Tevun-Krus #28 - Theological SF

Through the Eyes of an Atheist - An Article by @AngusEcrivain

When I was a youngling I was dragged to church every Sunday morning by my parents. I hated it. I remember being so bored and thinking that I would far rather be out getting up to all kinds of weekend mischief with my friends.

It wasn't until I turned thirteen or fourteen, I think, that I realised what a wonderful opportunity I'd got there, pretty much being presented to me on a silver platter.

Now anyone who knows me knows that I'm atheist and that I didn't start writing until I was well into my twenties (and a whole lotta' other crap about me, too) but even so, even though at that point in my life the only thing I'd shown any inclination towards writing were lyrics - yeah, I was gonna' be a fucking rockstar - I think I still recognised the importance and significance of the things I'd learned over those few years.

Predominantly, of course, I learned that religion is nothing more than a whole loada' stories. Fables and legends collated for the apparent betterment of mankind as a whole. But it also showed me how fantastic stories are. It doesn't matter what they're about. Everyone has a story to tell and everyone's story is equally as fantastic as the next.

Now to me, it doesn't make a blind bit of difference whether a given individual is religious or not. We all had our own experiences growing up and those experiences are what shaped and molded us into the unique people we are today.

As writers, it's those experiences that we pass on to the world through our characters.

I've been atheist since I was old enough to make up my own mind about such things and as such, the majority of my characters share a similar state of mind. I'm not saying they're all atheist because that's just not true, but the vast majority - whether they're presented with very real evidence of a higher power - such as Dan in Half-Light, where he actually fights alongside a band of angels and encounters many different deities - or not - simply do not believe.

I would wager that the same could be said for anyone's writing and their penned characters. It's only natural that we pass our knowledge, our beliefs and morals to those we consider to be our creations.

In today's world where religion and religious beliefs are apparently such a massive, massive deal, it's rather nice that the however many million Wattpad users such as myself and every other person who uses this site, have such a place. Here, it doesn't matter what you believe. Everyone (or at least the vast majority of users) believe that each and every one of us are entitled to our own opinions.

And that's all religion is, really. Very strongly opinionated stories. And if you think about it, that's all we are... Very strongly opinionated storytellers...