Your Pup's Religious/Spiritual Philosophy

[birdseyeview.livejournal.com]

I was chatting with a few people tonight and the topic was the religious or spiritual orientations (or lack thereof) of our pups. Some people said arriving at milliways_bar made their pups believers, some pups always were and some still aren't. And it got me wondering...

- What did your pup believe in before they arrived at Milliways? Or did they? Were they religious, spiritual, atheist or something else entirely?

- Did that change once they entered Milliways?



Ryan _chappy_. A lapsed Catholic, he was pretty well-educated when it came to religion but he didn't have much faith in it. He believed in God and most of that but more because he wanted to, not because he ever really felt that connection or believed in what the Church taught. Generally, he didn't care for organized religion and even tended to think it was more harmful than helpful. I think he once mentioned to not_that_spike how useless he thought priests were. For a long time he was angry at God for his wife getting sick and dying (especially since she was very devout) but he never recognized it because part of him thought it was ridiculous to have strong feelings about God one way or another.

That didn't change a lot once he arrived in Milliways. It was only till he went beyond the door that he really started re-evaluating his beliefs. He still doesn't subscribe to any particular school of thought, just "vaguely Christian". But, unlike before, he feels that there's something after death and Milliways.

Chris geeky_agent. Raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools but self-identified as agnostic since she was in her teens. Whatever faith she had in God died when her mom did and everything that happened after that seemed to reinforce her belief that there wasn't any Higher Power at work. Certainly not a benevolent one. Still, she never considered herself an atheist so some part of her was always wondering.

When she got to Milliways and met up with her (dead) dad, she started to rethink this. She's still not sure what she feels beyond thinking their might be something out there. Sometimes, Chris thinks she'd aptly be called a Deist, sometimes agnostic. She's not sure if there's any belief system that could help her make sense of everything she's seen so she's not really looking for anything more. Just knowing that she could see her parents again was more than she ever expected.

Comments

[muji]

Hahahaha. Hahah. Heh.

Mal Reynolds: Pretty much an athiest, ten ways running away from Sunday.

That can't really stay around too much when you've met an angel, a demon, Death, Dream, and been allowed to see the literal path to an interpretation of Heaven.

He still thinks the God of his 'verse sucks pretty hard most of the time, but he's given up his anger about Him.

[teh-data-fork.livejournal.com]

Ooooo. Tough one, for some of my pups. I'll give them each their own comment so it all looks slightly less TL;DR. *grin*

Adam is, of course, Jewish. Raised Reform, kindasorta still practicing--he half-assedly keeps kosher (although he's definitely been known to eat pepperoni pizza), celebrates Jewish holidays (although he thinks Passover is a pain in the ass), goes to synagogue on extremely rare occasions, and prays a couple times of year, usually around the anniversary of his sister's death. He takes more comfort in the rituals of religion than in the spirit of it, simply because it's what he was raised with and used to--this leads him to observe some pretty orthodox rituals, even though he's practically agnostic sometimes. His mom died when he was 19, and he abandoned religion for a while then, but after Sarah's death, he's kind of picked it back up again a little more in earnest.

[captain-falafel.livejournal.com]

Sayid is slightly complicated--he identifies as Muslim, and practices fairly seriously, keeping halaal and praying daily, but he has a pretty scientific mind and it's hard for him to have complete faith, especially with a lot of the things he's seen in his life.

He's pretty much half atheist and half Muslim, and he practices whatever suits him at the time. When he's in atheist mode, he can come up with a stunning array of rationalizations for why he doesn't have to be a good Muslim, but then once something happens to put him back in Good Muslim Mode, he feels bad and tries to make up for it by being extra-observant. It works for him.

(It did not work for his father, but that...is an entirely different story and I'm going to wait and see if canon ever goes into detail about it.)

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

Ooo!

As per canon, Shelley shelley_winters is C of E Christian and a believer. Her, uh... recent mishaps have almost made her afraid of religion, in a way, because she's seen what an even more fervent believer (Hi, Ishamael!) has become. But deep down, it's made her faith stronger, I think, because it has more powerfully redrawn the boundary between good and evil.

Havelock oneman_onevote believes in the gods. But that's a Discworld thing, the place where gods are likely to up and lightning strike you if you piss them off. He doesn't particularly like them, and thinks that in no way should you lead your life according to their moral dictates, but he will never deny their existence.

Jack othercaptjack was raised in a very vague way. He is open to the idea of religion, but doesn't really feel it. Once he gets into Torchwood-canon, he will start to be more concerned with the question, but for now, he's more likely to have a cocktail and try to seduce the vicar.

The yet-to-be-brought-in Nico grimsister is a closet Catholic. She was an altar girl through her childhood, then her faith lapsed rather abruptly after discovering her parents had lied to her about their true identities. Recently, however, she has grown closer to God, as the leadership of the runaways fell on her shoulders, and often prays quietly when it gets a bit much.

Harth dreamer_fray is... interesting. Obviously, vampire, and so automatically evil, but he's also drawn to religion and questions of right and wrong, because clearly his sense of self-preservation is wonky. He knows more than believes, but he'd be interested to meet a figure of religion.

[angela-edmunds.livejournal.com]

Angela didn't believe in anything much before she came to the bar. She'd gone to church a couple of times and it was 'nice' but that was the extent of it.

Now, she's way more confused about everything, but she still doesn't think about religion much. She tends to identify with Buddhism more than any other religion. She knows that something is Out There--but she's not sure if she should trust anyone or anything anymore.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_righthandman_/]

Chase--and really, I have only just figured this out, and only because I'm being totally meta and making him Irish so he can have shady Departed-esque mob connections like he did in those deleted scenes in canon--

Ahem. Chase is a lapsed Catholic. He likes religion well enough, he thinks God and Jesus are pretty cool and good to try to have on one's side as much as possible, but he thinks all the rules and regulations are complete bullshit. (Chase? Thinking rules are stupid? NEVER.)

Unfortunately, even though it would be fun to play, he doesn't have much leftover Catholic guilt, or periodic urges to confess his sins, or any of that. He's pretty much just happy to have left that stuff behind. If asked, he'd just call himself a generic Christian and be done with it.

Milliways...probably has something to do with this, yeah. After all the things he's seen here, the various beings with various powers that he's met, Catholic rituals just seem kind of petty to him. Not to mention, once one's been an Aes Sedai, even if it was only for a couple of weeks, one has trouble not thinking "Man, I could totally have pwned the Pope."

[angela-edmunds.livejournal.com]

Well, that makes what I wrote above believeable. ;) Thanks!

[maid-of-astolat.livejournal.com]

Elaine was Catholic before she died, and she's Catholic now. It's sort of hard to keep all the sacraments at Milliways, of course, but when she was trapped in Los Angeles for two months, she went to Mass every Sunday, along with quite a few weekdays when she was feeling extra frightened.

Meeting the Celtic god of Death, the Endless, etc. didn't change much for her.

[poisonwine]

Belle's as good a Catholic as she can be. She holds (and held) some belief in the Loa, from hearing about them from Mattie, but never really practiced voodoo herself. Coming to Milliways hasn't changed that a bit, but she does feel more secure about the state of her soul, thanks to Wolfwood.

Cereal believes in what he can see and hack. Gods are for those who need them, and he doesn't. Not that he denies they exist, but he just. . .doesn't care.

Essex has no faith in anything. He's seen enough of the world to conclude that there is no order, there is no god. Just the process of natural selection and evolution. Darwin is his prophet, The Origin of the Species his bible.

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

Hey, I love discussions like this!

If YT were asked if she believed in God, her answer at this point would probably be "no, but I've met a few." Back where she comes from, a lot of major religions are franchised - for instance, the evangelical Christian Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates, which was one of the parties responsible for spreading the Asherah virus, or the (presumably) New Age Neo-Aquarian temple. In her canon, the Neo-Aquarians are not really mentioned, although YT says that her mother belongs to that particular religion. I don't think YT herself really cares about it, though. As I play her, she's a little more thoughtful about religion than most folks are, as a result of hanging out with the "radical rosary-toting Catholic" Juanita Marquez.

I think her attitude is best summed up in the following example: when YT was hired by the Mafia to help them intercept a delivery to a Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates franchise, she figured that she was double-crossing God, but God may or may not exist and in any case is capable of forgiveness. The Mafia, on the other hand, definitely exists and hews to a much higher standard of obedience.

Mouse (l33t_mouse) is a sprite, and we've established that sprites don't have a religion. They consider the Users sort of like gods, although before coming to Milliways, Mouse had seen enough different systems with different users of varying levels of computer competence that she did not consider them to be godlike or all-powerful in general. She was also led to suspect what turned out, in fact, to be the case: that Users don't really notice the existence of sprites.

Zhaan (azure_mercy), who should be along soon, is a priest, and has always believed in the existence of her Goddess. She may sometimes question what the Goddess does, but never her existence or her ultimate goodness. When Zhaan ends up in Milliways, she is going to believe that the Goddess has a reason for placing her there.

I am toying with the prospect of apping Juanita Marquez, also from Snow Crash - she's that radical rosary-toting Catholic I mentioned - whose views on God and religion are very weird and interesting. But I want to try not to have two characters from the same canon.

[pheliskougra]

vaapadmaster is a Jedi. God could be the source of the Force, or an embodyment of it. He is spiritual, not exactly religious.

lichvell_r knows gods are real, but worships none, yet. Unlikely to worship a 'good' deity.

grovecj probably was raised with some religious background, catholic, maybe baptist, but has lapsed a good while ago. It's hard to be an OG and a religious guy.

cf1 is a lapsed... something. Protestant? Not like her canon ever delved much deep on those subjects.

beloserz is technically a protestant, but as many teenagers, cares little for actual religion.

7twistedwishes is the devil. She surely believes in God, how could she not?

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

Atton (stuck_mynock is difficult to define as far as religion goes. Because on the one hand, he's a Jedi, who are essentially a monastic order of sorts, especially if you see the Force as a deity (and there are those in KOTOR2 who see it as such). But on the other hand, being religious implies having faith in something, and as the Force is a very solid and undoubtedly real thing in the SW universe, there's not really any faith involved.

If I had to make a clear choice, I'd say he's really not religious at all, because he likely views the Force more as a tool than a deity. But he's still a monk, of sorts, so that's iffy.


Victor diablorobotico identifies himself as a Catholic, and we know from canon that he prays at least sometimes, and that his mother was fairly religious, too. We're also told that Ultron programmed him to be 'super-religious,' so it's safe to say that he has fairly strong religious leanings. That said, he's done things that a very devout Catholic probably wouldn't (premarital sex, for a start), so whether he's devout per se is debateable.


Chichiri monk_with_mask is religious. He's identified as a Zen Buddhist in canon (and moreso, as a paragon of what a Zen Buddhist should be) but it probably wouldn't be too far off to say that he worships Suzaku, as well, or at least that he acknowledges and highly respects Suzaku.


Dalek dalekity isn't religious, and it views religion with a rather undue amount of disdain.


Urahara exiled_inventor may be religious, or he may not be. It's never brought up in canon, and I don't really know either way, so it's probably not going to be made millicanon either way, either. Considering he knows what happens after death, which is a pretty major part of most religions, I'd be fairly surprised if he was religious.

[misslucyjane]

Charlie (bloody_rockgod) is canonically Catholic, and he's had a hard time reconcilling his religion to his lifestyle. In-game his faith has taken some hits as well as been bolstered, and he finds the rituals comforting when other things are so uncertain. He attends Mass occasionally and is currently fasting for Lent, and just tries to do the right thing as he understands it. (Someimes with better success than others.)

Boromir (sonofwhitecity) believes in "might for right." He believes in the Middle Earth gods but they don't have much effect on his day-to-day life.

Jack (jack_inthegreen) is a god, so of course he believes in himself. His religion is pretty much: be kind to each other, take care of your littles ones and your fields, and have sex with joy.

Those are the only characters that I've really thought about their spirituality.

[callitavesper.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. This one. I've been thinking on and off recently about this one's religious leanings. It's easy to say, at first, that a man who lives a dangerous and hedonistic life like Bond doesn't believe in God and pays no heed to religion. And it's true that he doesn't pay heed to religious teachings, but he respects religion itself. He respects the people who have it. For him, however, it doesn't work--though he wishes it did.

On the manna from Sony official dossier (http://www.sonypictures.co.uk/movies/casinoroyale/site_html/dossier/index.php) for Casino Royale!Bond it says that "Bond has chosen to identify with order and tradition," and nothing is more orderly and traditional than religion. But his life leaves no room for religion. He doesn't always know where he'll be on Sunday, doesn't know if he'll be in England or in another country whose language he doesn't speak, or if he's too busy doing his job to even go to church. That, and he doesn't intend to give up fornication any time soon (I doubt his girlfriend would want him to give up fornication, either). He's not above wandering in to a church and silently worshiping, though, but he doesn't participate in the sacraments and really doesn't do much more than sit there.

I want to say he identifies as Anglican (Church of England), though I'm waffling because neither of his parents were English (his father's from Scotland and his mother from Switzerland), though that really means nothing. They could've always been Anglican or one of them could've converted or his aunt could've been Anglican and forced Bond to convert or Bond could've converted himself (in that he just woke up one day and decided to attend an Anglican church rather than go through the formal process of conversion). In any case, Bond would most likely choose the Anglican church simply because he strongly identifies himself with his country, and therefore it would make sense to identify religiously with the official state Christian church.

[minkhollow]

The only one of mine I actually know anything about in this regard is Angel, who's very much a lapsed Catholic. His grandmother was more devout than his parents, though he still grew up with the stuff around. It never really stuck, and by the time he got to high school he'd more or less given up on it (this is where we eye certain Church social issues that are not so welcoming of the drag queen bit).
I don't think Milliways has done much to change that, especially since he fell in with the 'no day but today' philosophy. Angel's very much inclined to take things as they come and make the best of it.

[cheerychaplain]

I think -- Father Mulcahy is just about the only one of mine who is even remotely religious (and Hawkeye in particular is a strong atheist or agnostic in my head, though there's just so damn much canon and it's been so long since I've seen certain seasons that it's entirely possible that this is referenced at some point and I've just forgotten), and he, of course, is, you know. Very religious, being a priest and all. To say that his faith is an integral part of him would be a gross understatement.

I know this wasn't quite the question, but this makes him really difficult for me to play, sometimes. I'm lapsed Catholic turned agnostic myself, so most of the rites and prayers I can do, but when pups start questioning his belief and devotion -- those threads are some of the most rewarding, but I find myself agreeing with the questioner sometimes more than I do with the questionee. I really, really worry about whether or not I'm doing him and his spirituality justice. So if he ever is unconvincing in matters of faith -- that is probably entirely my fault rather than the pup's.

As for Milliways, it hasn't changed much of anything to do with Mulcahy's faith. He thinks that the entire place is under the good Lord's jurisdiction, and that the Landlord is God. And just like His wonders, from time to time, the place doesn't make much sense, but that doesn't make it bad.

[first-sixth.livejournal.com]

I myself have always loved the good Father's response to a mention of how highly Hawkeye regarded him as a man of the cloth:

"That crazy agnostic..."

(I very much sympathise with having pups who have oodles of canon to keep straight, and attempt to recall at a moment's notice. I don't have quite so many seasons, but what I do have can be monumentally confusing at times. Kudos to you for taking both of them on, particularly when one is so devoutly religious; you are a braver mun than I!)

[always-a-liar.livejournal.com]

For Mine....

Nina Myers has always seemed an indifferent agnostic to me before and during her time at Milliways. She just doesn't care one way or another.

By Robert Jordan's statement, WoT pups tend to be quite religious as the evidence of the divine is sort of unequivocally manifested, and this precludes the need for organized religion. Mine range the spectrum with this regard.

Mesaana believes in the Creator and the Dark One and all (having spoken to one of them face-to-face) but she really doesn't care one way or another as long as the latter is meeting her ends.

Asmodean is much the same way, but he's more religious by upbringing than Mesaana.

Lyrae, however, is quite devout in her belief in the Creator, and her opposition to evil as manifested in the Dark One. In Milliways, this hasn't changed as she tends not to have things shake her faith, simply regarding the Creator as more baffling than before.

Elan Morin is the True Believer as Amy mentioned above. A philosopher/theologian (they're practically synonymous in WoT) by trade, and incredibly devout as well, Elan Morin believes that he is operating under the mandate of heaven, and that his service to the Dark One is truly the right thing on a cosmological scale. It is to note that lots of direct contact with his deity has warped his mind as Elan, unlike the others, truly believes in the Dark One's cause and wants to understand his deity. Even after having his faith shaken during the current plot, The Last Temptation, it is nonetheless too ingrained within him to give up.

[newredshoes]

Satine was brought back from the dead. By a Greek god. She might have been Catholic once, but really, her religion is Bohemianism. She was really the one with the greatest chance of being changed by Milliways, but I don't think it has, at its core. More aware of the naturalness of the supernatural, yes, but not ascribing it to God.

Prometheus, like jack_inthegreen, totally believes in himself. But there's nothing spiritual about him: his religion would almost be mankind, if that makes any sense. Being a god doesn't impress him by default.

Gromit and Mr. Gumby aren't concerned, I think... although I believe there's been a Gumby in high clergy a time or two in Flying Circus. Scar probably ascribes to some sort of ancestor worship, but loosely. I don't think he buys into the Circle of Life very much, given what his rule looks like.

Lincoln Six-Echo just has no idea. It's as foreign to him as sexuality was, once upon a time. I don't think he'd take to it too easily, though -- hard to believe in an all-powerful Creator when you're a clone whose sponsor tried to shoot you and whose engineer tried to strangle you with his own two hands.

Matt Albie is an atheist Jew, and famously antipathetic to organized religion, especially evangelical Christianity. One of the major driving forces in his canon is that he's desperately in love with a very religious Southern Baptist, and they can't spend five minutes together without intense clashes.

[bcgphoenix]

It's weird, because for as long as I've been playing Wash, I still haven't really figured out that much about his religious beliefs. It just isn't that important to him. I guess you could classify him as agnostic or spiritual, but he's got a more...oh, what's the word. Not existentialist, but believing that what happens now, and what we do when we're alive, is more important than what happens afterward or where we go when we're dead. He's very much one of those people who enjoys the ride more than the destination.

(Probably because he knows for certain what the destination's going to be now. Before Milliways, I think the uncertainty might've made him a little more twitchy about it.)

Mac's Episcopalian, but not devout by any stretch; she's one of those casual "biannual Christians" who rarely goes to church outside of Christmas or Easter. To her, God exists, and that's about it.

As for Mercer and Sam? That should be pretty obvious. *g*

[gorgonfondness]

Ooh, now here's a fun discussion.

Mia's beliefs are in a state of limbo for the time being & have been that way since before she came to Milliways. She believed in her world's goddess, Althena, who turned out to be reincarnated as a girl named Luna that she became friends with. Luna is no longer Althena (but she used divine power to prophesy enough to know the events of Lunar 2 & of course can still use her singing to heal), but most of the world doesn't know this & celebrations are still held in Althena's honor. She can truthfully say she believed in Althena, but she's not sure if she can say she believes in Althena. Dionysus suggested that Althena is still a goddess as she hasn't lost the support of her followers, but it is a fuzzy point of debate.

[adiva_calandia]

Nita (nita_callahan), Carmela (i_grenfelz), Charles Wallace (thisfatefulhour), and Eustace (deserved_it) all come from fairly spiritual canons, though they all approach spirituality and religion in different ways. F'r instance, Nita -- and Carmela to a lesser extent -- are fully aware of the Powers, but don't feel a need to worship Them. Doing Their work is more important. Milliways hasn't significantly changed the faith of any of those four.

Ann (beautiful_ann) is sort of vaguely religious, I think, but Milliways didn't change her views much.

Now Guinevere (mother_lost), on the other hand, was devoutly religious in life, dying as an abbess in Amesbury. She knew there were things beyond mortal ken, as it were, because of the Light's "help," but she was stil essentially Catholic. When she came to Milliways, she continued to live her life -- or, well, death -- in a Christian manner, but she started to open her mind. I could even pinpoint the threads where she started to wonder about the fallibility of God's plan, and her role in it. *grin* That's all because of her experiences in Milliways -- especially her conversations with Mordred.

Jennifer (still_golden) is canonically Catholic, but I think we can safely say that became lapsed Catholic after she was tortured and raped by Rakoth Maugrim. Fun times, yes?

Neither Valerie (evryinchbut1) and Tom (re_mybrains) are very religious. Religious zeal got Valerie kicked out of her home and eventually killed her ("Unity through Faith" sound familiar?), although she keeps a certain kind of faith in God and love; Tom has a hard time keeping any sort of faith when his world has been overrun by hordes of the undead. Neither of them have interacted with the sort of people who might change that, yet -- but it's definitely the sort of character point I'd like to play with sometime.

[mapmakerchur.livejournal.com]

Chur, mapmakerchur, believes in the gods about the same way that Pyanfar (who we see a lot more thoughts from, in the novels) does - she bargains with them and curses them, but never actually prays or worships. I'm not really sure how a planet-side hani would worship; all I know from canon is that there are multiple gods. This hasn't changed with being in Milliways, since none of the gods she's met have been hani deities, and she never thought there was only one, or even only one set.

Ben, beenthenumbers, hasn't encountered any of the Milliways deities yet. Canonically, he's an atheist for nearly-complete lack of exposure to religion. At one point he refers to preachers on a space station "selling time-shares in their particular afterlife", or something to that effect, so I guess he'd be willing to buy into (pun intended) a particular deity or pattern of worship, here.

[gethenian.livejournal.com]

See, this is a cool thread, as it's something I actually give thought to with my pups but am rarely able to play out.

Miniver Cheevy is a lapsed Catholic. Even his highly dysfunctional family got off their asses and went to Church every Sunday. He sang in the choir and took Catechism classes and had all the sacrements and whatnot up to Confirmation. He quit practicing after about 16, but still places some weight on his beliefs out of deeply ingrained habit.

Faramir is from Middle Earth, and religion there is... interesting. Specifically, it doesn't exist, as such. There is no organized religious group. A lot of this stems from the fact that the gods are less a matter of faith and more a matter of historical fact. Mainly the authority figures -- Kings and whatnot -- are the ones who hold up any religious practices there are. In the book, Faramir leads his men in something resembling a prayer, but it's not the same as most religions as we think of them in our world. I would say that Faramir is a very highly spiritual person, but not religious.

The fox... is a fox. Like Faramir, he's very spiritual, in a sort of philosophical sense, and while he accepts that there are gods in Milliways, I don't think he has any particular belief in animal gods, and certainly none in the gods of mankind. After all, they are human. They have nothing to do with him.

Harry Potter... is... um... does the wizarding world have religion? If he's anything, it makes the most sense to assume he's Anglican Chistian, since my understanding is that most of England is. I don't think he thinks about it... ever.

Megara believes in the gods of ancient Greece. She'd better -- one of 'em presently owns her soul. She'll be all buddy-buddy with him when Bar lets her go. And hey -- her future boyfriend is the son of Zeus. Whee?

Foaly (who should be back in the bar next week and more actively played) has this whole fairy religion thing. There's a Book. It has laws and stuff, having to do with entering houses uninvited and alcohol and fairy magic and... things. Foaly doesn't have magic, but he compensates rather gloriously. However, in the books, he's been shown to be fairly disdainful of what the Book says and uses technology to find ways around it. Because the retributions of going against the Book's laws are immediate and apparent, you can't really call Foaly an athiest, but if fairy "religion" functioned more like human religion and less like magic, he would be.

Religion in Sheogorath's canon is FASCINATING, but apparently a new expansion has gone and turned his part of it on its head, so I'll leave that one alone for now and just say that the big secret of the Tribunal priests is that they all know they're living in a video game. ;D

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

Thank god, someone that makes the distinction that Iluvatar and the Valar aren't gods in the way that most people understand them. :-) I've read pretty much everything by Tolkien - the Sil, the Hobbit, LOTR, and most of the HOMES - and the cosmology is fascinating to say the least, but I've never considered the Valar or Iluvatar as anything remotely resembling conventional gods, what with the Valar being aspects of the song of Iluvatar, etc.

[silveraspen]

What an intriguing discussion! Most of mine haven't changed, actually, but there's one who has and still is and for whom that change is really significant. I'll get to that in a moment.

As for the others,

Moiraine

believes in the existence of the Creator and the Dark One, and is devoted to opposing the latter. That's pretty much it.

Kim Ford

is aware of the existence of multiple gods in Fionavar; I don't think she was traditionally religious in an Earth sense.

Sam Winchester

is, and prays every day; canon tells us so, in a Catholic context, and we see him running his fingers over the chain of a rosary once, but Sam doesn't talk about it much at all. (Seriously. Dean didn't even know.)

Frank Black

's Catholic-style (nonpracticing) faith is shaken, but remains, at least for now.

Megwyn

is a sort of direct servant sent by a goddess (although that's mostly a secret from the Heralds) and well, there you go, right?

Jack Sparrow

doesn't care. Whatever he's aware of in a traditional religious context, he's got different concerns, mostly focused on the presence and power of the Sea herself, along with evading hell in the form of Davy Jones' locker. (Oddly enough, the Endless fit easily into Jack's world view; personifications of power are something he's got canonical reason to easily accept. See also Davy Jones, for one. Some of that's shown in Millicanon as well, but there'll be more on that in May, I'm betting. *grin*)

Blodwen Rowlands

is not traditionally religious and never has been (or will be); for most of her existence, she's been one of the most powerful agents of the Dark, which really negates human practice of any sort.

Susan Delgado

is in the clearing, which is the only expression of any practice of faith that she herself ever had, although she was aware of the basic existence of at least one branch of Mid-World's crazily altered Catholicism, and able to set it in context thanks to talks with Aziraphael.

Which brings me to the last--

Gabriel Tam

.

Gabriel's journey of faith is intriguing for me because it was unexpected. It started when Crowley took the form of an angel in bar and asked, "Are you a man of faith?" At the time, he wasn't. Oh, he was aware of the existence of religion in a general sense, but was himself more of an atheist-- or maybe an agnostic, at most. Gabriel was (and is) a logical man, and logic decried such things, for him.

Being confronted by a judgmental "angel" has an effect. Being given the grace of forgiveness and understanding in later conversations with a real angel has more of one.

Since that day, Gabriel Tam has taken Aziraphael's two key statements ("I wouldn't be here if you were a bad man, Gabriel." "What matters now is what you do next.") as a personal touchstone and driving directive for what he intends to do in life, always. His business partner is a demon, yes, but he counts that off to the side because Aziraphael does. It's confusing, but he just doesn't think about it much.

However. Lucifer has both struck a deal with and directly threatened his kids, and he does think about that. And why that might be. And what it might mean.

"What matters now is what you do next." Gabriel will be living that out over the next few months, in a very real way.

(And if anyone reading this has a character with a strong faith-based practice, please talk to me? I would love Gabriel to meet them.)

[Now reposted with text accent for ease of reading.]

[watchmakers_son]

Canon's only touched on it briefly, if you can call three walls of insane, bloody scribblings "touching on it," but so far all signs point to Sylar being raised in a devout Catholic family. I don't think he believed it himself, in the sense of moving beyond the rituals to find the spiritual meaning and reasons behind them, but he probably didn't have to -- considering his OCD-like tendencies, it's likely that religion was about the ritual for him.

Needless to say, he's, uh...lapsed since then. A lot. *wry grin* But being raised in religion means that in some ways, it still informs his thinking. He's got shades of what an utterly devout fundamentalist would be like if they focused on evolution instead of God: an easy acceptance of predestination; believing that his actions are meant to reach some higher, better goal; the security of knowing that his way is the right way and thus superior to everyone else's.

Milliways has done its best to challenge that thinking, but so far, it hasn't broken down his convictions -- and I don't see it doing so any time soon. Lashing out in anger is a much more likely action for him than ever admitting he might be wrong.

[milkbonesoldier.livejournal.com]

Oooh, gosh.

Wells milkbonesoldier was nominally Church of England, but was never very religious. I think his telling of the Eddie Oswald story in canon indicates that pretty clearly. He figured that sort ofthing wasn't really all that relevant, although he consented to a church wedding (Annie wanted one) and to having his daughter baptised (it seemed the thing to do). He made friends with the Greek god Hephaestos at Milliways, though, and over the course of his years on the run found himself addressing prayers to Heph whether Heph could hear them or not. That's pretty much who he prays to these days, when he prays at all, and if someone asks him about his religion or what god he follows he'll tell them that Hephaestos is his god. Anyone who raises the possibility of Ares as being more suitable for a former career soldier will be laughed at.

Ray gone_byebye stands by what he said in canon when Winston asked him if he believed in God: he's never met Him. He's met other gods by the boatload in the course of his cartoon canon, and in Milliways as well, but he has no particular religious impulses. He sort of gets squirmy whenever The Question comes up and tries to change the subject, unless the person asking is affiliated with Foxtrot X-Ray, in which case he just triest o explain.

Whistler dontlooklisten comes from a largely Methodist family in Ohio. He's not particularly religious and never has been. I think the most I can get out of him in terms of his interaction with God amounts to a couple of prayers of thanksgiving for a) his ears and b) a penal system that puts blind guys in penitentiaries where they're less likely to end up on the wrong end of the other inmates.

Quinn twoeyesonthesky is a reactional atheist. The churches, the synagogues, the mosques, and all the other houses of worship burned when the dragons came, just the same as everything else. If he ever encounters God, he's going to punch him in the face and start screaming- or at least he always thought so until coming to Milliways and meeting Aslan. He's not so sure now. Angry interrogation, maybe.

Annie Wells stubborn_annie is Church of England and a genuine believer. She's willing to concede the existence of multiple deities, especially after what happened to Harry changed her view of the world in general, but the only one that's hers is the God of the Church of England.

The Brigadier fiveroundsrapid isn't giving me any answers on this one beyond a vague 'why are you asking me silly questions' look.

Belar, alorn_bear, believes it's the duty of a God to teach and guide and love his mortal children, to let them make their own decisions and take their own actions, and to never, never ever play favorites among those who call themselves his. A good God loves all His children equally.