MickeyThe God Thing
Some years ago a friend and I were chatting about the state of TV in general, and sci fi in particular. I had just recently gotten into the Highlander series, and when I brought it up my friend just chuckled. He had no problem with the idea of Immortals, and could buy that they had some sort of "spidey-sense" when another Immortal was nearby- but what sunk his suspension of disbelief was the fact that Immortals couldn't fight on holy ground.
This friend is no rabid atheist by any means- he enjoys the holiday decorations and Christmas cartoons as much as I do, and he saw nothing strange about Ivanova's Jewish faith on Babylon 5: Since Judaism has survived all these millennia, it made sense that it would still be around three centuries from now. The problem he saw with Immortals being unable to shed blood on holy ground was that it somehow implied that the God(s) behind our various religions are real somehow.
Now he didn't start writing angry letters or threaten boycotts or otherwise go over the top; he simply found the idea of anything real behind our various religions unbelievable. I pointed out that it could just be something in the basic human subconscious ( the Immortals had the same limitation on ground that was holy in any faith), but his immutable position was that religion is a mass figment of our collective imagination that's been around long enough to be institutionalized- nothing more.
Now I myself (even back then) was far beyond the simplistic notion that all religions are "right" in their own way... in fact, we had a lot of fun debating how long (if ever) ground would stop being holy once the church/mosque/Elvis memorabilia shop had been demolished. It's just that I'm sometimes more surprised than amused by how vehemently some people claim absolute certainty in knowing whether there are Gods hanging around, or not.
Now with the crappy state of public education I can understand not wanting to waste precious class time teaching religion during science class, and if someone feels the need to mark out "God" from the disclaimer on the back of our currency- hey, everyone needs to have a hobby. My only beef is with the radical fringe that goes nuts over any mere mention of God, religion, faith etc. Just about every society on Earth is composed mostly of believers in some variation or another, and so it's only realistic that such things will and do show up in pop culture now and again.
Besides: Consider your own field of expertise, and how very very few times TV ever actually gets it right. If any portrayal of God or religion offends you, just imagine how royally pissed the believers must be at how the Hollywood writers got the details all wrong. Again.
This friend is no rabid atheist by any means- he enjoys the holiday decorations and Christmas cartoons as much as I do, and he saw nothing strange about Ivanova's Jewish faith on Babylon 5: Since Judaism has survived all these millennia, it made sense that it would still be around three centuries from now. The problem he saw with Immortals being unable to shed blood on holy ground was that it somehow implied that the God(s) behind our various religions are real somehow.
Now he didn't start writing angry letters or threaten boycotts or otherwise go over the top; he simply found the idea of anything real behind our various religions unbelievable. I pointed out that it could just be something in the basic human subconscious ( the Immortals had the same limitation on ground that was holy in any faith), but his immutable position was that religion is a mass figment of our collective imagination that's been around long enough to be institutionalized- nothing more.
Now I myself (even back then) was far beyond the simplistic notion that all religions are "right" in their own way... in fact, we had a lot of fun debating how long (if ever) ground would stop being holy once the church/mosque/Elvis memorabilia shop had been demolished. It's just that I'm sometimes more surprised than amused by how vehemently some people claim absolute certainty in knowing whether there are Gods hanging around, or not.
Now with the crappy state of public education I can understand not wanting to waste precious class time teaching religion during science class, and if someone feels the need to mark out "God" from the disclaimer on the back of our currency- hey, everyone needs to have a hobby. My only beef is with the radical fringe that goes nuts over any mere mention of God, religion, faith etc. Just about every society on Earth is composed mostly of believers in some variation or another, and so it's only realistic that such things will and do show up in pop culture now and again.
Besides: Consider your own field of expertise, and how very very few times TV ever actually gets it right. If any portrayal of God or religion offends you, just imagine how royally pissed the believers must be at how the Hollywood writers got the details all wrong. Again.
