Comments on: [GUEST POST] James L. Sutter on Atheism in Fantasy

By: Philip Athans

Philip Athans — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:47:48 +0000

We explored much the same territory in R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen, in which the goddess that is at the heart of the dark elves' matriarchal theocracy suddenly goes silent, no longer granting prayers/spells or communicating in any way with her high priests. The series tackled a lot of big questions, including the responsibility that a god(dess) has to his/her followers, if any. One of the characters actually converts to a different goddess at the prospect of oblivion after death if Lolth never returns. In other words, if you aren't going to reward me in the afterlife, I'll find someone else who will.

Fantasy is the perfect proving ground for these kinds of questions.

By: Cerebral Magpie

Cerebral Magpie — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:49:21 +0000

In NK Jemisin's recently released "The Kingdom of Gods" (Inheritance Trilogy book 3) a sector of mortal society has come to atheism after millenia of the gods interference in the mortal realm. Their type of atheism isn't that they don't believe the gods exist - they are part and parcel of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - they frame their atheism in a refusal to worship the gods and partake of the benefits of that worship. That is, they've had a guts full of the gods dictating how mortals shall live and are intent on making their own way without that god-like/magical interference. They want control over their own lives.

Jemisin's books certainly answer your questions in the first paragraph, and in great detail. Faith, the lack thereof, and all its iterations, are central tenets.

By: Paul (@princejvstin)

Paul (@princejvstin) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:32:22 +0000

I see atheism in science fiction far more than in fantasy.

But in movies, however, its a diifferent kettle of fish. I've noticed a strange tendency toward atheists in mythological movies.

Troy, the Wolfgang Petersen, has a lot of overt atheism, and much to my chagrin, for a story that in the original myth is FULL of Gods, has none.

Clash of the Titans, the 2010 remake, again, has characters who defy the gods or deny their existence. Perhaps that is more anti-religion than atheism.

And now there is Immortals. Even with a putative son of a God (although its never explicitly said), and Gods as main characters, the amount of disbelief in the Gods in this movie is amazing and inexplicable. One character even says, in a post modernist mode, that the "gods as best understood as metaphors". I was greatly annoyed.

By: Spriggana

Spriggana — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:11:49 +0000

Does Terry Pratchett’s Feet of Clay counts? There is a golem who declares himself as an atheist. Luckily for him as a golem he is lighting-resistant (the gods do not like atheists on Discworld very much).