Paganism in "Realistic Fiction"

[Czidnoma]

Byaggha

Daniel is love.

surprised heart

Adventurous intellectuals for the win. ^^ He was the only reason I watched that show for a long time. He was always the one with the most interesting moral dilemmas and relationships.  

[Cranium Squirrel]

Czidnoma

He was always the one with the most interesting moral dilemmas and relationships.

And quite possibly the most deaths in a TV series. 3nodding  

[Czidnoma]

Byaggha

And quite possibly the most deaths in a TV series. 3nodding

o.o Ah, that's right. Well, Kenny of South Park has more, but Daniel wasn't far behind. I recall: mental illness, suicide, sacrifice, murder, possession, and more than a few diseases. Good thing he had a lot of friends with sarcophagi.  

[Bastemhet]

Byaggha

Bastemhet

Brass Bell Doll

Bastemhet

The premise of the movie Stargate really irritates me. My gods are not kidnapping, power hungry aliens, thank you very much. Problem is some people DO believe that. stare

Do you feel that this stems from the Sumarian beliefs and is being applied generically to all pantheons, or do you feel it was random?

I don't know. I don't know too much about other religions besides my own. I just figured it was some sort of sci-fi fantasy being played out through use of the Kemetic pantheon since there were already conspiracy theories that they built the pyramids, or helped with their construction.

It gets really fun when they start saying EVERY pantheon has that issue in the TV series. Chinese works of art and great building? Their pantheon was aliens! Nordic people develop really good weapons manufacture? Aliens! Greek fire and construction? Aliens!

Everything is aliens with these people. xd

Oh, I see what Brass was getting at now. I never actually watched the series; once I saw the movie I thought "That's about all I need to see of this vein of thought." *shrug*  

[TheDisreputableDog]

Bastemhet

Brass Bell Doll

Bastemhet

The premise of the movie Stargate really irritates me. My gods are not kidnapping, power hungry aliens, thank you very much. Problem is some people DO believe that. stare

Do you feel that this stems from the Sumarian beliefs and is being applied generically to all pantheons, or do you feel it was random?

I don't know. I don't know too much about other religions besides my own. I just figured it was some sort of sci-fi fantasy being played out through use of the Kemetic pantheon since there were already conspiracy theories that they built the pyramids, or helped with their construction. What are the Sumerian beliefs that relate to this?

I think they took the "aliens built the pyramids" hypothesis and ran with it. I actually love Stargate, although it probably helps that I don't deal with it intellectually. For example--I haven't seen every episode because I started late and there are A LOT of them so I could be wrong about this--I'd love it a whole lot more if they ever decided YHWH is/was an alien, although Jesus could've been an Ancient or an ascended human like Merlin.  

[Yanueh]

TheDisreputableDog

For example--I haven't seen every episode because I started late and there are A LOT of them so I could be wrong about this--I'd love it a whole lot more if they ever decided YHWH is/was an alien, although Jesus could've been an Ancient or an ascended human like Merlin.

It won't happen, ever. The creators knew that if they ever tried to incorporate anything from the Abrahamic religions, they'd be opening a huge can of worms.

The closest they came to Christianity was with the Ori, who were supposed to represent oppressive fundamentalism in general, and even that ended up being a controversial move.


Also, the new episode of Bones (The Witch In The Wardrobe) had a few groaners:

-When the skeleton of a Salem victim is found hanging in someone's closet, everyone's reactions are "OMG! It's the body of a witch!" The concept that the Salem witch trials were a class war/moral panic that claimed the lives of people who were unlikely to be witches was never brought up.
-A "Wiccan" priestess acts like using magic for personal gain is the most awful things in the world.
-There were no men in the coven, let alone a priest.
-Wiccans are referred to as "white witches."
-The psychologist, Dr. Sweets, refers to the pentacle as "an ancient Wiccan symbol." (Of course, Sweets is something of a doofus anyway, and a mistake like that wouldn't be out of character for him.)
-And possibly a couple more I'm forgetting at the moment.