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Being around for thousands of years doesn't prevent some stories from falling victim to Cowboy BeBop at His Computer. This is a massive problem because unlike accidentally misgendering Ed and mistaking her for a title character, misconceptions about religion are misconceptions about the morals and culture people were raised in, meaning such misconceptions can have and have had dangerous societal consequences. See also CommonKnowledge.Myths And Religion.


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    Christianity 
Christianity has been subject to a ton of misconceptions over the years. Some of them come from popular belief misremembering or misinterpreting the clear text of the Bible. Others come from centuries of interpretations of an unclear part of the Bible. And a few even come from adherents who wanted to change things and managed to inject their changes into the public consciousness. If you genuinely believe that the Bible's contents can be perfectly understood at face value, you will doubtless learn a lot from this section.

  • God defies description — You Cannot Grasp the True Form of God. While He could very well be somewhat humanoid, given that humans were created in "His image and likeness", God is no more likely an old white guy than that weird three-foot-tall hippo-monkey creature from South Park. In the Bible itself, God usually interacts with people using angels as intermediaries or as a symbol, like the famous burning bush Moses encountered, so no one can say what He really looked like. A handful of Christians really do believe that God is an old white guy who sits on a cloud, but they tend to be really fundamentalist. Or really uneducated. Or both.

  • There are a ton of misconceptions about the Christian conception of The End of the World as We Know Itnote :
    • The Book of Revelationnote  is considered to be the authoritative description of how the world will end and all of humanity will be judged by God. But scholarly consensus is that Revelation was a work of apocalyptic allegory — in other words, it was discussing something else by disguising it as religious apocalyptic literature. Specifically, it was discussing the persecution of Christians by Roman Emperor Nero — something that, had it been discussed openly, would have been considered sedition. This was known for centuries; Martin Luther seriously considered removing Revelation from the Bible for this reason. There are a ton of clues about this (heralded in the text with words like "here you will find wisdom"), including references to the Rule of Seven (Rome was famous for its seven hills) and the Number of the Beast. Speaking of which...
    • The Number of the Beast, 666, doesn't actually refer to the number 666, nor is it special because it's three sixes in a row. In fact, Arabic numerals hadn't made it to the West yet, so numbers were written with letters; in the original Greek, the Number of the Beast is written as "Ļ‡Ī¾Ļ‚" — not particularly special-looking. This number is reached through the process of gematria, which takes each letter in a word, converts it to a number, and adds the numbers together. Funnily enough, if you did this to "Neron Caesar" (with the vagaries of spelling of the era), it adds up to... 666!note  And as if to further the point, some early Latin versions of the text had "Ļ‡Ī¹Ļ‚" — 616, which is what you get if you use the Latin "Nero Caesar". So clearly, the early readers of Revelation believed this was a reference to Nero as the single most vicious persecutor of Christians. It's not a reference to Arabic numerals, or bar codes, or anything like that, so any visual representation of the numbers (e.g. End of Days flipping it to get 999) is not something contemplated by the original text. Revelation is also pretty clear that the Number of the Beast is "a human number" and not a reference to a demonic being.
    • The Antichrist is often thought to be a specific entity, either a demon or a human put on Earth to do Satan's work, Take Over the World, and turn all of humanity against Christianity. Problem is that Revelation doesn't actually use the term "Antichrist"; the entity who does this is referred to as "the Beast". The word "antichrist" (note the capitalisation) appears only in 1 and 2 John (traditionally ascribed to the same John as Revelation and the gospel). There John says his readers have "heard that the antichrist is coming" but in fact, many antichrists have already come - because anyone who denies Jesus is the antichrist. However, 2 Thessalonians (a Pauline epistle) discusses a "man of lawlessness" who seems to fit the popular idea of the Antichrist. The terms seem to have become conflated - and John's statement that his readers "have heard the antichrist is coming" suggests that "antichrist" may have been used to refer to this "man of lawlessness" even before John wrote his letters. It's...complicated, and different denominations and individual Christians interpret the passages in different ways. Writers (even Christian ones) often wrongly portray whatever view they're familiar with as universal.
    • "Armageddon" is often thought to refer to Earth's Final Battle, when it actually refers to a location, the Hill of Megiddo. Furthermore, it's not the actual location of said final battle, but rather the gathering place where the armies will amass beforehand; said battle could well happen in Another Dimension for all we know.
    • The Rapture, the event in which all True Christiansā„¢ will be beamed up into Heaven when the end of the world comes, is commonly thought to be described in the Book of Revelation. But there's nothing like that in there. In fact, the Rapture was invented wholesale by John Nelson Darby, a Puritan preacher from the 1830s, from a single verse in 1 Thessaloniansnote  which is pretty clearly metaphorical. See, Darby believed the hellscape described by Revelation would literally happen, but he was uncomfortable with the idea that good Christians have to suffer under the rule of the Beastnote , so he cooked up a way for the good Christians to avoid the suffering. The Rapture is a particularly Evangelical Protestant belief; most other Christian groups don't buy it. In keeping with the idea that Christianity is often defined by its worst adherents, the Rapture also has a reputation for schadenfreude in that people who believe in it are seen to be looking forward to taunting the suffering sinners on Earth from Heaven.
  • Catholicism is the most visible form of Christianity in the West. It has a particularly prominent role in history, as for many centuries The Pope was as much a political figure as a religious one, and the Catholic Church was therefore involved in a lot of political squabbles. Even today, the Pope is a very recognisable figure, and there are a lot of inscrutable traditions that people don't understand. So they either misinterpret them, or they mistake them for doctrines that come from other branches of Christianity.
    • The Immaculate Conception is a Catholic doctrine which is often misunderstood to refer to Mary's conception of Jesus. In turn, it's misunderstood to refer to her Mystical Pregnancy and enshrine Christian squeamishness about sex. In fact, it refers to the conception of Mary herself — although she was conceived by normal biological means, she was miraculously preserved from original sin, thus allowing her to be an appropriate vessel for her Mystical Pregnancy with Jesus (the conception of Jesus is referred to as the Incarnation). Some people were also befuddled by the Feast of the Immaculate Conception taking place right before Christmas (implying a ridiculously short pregnancy), but it makes a lot more sense once you know what the Immaculate Conception really is (and also once you know that Jesus probably wasn't really born in December).
    • The Catholic Church has a reputation for being anti-science. This mostly comes from history, given the Church's apparent opposition to things like Galileo Galilei's support for heliocentrism and Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. But it turns out the modern Church is pretty cool with scientific advancement. They're even cool with evolution, to a point — they prefer "theistic evolution", the idea that God intended for evolution to happen. Even Pope John Paul II is fine with it. The Church's official line on evolution vs. creationism is that it's irrelevant to salvation, so you can believe what you like. The Catholic Church often finds itself Mis-blamed for historical anti-scientific sentiment as well; the Church's censure of Galileo was as much political as it was theologicalnote , and most of the opposition to evolution came from the Anglicans.
    • People tend to forget that the Pope only really has authority over Catholics. This makes them look pretty stupid when they suggest that the Pope should do something about idiot Christians who happen not to be Catholics. Take, for instance, a 2021 tweet by Sean Penn suggesting that Evangelical leaders should be "impeached by the Vatican", when the Vatican claims no authority over Evangelical Protestants (and "impeachment" is a U.S. government process anyway). And even over Catholics, the Vatican's power is pretty limited; while most Catholics look up to the Pope, they aren't duty bound to follow his directives. This was one reason why some Americans were afraid to vote for John F. Kennedy — they believed that as a Catholic, he was required to follow the Pope's orders, when that's clearly not the case.
    • The doctrine of "papal infallibility" is commonly believed to be the idea that the Pope is always right about everything. But while the doctrine does exist, it's very limited — it applies only when the Pope formally invokes it, and it can only be used on matters of faith or morality that apply to the entire Church.note  It's only been formally invoked seven times, including retroactively.
    • The Catholic Church has historically been associated with witch burning. While it's true that the Church — and particularly The Spanish Inquisition — had their share of executions of heretics, Protestants were just as enthusiastic in their witch-hunting adventures, if not more so. Over most of its history, official Catholic line on witchcraft was that it didn't exist at allnote , and even during the Inquisition, most people charged with "witchcraft" were acquitted, with some judges openly expressing scepticism about the charges. While both Catholics and Protestants were keen to execute troublesome individuals for the slightest pretext, Protestantism was much more likely to use "witchcraft" as such a pretext, particularly given its tendency to take a more literal view of the Bible in general. Some point to Joan of Arc as the catalyst for Catholic witch-burning, except she was executed as a relapsed heretic; officially, her sin was cross-dressing, and her real sin was winning while female.note 
    • Catholicism is sometimes seen as more "polytheistic" than other branches of Christianity for its adherents' tendency to "pray to saints", as if they were part of a greater pantheon. While some Catholics might treat saints this way, especially given how some saints have specialties in the way the pagan gods might, officially there is only one God (or rather the Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost), and only this God is worthy of worship. Traditionally, when Catholics "pray to saints", what they're really doing is asking some other entity to speak to God on their behalf, in the hopes that God might be more responsive to their prayer (Mary is a particularly popular choice, because even the divine Jesus is at least a little bit of a Momma's Boy).
  • Mormonism also has its share of misunderstandings:
    • The formal title of the church is "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints". Since that's a bit of a mouthful, it's often shortened to "LDS". The term "Mormon" comes from The Book of Mormon, a book of scripture said to have been translated by the church's founder Joseph Smith. "Mormon" was actually a term of derision thrown at the church's adherents. It was only in more recent decades as an Appropriated Appellation, and even today, the official Church nudges its adherents to avoid using the term "Mormon" to refer to the church (e.g. renaming the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to "the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square").
    • Mormons do not worship Joseph Smith or consider him divine in any way. Joseph Smith could be seen as more analogous to Muhammad, being a prophet who was visited by an angel and given an update to an existing religion's holy texts.
    • Mormons, in the sense of LDS Church members, do not practice polygamy, and are indeed forbidden from doing so. They used to, in the very early days of the Church, but denounced polygamy in 1890 (as part of a deal allowing Utah to become a U.S. state). This is somewhat ironic since the Book of Mormon explicitly condemns polygamy for the most part (while the Bible largely does not), but with a provision for God to command otherwise in specific circumstances so as to "raise up seed" unto him. Hence, this is explained as being for the same reason many cultures did it: it was dangerous out there, the men got killed pretty easily, and the surviving men needed to impregnate multiple women in order to keep the society stable. Historically, the concept of polygamy was tied up with temple marriage and so a few sects (known as "fundamentalist Mormons") still do practice polygamy, still viewing it as an essential element of celestial/patriarchal/temple marriage; the mainline church denounces them, and views affiliation with them as grounds for excommunication.note 
    • Mormons are not explicitly forbidden from drinking caffeine. Admittedly, the point is unclear. The original revelation through Joseph Smith listed "hot drinks" as one of the things not to be consumed; it was also introduced as a voluntary covenant, "not by commandment or constraint" but as a "word of wisdom" that it was sensible to follow, with blessings promised to those who do. Later development within the LDS Church after Joseph Smith's death made following it mandatory for temple worthiness (it is now usually taught as a "commandment", even though it was not originally introduced as such), and defined the reference to "hot drinks" to refer only to tea and coffee, but at any temperature. But even then there is wiggle room, as other products like hot chocolate and soda are okay. Many Mormons still choose not to drink caffeine anyway, noting that it isn't great for you, and BYU didn't sell caffeinated Coca-Cola on campus until 2017 (and school leaders were quick to point out it was nothing more than a business decision).note 
    • Mormons don't believe that everyone will get their own planet when they die. Suggesting that the really good observant Mormons are rewarded with their own planet to rule as gods over, while it may be held by a minority, is an arguably disrespectful interpretation of the actual teaching. The actual teaching originates from the King Follett Sermon given by Joseph Smith shortly before his death, where he stated that "God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heavens, is a man like unto one of yourselves" and "You have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves; to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done; by going from a small degree to another, from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you are able to sit in glory as doth those who sit enthroned in everlasting power".note  This is understood as meaning that the highest degree of salvation would allow one to eventually progress through continual betterment of oneself to become like God in all respects, both in character and in level of responsibility within the greater work of salvation, and that God is only God because he has already gone through this process of becoming a godly being.
    • Mormons don't require homosexuals to undergo shock therapy to cure their homosexuality. That was practiced only in isolated cases at Brigham Young University in the 1960s and 1970s, and it was never an official church policy.
  • Baptists are commonly thought to be hardcore Eagleland fundamentalists, and while many are, that's not necessarily the case. Indeed, the only common feature of all Baptist churches is a belief in adult baptism — in other words, baptising infants is pointless, and only adults who have made a conscious decision to be baptised can be said to be true Christians. Anything else is up to the individual churches, all of which are at least nominally independent. Entities like the Southern Baptist Convention do muddle things a bit, but even they are associations of individual churches. The doctrine only comes from the pastor (or the board of elders who elects him). This may be why Baptists tend toward fundamentalism; they don't have more learned theologians above them in the hierarchy to smack them down when they start to get stupid.
    • There is also a belief that most Baptist churches are full of the most hardcore legalistic fundamentalism that exists. The existence of Independent Fundamental Baptists confuses matters, since they call themselves Baptists and truly are fundamentalist, but outside of them, your average Baptist church today feels pretty laid back and friendly. Of course, they still largely hold to issues like Biblical inerrancy and some of the more controversial beliefs such as various homophobic and even misogynistic views, and some of them are still promoting purity culture. But this is stuff you won't notice until you attend services for a while, since everyone is wearing modern clothing and seems normal-ish.
  • Let's talk about Western holidays, and how nobody seems to understand the history behind them and their relationship to Christianity:
    • Christmas is popularly considered "Jesus's birthday". While it is nominally the celebration of Jesus's birth, many scholars suggest he wasn't actually born on December 25, or even in the 1st century AD. There is speculation that his birth might have been even older. However, many Christians are aware of this and don't particularly care.
    • Inversely, there's also the idea that Christmas was simply a re-branded Roman pagan holiday (most often Saturnalia). While Saturnalia was celebrated around December, it ended in the 23rd. Where the December 25th date actually comes from is a 3rd century Christian scholar named Clement of Alexandria, who tried to calculate the birth of Jesus by comparing it to the reigns of Roman emperors (Stromata 1:21). There is also the idea that Christmas comes from the Roman feast of Sol Invictus (which admittedly is on December 25th), but that feast didn't even exist until after Clement's time.note 
    • With respect to Christmas, some Christians believe in a "war on Christmas". It's not very well defined — it can refer either to Christmas being taken over by pagan elements, draining it of any reference to Jesus and Christianity, or it can refer to Political Overcorrectness preventing any outward expression of Christianity for fear of offending non-Christians. There really isn't a "war on Christmas", at least not a large-scale one — not if you consider the fact that damn near the entire world takes a break for it in late December, and even in places that don't celebrate Christianity at all you see Christmas trees and Santa Claus (if not references to Jesus). Some claim that the term "X-Mas" is a way to remove "Christ" from "Christmas", but "X" standing in for "Christ" is a longstanding tradition going back to the days of early Christianity, when the entire religion was illegal, and this was a code for talking about itnote , so it's pretty explicitly Christian. In fact, in centuries past, Christmas was "banned" by Puritans (who were Christians), who considered it a pagan holiday and an excuse for drunkenness and debauchery. Nowadays, people seem to pin the "war on Christmas" to the fundies' persecution complex.
    • Christmas is often considered to be the most important Christian holiday. It is important, but it's not that important. The most significant point in the Christian religious calendar is Easter, the celebration of Jesus' resurrection — which, in Christian theology, is a very big deal.
    • Easter is often believed to an appropriated and renamed pagan holiday, usually citing Bede's account of the conflation between the Christian Easter and the celebration of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre. There are a number of issues with this: Bede explicitly talked about the conflating of two preexisting celebrations; there is no record of Eostre outside of this account and one runestone from Germany, raising questions such as why Christians living halfway around the world would feel a need to take over her holiday specifically; the linguistic connection only works for English and German, which are the only languages to call Easter something named after Eostre; and Easter already has very well-documented origins in the Jewish Passover anyway, due to the Last Supper having been a passover dinner. This is the origin of most of its names (which derive from the Latin Pascha, a latinized form of the Jewish Pesach, due to early Christians viewing it as just a continuation of the older holy day) and of its date (the Gospels attest the Resurrection as having taken place three to four days after that Passover, depending on how one counts the days, and the Passover has its own very specific and stable date).
    • Halloween is considered by some ultraconservative Moral Guardians to be a Satanic ritual. In fact, was originally a Celtic festivity that was attached to a Christian holiday, All Saints' Day, traditionally on November 1. If the Catholic Church officially recognises it as a holy day of obligation, it's pretty likely not Satan's birthday (though some anti-Catholic Protestants strongly disagree). "Hallowe'en" is short for "All Hallow's Eve".
  • Crucifixes often depict Jesus with nails in his hands. An actual crucifixion would involve driving nails into the condemned's wrists — the flesh of the palm isn't strong enough to support a person's weight. Part of this comes from the Bible describing the nails being driven into Jesus's hands; Jewish writing at the time considered the wrist part of the hand.
  • Every so often a news article will come out showing that something in the Bible was supposedly recorded wrong. Since this more often than not happens with the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament, as Christians know it), these instances are recorded below in the "Judaism" folder.

    Judaism 
  • Every so often a news article comes out showing ancient Israel did something the Torah prohibits, supposedly throwing the Bible into question. An example of this is a 2021 CNN article about how ancient Israelites ate non-kosher seafood. What this article ignores is that, all throughout the Hebrew Bible, Israel was constantly disobeying God's law. It's a recurring theme that shows CNN didn't do their homework.
    • A particularly facepalm-worthy example is this 2017 article that boldly proclaims "Bible Debunked". It describes how the ancient Canaanites survived their conquest even though, according to the Bible, God commanded Israel to wipe them out. But what the article misses is that the Bible itself says the Canaanites survived! (See, Judges 1:27-33) And archaeologists generally agree that the Israelites themselves were a branch of Canaanites, given how similar Hebrew is to now-extinct languages in the area.
  • Hanukkah is not "Jewish Christmas". As Jewish Holidays go, it's nowhere near as important as the media will tell you; holidays like Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Passover, and Sukkot are considered more important. Hanukkah's prominence comes from it taking place around Christmas, allowing Jews to celebrate in alignment with the Christian holiday calendar. Other than the date, Hanukkah has practically nothing to do with Christianity. (Interestingly, it kinda goes the other way — many Jews assume Christmas is the most important holiday because of this treatment, and while it is important, Easter is even more important.)
  • Judaism is commonly associated with people in funny hats, funnier haircuts, bizarre dietary restrictions, and a need to circumcise everyone. This stereotype draws specifically from Orthodox Judaism, and there are many Jews who do not fit this description. In fact, moderate Judaism is far more mainstream in most of the world than Orthodox Judaism; the latter just happen to be far more visible and distinct from Christians.
  • Judaism is often thought of as "Christianity minus the New Testament", when this isn't really true. While both Christianity and Judaism accept broadly the same Old Testament, these aren't exactly the same; the Jewish Tanakh is sorted differently with different priority given to parts of scripture (e.g. the Torah is more important than the Psalms). Furthermore, the Christian Old Testament (unless you are Protestant) includes some books, like Tobit and Maccabees, that rabbis leave out of the Tanakh. To add to that, the way they even interpret the same texts are different (with both sides sometimes accusing each other of Translation with an Agenda). This is one reason why some Jews don't like the term "Judeo-Christian"; they believe it implies that the two religions' versions of the Old Testament are the same.
  • The Talmud is often misunderstood. It's the basis for exegesis of the Tanakh, which leads to an entirely separate exegesis from Christianity. Unlike the New Testament, the Talmud is explicitly an interpretation of existing scripture, with multiple layers of commentary, which aren't even always consistent with each other. And when two contrasting viewpoints are explored, that's not a bug but a feature. People like to Quote Mine the Talmud to find things that support their viewpoint, but it's a very complicated work which requires genuine scholarship to fully understand.
  • The term "Jewish" usually implies belief in God, but even this is not necessarily true. Unlike Christianity, Judaism is very closely tied with the Holy Land, and like any piece of land, there's an indigenous population with its own traditions and culture. Many Israeli Jews will happily admit to not really believing in God while celebrating Jewish holidays and practising Jewish traditions, because they're ethnically from the area and identify with that culture. It's a difficult thing for Americans to wrap their heads around, as many Jews there very much believe in God (though there are plenty of Jewish atheists outside Israel as well).
  • In Judaism, it is commonly believed that one should not stay in the sanctuary for the Yizkor (Memorial) Service on Yom Kippur if both of their parents are alive, because it's bad luck. But this isn't true; the service often includes prayers for other relatives, as well as Holocaust victims and martyrs, and often a generic prayer for any recently deceased male and female relatives. Indeed, rabbis are aware of this superstition and work to encourage people to stay for the service.

    Islam 
Islam is subject to all manner of misconceptions in the West, many of them negative. Indeed, it's been a target for centuries among Christians, leading to some weird misconceptions.
  • To start: Most Westerners think of Islamic doctrine based on what its most violent extremist adherents believe. The "kill everyone we don't like" philosophy of such entities as Al Qaeda and Daeshnote  are distinctly minority views, with very tenuous connections to actual Qu'ranic doctrine. Their motives are also very obviously political, given that they seek territorial control and are perfectly happy to include fellow Muslims on the list of people they want to eliminate. (Think of it like judging all of Christianity from the actions of the Irish Republican Army.)
  • Allah is sometimes thought of as the name of the god Muslims worship. In fact, Allah is the exact same entity that the Jews and Christians worship, and the Qu'ran is explicit about this. "Allah" is not a name at all, but is just an Arabic word best translated as "the God" (cf. Hebrew "Elohim"); Arabic-speaking Christians also typically use this term to refer to God, while Anglophone Muslims similarly just use "God" in casual conversation. When combined with the Muslim creed "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet," it can best be described as spelling God's name with a "The". There are a few Christians who insist that Allah is a separate pagan "moon god", but they have their own bone to pick.
  • Muslims do not worship Muhammad. The Muslim creed, the shahada, is very clear that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet. This is very Serious Business for Muslims, and suggesting that Muslims worship Muhammad is a great way to piss them off, because it shows a total ignorance for the most basic precepts of their religion. (This is also why you don't call Muslims "Mohammedans", because it implies that they worship Muhammad like Christians worship Christ.) While Muhammad is revered among prophets, he is quite explicitly not a divine entity.
  • Muslims do accept large chunks of Jewish and Christian theology. They believe in many Biblical figures and prophets like Abraham and Moses. They even believe in Jesus and revere him as a prophet; they just don't believe he was God, but rather human like everyone else.note  They do believe Jesus performed miraclesnote  and that he was crucified, but that he faked his death on the cross and never died and resurrected (although he did ascend bodily to Heaven). Many of these prophets appear alongside Muhammad when he makes his "Midnight Journey" to Jerusalem and then interacts with them in Heavennote .
  • Much of what is considered "Islamic doctrine" does not actually come from The Qur'an. Much of it comes from the hadith, a collection of accounts of things The Prophet Muhammad said or did. The Qu'ran itself is a relatively short work, a collection of the revelations given from Allah to Muhammad. The hadith themselves are all second-hand documents, and although the most reliable ones do as meticulous a job as they could of tracing their provenance to an eyewitness of Muhammad, not all are considered authentic. And the different schools of Islam are divided on which hadith they accept. Indeed, there are many different schools of law in Islam, far more than just Sunni and Shi'a.
  • Medieval Europe had a ton of stupid misconceptions about Islam, essentially seeing it as a Bizarro Christianity: Christianity has a trinity (Father, Son, Holy Ghost), so they insisted that Islam must have a trinity of its own: Muhammad (here called "Mahound", now considered very insulting), Termagant (a demon of their own creation), and Apollo from the Greek pantheon. Or perhaps Apollyon, a demon mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Or maybe it was Aphrodite (a woman! Gasp!) — it's not like these guys were big on attention to detail. Given that Muslims are extremely monotheistic, and none of these entities are Allah, believing this is a great way to piss off a Muslim.
  • The crescent moon as a symbol of Islam (part of where the fundamentalist Christians get their idea of a "moon god") actually has nothing to do with Islam. It comes from the Ottoman Empire and was originally a symbol of the city of Constantinople when it was still Christian. Indeed, many Muslims are aware of this and dislike the use of the crescent for that reason.
  • There's a common misconception that All Muslims Are Arab. They're not — some are Persians (who very much don't like it when you call them Arabs), others are from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), others are Black Africans (Nigeria has a big population), others are from Europe (Bosnia, Albania), and the most populous Muslim country is Indonesia. The snag, though, is that the Qu'ran is valid only in the original Arabic to prevent errors from arising in translation, so Muslim scholars have to know Arabic even if they're not actually Arabs.
  • It's also a misconception to think that every "Muslim country" is entirely comprised of Muslims. Many Muslim-majority countries have minorities of other religions, often Jews, Christians, and Buddhists — Iran has a not insubstantial population of Zoroastrians. There's also a tendency to think of Muslim-majority countries as theocracies, and while some certainly are (e.g. Saudi Arabia), others are officially secular (e.g. Turkey).
  • Islam is often associated with its more esoteric beliefs, many of which are not that strictly required and are based on more idiosyncratic interpretations of the Qu'ran and the hadith. For instance, there's a common belief in a strict prohibition against drawing Muhammad, but it actually derives from broader prohibitions against idolatry, with a smaller but violently visible minority believing that any depiction of Muhammad will encourage worship of it. In other cases, the prohibition is explicit but not considered that important, but outsiders think otherwise when seeing the zeal of its adherents; for instance, the prohibition on pork is not a deal-breaker, but many Westerners think Muslims treat it like it's Kryptonite. The Qu'ran actually has a lot of verses along the lines of "Allah does not intend to make things too difficult"; if following a rule would be a Violation of Common Sense, Muslims are generally exempt from following it.
  • Most Westerners understand surprisingly little about Ramadan beyond "that time when Muslims don't eat anything." It's actually got a bunch of rules, some of which aren't as strict as you might think:
    • Ramadan isn't a "holiday" in itself, but rather a specific month in the Islamic calendar. Said calendar is a lunar calendar, which is shorter than the solar calendar, so Ramadan is not on a specific date every year; rather, it migrates earlier and earlier every year.
    • Fasting is not just in terms of eating — Muslims must not consume anything, from food to water to cigarettes. You also shouldn't have sex or indeed have any impure thoughts. But you can eat and drink during darkness hours; after all, you can't go an entire month without eating. Many of those meals can be really big. Muslims are also not required to fast if doing so would be dangerous to their health — the Qu'ran explicitly exempts the sick, the elderly, the pregnant, and the nursing, but this exception is broadly interpreted (although the exempt are expected to make it up in some way — either by fasting on another day when they're healthier, or by donating to the poor).
    • During Ramadan, Muslims must fast from sunrise to sunset — specifically, from the break of dawn to the onset of dusk. But at dusk, you have to break your fast (and not a moment later). Given that Ramadan can happen at any time of year, the length of the day can vary; in Arabia, close to the equator, it doesn't vary that much, but there are Muslims living far enough north or south that if Ramadan falls in the summer, the fast might last for as much as 18 hoursnote . In those cases, Muslim scholars have ruled that Muslims can fast on approximately Mecca time (again, so there's no Violation of Common Sense).

    Paganism 
  • Many people are under the impression that "Paganism" is the name of a single religion, when the term "pagan" is in fact a derogatory term used by MediƦval Christians to refer to any religion that wasn't Christianity (or, at the very least, any religion that didn't monotheistically worship the Abrahamic god). There's a substantial difference between, say, Greco-Roman "paganism", Celtic "paganism", and Norse "paganism", and all of those were in Europe. The problem is that the term "pagan" became an Appropriated Appellation by people seeking to revive one of the old religions, and the term isn't used universally. Some of them associate the term "pagan" with dilettantes who just want to adopt a cool-looking ritual and refer to themselves as "heathens". "Pagan" originally meant either "civilian" or "rural person" (depending on what era of Latin we're talking about), while "heathen" has an even more disputed origin.
  • There's a presumption that no one genuinely believes in old pagan religions anymore, but given the prevalence of revival movements (and even old pagan rituals co-opted by Christianity), that's clearly not true. It should make Richard Dawkins reconsider his wish that one day no one will believe in the currently popular religions, because even these old ones are having serious trouble going away.
  • Classical Mythology has a lot of myths about the myths:
    • Most Greco-Roman gods are thought of as Flat Characters with a single trait — Athena is very wise, Aphrodite is very pretty, Zeus hurls lightning and sleeps with the entire universe, etc. In reality, they were exceptionally complex in every facet of their existence, with a very wide variety of roles and depictions, Depending on the Writer and time period.
    • The Titan Atlas doesn't hold up the entire Earth, just the sky. Chalk this one up to the common artistic depiction of him as holding up a sphere, which is often interpreted as the Earth. It's not the Earth, but the Heavenly Sphere, which represents a much... cruder conception of cosmology.
    • Everybody Hates Hades, because he's in charge of the Greek Underworld. This idea comes from analogy to Christianity, where the underworld is a Fire and Brimstone Hellnote  and the guy in charge (at least in common (mis)conception) is the Big Bad. But in actual Greek mythology, Hades was a very nice guy, probably one of the most benevolent gods in the pantheon. Nor was the Underworld equivalent to the Christian Hell. Chalk this one up to Hollywood, which tends to portray Hades like this (e.g. Disney's Hercules and the Percy Jackson filmsnote ).
    • The titan Cronus/Kronos, father of Zeus, is often equated with Chronos the god of time. Fair mistake given how they had absurdly similar names, to the point that even the Greeks themselves got them mixed up at times.

    Native American Mythology 
  • In Native American Mythology, The Trickster tends to be thought of as Always Chaotic Evil. But this comes from Christian mythology's tendency to assign everything as good or evil; Native American tricksters tend to be more nuanced. Different traditions tend to be different about it; some are more clearly evil than others, but they've all got their own quirks.
    • The Navajo Coyote is sometimes referred to as the "Native American Satan". He's actually a... complicated character, and it depends on the specific tribe, but by and large he's neutral — sometimes malicious, sometimes really stupid, sometimes just in it for the lulz.
    • The Sioux trickster archetype is the spider, but it's not genuinely evil either. It's more frustrating than anything else; after all, it builds its web unseen, so you don't notice it until it's too late. The misconception might come from confusion with a similar spider archetype in West African tradition, which is a bit more openly "evil".

    Indian religions 
Broadly speaking, there are four religions that originated in India: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. They all blend into each other a little bit, so there's a tendency in the West to lump them all together, but this isn't strictly accurate:
  • The average viewer's idea of Hinduism is: lots of gods with multiple arms, worshipping cows, reincarnation, and a book called the Bhagavad Gita. While some of that is true, it's just the tip of the iceberg:
    • "Hindu" is technically not a term for an adherent of the religion (although that's usually how it's used). It comes from the Farsi word for the Indus River, first used at a time when the various regions of India had even more different traditions than they do today.
    • Reincarnation is thought of as automatic, something that happens to everyone, and an opportunity to be rewarded for good behaviour in a past life with a good position in a future life. In actual Hinduism, reincarnation is not automatic, and it's actually considered undesirable; the whole point of being saintly is to break free of the cycle of reincarnation, which would allow one to ascend to Nirvana.
    • Hinduism is often thought of as polytheistic, but this isn't strictly true — most Hindus believe that there is a single God who manifests in different forms (vaguely similar to the Christian Trinity, but only vaguely). Most people know Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, but these are not separate entities; rather, they represent the one God at different phases of the Universe's life (Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer). The different sects of Hinduism, however, differ with respect to which entity is the real God, and how "monotheistic" they are. The two largest sects are Vaishnavism, which broadly hold Vishnu to be the One, and Shaivism, which broadly holds Shiva to be the one, but there are others. Some Hindu schools can be thought of as polytheistic or pantheistic, and the existence of entities like Ganesha complicates things somewhat. But there is a trend towards a more monotheistic outlook, especially after contact with Muslims and Christians over the centuries.
    • Hindus are stereotyped as uber-peaceful hippies. Part of it comes from figures like the famous pacifist Mahatma Gandhi, and part of it comes from the typical Western adherent, who were into the Theme Park Version in The '60s and gave Hinduism its biggest exposure in the West. But there's actually a fair bit of violence in Hinduism, which teaches that you should fight if you have to. Gandhi was seen as unusual for his strict non-violence philosophy; many Hindus of the time would have found it entirely justified to achieve Indian independence by force. And the Bhagavad Gita is all about Lord Krishna urging the Reluctant Warrior Arjuna to be brave and step in to fight the bad guys.
  • Buddhism is practiced quite differently in different places, partly because it lends itself well to adopting elements of local religions. But there are some things that broadly apply to Buddhism:
    • "Buddha" is not a deity that Buddhists worship, but rather a title, referring to any creature who has reached Enlightenment. The word literally means "the awakened one" in Sanskrit. The image of the "Fat Buddha", known formally as Budai, is just one of those several Buddhas. Siddhartha Gautama is often thought of as the Buddha, but many Buddhists will refer to him as just "Buddha".
    • Buddhism is often thought of as being extremely pacifistic, being known for staunch vegetarianism, lots of meditation, being in touch with nature, and not harming living creatures. This ignores the fact that Buddhists have been involved in plenty of wars and killing over the years, like any other religion. Indeed, this conception of Buddhism doesn't gel with the idea of a remote Buddhist temple where practitioners learn deadly martial arts.
  • Sikhism is often thought of as an offshoot of Buddhism because of some of its shared practices, like vegetarianism (in certain circles) and a belief in reincarnation. But other than that, Sikhism can really be thought of as a response to Hinduism and the injustices found therein. For instance, Sikhism eliminates the Hindu caste system (the reason why they're all named "Singh" is to obscure a person's caste origins), and it emphasises good works over meaningless rituals. Also, Sikhs wear turbans for religious reasons — they prohibit cutting one's hair — but this causes ignorant Westerners who mistake them for Muslims, whose head coverings (for men, anyway) are practical dressing for the desert. Don't call a Sikh a Muslim.
  • Jains are often mistaken for Buddhists, as many of their practices — particularly their distinctive Actual Pacifism — are more associated with Buddhism in the West. While Buddhism can be pacifistic to that degree, it doesn't have to be, and even Buddhists who believe in pacifism will let you fight if you really need to. No such exceptions can be found in Jainism — it goes to the degree of Suicidal Pacifism, not using violence in any circumstance. The most extreme forms of vegetarianism — e.g. wearing a mask to avoid accidentally inhaling insects — are also Jain traditions.

    Satanism 
Satanism is a weird animal. Many think of it as Hollywood Satanism, but there are all sorts of groups who profess to be "Satanists". Part of the problem is that "Satanism" cannot be defined except by opposition to some form of Christianity. Many adherents are either trying to needle Christians and draw attention to some unrelated cause of theirs, or they have a beef with some element of Christianity and want to emphasise their opposition to it.
  • Many people believe that all Satanists not just worship Satan, but also sacrifice virgins, babies, and animals, use the blood in disgusting sex rituals, and seek to bring about the end of the world. Most Satanists don't do any such things, and indeed many Satanists categorically forbid any crime or violence, against people or animals. Many Satanists make it a point to build a code of ethics which they believe is better than Christianity's, and they draw on all sorts of texts for it, including philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche and Gnostic texts. They'll even quote the Bible itself — according to them, if you read it right, it's got more than enough evidence that God Is Evil. This type of Satanist will point to Satan as the antithesis of "Yaveh", the catalyst for so much of the violence and hatred the world has seen. Sure, some Satanists commit crimes in the name of Satan, but they're far from mainstream and usually can't find a group who'll accept them.
  • Aleister Crowley is often described as the "father of modern Satanism", but he never called himself a Satanist, nor is there evidence that worshipped Satan. Modern scholars would better classify him as an Occultist or Esotericist, or perhaps a Gnostic or Neo-Pagan. Crowley himself called one of his organisations the Gnostic Church, and he mentions God in several of his writings (although he clearly didn't hold a typical Christian conception of God). He did mention several Pagan gods as part of the Thelema pantheon and ritual, but whether he believed they literally existed or just used them as symbols is up for debate.
  • Luciferianism is often lumped in with Satanism, but it considers itself to be completely separate from Satanism. Theistic Luciferians consider Lucifer not to be Satan at all, but the God of Light from Gnosticism. Most Luciferians are not far from "Satanism", though, given that they look a lot like Wicca or Thelema, but more pacifist and spiritual.

    Other/Unsorted 
  • The Theosophical Society is often accused of being a haven for Nazis and racist. This comes from three main sources: some of the writings of its co-founder Helena Blavatsky haven't aged well; the term "Aryan race" sees frequent use; and its logo contains a Swastika (actually a Buddhist manji, which faces the other direction). But it's not a Nazi philosophy, predating the Nazi Party and ideology by several decades, and it's considered quite progressive for the time (for example, one of the Society's goals was the end of all discrimination by gender, religion, race, or caste — in 1875). All these can be addressed in turn:
    • Theosophists generally have two approaches to Blavatsky's writings; some claim they aren't really racist, and others think they're Fair for Its Day. Given how ahead of its time many of the Society's precepts were, one has to take into account the environment in which Blavatsky lived and what people would have accepted as even possible.
    • The term "Aryan race" doesn't have the same meaning the Nazis gave it (makes sense, there were no Nazis when it was written). It in fact refers to every human being currently on Earth; the distinction is from other races that lived in a different cycle of humanity, like the Atlanteans and Lemurians.
    • The Swastika is a symbol from Buddhism, and it's still used in Buddhism today. The Theosophists just got it from there. As did the Nazis, who twisted it in service of their own hateful ideology.
  • The Khlysty were a rather obscure Russian sect which happened to be (very loosely) associated with Rasputin the Mad Monk. This, of course, leads to some misconceptions about what they believed. They are generally characterised as a hedonistic sect who believed in sinning to achieve salvation and had ecstatic services ending in mass orgiesnote . But they were actually strict ascetics who practiced abstinence and saw the physical world as sinful. And Rasputin wasn't a member. But they did have ecstatic services.
  • Voudoun is often thought of as Hollywood Voodoo — a Satanic cult dedicated to human sacrifices, inflicting curses, and raising zombies. Real Voudoun is a syncretic mix of the West African vodun religion and Roman Catholicism. There are also two distinct forms of Voudoun, one from Haiti and one from Louisiana. Haitian vodou involves the veneration of spirits called loa or lwa, who act as intermediaries between the priest (the Houngan) and a supreme deity called Bondye — it's analogous to (and probably borrowed from) the intervention of the saints and angels between the believer and God in Catholicism. Louisiana voodoo, meanwhile, is similar but places more emphasis on charms called gris-gris (which is the origin of the Voodoo Doll), "Voodoo queens" (more properly mambos), use of Hoodoo occult paraphernalia, and the veneration of the snake deity Li Grand Zombi.
  • Yazidism is a monotheistic religion practised in Kurdistan. It kinda resembles the Abrahamic religions, and it has elements of Islam, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. It's characterised by a single God and a collection of angels who manage the world, chief among them Melek Taus, the "Peacock Angel". Since Melek Taus superficially resembles Iblis, the Muslim Satan analogue, many Muslims characterise the Yazidi as Satan worshippersnote , which has led to centuries of persecution by Muslims.

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