the difference between faith and fiction

[palnoki]

I must be honest here, I am not so sure what makes one person reading something call it a work of faith and one a work of fiction. what is the essence of the belief that makes you accept the stories as fact and put weight into thier truth. because someone could just as easily read it and not find those truths or not see what makes it click and to them it is ficition. Are there qualities the work must have or it it completely based in the reader's psyche. I would love a discussion on this. it's pretty interesting question and has alot of different ways you could answer it.  

[Zombie1429]

Got to come at it from a historical angle and say that for most people its because they are told that certain stories have religious/spiritual truth. There is an established tradition and this makes it much easier to accept the stories of Jesus/Mohammed etc than those of Harry Potter.

I'd be interested to see how modern works become holy in some way, like the writings of cult leaders and the like...  

[God-The-RapistV2.0]

Like Cullenism? The religion based off of Twilight?

http://www.twifans.com/group/cullenism

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Art By: Trish the Stalker

"What you don't seem to understand is that I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me." - Rorschach

 

[Thaliat Everwood]

What about those who follow the teachings of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Do they count? Or followers of Scientology? I heard (perhaps not correctly) that it was based off of a science fiction novel.

I think the difference between viewing stories as fiction and believing enough in stories to follow them as a serious faith is that somewhere you must find something in the stories that truly resonates with you, how you want to live, and, what you believe. It helps to also be able to accept the stories as fact rather than fiction. If you can believe enough in a story's ideals, it can become part of your faith. If you cannot achieve that connection, the story is, to you, fiction.

Example; I do not believe the Bible's stories to be fact, nor do they resonate with me. So, to me, it is just an interesting series of fictional stories. To some other people, it is accepted as fact and the stories do indeed resonate with them. So, for them, the Bible is the written teachings for their faith.  

[Vsha93]

palnoki

I must be honest here, I am not so sure what makes one person reading something call it a work of faith and one a work of fiction. what is the essence of the belief that makes you accept the stories as fact and put weight into thier truth. because someone could just as easily read it and not find those truths or not see what makes it click and to them it is ficition. Are there qualities the work must have or it it completely based in the reader's psyche. I would love a discussion on this. it's pretty interesting question and has alot of different ways you could answer it.

It can also be based on tradition though. If you were born into a famliy that believe in a certain faith then you are going to believe what they believe unless you start to doubt the religion. I believe it kind of what type of person you are and the way a person thinks. If you look at every angle of every story and question everything that does not have a solid fact behind it then you probably won't believe in certian beliefs/faiths/religion.  

[Thaliat Everwood]

I just don't want my deities to be bipolar. I can't trust a bipolar deity.

I was "raised" in one faith, but I had issues with the fact that the deity in question was one way one time and totally different another. So I didn't believe. I don't do well with the blind faith thing either. So I questioned everything and found that the religion I started with did not fit how I saw the world. So I went and came up with my own beliefs based on how I live and what I saw in the world around me. Eventually I found that there really was a religion type for the things I believed and went with that. I went from one deity to multiple deities, which makes a lot more sense for me.

I think people will ultimately believe in what they will based on their exposure to their world and how they want to fit into the world vision they have. Some people have more limited exposure than others and that, too, has an influence on beliefs.  

[Phaeton 2]

Until said stories contain enough plausibility and enough evidence to support them I don't accept them as fact. Some of them can be neat, but stories aren't the most accurate way to portray truth. They can be entertaining sometimes but they can and will be skewed in one way or another. I stray away from that sort of thing though so at least to me faith and fiction are one in the same.  

[Sain After Dark]

Thaliat Everwood

What about those who follow the teachings of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Do they count? Or followers of Scientology? I heard (perhaps not correctly) that it was based off of a science fiction novel.

Actually scientology was invented by a sci-fi writer. I don't think he actually thought people would believe it though...

Also for a cynic like me, the difference between fiction and faith is fear...If you fear what the story says is going to be the punishment, then you'll call it 'religion'. Yeah, I am a cynic. At least a part of me thinks the world isn't actually like that.