or philosophy on Earth has ever believed in virtue ethics, valued hard work and stigmatized "laziness", or been judgmental about petty infractions. Nor, I can't believe I have to say, is "Christians do it, so it's bad" a good argument against things like freedom of conscience or disability rights (neither of which are even especially popular among Christians).

The problem with way people are talking about "cultural Christians" isn't that atheists or other non-Christians can't be culturally Christian (of course they can) or that Christianity doesn't have pervasive influence in majority-Christian societies (of course it does). The problem is that people are using "culturally Christian" in inaccurate and nonsensical ways.

[starswallowingsea]

yes give me the tatsumi rant

god okay so like we know Tatsumi is Christian it's a pretty important part of his character that he is like in his first feature scout story he mentions that he wanted to wear his father's vestments but was scolded for it because they are something that you have to be serious about like this is the most obvious thing anyone would know by looking at Tatsumi.

HOWEVERRRRRR since a lot of Western fans only really think of Christianity as like. Southern Baptist/Mormonism/Jehovah's Witnesses/Extreme Catholicism and like yeahhhhhh those sects are not Great but that's not all there is to Christianity as a religion. I went to an Episcopal service a few weeks ago and it was very fascinating how different it was to the Southern Baptist youth group I attended as a child. But Tatsumi does not follow any sort of American Protestant denomination because he doesn't fucking live here. He's a religious minority in his own country holy fucking shit.

Anyway there is ample evidence within even what has been officially translated that Tatsumi is a chill guy. In the current gacha story Ushimairi pt. 2 we get to see his first interactions with Koga right after moving in and he's literally.

They're chill!!! They're chill and they get along just fine. Koga asks about if Tatsumi thinks dogs are dirty because of his religion right after this and Tatsumi explains that it was because of the historical context and that stray dogs had rabies which is a completely valid reason to not want to like. Interact with dogs, but it's completely fine now because most dogs aren't walking around with rabies!!!

He's also stated that he believes he's going to hell before and that he's accepted that fact but he still believes in God anyway (and he has a conflict of faith later on where he debates if he even still believes or not). He would not be a bigot he wants to accept everyone as they are that's literally why he had the fucking revolution at Reimei over his belief in equality. Goes insane.

Anyway I haven't read most Tatsumi stories I stated in my last post I do not actually care about him all that much because he doesn't appeal to me as a character but mischaracterization on this level drives me up the wall like we are not reading the same stories we are not playing the same game clearly.

[theoppositeofprofound]

[hybbat]

I do think a good chunk of the 'cringey atheist' stereotype did come from the fact that, especially americans, regardless of their actual religious status are just casually christian and refer to things through a religious filter and that isn't seen for how overwhelming/obnoxious/frustrating it is. Its absense, such as when writing a story and things like "oh god" or other casual references are remove or replaced, is seen as notable the same way people find the cast being all women or queer being 'abnormal'.

And I think more people, especially here on tumblr, should take a moment from ragging on some kid being "cringey" saying god doesn't exist or making atheist jump around like dancing monkeys to establish they're one of the good respectful ones before they ever even begin to talk about their own thoughts, and examine why so much content just inserts god into a conversation that had nothing to do with religion like it's the expected norm, the same way they examine the invasiveness of casual heteronormativity.

[i-drop-level-one-loot]

Need a work appropriate shirt that says "I don't want to talk about God, thanks"

[witchofthesouls]

since you're the one that keeps getting all the asks about humans turning into cybertronians and answering them, I thought I might as well bring up this idea to you. Are you aware of Headmaster Juniors, and if so, do you have any thoughts about the prime kids or June getting to do that?

Hey, as much as I love throwing the Darbys into things, what if it's Agent Fowler?

I mean, it would make so much more sense why he's the only human staff and military liaison among them. Plus, it adds more durability to a baseline human because I doubt the 'cons are aware of how much force a human can take. Like yeah, humans are durable but are still fragile.

Either Agent Fowler didn't realize he can connect to the 'bots to become a Headmaster OR he's able to transform into a baseline mech (heavy, all-terrain vehicle mode or maybe a monoformer as a nod to ancient Cybertronians and humanity's lack of T-cogs), but it's a really disorienting of a Magical Girl process. I mean, he's literally coverting from one species to another, so it has to be really confusing and weird as hell.

It just adds salt to M.E.C.H.'s wounds because if they actually stayed official instead of going rogue and traitors, then they could have access to the Project Prometheus - where Agent Fowler is testing out the parameters of his giant mech self.

Then again, perhaps it's a good thing Silas went rogue because he wouldn't be above sawing off Agent Fowler's arm to remove the braces to have that power for himself. Why steal a corpse when Silas can have a tailored fit for himself?

[dreadeves]

so siffrin’s late 20s, yeah. and the forgotten island disappeared more than 10 years ago, if i’m remembering the number correctly from the funeral rite traditions book breakdown that siffrin’s had. so sif would’ve been a maximum of 15-18, give or take, when the island disappeared, if they���re 26-29 currently. but what would’ve happened to get them off the mainland and no one else, to the point that despite presumably traveling constantly for about 10 years, he still has not met more than one person (iirc) with the same accent as them?

[kraviolis]

Belos: I’m going to raise Luz as my daughter and ensure that she remains pure and loyal to me.

Also Belos: I’m going to let the 7-years-old clone of my brother take care of her I’m sure he’ll be able to do that.

you joke but thats LITERALLY his entire thought process at first. he's so isolated and arrogant that he couldnt possibly comprehend the idea that luz wouldnt see him as her father despite the fact he literally told hunter he was going to be her older brother and never once encouraged hunter to see him as anything but an uncle.

i attribute this to the fact that philip is an orphan who only ever knew his blood brother as his only caretaker, so he sorta took having a brother for granted and didn't realize that was something you could want rather than something that just Is.

(also caleb was the only person philip ever truly knew + loved and even well into his 300s he never once picked up a child psychology book and realized that Perhaps His Worldview Was Skewed Because Of That.)

he literally like. could not comprehend the idea that you could even choose your own family outside of like. being adopted by someone. thats the other thing with him being so annoyingly christian in this AU, he was taught that your blood family (esp yr parents) is always the most important thing in your life & you should always be grateful to them no matter what.

(this is another factor into why he keeps making grimwalkers. in his own twisted viewpoint, it's him giving caleb another chance. and another. and another-- at least in this specific characterization of him.)

philip thought that him adopting luz would mean she would immediately be eternally grateful to him and call him father and the whole nine yards. but he forget to actually express that expectation until it was too late (aka until he heard her call him uncle for the first time)

honestly, hes not MAD about it. he's just sorta :( about it bcus hes not actually insane and can still logically think like "she did say she had just lost her real father to an illness its perfectly reasonable for her to not want to replace him" (he doesnt think it outloud but he also enjoys living thru her vicariously

but also later on as she gets older it gets to a point where he's like "ok its been years now why isnt she trying to replace him yet" bcus he thinks its a normal + healthy part of the grieving process to replace the person you lost (figuratively or, in his case, Literally)

[lelianasbong]

Can't imagine playing DAI without Sera.... she's essential to my Inquisitor's sanity. I cannot fathom being surrounded by oceans of insufferably self-important nobles and the local episcopal see without her to make the experience not only bearable but entertaining. Now where's my guillotine

[bhaalstemple]

i know if orin had someone who fully loved and accepted her, she would've had a worse religious crisis than durge ever did with gortash

[brynn-lear]

I never got too deep into enstars but there are days where I miss Mama 😔

[isneezelikeamouse]

I really feel like there’s an interesting way to tie demonism to wh but not in the “THESE PUPPETS ARE LITERALLY DEMONS” way but in the “unfounded satanic panic” way

[bumblingbabooshka]

K I’m not too deep into voyager yet but I always imagined T’pel as having the same kinda fanatical religious streak as Tuvok. I think they both go weak in the knees for the teaching of surak in a very unlogical way you know? I imagine her as a Vulcan whose maybe too enthusiastic about being one. She’d go on and on to whoever would listen in a monotone voice about how great logic is and excuse it by saying she’s teaching them or something but she’s just really passionate about it lol. Her and Tuvok go on dates and just do Vulcan Bible study for five hours.

From the little of her I’ve seen in the show I think of her as being heavily invested in Vulcan culture and tradition as well, again to the point of it being less logical and more emotional. Like she’d do something in a way that was super tedious just because she wants to do it in a traditional way to preserve and experience history.

also she’s got a lot of that tuvok hater streak in her. She will be petty about how much more she knows about certain topics!! She will gossip about how illogical other Vulcans are being!!

He wants a church girl who goes to church aN readsER Bible!!!

[grrrrriffin]

Whatever. Beni info dump