History Main / LowestCosmicDenominator

* ''HarryPotter'': Christian hymns are occasionally mentioned in regards to the celebration of Christmas and Easter is celebrated similarly. WordOfGod says Harry had a Christening, so it seems that "godparent" does mean the same thing to wizards as it does to muggles. The biggest reference to religion would be the Bible verses on the Potters and Dumbledore family's graves, which spell out the biggest themes of the series. Otherwise, the subject of religion is never really brought up, though there is a "man in black robes" at a funeral and a wedding who seems to be a wizard clergyman.
** Wizards probably don't have a specific religion: they just practice the same religion they would have if they were Muggles. It's obvious from the World Cup scenes that magic is not limited to one particular culture.
*** The question of why most wizards would accept the divinity of Christ when his best-known miracles(such as walking on water and conjuring loaves and fishes) would be doable tasks by at least the more competent members of their society.... goes unanswered.
**** [[FanDumb Not at all]]. For one thing, it's stated in the seventh HarryPotter book that conjuring food by magic actually is impossible. (You can teleport it from somewhere else, but not create it completely anew.) Other miracles are probably better-known than those, namely raising the dead and rising from death himself, and both are beyond the Potterverse's magic. (Creating zombies is possible and ghosts are well-understood, but zombies are just animated corpses rather than the people they were in life and ghosts are spirits that chose not to go on to the afterlife and don't know what, if anything, awaits.) Mainly, though, most wizards we see in the series are British, and British culture is generally less credulous about the more fundamentalist aspects of religion than American culture, so British wizards may very well think of themselves as Christian without believing that Jesus literally rose from the dead.
**** Most Christians would probably argue that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint the miracles referenced above]], while certainly "flashy", pale in comparison to, say, dying for the sins of all mankind, allowing each individual human the chance to repent and gain access to the eternal Kingdom of Heaven (just as an example). With little to no metaphysical framework established for Magic itself, there is nothing inconsistent about the existence Magic and the divinity of Jesus in the Potterverse (though the existence of Magic and the Laws of Physics...)
**** [[FridgeBrilliance What if the "miracles" of creating fish and bread, as well as reanimation, are STILL miracles to the Wizarding World?]] Doesn't mean that one religion is correct; Just that, in that world, Jesus did something impossible.

It's TheThemeParkVersion of religion, where everybody's NotUsingTheZedWord. Related is WitchSpecies.

** The Powers correspond to the gods of ''every'' religion (although some are closer to the mark than others). For example, in the ''BookOfNightWithMoon'' series, the main Egyptian gods are stated to be close cognates of the feline aspects of the Powers. (In the same book, a wizardly cat is bemused and disturbed at how badly an unnamed human religion - which is clearly some branch of Christianity - misinterprets the nature of the Powers, in particular the idea that the One requires affirmation of Its existence or the sort of extreme and self-effusive praise that would make a person who thinks anything like a sane mortal incredibly uncomfortable, and that insufficiently good people will be sent to {{Hell}} after their deaths.) They're not ''just'' Christian angels and the Christian God with the serial numbers rubbed off, although they would fit pretty well into some liberal, non-traditional interpretations of Christianity.

* In the YoungWizards series, God is called the One, His angels are called the PowersThatBe, and the devil is called the Lone Power (because it is separate from its fellow angels).

**** Most Christians would probably argue that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint the miracles referenced above]], while certainly "flashy", pale in comparison to, say, dying for the sins of all mankind, allowing each individual human the chance to repent and gain access to the eternal Kingdom of Heaven (just as an example). With little to no metaphysical framework established for Magic itself, there is nothing inconsistent about the existence Magic and divinity of Jesus in the Potterverse (though the existence of Magic and the Laws of Physics...)

**** Most Christians would probably argue that [[CompletelyMissingThePoint the miracles referenced above]], while certainly "flashy", pale in comparison to, say, dying for the sins of all mankind, allowing each individual human the chance to repent and gain access to the eternal Kingdom of Heaven (just as an example)

** While the actual religious practices are not elaborated on in detail, the [[spoiler:Bright Shiners become major players in the latter parts of the story. The ''Eighth'' Bright Shiner, who refused to take part in creating Charter Magic, turns out to be Mogget -- and not a nice guy, should he ever become '''Un'''sealed Evil From A Can...and then he was unsealed and decided "Screw that, I like the world dammit.]]

* Disney studios used to be so cautious about religion that they coldn't even use the word "Bible". In their JohnnyAppleseed animated short, Johnny's cherised Bible was only referred to with the generic term "a holy book".

* In HisDarkMaterials, one of the most famed examples: God is 'The Authority', the church is 'Magisterium', Inquisition-for-children is 'Gobblers', and so on.
** Justified in that the books take place in alternate universes.

* In the YoungWizards series, God is called the One, his angels are called the PowersThatBe, and the devil is called the Lone Power (because it is separate from its fellow angels).

* In HisDarkMaterials, one of the most famed example: God is 'The Authority', the church is 'Magisterium', Inquisition-for-childern is 'Gobblers', and so on.
* PlayedWith in ''LordOfTheRings''. Archangels are "Valar", demons are "Balrogs", and God is also called "Illuvatar" (approximately similar to [[GeniusBonus "all-father"]] in Sanskrit, which is also the word for Jupiter in Latin.) But Tolkien avoided showing anyone practising religion save for the Numenoreans, who were extremely ecumenical in their beliefs. According to Tolkien's Catholic theology, all of the characters were "virtuous pagans" and as such anyone they worshiped could potentially count as "actually being" angels or demons according to the tenets of Catholic syncretism.

* In ''{{Mother 3}}'', God is reffered to as "Guy in the Sky" when Lucky leaves club Titiboo, although, this being a ''[[NoFourthWall Mother]]'' game, it could very well be referring to the [[HumansAreCthulhu player]] instead. Either way, euphemism is used.

* Darksiders is the poster boy for this.

* In The MarvelUniverse, the Fantastic Four met the One-Above-All. It was JackKirby.

* In The MarvelUniverse, the Fantastic Four met the One-Above-All. It was Jack Kirby.

* ''HarryPotter''. Christian hymns are occasionally mentioned in regards to the celebration of Christmas and a church appears in the seventh book, but that's about it. Not that that stopped the MoralGuardians.
** JK Rowling shied away from giving wizards any cosmic beliefs whatsoever, which is a bit of a copout and bizarre as wizards happily celebrate Christmas.. [[http://www.ferretbrain.com/ Ferretbrain]] wrote [[http://www.ferretbrain.com/articles/article-161.html an article]] about the influence of poorly-remembered Calvinism.
** Celebrating Christmas in a western society doesn't necessarily make someone Christian, anyway. Same goes for Easter to a lesser extent.
*** Although it's generally accepted that these now-secular holidays stem from a particular religious history in a nation's culture, so it can be seen to imply that Christianity played some role in the history of wizardry.
**** Or, like the radio in the Burrow, the wizarding world simply adopted it because they thought it was neat.

*** Although it's generally accepted that these now-secular holidays stem from a particular religious history in a nation's culture, so it can be seen to imply that Christianity played some role in the history of wizardry.