History CowboyBebopAtHisComputer / MythAndReligion

* Because of Catholicism being the most visual form of Christianity in the West, as well as the presence of ThePope as a clearly identifiable leader figure, it is often associated in mainstream culture with various ideas coming from Protestant groups. Some examples:

** The idea that the Catholic Church endorses creationism and has persecuted evolutionists in the past, to the point where it is cited as THE force behind the controversy surrounding Darwinism. The official teaching of the Church is that the question of evolution vs. creationism is irrelevant to salvation and therefore everyone is free to take whatever stance they want on that. Also, this has actually been the Church's '''first''' official statement concerning evolution, made in the early 20th century. The controversy over Darwinism was primarily an Anglican thing. Plus, many non-religious naturalists of Darwin's time were also against his theory.

** The idea that the Antichrist is a character in the Bible is the result of this trope combined with something like {{values dissonance}}. Centuries of religious scholars struggling to find ''something'' new and fresh to say about Scripture, millennia after the stuff was written, is bound to produce some unusual theories.

** And oft-repeated snarky comments about "super-short pregnancy", since the Feast of Immaculate Conception comes shortly before Christmas. The Feast of Annunciation is exactly 9 months before Christmas. Furthermore, the vast majority of Christians is fully aware that 25th of December is not the actual birth date of Jesus.

** Most people more familiar with a Judeo-Christian mythology feel the need to assign all mythological characters to either good or evil. As such, most Native American tricksters tend to be thought of as AlwaysChaoticEvil. Coyote in particular is often given this treatment, sometimes even referred to as something like "the Native American devil". In fact, Coyote is, by and large, simply ChaoticNeutral. He is sometimes malicious, to be sure, but he is just as often a culture hero.

*** And of course, the Sioux use a spider as a trickster animal, but it's never noticed, because there's nothing trickster-like about building traps.

*** Given the views on both the Irish and Catholics at the time, that might actualy answer a few questions.

*** "Never again the Burning Times!" Wiccans were not burned at Salem. Women accused of witchcraft (who were innocent but had land the accuser wanted) were.

* Buddhism is a frequent victim of this. Budai (also known as Fat Buddha) is often mistakenly called Buddha in the West. While he is -A- Buddha, he is not -THE- Buddha.

* [[http://www.answersingenesis.org/ Answers in Genesis]] complains about people taking them out of context and misrepresenting their position? Oh, irony thy name is Ken Ham...
** your point?

** Most people more familiar with a Judeo-Christian mythology feel the need to assign all mythological characters to either good or evil. As such, most Native American tricksters tend to be thought of as AlwaysChaoticEvil. Coyote in particular is often given this treatment, sometimes even referred to as something like "the Native American devil". In fact, Coyote is, by and large, simply ChaoticNeutral. He is sometimes malicious, to be sure, but he is just as often a culture hero.

* TheBible is perhaps the most common victim of this in the history of mankind. And unfortunately, the ones usually making these sorts of errors are the very devout. In fact, recent polls have shown that atheists tend to know more about the Bible than the devoutly religious.

* [[TwoWordsObviousTrope One word]]: Revelations.
* NativeAmericanMythology has a lot of cases of one god being put in another tribe's mythos, conflation of transvestites with contraries (people who do everything backward), adn the like.

* [[http://www.answersingenesis.org/ Answers in Genesis]] complains about people taking them out of context and misrepresenting their position? Oh, irony thy name is Ken Ham...