History Main / UnwantedFalseFaith

* The ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' fanfic, ''Fanfic/MemoirsOfAMaster'', has Master Oogway learning that the Mongols consider him a god. Of course, he makes it clear that he wants none of that.

* Quain'tana of ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' hates how her followers and the common folk of [[UndergroundCity Chel'el'Sussoloth]] have begun to idolize her as some kind of mythical warrior queen for fighting against the current ruling class, especially since said ruling clan idolized Sharess, a former queen, and used her cult as a means to control the populace back at the beginning of the city's history. Kel'noz, her own son, capitalizes on her unwanted fanbase and tries to canonize her as a national heroine [[spoiler:immediately after her death]].

* [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslims]] accept most of the story of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} as told in the [[Literature/TheFourGospels Gospels]] as essentially true: the Virgin Birth, his status as the Biblical [[MessianicArchetype Messiah]], his ministry and miracles, his status as [[JesusWasWayCool a great prophet, moral teacher, healer, and one of the top-five greatest, purest human beings ever]], etc., etc. Muslims even accept a variant of the Crucifixion story (in this version, he never died; God took him up to Heaven bodily while still alive and fooled the Romans into executing a criminal lookalike in his place) and many believe in the Second Coming (where Jesus will either be the Mahdi or assist him... or perhaps the Mahdi will assist Jesus...it's all hazy, as eschatology usually is). However, Muslims do not accept that Jesus is God Himself; a prophet of God, yes, and a messenger of God, yes, and even a ''great'' prophet and messenger of God... but not God. This causes a conflict with Christianity: how can a true prophet of God claim to be God himself, when (according to Muslim theology) God would never do such a thing? The Islamic answer is that he did not want to be worshiped, [[note]]Several times, Jesus refers to "not me, but him who sent me"; he also says that when you welcome him, you welcome "him who sent me".[[/note]] clearly stated that he was just a prophet and should not be worshiped, but people worshiped him anyway, especially after the crucifixion. Thus, according to Islam, UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} is an Unwanted False Faith--which has caused some friction between the religions.

* On ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'', a high school soccer team get stuck in the woods following a plane crash. Lottie gradually emerges as a spiritual leader thanks in part to her genuine ability to soothe and comfort people, and in part to a now-unmedicated mental illness giving her "visions". As the team descend into starvation and shared psychosis, she realises a bit too late that she's essentially become the head of a cannibal death cult.

->'''Brian''': Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't need to follow me, you don't need to follow anybody! You've got to think for yourselves! You're all individuals!\\
'''The Crowd''': ''[in unison]'' Yes! We're all individuals!\\
'''Brian''': You're all different!\\
'''The Crowd''': ''[in unison]'' Yes, we are all different!\\
'''Man in Crowd''': I'm not.\\
'''Another Man''': Shhh!

* One episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'' 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 the novels, it was over whether his name was "Clister" or "Cloister", referencing a real-life religious dispute over the Nicaean Creed, which was based on a one-letter difference in spelling -- which is also, incidentally, the origin of the English meaning of "iota" as "a small or insignificant amount."

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Who Watches the Watchers?", Picard inadvertently becomes a deity to a group of proto-civilization Vulcanoids. He beams their tribe's leader on board the Enterprise to try to explain to her that what he has is merely a more advanced form of technology, but she isn't convinced until she sees a patient die in sickbay and realizes that his people are just as mortal as hers. Picard ends up having to let himself get shot with an arrow by a more fanatical believer so the whole tribe can see him bleed. He's then able to convince them otherwise by referencing the idea of {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s (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. It helps that the people in question are so-called "Vulcanoids", who have abandoned superstition generations ago, so it wasn't so hard for them to accept a logical explanation of events.

* ''Series/Supergirl2015'': "The Faithful" has Supergirl being worshipped by a cult who reveres Rao, the Kryptonian Sun God, and believes her to be his agent. She's understandably creeped out by this, since she doesn't think of herself as a God, and tries to convince the cult otherwise, especially once members deliberately putting themselves in danger so they can be saved by her becomes an initiation of sorts.

* It is widely believed that Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I had this attitude toward the Rastafari movement, which views him as God incarnate, as this belief contradicts the doctrine of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; Haile Selassie was known to be a fairly devout Ethiopian Orthodox Christian. However, he never specifically denied his divinity, saying "Who am I to disturb their belief?" [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Whether this faith is false or not is best discussed elsewhere]].