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Why all the hatred? (character development)

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Funky_Monk13

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:11 pm


Okay I need a little bit of help here with why my character hates religion. Originally I had it tied to overbearing parents that forced religion upon my character, his name is James, but I felt like that was a little cliche so now I'm curious, why would somebody hate religion?

Or to put it a different way, what kind of event would it take to cause a character to abandon his or her faith?

Any help I could get would be much appreciated.
PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:22 pm


Well, speaking as a Christian myself, I find most people just don't take religion because they just don't believe that there is a higher power out there. They believe there's only men and their strength of will and there is no God and such. As to an event happening, it could be end up being something along the lines of a prayer never coming true even thought they might have prayed everyday or something.

Hopefully this helps...

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Funky_Monk13

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 11:31 pm


Yeah that does help and I guess an equally important question to ask is why believe? I should also mention that I am not trying to spark any flame wars or anything like that I just think that knowing what makes people believe or what makes people not believe will help me get to the heart of this issue.

The prayer thing intrigues me. I may explore that area a little and see what I can come up with.
PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:22 am


Someone could hate religion (or at least organized forms of it) because of the negative impacts organized religion has had on human rights.

There are lots of reasons to dislike religion, and I'd like to note that a mere lack of belief in a higher power does not mean that the person hates religion; it just means that they don't think there's a higher power.

VenusRain

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Funky_Monk13

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:39 am


VenusRain
Someone could hate religion (or at least organized forms of it) because of the negative impacts organized religion has had on human rights.

There are lots of reasons to dislike religion, and I'd like to note that a mere lack of belief in a higher power does not mean that the person hates religion; it just means that they don't think there's a higher power.


Ah yes, that is a good clarification to make. My character doesn't believe in a higher power and has a pretty strong hatred for religious organizations.
PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:20 am


Some religious organizations that have very extreme points of view have caused riot and hurt to many.
Take the Westboro Church for example... they started the whole "god hates fags" thing and are disgustingly aggressive.
Other churches go after people of certain races.
Look into it, maybe your character could have connection with one of the protest wars.

BlueberryCondomBomb


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:44 pm


James Hetfield of the band Metallica used to hate religious organizations because he blamed religion for the death of his mother. She died of a tumor because she refused surgery that would have saved her life, claiming that using science to prolong her life was against God's will. Of course, he no longer feels that way. He has educated himself, and realized it was his mother's over-zealous belief that killed her, but you get the point.
PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:19 pm


Well I have two and their more personal for me.
1. Lack of emotion within leadership
2. Getting into political stuff (Sep of church and state)
3. Do not agree with moral standings. ex. Gay Marriage and Christianity

angelmage99

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PostPosted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:08 pm


I feel like I should take this lull to toss in a question. Does your character hate every religious organization for being a religious organization, or does he just hate one particular organization, like Christians or Buddhists? If it's the former, it can't be a hatred of particular morals, because very few religions share morals - and even if he just hates, say, Christianity, there's still a hell of a lot of diversity. Example: Catholics VS Episcopalians. Episcopalians have been called "Catholic Lite" before, as they share similar views, but the Episcopal church was the first to accept homosexuals, while the Catholics still call it a sin.

It's something to take into consideration.
PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:42 am


If you're looking for a way to make it a blanket statement, one approach you could take is:

Have him be a very logical and literal person, who thinks that people wasting their time with idle fantasies of a "higher power" coming one day to save them from themselves is a waste of time, and has major issues with people that try to escape from reality and don't do anything to help themselves or face their issues on their own.

Just a thought.

Demona McRae

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:57 pm


My bf's parents were both ministers. He was obviously raised in a very religious household, but no longer believes in any type of religion. He does, however, believe in some sort of higher power.

He is, like someone pointed out, highly logical and literate. He's done research on most religions out there.

What has made us both shy away from religion is the corruption and hypocrisy of the people. The ignorance as well. He's very well versed in the bible - both versions - and the sudden shift in the tone is very... off, for lack of a better word at the moment.

The god of the old version was all plagues, and floods and punishment but the new version is much lighter and all loving.

God has murdered a minimum of 2,476,633 people in the bible
Satan has a recorded number totaling 10 people

Most people don't know that.
Some people would question whether god was justified in all those killings.
But most of all, many people don't really know what they're talking about. They simply reiterate what they've been taught and told and raised to believe. They haven't read the bible themselves and when passages that would raise questions are brought up, they often know nothing about them.


Not saying everyone religious is like that, just the majority of the people I've encountered in my personal experience. Everyone is entitled to believe whatever they want, that is not my business, nor was it my aim to offend anyone. I apologize if I have.


Perhaps your character had questions, questions no one could answer. Maybe something shook his faith or he was merely mindlessly rebelling and went looking to people who should have answers, but got none.
PostPosted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 12:38 am


Mabye their was a conflict in belief within the family that brought out the worst in both sides?
Thats what my family is like. Get to talking about religion or science (even astronomy...) and the claws come out. My Christian mother is more radical than my logical father, thus I see logic in a better light than religion.
Or, he met really over the top christians. They can be kinda scary eek there are a few in my mom's church.

AuroraCelestine

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Character Concepts

 
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