Your religion is proven wrong; How do you react?

It doesn't have to be something big. It can be something small that affects the individual.

How they will react will be determined by what it is - where they abused, was it a child, did someone not lend them a carjack are they angry or do they just not believe anymore.

I lost my religious beliefs after 20 years. Feel free to PM me.

 

Lothgar the Devout steps up to answer you challenge.

"Indeed, my good man. I do appreciate your sincerity and enthusiasm, but I must assure you that you are quite mistaken. My gods are very real, as any of our faithful can attest to." answer Lothgar, the Devout.

*reviews your proof once more*

"Hmmm... Incomplete facts, with clear omissions of the divinity of my gods... Unsound judgments and pure speculation on your part... Alas, this so called proof doesn't hold water. I'm sorry young man, but perhaps you should reconsider this folly of yours." replies the cleric known as Lothgar.

*The evidence is thrust into his face once more*

Lothgar the Devout pauses with a sigh.

"I know what this is. You've fabricated you evidence in order to perpetuate a hoax, with these outrageous claims that my gods are not real. I've humored your lies and tolerated your blasphemy, but the joke is now OVER. Now please be so kind as to leave and take this so called 'proof' of yours with you." huffs Lothgar, the aging member of the priesthood.

*Confronted with the 100% proof yet again*

"LOOK MACK, YOU'RE BUGGING ME! NOW TAKE THIS NONSENSE OUT OF MY CHURCH OR I'LL HAVE TWO STOUT MONKS ESCORT YOU OUT BACK AND EXPLAIN THE MATTER TO YOU IN THE NAME OF THE GODS...CAPICHE?" Snorts Father Lothgar, the faithful.

*Cornered with the undeniable truth once more*

"THAT TEARS IT! HEY...VITO...DRAG THIS %#$@^ ^&#$ PIECE OF $#1@ SLACK JAWED &&$^# @%%# WORTHLESS INFIDEL #@^$%#@ SON OF A %%#$^ &$^$#@ OUTSIDE AND TEACH HIM SOME %%#$@$% $$# @@$%# MANNERS!" Thunders Lothgar, the Devoutest of the Devout in a rage.

"Imagine the nerve of that guy? Questioning the almighty divinity of the Spice Girls...in the very Cathedral of Spice itself...such audacity...such blasphemy...SUCH OUTRAGEOUS SIN!!! Oh...I must go pray for that little #%$^#%# #^#%'s immortal soul, because he's in a heap of #^$&%$ trouble now." mutters the righteous Lothgar, as he makes his way deeper into the Cathedral of Spice.

 

Whatever evidence you might supply better be eco-friendly when ignited, 'cause it'll find a fire very soon after. Religion is a comfort to people, and to the desperate and strongly devout their only comfort in life. You can try to take that away from them, but you won't succeed, because they'd rather die than lose all meaning.

Take a look at the religious texts of the major religions. They have many inconsistencies, but those who draw all their meaning from these texts would rather spend a thousand hours defending one contradictory line than simply say "Ok, that line might be a bit flawed, but the rest of the book is sound!" If they allowed themselves to question any little part of their book of laws, then where would that end? It would be a slippery slope leading into loss of morals and loss of faith.

So, no. If someone's serious about their religion you might as well use all your evidence for something else, like insulation of your garden shed. Else it's just gonna get torched.

 

Lots of rational and logical forum members have pointed out that at least some people would never accept proof that their religion is incorrect, and of course this is utterly true. In the real world.

I would like to point out, however, that this would be a boring, not to mention short, story.

The conflict between your MC and True Believers who will try to suppress this new and dangerous Secret Knowledge should, of course, take up much of the last third of your book.

BTW you'll find it much easier to write about a made up religion being fake, as you'll offend far fewer people. Decreasing the potential market for your story unnecessarily not being smart from an economic perspective.

 

People who lose their faith generally lose it as a response to an experience, not something someone has given them as 'scientific proof'. Frankly, I find the idea laughable since belief rests on faith and feelings, not evidence. These days, atheists, of whatever persuasion, themselves act like the members of a religion and look down on believers. To the atheists out there, would you accept '100% proof' that there is a god? So why should believers accept that there isn't?

 

Not to stir the pot, but you're right: many atheists are more religious than the religious folks they so readily denigrate...and since they are at the same time claiming the intellectual high ground it makes their blindness to their own blindness incredibly irritating and rather unfortunate (for them).

For the purposes of this thread, at least, it is perhaps helpful to go along with the idea that the minds of religious folk can indeed be changed. It is of note that HB speaks of tangible evidence ... evidence which I assume to be powerful and something that, in your words, might be experienced and felt.

 

^^ Good point.
So, the OP's idea could work if the evidence was a powerful enough experience. Like the Road to Damascus... no wait a moment, that was the other way around... But in a fantasy story I can imagine some huge force that revealed all (the nothingness).
The pschological meltdown that follows could be covered in the sequel.

 

^^
I'm thinking of something that could be dragged around in a briefcase...you know, like in Pulp Fiction.

Not exactly sure what that something could be, I must concede.

 

Those are what I call "Angry Atheists" and in my experience are people who were raised in religious families and are now pissed off about it. I was not raised in a religious family and just don't believe because no one important to me did. So, I'm a calm atheist much like you likely are about Zeus and Thor. You don't believe in them and aren't out to burn the house down over it.

Also, I like community ideas from the Talmud and the brotherly love stuff from Christianity. I lok at them as wonderful human ideas and I don't really care why people carry them out, just that they do.

 

I'm an atheist. If you can prove that a God exists I'll believe you. I'm not crazy or illogical, I'm not a devout anything, and I didn't lose my faith, I never had it.

Allegro- I actually was raised in a religious household. It just never made sense to me. I'm not angry (and of course I know you weren't talking about me, just saying not all people raised in religion who become atheists are pissed.)

The briefcase thing Art suggested is good I like. And of course proving another religion correct.

 

Glad you liked it.

I think there's, in our real world, four types of religious:

1. Lip service: They say they're religious but know nothing about their religion or what they're required to do for their god.

2. Cafeteria type: They know some things about their religion but it's just stuff that confirms their own desires and they ignore the rest.

3. The believer: They try to follow most of the rules and the religion is a source of life meaning for them.

4. The thinker: They believe and think about all the implications of what a god can do. For instance, Jesus said that even thinking about adultery is adultery. Of course all you have to do is ask for forgiveness and try not to do it again. But, that's easier said than done since the mind can't think about something and not think about it at the same time.

I've known people who do this.

Internal dialogue:

Fred: Thinks of boobs.
Fred: "Oh, I'm sorry, that's wrong to think of boobs!"
Fred: "That made me think of boobs! Sorry!"
Fred: "Arrrgg! Now I can't stop thinking about them. I'm a bad person!!! Sorry about the boobs!"
Fred: "Damn it! Wait, I'm sorry I cursed and thought about boobs!"

And so on until mental exhaustion and depression kicks in.

So, each type of person would experience different reactions if the religion was proven false.

It would be interesting if there was some record from an area where one religion was getting pushed up by another. I know there's been, I think in the Philippines, whole areas that converted to Islam so that might be worth checking. Maybe you could find some people online to talk to from a place like that. If so, please report back because I find this stuff interesting.

 

I'm an angry apostate. When I began exploring alternatives to christianity, my mother got pissed, then I got pissed about how she was trying to block my efforts.

Turns out, she was having a crises over how being acknowledging of the seasons was a "heathen" thing and has calmed down when she discovered that jewish faith does embrace the seasons.

The damage has been done, and an in-character response to proof would be to feel deeply guilty and worrysome about how the god of my childhood would react to me. I might not fall down on my knees then and there, but it would signal the beginning of a new phase of growth. I'd try to heal.

 

I don't envy your situation my friend. I am nothing but thankfull (to whom!) that I didn't have to put up with that kind of atmosphere when I was a kid.

However, my parents used to tell me that if you do something bad, then you have to live with it for the rest of your life. That's actually much more powerful than it sounds because you can't just mumble some magic spell and feel better. But, the philosophy kept me out of a lot of trouble so no complaints.

Question:

What do you mean by "the seasons" is that a Wiccan practice?

 

Well, it seems people believe all sorts of things no matter how often the evidence in favour of their belief remains forever elusive, and other evidence contradicts their beliefs. A lot of people seem to get by just fine despite this fact. Some forms of Christianity say the universe and everything in it was created within one week 6000 years ago. The evidence that we have from different sciences clearly contradicts that, but the believers don't seem to be bothered by this at all.

Most religious claims have been falsified, or the claims are unfalsifiable or vague or nonsensical and therefore useless. This is irrelevant to some people, they just believe anyway, for no reason.

But the real problem is that you can't really prove a negative. Some religious claims have been falsified but as I said, so many claims are simply unfalsifiable. So technically you can't prove with a 100% certainty that there is no god, just like you can't prove that there is no firebreathing dragon in the garage. Sure you can't see it, but that's because it's invisible. Maybe you can see it breathing fire with IR cameras? Sorry, the fire is the exact same temperature as the surrounding air. But the dragon is totally there.

So it's difficult to prove that there is no god. Or dragons, or faeries. Or whatever else you wish to believe in.

Then there are people who really are bothered by it, and they do think about it a lot. Depending on the person there can be lots of reactions to the realisation that you have believed something which is untrue. Or that the evidence leads somewhere else. Some would probably need a lot of time to find their new worldview. Some would get angry I am sure. I guess it depends on your character.

 

I'm not especially religious, nor am I Christian, but I believe there is a God. My proof to you is this, take it or deprive yourself as you wish--no problem for me.

Didn't I mention that belief rests with feelings and faith?

Science not always but sometimes seems it's just as much mumbo-jumbo as some of the man-written stuff about religion--all based on ideas and proved by ideas and theories. I've always especially hated physics. However, I've read several genius scientists like Stephen Hawking don't rule out the idea of God.

Anyway, the premise for this story is looking up. I suggest the OP goes through the reactions of people here to get some reactions for their character!

 

Oh yeah, I was speaking generally about my experience with atheists I've known in life and on the net. Many of the angry types seem as if they're angry at "god" and still believe he exists and are annoyed by many factors. I'm sure there's a million different cases though.

I like to point out that we don't believe in Zeus, etc and aren't annoyed about his existence because humanity is truly done with that god. There's no debate and we've achieved a true nonbelief there. That's a contrast for both modern nonbelievers and believers.

 

Are you saying that scientific theories are used to prove ideas? The way it works is like this; theories explain and describe facts. So to say it's just mumbojumbo is simply untrue.

 

What's a 'fact'? It's only what the present state of knowledge leads us to believe. And a theory is just some way of 'proving' what the scientist is driving at. Kind of lying with statistics.

Historically there have been some amazingly half-baked scientific theories, all carefully backed up with research and data. Why should these days be any different? Or are we assuming that with all our computers and superior knowledge of the universe everything scientists say must be true. I don't think so. If it were, they would all agree with each other a lot more.

 

Hire a bunch of highly-paid talking heads to saturate the media with religious propaganda so that people will believe in it anyway.

 

Dictionary.com definition of fact: something that actually exists; reality; truth.

Your definition of a fact seems a little off.

 

That is only one definition of one particular type of fact. I was talking about so-called proven scientific facts, so my definition is perfectly valid. Your definition is only for facts like 'people die if they are deprived of oxygen'.

 

OK, I think I understand what you're saying.

Example:

"The earth is the center of the universe."

This was widely regarded as truth for a long time. Still, in my mind, a fact is a fact is a fact. The problem is when people make assumptions, and call a theory the truth before it has been proven.

 

That's not a theory you're talking about. That's a hypothesis. It's not a theory unless it can be backed up with evidence, and repeatable experiments.

 

That's a good point. Although, someone could technically jump the gun and call a hypothesis or a theory the truth.

 

@ OP- Whenever you post anything remotely related to religion, expect the comments to turn into a debate; this is inevitable... ^___^'