Belief Makes You Stupid: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Convictions cause convicts."''|''[[Principia Discordia]]''}}

{{quote|''We just need to treat religious people with kindness and love, in the same way you'd treat a child running around saying: "I'm a helicopter!"''|'''Simon Amstell''', ''[[Grandma's House|Grandmas House]]''}}

When a work of fiction is insistent on the differences between religious idealism and the realism demanded by the plot, overly religious characters may be portrayed as out of touch with the demands and opinions of the world around them. When said work of fiction is a video game, however, there may be bonuses related to the adherence to faith. May lead to Ideological [[Rock-Paper-Scissors]] if religion, magic, and science [[Science Fantasy|coexist in the same universe]] and are [[Magic Versus Science|out to get one another]].

As with other tropes, this trope is a commentary on Real Life attitudes crafted to suit the purposes of various authors. While like all stereotypes, there's an element of truth, and there is always going to be a [[Vocal Minority|certain percentage]] of religious people who exhibit one or more these characteristics, that does not mean one should assume those characteristics apply to every religious person they meet ''or'' every follower of a particular religion. Each religion should be assessed on as much of its history as possible, along with teachings and merits, rather than tarring some or all with the same brush. On that note, the assumption that religiosity is inherently irrational and/or makes a person that way is one many religious people find ''deeply'' insulting. {{noreallife|we at All The Tropes do not condone bad-mouthing real-world religions, or putting down people for their religious beliefs. Above all, remember the [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement]].}}

== Anime and Manga==

* ''[[Simoun]]'' [[Deconstruction|takes this trope, puts it over its knee, gives it a paddling, whips it with chains, and throws its lacerated corpse in a ditch]]. The series's depiction of its one 'strong atheist' character's bitter, unhelpful, avaricious stupidity and almost palpable, reptilian sleaziness is... quite something. There ''are'' sympathetic non-religious characters, including one of the main romantic leads, but overall this is pretty much the anti-''[[Agora]]'' in its portrayal of religion.

* Termight Empire in [[Nemesis the Warlock]] are religious fanatics seeing aliens as demons, worshipping clearly insane leader as a God and getting themselves killed with undying fanatism. Nemesis' battlecry is ''Credo!'' (''Believe'' in latin), but he points out he means it like "belive in yourself".

* ''[[Agora]]'', focusing on the death of the philosopher Hypatia, depicts Christians as fanatical assholes, in whichwith their fanaticism is raised [[Up to Eleven]] thanks to the sheer intolerance towards pagans and Jews; the "stupid" part of the trope comes from the fact their intolerance blinds them to the point of stupidity, attacking at random with disastrous consequences. The accounts used comescome from pagan writer [[wikipedia:Hypatia#Late Antiquity to the Age of Reason|Damascius]] (who was enemies with the Christians) and Edward Gibbon (a strong atheist).

* Although the [[Discworld]] novels criticize organized religion much more than belief itself, the third ''[[Discworld/The Science of Discworld|The Science of Discworld]]'' book, ''Darwin's Watch'', employs this trope somewhat.

* Subverted in ''[[Tom's Midnight Garden]]''. Abel, the pious caretaker, at first appears to be a superstitious ignoramus, who thinks Tom is a demon; eventually, his belief allows him to recognize that Tom isn't evil. Later, {{spoiler|as discussed in a conversation between Hatty Bartholomew and Tom,}} the fact that {{spoiler|Abel could see Tom}} strongly implies that he was far more perceptive than anyone gave him credit for.

* In ''[[The Pale King]]'', Chris Fogle had nothing but contempt for his religious roommate and his girlfriend.

** ''B5'' as a whole seems to skirt both sides of this trope. On the one hand, it's strongly implied that {{spoiler|the Vorlons}} have been exploiting the religions of various planets to manipulate their societies. On the other hand, most characters with strong spiritual or religious beliefs are portrayed positively, and most are implied to have deeper pools of beliefs than {{spoiler|the Vorlons'}} superficiality.

* Averted hard on ''[[The X-Files]]'', of all shows. Though the presmisepremise of aliens and the paranormal may seem like the antithesis of religion (as it's usually portrayed), religion gets a ''ton'' of screentime during the series. Besides the Monster of the Week episodes that deal with things like stigmata, demonic[[Demonic posessionPossession]], and recordings made by Christ, the show has a lot of religious undertones. However, these undertones aren't "God is responsible for everything on the show" kind of things. More questioning religion and how it came to be. At one point, Scully finds an extraterrestrial engraving that contains passages from the Bible, and Scully herself experiences a birthing experience similiarsimilar to the birth of Christ. This interplay of religion and science also plays large role in Scully's character development. Though a skeptic of Mulder's theories, she is a practicing Catholic and often must reconcile what she's learning with her faith.

** The ''Warhammer 4000040,000'' universe plays with this trope, because there is actually little space for a belief. All tenets of religion (existence of God-Emperor and ruinous powers of Chaos to name the few) are based on facts. The members of clergy (especially members of Inquisition and Adeptus Mechanicus) are usually the best -educated people around.

** The Emperor, agreeing with this trope, outlawed any form of faith so human belief won't empower Chaos anymore. Not only did it didn'tnot workedwork as faith is only a part of Chaos' dite as"diet" (it feeds on emotions as well), but also [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|let everybody in the dark about existence of nasty dark gods and demons that would like to give you great power for terrible price, leading to]] the ''[[Horus Heresy]]''.

* Inverted in the ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' setting ''Planescape'', thanks to heavy use of [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]].

** In the other ''[[The Elder Scrolls|Elder Scrolls]]'' games, it's played with. The way the story is told (player perspective only) and the way said player receives information about the religions (other character perspectives only) most religions claim this about most other religions.

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]''{{'}}s Messians and Gaians. Ye gods. Both, while having many, many good points in favor of their own sides. Still, their favorite method of conversion is essentially beating the other side to death while proclaiming their superiority. Even [[Council of Angels|their own]] [[The Chessmaster|leaders]] don't think that highly of them.

* ''[[South Park]]''{{'}}s general philosophy towards religion seems to be "faith may make you stupid sometimes, but it will probably also make you good (or at least well-meaning)." The episode "All About the Mormons?" especially plays with this; the Mormon family is presented as ridiculously gullible for buying the story of how their religion was founded, but when Stan calls them out for that one of their sons points out that they're also the only family in the entire town who's happy and loving, largely because their church's ''main'' focus is on family values, not religious history.

** Then they still got it a bit off, as the history of the church is a major focus of study (alternating with books of scripture). The origin story is seen as vitally important, as it's the thing the LDS church bases its validity ''on''.<ref>For example, if Joseph Smith didn't have the First Vision and the ''Book of Mormon'' is a hoax, then there goes the keystone of a member's testominytestimony that their faith ''is'' God's restored church.</ref>

** The aesop of the episodes "Go God Go" and "Go God Go XII" is that religion or not, humanity (and sentient otterdom) will [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|still find petty reasons to murder each other]].

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' seems to lean this way in recent seasons, as [[Trope Namer|Ned]] has gotten [[Flanderization|Flanderized]] from "overly religious [[Good Samaritan]]" to "[[The Fundamentalist]] [[Knight Templar]]", usually so he can be arrayed against the more scientifically-minded [[Creator's Pet|Lisa]]. In "The Monkey Suit", Ned's opposition to the teaching of evolution turns the town into a fundamentalist dystopia, and in "You Kent Always Say What You Want" he went on a crusade to cleanse television after Kent Brockman swore in pain upon taking some hot coffee to the lap.<ref>And before that, we see Ned monitoring all TV shows for "impropriety", including Krypto "licking himself" on ''[[Smallville]]'', prompting even his own children to say [[You Need to Get Laid]]</ref>

* Like the game, this is almost played straight in ''[[Dead Space: Downfall]]''. Nearly all the Unitologists are shown as either ignorant, horrible misguided, violent lunatics, and even just plain not right in the head. The biggest exception is Samuel Irons who is portrayed as being the [[Only Sane Man]] among the entire Unitologist sect, as he is clearly aware that the Marker and necromorphs are a threat rather than as a key to ascension. Not only does he help the initially distrustful [[Doomed Protagonist]] Alissa Vincent and her P.C.S.I. Security team cut down the horde of undead marauders, he performs a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] by distracting the necromorphs so that Alissa and her remaining team member helped the survivors escape (which all go in vain of course).