Enjoying religious stories is fine. Just realize they're fiction.

As I've noted before on this blog, I'm a big believer in good stories. I enjoy reading fiction. I enjoy watching fiction. 

It never fails to amaze me that I can be sitting in our bathtub every evening, nestled in hot water with a vaporizer full of quality Oregon marijuana, holding an escapist thriller book (I love Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp novels; he's a CIA operative), getting excited about whether Rapp is going to succeed in his latest exploit -- while I know full well that Mitch Rapp is a creation of Flynn's imagination, or in the case of the Mitch Rapp book I'm reading now, the imagination of the author, Kyle Mills, who took over writing the series after Flynn died.

It seems clear that one reason religions are so successful in drawing people into their fold is that they're skilled at telling compelling stories. About the religion's founder, such as Jesus. About the religion's divinity, such as God. About what the divinity has done, such as creating the universe.

Those stories wouldn't be nearly so captivating if the human mind wasn't capable of what I effortlessly accomplish each night in a bathtub: look upon fiction as being real, even as we understand that it is made up.

OK, in the case of religions, the stories are usually officially considered to be non-fiction, being based in reality. But I'm confident that many, if not most, religious people recognize that the stories told in their church, temple, mosque, gurdwara, or wherever, probably aren't real. 

Doesn't matter.

A good story grabs us and inserts our mind into a made-up reality that bears a lot of resemblance to actual reality. We get excited. We get sad. We can't wait to find out what is going to happen. We worry about the fate of characters we like. We rejoice in the downfall of characters we don't like.

It'd be interesting to know if highly religious people are more prone to embrace fictional stories than less religious people. This strikes me as a distinct possibility.

Here's an observation based on a sample of two: my wife, Laurel, and myself. Laurel is even more avidly atheist than I am. She's also less into reading fiction and watching certain types of fictional TV shows than I am.

Currently we're making our way through the streaming series, Yellowstone. We've just begun Season 3 of what I believe are four seasons.

Laurel likes what she watches to make sense. Not complete sense, but fairly close to what typical people would do in reality. Me, my attitude is that if I want to see reality, I just have to look around at the world. 

When I watch a fictional TV show, I want to be drawn into a different sort of world than the one I'm familiar with. I want the writers and actors to captivate me with a story that's so intriguing, I forget that the story is made-up.

So my wife and I have some gentle disagreements about Yellowstone.

She'll point out why it is so unlikely that this or that would have happened the way it did. Even though I agree with her, I'll reply that when I'm watching this show, I want to relax and let what the writers and actors have created wash over me with minimal commentary or criticism from my mind.

Of course, I know that what I'm watching is fiction. Like I said, the human mind, naturally including my mind, has an amazing ability to simultaneously feel like something fictional is real, while knowing that it isn't real.

Preserve that feeling when you're exposed to religious stories. It's fine to enjoy them. Just don't forget that the story almost certainly isn't true. That way you can find enjoyment in fiction while realizing it's unreality.

Comments

[Vinny]

British Mafia , False Language and American Scoundrel is reality not fiction.

[Spence Tepper]

What makes reading any spiritual writings great is to see their principles very much alive in our own lives, and within ourselves.

Then they are alive for us. They teach only to the extent they resonate within us.

The Holy Bible, for example, is filled with stories that can only be allegorical. They happened so long ago, what can they teach us? What matters there only matters to the extent we see something useful here, within ourselves.

The inner journey proceeds and the mind can participate suspending its constant and blinkered disbelief.

No one enjoys fiction thinking "that can't be".

[TENDZIN]

I agree with your wife that good fiction has to possess verisimilitude. Mark Twain illustrated this in his famous piece, an excellent tutorial for writers, that ripped James F. Cooper's fiction for its sloppiness, such as depicting events that didn't correspond to the laws of physics: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3172/3172-h/3172-h.htm

Sometimes lack of verisimilitude can have a literary charm all its own but with even the tallest sci-fil tales the details matter.

As for the religious sphere, what is truth? One of the books I'm currently reading is the Book of Mormon, and I'm determined to get it despite it being the most tedious work of literature I've ever read, while at the same time practically shouting "fake" on every page. The Book of Mormon may be a hodgepodge of bold claims and biblical tropes written or stolen by a textbook cult leader, but millions not only say this work changed their lives but it created one of the most objectively vibrant, ethical, and moral human communities in history. The same can't be said of any secular work, none that come to my mind anyway.

[Uchit]

The biggest fiction is indeed RSSB science of the soul. This is because past, fake gurus, described the journey of the soul through sound and light, through a moon, stars, sun, then through braham, then to par braham, and so called 5,6,7...12 th regions (laughable) , and the final destination is satnam - where Lucifer himself resides. This is now described as fiction and bullshit, as the modern guru, gurinder singh dhillon has himself said rip all the past books. Fake ass Gurinder is now promoting a one stop RSSB shop, and accepts anyone, even satanists and paedophiles. All this donkey requires is his disciples to be sheepish, submissive and foolishly enough keep repeating the satanic mantra and do pointless meditation - banging your head on a wall is more rewarding. We all know the first word, jot nirunjan, means light of the devil. This 5 word satanic mantra leads to a transe like state, where your mind becomes an empty vessel, for an entities to enter and show you a sound and light show for a momentary orgasm. But there are consequences. Your living life gets worse, you attract more trouble, more stress and go into depression and anxiety - caused by these entities. So you are told to do more satanic meditation and so your life sinks down further and further and you get unhappier and more depressed. Wake up, think out the box, just may be the remedy, your satanic meditation, is the root cause. This is why Gurinder, the devil himself disguised as love and light , wants you to keep repeating his devilish mantra. Gurinder you are exposed, all those false promises are turned to waste.

[S]

Harry S. Truman… there’s a story.