The central, unifying, defining teaching of Islam is that there is only one god. It's one of the reasons they hate the Hindus so much. No actually you just defined faith. Anyone with faith has belief despite having no evidence, and keeps it when the evidence is challenged. I imagine the OP could write a scene like the last chamber in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Where Dr. Jones has to make a leap of faith onto a platform painted to look like the chasm below it. A single character with faith might make the leap despite the protests of the other and survive. I don't think you could carry that premise further than one scene however, and when it's all the characters it stops making sense.
MustWrite, I must admit that when I saw this thread, I thought, Oh my is she going to get raked over the coals. Turns out I was correct and that it is very difficult to get any sort of unbiased advice from most of the members here when it comes to anything remotely religious, especially Christianity. All you get is veiled suggestions painted with anti-religious undertones. As for the idea, I think it is a great idea that can be good if written well. Understand that practically any idea can be good if it's executed properly. The first thing I would do is grab your Bible and dig into it. You will find that a thorough study of faith in the Bible will fill in many of the questions you might have. The faith as spoken of by Jesus is a faith that we can’t even imagine. Godly faith is not the same as Webster’s definition of faith. It is the full-hearted, unquestioning knowledge of the power and majesty of God. Obviously, this is not an easy task. James 1:5-8 says: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” If you have a character, or characters, that have the kind of faith that can do all things, it must be done through God, because He is the source of all power. It must also be done with love because we know that God is love and 1 Corinthians 13:2 says, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” So to boil it down, it is not the faith that is powerful, but God who works through people according to their faith. That is the ultimate power behind the heroes of the Bible. If Joshua had not had complete faith in God, the walls of Jericho would not have fell. And as far as the genre of Christian Fiction, it is alive and well and is becoming more popular. More Christian YA books are being received by young people because spiritual fiction is popular right now. Whether it’s Twilight or Harry Potter, Narnia or Eragon, people are flocking to supernatural fiction. Authors can write about the interaction of angels or demons among humans and see miracles performed in their normal, everyday life. Even though we authors wade into the supernatural aspect of Christianity, we are always careful to make sure our characters are examples to the readers of how to live a real life and also how to deal with real-life issues. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors and understand that if you are determined to write a story with Biblical principles, you will come under fire from the secular and anti-Christian crowd. Take it with pride that you are doing something that is right and good and don’t listen to those who would dissuade you.
Well excuse us for not complying to your notion of objectivity. Us being people with shaped personalities makes it hard to please eveyone. And then your hypocrisy shines:
I think the idea can work. The precise implementation may depend on the target audience, but the basic premise can work just as well for Christian or non-Christian audiences. If a non-religious person reads it, they're going to have a different view, reading the story as pure fantasy. But there's no reason they couldn't read it and enjoy it any less than the numerous fantasy books out there that tap into other religions or mythologies and make them 'real' in the book through magic or what have you. If it is targeted at a Christian audience, the emphasis may be more on the truth underlying the story (and by truth, I mean in the view of the author, narrator, or readers, as concerns the power of prayer). I think most readers are pretty open-minded. Give them a great story and they'll go along with you. Seems silly not to read something just because it might have a Christian theme somewhere in it, particularly given how much other religious traditions influence so many works in fantasy.
I don't wish to argue with you. Must Write has a very narrow, specific query which was. 'In a Fantasy based on a Christian spiritual basis, do you think Faith can be used like a super power?' (Emphasis mine.) She had already said it would be based on Christian Biblical principles, and yet most of the suggestions have been to deviate from that instead of giving suggestions based on what she wanted. It's as if someone wanted suggestions on a science fiction idea, and everyone tried to convince them to write a romance instead or belittled their chosen genre. I don't think anyone would argue that personal beliefs have warped the replies in this thread and I think it does a disservice to the OP and it's disrespectful. I would ask everyone to respect MW's decision to write in this genre and give her the same decency you would give anyone else. Like I said, I don't want to argue and I didn't mention anyone specififcally but if I were her, I would feel quite frustrated at this point.
Why? Who here has explicitly stated, or heck, even hinted at, not writing what she wants to write? Did they advise her on the potential market? Yes. Did they warn her of the perception of readers on said genre? Yes. Did they tell her not to do it? No. We also attempted to provide a way to implement a core mechanic of "faith as a superpower", as coherently as possible, because that's what she wanted. I see absolutely no justification for this affront on our replies.
Then we will have to respectfully agree to disagree and leave it at that so we don't clog up Must Write's thread with banter. Cheers.
Fine, but I will leave without an act of goodwill, lest I appear differently from the disgruntled teenager image I have going for me.
I'm sorry, JJ, but I just went back and read over the entire thread, including my comments, and I don't see anything that supports that conclusion. Far from being "raked over the coals", I think those who pointed out some challenges in what she is thinking of doing did so politely and usually pointing out their own predilections before commenting. The only slightly snarky comments I saw were in certain members toward certain other members regarding side comments about various and sundry beliefs. But in the end, the discussion isn't about particular tenets of faith, it's about how those tenets might work when made the basis for a story. And isn't that what we're here to discuss?
Yes, what we are here to discuss is the idea from within the framework the OP is writing in. If the OP is using a Christian Biblical framework for her story, which she says she is, then multiple gods or changing the nature of God is not what she wants. She doesn't wish to 'distance' herself from the Biblical viewpoint of faith and at least two or three people suggested she should reconsider her decision to write this story. Perhaps 'raked over the coals', was too strong a term but the only person that actually supported her idea within the framework she suggested was myself but I will take leave of this thread in the hopes that the OP will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
If I may say so, I think you might be a tad oversensitive because you identify with the viewpoint from which she is writing. But when someone asks if "X" works within a framework of "Y", I have no problem with anyone pointing out why they might think it might not work, and point out some relevant examples as to the segments of the readership for whom it might not work. Then you didn't read a number of comments very carefully, especially mine, Wreybies', GingerCoffee's, KaTrian's and Mckk's. Or did you think that the only way to "support her idea" is to accept the dogma?
Yeah, it all seems super supportive. How could she possibly not be brimming with enthusiasm for all the support she's gotten?
Ah yes, the infinite wisdom of a 13-year-old. This is what adults call, a 'discussion' where two or more people talk back and forth about a subject. We also tend to use what we call 'sarcasm' which is a tool used to show disagreement with a particular point. As an example, I'm using it right now. Cheers.
Don't let haughty adults ruin your youthful innocence. They're just jealous, because they've lost their membership card for the infinite wisdom club. Go teens!
1.) First of all, never insult my age. When you were 13, I'm sure you weren't having discussions with people 2-3 times your age. I'm doing the best I can considering my age level. 2.) When you're quoting something, you use "quotation marks". 3.) I'm not an idiot. I know what sarcasm is. 4.) Let's not start a flame war/"discussion". @Dean Stride Thanks! Go teen club! (That's a clever quote by the way, the thing about the membership card.)
First of all, you might want to also look up 'hypocrisy' because when you come into a thread, offer no original thought to the OP, then proceed to tell another member to stop talking and then say you don't want to start a flame war, you are definately being a hypocrite. Secondly, I am leaving this thread for good this time, as I am not going to get involved in any sophomoric pissing contest. Finally, @MustWrite - I hope my advice and suggestions helped and I hope you can ignore all the detritus this thread has accumulated. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk about your idea further.
I don't know why, but for some reason this all reminds me of Emmanuel Velikovsky, who wrote a book that theorized that the earth's passing through the tail of a comet with which it had nearly collided was the cause of numerous "supernatural" occurrences recorded in the Bible as well as several other ancient religious works. His was based on an analysis of those religious works and the scientific phenomena that could have caused them, thereby resulting in both the scientific and religious communities condemning him and trying to suppress it. Albert Einstein was reportedly reading it when he died. The name of the book was Worlds In Collision.
Uh yeah, not sure what you're on about but there's nothing in those quotes you chose that even remotely resembles coal raking. You fault people for honest replies all the while expecting us to allow you to make accusations about normal behavior being immoral. I do believe that fits the definition of hypocrisy. No one, not even little ol' atheist me, was the least bit disrespectful to anyone's beliefs here, except you.
If you want Faith to be a superpower in your fiction, go for it. Sounds like a cool idea to me. Like others have said, you would have to implement it in a way that made sense, but just about anything can be made to work, especially in fantasy.
So, I went back and read the OP for a third time... I think we can stop right there. This makes it sound like the process of having faith is something doled out by God. As I understand how faith and religion works, one can only develop faith within themselves. What it sounds like the OP wants to use as a basis for the story is more that the characters have somehow obtained a direct line to God. This would be above and beyond simply having faith in His existence. Or, I could be completely wrong about it. But I think the OP needs to chime in here with more explanation before we all argue about whose interpretation of umpteen religions is correct.
So my opinion on the original post is this, and since you quoted the Bible, I'm responding from a Christian standpoint: I do not think you could write a story with faith as a "Superpower". What you could do is write a story with this strand of logic: God has his perfect plan, what humans want is inconsequential and often selfish, a human couldn't say "I'm going to conquer this kingdom" and have God's help if it wasn't part of God's plan. So the true "superpowers", if anything, is being able to hear clearly from God what his plan is, and then having the FAITH to do what God wants you to do. So you could totally have a character who hears from God, and hears a plan or destiny so fantastic he would be crazy to have the faith (trust/courage) to do it. So you could play on the internal struggle of the character trying to have faith, and watch him grow in faith as he sees God follow through on his promise (which could happen in amazing, miraculous ways!). If you had a story where somebody in essence told God when and where to smite, that person is now God, which as awesome as a being He is, does not make for a very good protagonist--no inner conflict. So instead inject inner and outer conflict in the character, have him doubt, "was that really God talking to me?", and have him doubt himself all the way, but still pull through with the "confidence of things hoped for and the assurance of things not seen- Hebrews 11:1"
