History Main / FantasticReligiousWeirdness

* In ''{{Mass Effect 2}}'', Cerberus News had a [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Cerberus_Daily_News_-_March_2010#03.2F30.2F2010_-_Human_Holiday_of_Passover_Celebrated news report]] that Jews in the future are celebrating Passover, and there is some religious argument about whether aliens can be present at the meal. Most agree that yes, they can.

This can be TruthInTelevision. Conferences of real Muslims have grappled with the question of how to pray toward Mecca five times a day while orbiting the earth every 90 minutes. And just how do you determine when Shabbas begins and ends in places that experience polar night and midnight sun? Transgenic foods can also cause confusion when combined with dietary laws. Interestingly, in post-communist Poland exploration of this sort of thing has developed into a real SF genre, called clerical fiction.

* The Catholic Church has debated the idea of extraterrestrial life, and one conclusion they have reached is that not all alien races might be Fallen as humanity is -- which also implies they wouldn't have had a Messiah either as they wouldn't have needed saving in the first place.
** It also suggests that they might have had a different Messiah, and thus live by different rules. Since these would still be from God they would be no less valid than ours. This is bound to get interesting should contact ever happen.

** Regarding the time, the consensus is to pray according to the place one ''took off to the space''. Not sure about the direction, though; probably the same direction as where you took off, as praying while lying facedown and rotating to match the earth's rotation beneath you is ''really difficult''.

** Regarding the time, the consensus is to pray according to the place one ''took of to the space''. Not sure about the direction, though.

* A mild version occurs early in {{Charmed}} when Piper worries that being a witch might make her automatically evil in the eyes of the Church (and her former priest.) Note that she's not at all religious, so it's a bit strange that this is a concern. After angsting the entire episode, she finally walks into the church and ecstatically proclaims herself "good" when she doesn't burst into flame.

* Actual space travel has proven to be... interesting, to say the least, for deciders of Jewish law, as asked by the late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. For example, if one is supposed to pray three times a day (and keep Shabbat one day a week) but one is on a satellite that does a complete day/night cycle in 90 minutes, would he have to be praying nonstop and keep Shabbat every half a day? ([[http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/632169/jewish/Shabbat-in-Space.htm The answer:]] no, just pretend one was in his home city and act accordingly.)

* In ''{{Futurama}}'', Dr. Zoidberg carries many stereotypically Jewish mannerisms, despite being a shellfish. At one point, he is refused entrance to a Bot-Mitzvah. WordofGod (lol) says that his entire race converted to something akin to 20th century East Coast America middle class moderate/reform Judaism because it suited them. And because its funny.

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* Jo Walton's poem [[http://papersky.livejournal.com/443771.html "When we were robots in Egypt"]] portrays a Passover seder as reinterpreted by [=AIs=].

* ''Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell'' is an odd case. In this cosmology, the existence of God, Angels, Demons and Fairies (not to mention heaven, hell and faerie) are all apparently well-established historical facts, and Christianity seems to be true, for some value of true. However, this subject is only touched on briefly.
** It's more that faeries call all humans 'christians,' in the same way we call a diverse universe of very different entities 'faeries.' This is presumably a result of England being the main point of magical anything since the Raven King.

* TheTalmud makes mention of people who would create an ''animal'' {{Golem}} and eat it, presumably without the need for ritual slaughter.

* Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is an odd case. In this cosmology, the existence of God, Angels, Demons and Fairies (not to mention heaven, hell and faerie) are all apparently well-established historical facts, and Christianity seems to be true, for some value of true. However, this subject is only touched on briefly.

** Which is a bit of DidNotDoTheResearch, as an angel could not actually be ordained a priest, and thus could not celebrate mass.

** Most, if not all, Jews currently in existence are humans, and unless I'm mistaken, Human is not kosher, so it's really not all that funny for a shellfish to be Jewish.

* The [[MassEffect2 Cerberus News]] had a [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Cerberus_Daily_News_-_March_2010#03.2F30.2F2010_-_Human_Holiday_of_Passover_Celebrated news report]] that Jews in the future are celebrating Passover, and there is some religious argument about whether aliens can be present at the meal. Most agree that yes, they can.

* Almost the entire ''KittyNorville'' series is about the mundane consequences of vampirism and lycanthropy, so this naturally comes up. One particularly memorable scene in ''Kitty and the Midnight Hour'' has a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] calling into a talk show for religious advice; apparently devout Catholicism and bursting into flame upon entering holy ground make a bad combination. Her advice to him is to read ''Paradise Lost'': she argues that Satan's real sin wasn't the rebellion itself, but afterward, imagining that his rebellion put him beyond forgiveness. Likewise, supposedly, being a vampire might make existence especially inconvenient for a Catholic, but it doesn't have to mean damnation unless he gives up. Heartwarming.

* In F. Paul Wilson's story (later blown up into a novel) "Midnight Mass", it turns out crosses-- ''and only crosses''-- have power over vampire. The Jewish communities (and presumably other non-Christians, though we only know of this through a Jewish character) are completely overrun.

** Of course being a non muslim the author was probably unaware that when you are travelling, or on a voyage, you are exempt from praying. Muslims on ships, are not required to pray and thus by analogy those on the Space Station won't.
*** The last time this troper checked the discussion, the answer was to pray the standard number of times in a subjective day without making a fuzz about the direction, as long as it's towards Earth.

**Of course being a non muslim the author was probably unaware that when you are travelling, or on a voyage, you are exempt from praying. Muslims on ships, are not required to pray and thus by analogy those on the Space Station won't.