Unwanted False Faith: Difference between revisions

Line 28:

== Fan Fiction ==

* The ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' fanfic, ''[[~~Memoirs of a Master (Fanfic)|~~Memoirs of a Master]]'', has Master Oogway learning that the Mongols consider him a god. Of course, he makes it clear that he wants none of that.

* The ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' fanfic, ''[[Memoirs of a Master]]'', has Master Oogway learning that the Mongols consider him a god. Of course, he makes it clear that he wants none of that.

== Film ==

Line 50:

== Live Action TV ==

* In the later seasons of ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'', Odo resents being revered as a "Founder" by Weyoun and the other Dominion grunts.

* In the later seasons of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Odo resents being revered as a "Founder" by Weyoun and the other Dominion grunts.

** In the early seasons of the same series, Sisko is uncomfortable with being the Bajorans' "emissary", although he gradually comes to accept it. Since Sisko is portrayed as a regular human and the "Prophets" as enigmatic aliens rather then deities, this is [[Unwanted False Faith]]. However, as the series progress, the "Prophets" become less and less of "aliens mistaken for deities" and more and more of [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|actual deities]], with Sisko becoming more and more of the Messiah - so the example is only true for the first few seasons.

* In the ''[[Star Trek ~~the~~ Next Generation]]'' episode "Who Watches the Watchers?", Picard inadvertently becomes a deity to a group of proto-civilization Vulcanoids. Fortunately, he's able to convince them otherwise by referencing the idea of [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] (minimizing the damage to their "natural development") and asking them to consider how their own ancient ancestors might view ''them'' if they were to witness some of the things they could do with even their medieval technology.

* In the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Who Watches the Watchers?", Picard inadvertently becomes a deity to a group of proto-civilization Vulcanoids. Fortunately, he's able to convince them otherwise by referencing the idea of [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] (minimizing the damage to their "natural development") and asking them to consider how their own ancient ancestors might view ''them'' if they were to witness some of the things they could do with even their medieval technology.

* One episode of ''[[~~Red Dwarf (TV)|~~Red Dwarf]]'' was centered on Lister's discovery that the cat civilization had formed a religion vaguely based around Lister and his pet cat from 3 million years ago. He is rather horrified when he realizes that they fought a holy war over what color the hats for his planned doughnut stand should be.

* One episode of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' was centered on Lister's discovery that the cat civilization had formed a religion vaguely based around Lister and his pet cat from 3 million years ago. He is rather horrified when he realizes that they fought a holy war over what color the hats for his planned doughnut stand should be.

* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', the Stargate crew are frequently mistaken for gods in the first five or so seasons, as the villains who pose as gods are the primary users of the gate. Then there was the the time they were mistaken for ''demons''. This is mostly due to the fact that the Stargates on many worlds are left unexplained, and the people there are primitive.

* In the TV version of ''[[The Martian Chronicles]]'', a telepathic, shapeshifting Martian encounters a priest who's undergoing a crisis of faith. Since the priest longs to meet Jesus, his thoughts force the Martian to take on [[Jesus]]' appearance. The Martian begs the priest not to see him as the Messiah because he can't bear the responsibility, and fears he'll be trapped in Jesus' image forever. The priest asks the martian to go whenever he pleases and come back as Jesus only personally for him and only on Easter.

Line 78:

* An unusual example from ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'': The Emperor insisted that the Imperium be devoutly atheistic and banned his followers from worshipping him despite knowing full well that gods exist; his intention was to [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|starve them]] by removing worship. Indeed, the entire reason the Word Bearers fell to Chaos was because they were hurt when the Emperor rebuked Lorgar for worshiping him. Since the [[Horus Heresy]], however, the Emperor has been powerless to prevent the people of the Imperium from venerating him, with the result that one can now make a case for him being an honest-to-Haruhi ''god''.

** Unfortunately for the Emperor, the Chaos Gods are not powered by worship. They are powered by emotion, and existence itself.

* ''[[~~Battle Tech~~]]'' has pulled this one a couple of times.

* ''[[BattleTech]]'' has pulled this one a couple of times.

** Most notably, we have Jerome Blake. A man who simply just to save as much as he could from the inevitable wars between the Great Houses, he set up Earth (and the interstellar phone company based there) to be completely neutral and untouchable, the (secular) guardians of advanced technology, so that civilisation in the Inner Sphere could be rebuilt once the fires of war burned themselves out. One set of 'deathbed revelations' to his 'chosen disciple' later, we have the foundations of the [[Cargo Cult|pseudo-church known as ComStar]], and after a couple of centuries of piled-on dogma and trappings? The [[Church Militant|Word of Blake]] and their Jihad.

** Aleksandr Kerensky would probably classify his post-mortem treatment this way, too. A military man who simply wanted to limit the damage the Inner Sphere could do to itself by denying them large amounts of weapons and soldiers, he would ''not'' have wanted to be remembered as "The Great Father" by the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|warrior]] [[Blood Knight|society]] his son founded. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Especially once the Clans tried to invade the Inner Sphere, starting yet another war.]]

Line 85:

== Video Games ==

* Michael Altman from ''[[Dead Space (~~Franchise~~)|Dead Space]]'' supposedly founded the [[Church of Happyology|Church of Unitology]]. However, he was actually simply a geophysicist who found [[Artifact of Doom|the Black Marker]], and people started worshiping it and called him their Messiah. In an interesting twist at the end of ''[[~~Dead Space Martyr (Literature)|~~Dead Space Martyr]]'', he {{spoiler|was killed by government agents to make him appear as a Martyr, [[Scam Religion|fueling the flames and allowing them to get rich of donations]]. [[Downer Ending|They succeeded]].}}

* Michael Altman from ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'' supposedly founded the [[Church of Happyology|Church of Unitology]]. However, he was actually simply a geophysicist who found [[Artifact of Doom|the Black Marker]], and people started worshiping it and called him their Messiah. In an interesting twist at the end of ''[[Dead Space Martyr]]'', he {{spoiler|was killed by government agents to make him appear as a Martyr, [[Scam Religion|fueling the flames and allowing them to get rich of donations]]. [[Downer Ending|They succeeded]].}}

== Web Comics ==

* Feral animals worship Zach from ''[[~~Housepets (Webcomic)|~~Housepets]]'' as the Opener of Ways, much to his annoyance. They even steal his diary to copy into a sacred text.

* Feral animals worship Zach from ''[[Housepets]]'' as the Opener of Ways, much to his annoyance. They even steal his diary to copy into a sacred text.

== Western Animation ==

* The ''[[The Transformers (~~Animation~~)|The Transformers]]'' episode "The God Gambit" involved a group of Autobots landing on Titan and being worshiped by the inhabitants. Jazz spent most of the episode protesting that no, they weren't gods and never were.

* The ''[[The Transformers (animation)|The Transformers]]'' episode "The God Gambit" involved a group of Autobots landing on Titan and being worshiped by the inhabitants. Jazz spent most of the episode protesting that no, they weren't gods and never were.

* In the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Trapped in the Closet", Stan is mistaken by the [[Religion of Evil|Church of Scientology]] for the reincarnation of [[L Ron Hubbard]], the church's founder. {{spoiler|[[Truth in Television|Though it turns out that L. Ron Hubbard was a fraud, and the Church's current president is simply using Stan as a way to bilk more money out of their followers]].}}

* In the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Trapped in the Closet", Stan is mistaken by the [[Religion of Evil|Church of Scientology]] for the reincarnation of [[L. Ron Hubbard]], the church's founder. {{spoiler|[[Truth in Television|Though it turns out that L. Ron Hubbard was a fraud, and the Church's current president is simply using Stan as a way to bilk more money out of their followers]].}}