: How do I tackle religion and mythology correctly? Without offending religious people Update -- notes on April's Edits -- I added [[square brackets]] when I wasn't sure if my rephrasing clarified/changed

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It depends on whether you are talking about myths or Myths. Myth Busters dealt with myths (elephants fearing mice, bulls in china shops, can a speed boat be sliced in half by hitting an object at speed) and never Myths.

Myths hold an essential truth, often in parable or metaphor, but some will become livid if you refer to any story from their scripture as a Myth. Scripture (I do not just mean the bible) is considered true.

If you start testing Myths for truth, be prepared to examine doctrine as well. The Myth of woman being created from Adam’s rib springs to mind. By labelling that a Myth, I will probably get downvoted because people are passionate about religion.

Myths answer the profound questions in a way that is easily understood. Why are there seasons? How did the world come to be? How did we come to be?

They are teachings and the lessons are valid, whether it is a god walking the earth disguised as a beggar, seeking food and shelter and being denied by all who are capable of assistance, but helped by those with very little means ‘we have little, but what we have is yours to share’ or a tale of a man going to the underworld to seek his lost love, these speak to human nature. Often those who can help most easily do not help and generosity is found among those who have suffered want and know the depth of the need. Grief can make people more than who they were or destroy them - sometimes both.

If you mean literal truth, your task has been accomplished by science, but if you mean figurative, allegorical, or metaphorical truth you will have quite a task and be ready for hate mail.

I spent a year at a Lutheran College and there were Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, agnostics and atheists there as well as Christians. The most vehement arguments I observed were between Christians of differing types. Roman Catholics argued with Anglicans, who fought with Protestants and villified Lutherans.

People of different religions would discuss their religion, comment on similarities and never tell the other that they were wrong.

Be careful. People of many faiths will hate you should you relegate their religion to nothing more than mythology. I doubt that you intend to be divisive, but this is a dangerous path you seek to travel.

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When attempting to subvert all myths are true, think Myth Busters. Some myths are true, but others aren't. There should be objective tests that can be used to demonstrate whether they're true or false.

Not all myths are really subject to those tests, however. Tests can be run to say if something is possible, but not necessarily whether or not some event that supposedly happened once upon a time. That having been said, if your characters are walking into the world of myths, they can presumably encounter the prime movers in some of those tales, and can get first hand testimony. Once again, some of the stories will be true, some won't be. And, of course, not all characters are necessarily 100% honest, but who is honest and who isn't can come out over time, as well.

If you're wanting to subvert all myths are true as well you can, and you're addressing religion, you will need to have some be true and some not be, as well. Though if you don't want to ruffle feathers, you might want to make up some of the religions that turn out to be false. Or it could be that part of a religion turns out to be true, and part turns out to be really not true.

I should also point out that you don't necessarily have the prime movers of a religion show up - you don't need to bring Jesus out to show Christianity is true, for example. Lesser figures of importance could also come in to play, sharing what of the stories surrounding them were accurate and which weren't - and possibly about what they've experienced since.

You should realize going into this that not everyone will agree with your portrayal. Myths are something that people hold dear, and religion is something many hold much more dearly. And there's not one thing that we all agree on. Even the assertion that there's nothing we all agree on is believed by all.

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