Markup View

Author: 69BookWorM69

Sep 27th 2011 at 7:21:14 PM

[=CommanderPanda=] said, "I think we may have this though. And if we don't, this may be fraught with flame and peril."

This happened to SecularHero. The discussion degenerated into a flame war over whether agnosticism or atheism was superior, among other things. I had a hand in rewriting it after things died down. I tried to convey the various ways this happens with protagonists: they lack religion altogether, they have a religion but aren't seen to be devout (either they don't attend rituals/services much or they do it by rote), or the subject never comes up.

Some of the issues are specific to protagonists; when we see a hero in action, we don't often expect to see him on his knees in church, but actively doing something in the (secular/outside) world to solve the problem(s) he faces. Other matters are more general, like the LawOfConservationOfDetail; we don't see people going to church, but then we don't see them use a toilet either unless there's a significant plot event involved--not to say they never go, we just don't see it because it's not immediately relevant. The creator's desire to appeal to a broad audience is also a general reason for this.

I think the general topics definitely apply to settings and minor characters as well as protagonists, and that could be this trope. Perhaps this could be a supertrope of SecularHero.