They'd Look Like Horses · 3:34pm Apr 25th, 2015
Well, would you look at that. If Horses Had Gods got featured. That's about the best thing that's happened to me in ages and ages. Thank you all for reading and for your insightful (and less insightful) comments.
Yes, the blargh about the definition of Wonderfolk will have to wait. I didn't see this coming.
I've been wanting to write this story for a long time. As many of you know, I spent two years in Italy as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons. Funny enough, the experience did not exactly commit my soul to fervent lifelong Christianity. Instead, it allowed me to meet hundreds and hundreds of individuals with many varying views. And, despite the radical differences in philosophy and religion, I was able to connect and befriend many of them.
I'll be totally honest, I hated being a missionary. This isn't anything new to those who really know me. I tell everyone. I'm so glad that I served a mission. I gained precious life experience and got to spend two years in Italy, for goodness sake. And I do believe in God, and I believe I got to know Him better out there. But being a missionary sucks for people like me. All people like me want are for people to like me, and when you're a missionary, you're not even a person anymore. You become this hated thing with a tie and short hair.
Anyway, I--like Twilight--am not quite sure what I believe right now. So I'm writing a story called If Horses Had Gods, which is based on the old saying "If horses had gods, they'd look like horses." The fic is about Twilight Sparkle asking each of her friends "Do you believe in God?" People have already "warned" me in the comments that I could start an internet flamewar, but 1) I don't care, Internet fights are a joke, and 2) no, I don't think I will. The point of this story is to convey a myriad of viewpoints as if each of them were true. I'm not telling readers to believe one way or the other.
And yes, the ponies are a little out of character. Think of it as Alternate Universe Diet. And yes, sorry, I'm only going to write extremes here. The fic is only six chapters long, sticking with Twi's closest friends. It's a very personal story. I'm projecting six points of Ponkified view through these wonderful ponies I've come to love and had to assign each of them a slice of my mixed up opinions.
So, again, thank you for reading such a personal story. It's not perfect, but that's partly on purpose and partly the nature of fiction. Do enjoy the rest, and don't hesitate to present your own views to me in a PM, or even here in the blargh. I don't mind if fights eventually get started over on the fic, but please try to keep this page civil and respectful. If anything, this story goes to show that different faiths can, in fact, be friendly.
Ponky
As well as different complete lack of faiths.......
I think you are remarkably brave for tackling this. A lot of people write christianity fics here—some do it making fun of Christianity. Others write Jesus attempting to bring the good news to ponyfolk. But I don't think I've ever seen a fic where different ideologies are represented, and where religion (or lack there of) is written as not the ultimate truth, but rather the personal outlook and choice of the individual.
That's smart. And it's interesting, and something we need. And if irate zealots and annoying federa-tippers get up in your face about dumb religious arguments, just keep in mind that it's their own issue that they have not made the personal evolution to grasp that they're getting angry about a pony story.
While I have little doubt that you wouldn't start a flame war with your work, simply by discussing religion you're opening the door to dogmatic assholes posting their opinions on the topic all over the story. It's not so much you starting a caustic debate as your inadvertently attracting the kind of people who will, I think.
Thanks for sharing. It's curious to me how there is no established consensus in the Fandom about the divine status of the Princesses or even the typical pony view on such despite their divine attributes (immortality, control of astronomical objects). It seems like a pressing question that everyone would have a head canon about (like whether Twilight is immortal). Maybe everyone is just too afraid to go there. Or maybe they think it's boring; I certainly don't.
Ponky: I'm glad to hear it.
3015328
I think this one is pretty good.
3015799 I'm not a fan of the optimalverse, I'm sorry.
Oh, I thought this fic was such a great idea! I had no idea you were struggling with your faith! I hope you come out of this happy with whatever you believe in at that point!
Define, "insightful"
Here's a hint at least in what you shouldn't believe:
Mormonism, in either its classical Joseph Smith version or its significantly more legitimate Christian modern version.
Something else you shouldn't also believe is atheism or agnosticism, since the former is just nihilism by an other name and thusly, on their own world view, they can't even say it'd be inconsistent for a fellow Scotsman to simultaneously say, 'Hello, neighbor,' while raping them and their children savagely with a rusty pineapple and agnostics are wishy washy that just tend to act like atheists most times anyways and thusly, tend to be equally corrosive to the West.
Thanks for posting! I actually just got back from an LDS mission my self. I had to return early due to a medical issue with my knee, and thankfully i am now all healed up (after eight months of muddling through...argh...). Personally i had a great experience, though i was a bit older when i left at the age of 24, then most missionary's so perhaps that prepared me a bit more.
I loved If Horses Had Gods, as i too met a lot of people out there, and reading it it reminded me a lot of those people and brought back a lot of great memories of absolutely amazing friends i made while in Florida. Great read and thank you so much for writing and sharing!
3018638
Ah, the classic "How can you be moral without religion" talking point.
And being agnostic is more like being deist, than being atheist.
3021173
"Ah, the classic "How can you be moral without religion" talking point."
Ah, the old atheist or agnostic who doesn't realize he lives in a house made of straw that his own worldview easily burns down and has already burned down long ago.
Also, ah the old characteristic strawman misapprehension of that particular talking point.
No fucko.
The point is not that you need to be religious to be moral. Plenty of religious people, including the atheist and agnostic fuckos that supported communism and fascism (and those support the further destruction of the west through various means today) and the fuckos in the church that have tried to lead Christianity astray, and those Muslims who actually took their text seriously and helped Mouhammed establish himself in the Arabian peninsula are going to if they have not already, received 'a grievous chastisement' in the hereafter for their various shortcomings and failures.
The point though is that, for objective morality to exist, atheism and agnostism must be false and a religion (Christianity) must be both true and the atheist's and agonstic's particular moral code must have some bits that just happen to align with the actual, correct moral code, just like atheists and agonistics in the west just happen to have bits and pieces of the correct moral code taken from the west's Christian roots, even though time and time again, they and those like them have tried to uproot said roots and act surprised when shit doesn't go their way and general bad stuff happens (*cough, the nordic states*).
How interesting is it that, in order to actually be a good atheist or agnostic and for that to actually mean that you're a good person and something other than you really take take atheism and agnosticism seriously, your own worldview must be false since it reduces you to meat robots with no more actual moral agency, duties, or improvement than an animal, which, interestingly, folks with your worldview constantly say that's all human are.
Also, with the self destructive and just plain destructive political patterns and worldviews of agnostics and their tendencies to group together closely with atheists almost as much as Muslims tend to stick together in the early phases of stealth Jihad, though I know full well that agnostics and atheists truly are separate groups of people, the snarky fucko in me wants to say, 'Ya could have fooled me.'
On that note, no, an agnostic is about as much a deist as an agnostic is an atheist. A deist has the conviction that God exists, and while this, on its own, may make a deist closer to a Christian Theist, the problem with a deist is that he further convinced that God is some distant, non-personal entity that hasn't really done much aside from establishing the physical cosmos and all the matter, energy, space, and time within and has never interacted personally with its creatures. In other words, a deist is a Christian Theist who think's God isn't super-personal or personal at all.
3021810
3021810
You act like you understand that it's only a talking point with little substance, but in actuality well... your subsequent long rant is basically an emotionally-charged expansion of said talking point. Does working yourself up into a froth make it easier to ignore that?
Christianity is objective morality? Do you also think that human civilization began with the birth of Judaism? The 10 Commandments (only a few of which actually makes any moral sense today) are just interpretations of older moral/ legal codes. It's not objective, nor is morality solely the domain of religion. All religion does is put an invisible arbitrator at the top.
Oh and look at that, Islamophobia. You do realize they worship the same God you worship? But I guess they just gotta be wrong, even though their God is the same "objective truth" as yours. Do you know that Christians have killed more Jews than Muslims ever did? Jesus was a Jew.
Science and philosophy easily explains why "meat robots" and morality are not exclusive. For many ppl it's better to understand the truth than to indulge in subjective belief.
3021810
You talk about morality, then work yourself up into a fervor, insulting people. You're funny.
Great story, ponky. I'm sure Twilight will figure out her beliefs eventually.
Tbh the only reason I clicked on this was the idea of Solaire of Astora meeting Celestia and all the hilarity that would ensue, but looking at this a bit more thoroughly I might read this later.