Religious Heroes

I didn't mean throwing it in faces my fault. But using it to.advance character progression. Yes Daredevil is Catholic. Showing the good and bad sides of what religion can cause people to.do. like in God Loves Man.Kills. William Stryker believed that all mutants are children of the devil. Interesting idea to explore.

@JokerFan Isn't Thor (and the rest of Asgard) pretty much portrayed more as aliens than as gods in the comics? I mean, yes, they are inspired by the mythology of Norse gods, but I don't think they're really gods. I can still see why Cap and Tony would have their views even after they've met Thor.

I'm LDS. Maybe one day there'll be an LDS superhero.
As for the article, I have no problem with religion being mentioned or discussed in comics. Unfortunately, in today's multimedia, most mention of religion is approached with skepticism and negativity.

No. Religion has no place in superhero movies, politics, and just about anything else. Keep it to yourself, don't push your beliefs on anyone. As long as you aren't hurting anyone or breaking the law do what you please. Religion doesn't make you a good person, nor does not believing in the bible or any other form of religion make you a bad person. All religion does is divide people.

Both examples that you mentioned prove that, in the right context, religion can add a lot to a character's profile. However, there is always the fine line that nobody wants to cross or even go near. Religion is something that writers need to handle with a lot of discretion. The last thing anyone wants is for a character/movie to get preachy.

Religion is definitely a divisive topic.

Consider that as we think of how to incorporate beliefs into characters. Will readers appreciate it? How many, what percentage? And how many will flat out dismiss it? While the comments above aren't a true reflection of the comic book reading population, they should serve as a good indicator.

Marxman12 pointed out the very obvious lack of LDS heroes. My opinion on that matter won't be heard, but I'm going to point to a book that I was inspired to read by the hit BBC series, Sherlock: "A Study in Scarlet". The episode based upon the classic 19th century novel is actually quite accurate until it reaches the villainous territory, where our killer is a completely different person.

In the book, this man had courted the adopted daughter of a settler, who was saved by Mormons. When news of this non-Mormon's engagement went around, Brigham Young paid the father a visit, warning him that it is against their beliefs to marry outside their circle. Failure to fall in line with these beliefs meant "disappearing". The would-be groom had to tread lightly, and eventually managed to get the father and daughter out to the mountains before they were abducted. So our "antagonist" is actually something of a failed anti-hero who swore revenge against the people who took his bride and would-be father in law.

Obviously, that's demonizing to Mormons, something that's been acknowledged by Doyle himself. Point is, you can't make everyone happy.

My mother is a teacher at a private charter school, which still falls under the code of the county. During graduation, an invocation is expected to be held, however, her students are made up of Catholics, Muslims, Baptists, non-denominational Christians, Jews, Mormons, Atheists, and Agnostics. Last year, an evangelical minister took the stage and testified.... needless to say, people were unhappy.

Comics reflect real life. I think religion should be incorporated appropriately, but not have an overbearing presence.

Well I guess you'd have to define the word preachy. Cause for some it just be the very mention of whatever belief system someone has. Especially if the character were to emotionally break down in one scene. Saying what he believes. While I wouldn't consider that preachy someone else might read to much into it.

Now that's controversial. Lolol

If it's done like AvX then cool.

Great topic for debate : )
I agree with most her that its ok as long as there are limitations.

[frick] no.

@OrgasmicPotatoe Please get started. I would honestly like to hear what you have to say.

@orgasmicpotatoe Well in the Genesis account it lays out step by step what Noah was suppose to do. In other words God gave him the instructions. I was trying to be nice. Maybe you should do some research on a topic before you call it silly. I don't believe in blind faith. So any argument I have is because I have a solid basis for believing it. Just saying "I believe this" and leave it at that is stupid to me. As I'm sure you can understand.

@Thoarnejones Exact ! Love binds us all together ! You got it !

God is a metaphor for the unknown. They couldn't figure out a way to make it believable that a guy in this era was able to build it all by himself, so they added an incorruptible aspect. Something that can explain everything, as long as you buy it.

The thing is no one can build this kind of thing with the means of that time. Today, it takes tons of calculus and precision to build a simple stairway. How many calculus do you think it takes to build a giant Ark to carry every male and female animals, plus the food they'll need to survive 150 days ? Go merely told him the dimensions of the Ark in cubits, told him it was to have a window, a door, and 3 levels. That is not even nearly enough.

Also i'd like to know how he could get the animals from the other continents ? He built another ship to go and find them and bring them back to the Ark ? How did he keep predation from happening in his boat ? The lions and gazelles simply got along ? The cats didn't eat any rodents ? Plus, such a drastic change in the fish's environnement is bound to modify the water pressure and oxygen abundance in their environnement. Then, after 150 days it went back to normal, which means another change in their environnement. Now i've spent a year and a half studying animals in their environnement, and let me tell you you don't change something as important as this without losing a couple fishes. So Noah couldn't save them all.

Then, when the water magially got away... that's true, we never got that water back, where the hell did it go ? Is it possible that the water cycle story we were told in school is false ? So yeah, the water magically got away, and then, they landed on Mount Ararat. To travel the simplest road on Mount Ararat, you need an axe and crampons. Now, even if Noah had them, I don't think the giraffes were big on following him. Or the rhinoceros. Or the gorillas. Maybe the mountain goat was happy that day.

Then they got back on the ground, safe and sound, right ?. Except for one thing. Where did all the vegation go ? Oh, true, it was killed by being constantly submerged for 150 days ! Needless to say the herbivorous got screwed, and if the herbivorous couldn't eat, they died, and without herbivourous, what are the other animals going to eat ?

The point is, when someone starts asking these kind of questions, when someone is starting to question the plausibility of these stories, one can only find a lack of answers.

BUT

If you take Noah's story, and instead of buying the image it presents, you think of the message, the overall value of the story, it becomes something else entierly. It becomes a story about a man who cherished life and did the impossible to save as much lives as possible, and that's the message ! Life is precious, life is good, take care of life, and save it if you must ! Now that's the kind of story I like to believe, and AGAIN, that's something we ALL have in ourselves.

I chose Noah's Ark's story because it is one where I can understand better the consequences these events have on the animal life and environnement, as I stated earlier. Try it yourself, take whichever story that seems odd to you, find the oddities in it, and most probably it will end up making no sense at all. That's when you have to search elsewhere. Don't search in the images of the story for the truth, search in the meaning of the story itself.

AND I AIN'T EVEN SORRY FOR THE LONG POST !

Just gonna chime in here... the average Catholic believes Noah's Ark is a load of bull.

Doesn't affect any part of their faith in God - it's just real life.

uh no. if god loves man kills is that x-men 2-parter it sucks

Good conversation guys. This is great.

Like everything, religion can be used for good or bad.

Heck if enough people gave "authority" to superman and his ideals then just like Hitler I could justify burning people because superman does it.

Just like Hitler I could ignore context and truth of why Supes was heat blasting zod. All that matters is that my prey know that the "authority" does it and so can I.

Too think less of religion because of the atrocities carried out in its name misses one of the points of religion. No man is "good" and because of this it is only logical that the wolf would disguise himself as a lamb then slaughter the sheep in righteousness.

Religion/guns don't kill people. People kill people.

Soooo. As many have pointed out, religion is already in some comics. So sure its fine.