[text; wee hours of the morning]

[medalsome]

Do you believe in God? Gods? Do they exist where you're from? What about angels or demons or anything like that?

Where I'm from the existence of gods is hard to deny. People are pretty devote and religious. Church is an intrinsic part of our culture. It takes someone pretty hardheaded or self-centered to deny the existence of higher powers, but here there's not much emphasis on religion. Guess I'm just kinda curious now. Is it more like my home in your worlds, or more like this one?

[Joaquin may be slightly drunk, or perhaps he's just tired.]

Comments

[medalsome]

It runs on faith then. That's not a bad thing; sometimes people just need something to believe in to get them through the day. I'm glad to know there are more religious worlds out there.

I've never heard of Shinto before. Is there a reason you don't follow it? People in my country tend to be Catholic, but not all the gods of my country are related to the Catholic church.

[dualismum]

I never had a reason to believe in a god or a religion, I think.

But Shinto is an action-centered religion, focused on ritual. There are a multitude of gods, called Kami, suited to various purposes, and there are no absolutes - no absolute right or wrong and nobody is perfect. Shinto says humans are fundamentally good, thus they can be purified of their evil deeds; this evil is often caused by evil spirits, thus the purpose of the rituals is to keep them away by purification, prayers and offerings to the kami.

Japan does have Christianism and Catholicism, but there is a smaller percentage of people who follow it. But we did sort of adopt some of the Christian's rituals. We celebrate Christmas, for example.

[medalsome]

I don't think it's required for there to be a reason to believe in God.

I like the idea that people are fundamentally good. Being able to cure yourself of sin also sounds nice. You can repent and ask for forgiveness in my religion but sometimes I wonder if that's all that's really needed to return to being pure.

Oh, that's neat. Christmas is a lovely time, but I wonder why it's celebrated if Christianity isn't followed as much in your country.

[dualismum]

[ rather, he has more reasons to believe there is no god, than there being one. See: his whole life is one big FUCK - like, what god would even allow this? ]

It's considered a very positive religion. But I don't think others are negative, either. [ unless it's about killing and maiming, then no. But anyway- ]

And well, we don't really celebrate Christmas as the birth of Christ. It's known as more of a time to spread happiness rather than a religious celebration and, for example, Christmas eve is thought of as a romantic day for couples to exchange gifts.

Honestly, it's a commercial celebration.

[medalsome]

Oh. Christmas isn't romantic at all during my time, I'm my world. It's a festive holiday, one of celebration! But I guess that's okay to have different Christmases.

I don't think I've ever heard of a bad religion. Maybe I have just been lucky.

[dualismum]

Every country has their own way of celebrating something. Japan quite enjoys western holidays, but they are just celebratory days, not actual holidays to us.

Well, considering the number of different worlds there is out there, I wouldn't be surprised if there is one. I'm glad I haven't heard of one, either.

[medalsome]

Okay, that makes sense.

Yeah. Things are already pretty complicated with the ones I do know about.