Tuesday
“You wanted to meet?” Rainbow Dash tilts her head upwards as a brief salutation, and I mirror. “Something about religion?” I nod. “No offence, but, uh, why?”
By now I’ve become comfortable with the question. “I’m on a spiritual journey, and I’m looking to understand my friends’ beliefs as I seek to form my own.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Sure, if you say so. You should talk to Fluttershy.”
“I did. We went to church together on Sunday.”
Rainbow shrugs, unfazed but unimpressed. “So what do you need me for?”
I hesitate. “Fluttershy did give me quite a bit to think about, but I’d like to hear about all of my friends’ religious beliefs before I commit to anything.”
“Oh.” Rainbow scratches her head. “Hate to break it to you, but I don’t do religion. There’s not much for me to say.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.” I hope my smile is convincing enough. “You don’t do religion… Are you an atheist?”
“Ugh, why does everyone think that?” She rolls her head around her neck.
“So you do believe in God?”
“Nope.”
My forced smile returns. “Doesn’t that make you atheist?”
Rainbow whistles. “Look, religion really isn’t my thing. It never was, and it probably never will be.”
I nod slightly, unconvinced. “Did you ever try religion?”
“Eh, Shy dragged me to church once or twice. It wasn’t my thing.”
I frown. “There are other religions’ than Fluttershy’s, you know.”
“So?” Rainbow shrugs. “Aren’t they all basically the same? Tell some stories about a giant man in the sky, sing some songs, don’t eat pork on Fridays?”
“That’s a rather reductionist Western view on religion.” I blink. “I take it that you don’t believe in God, then. And should probably do some reading about philosophy.”
She rolls her eyes. “Look, I don’t think there’s a God up there, but I’m not some egghead who spends time thinking that there isn’t one, you know?” She snickers. “Uh, no offence, egghead.”
“Hmm.” I pause, chewing on her pile of contradictions. “Maybe that would make you agnostic?”
“Uh, no, I’m not a gnaw stick. I just don’t think about God, period.” Rainbow creases her brow. “Except for right now, and that’s only because you keep asking.”
“Oh.” My façade smile slips. “What do you think about God right now?”
“Really, Sunset?”
I beat puppy dog eyes.
“Alright, fine. I’m thinking it’s all pretty dumb. If God is real and wanted to be believed in, why let so many religions say opposite things about him? And if he’s not real, or he doesn’t want to be believed in, why would anyone bother being religious? Seems like a big waste of time, and a stupid reason for people to fight each other over.”
“Oh!” I light up, having worked through some of the same objections myself. “Those are excellent questions. I’d be happy to discuss the philosophical side. I’m sure Twilight has some references we could check out together. If you’re looking for something more Biblical, Fluttershy could help you. And if in the end you just don’t believe, I’m sure Applejack should have some words of advice for you.”
Rainbow raises both of her eyebrows but seems amused. “For such a smart person, you can be pretty dense, Sunset. I don’t want help believing in God, or help not believing in God. I don’t have a problem with religion. Like, I get it. You want to believe in something. You like discovering all the answers by reading some dusty old books. That’s cool. It just isn’t for me, okay?”
“Hmm.” I mull over her words. Could a person really be satisfied without the answers? Without even asking the questions? Everyone else I’ve known, human or pony, theist or atheist, has believed something. Is Rainbow really so different?
My tongue presses against my cheek. “What do you think happens after you die?”
“Me? Die?” Rainbow cackles. “I’m pretty sure I have a resting heart rate of seven. I’ll be fine for a while.”
“You’re not immortal,” I chide. “Wait, are you immortal? Can humans do that?”
“You tell me, magic pony girl.” Rainbow snickers. “Obviously humans can be immortal. Case in point: yours truly.”
I hold my hands up. “Okay, okay, humour me. You get into an epic battle to save humanity, tackle tons of bad guys, slay a bunch of undead horrors, the works. You succeed, but at the cost of your own life. What happens then?”
“Duh, humanity goes gaga over my corpse for saving its ass.”
“What about you?”
“I don’t know.” Rainbow seems pensive. “Maybe, in the last second before I die, I remember all the cool things I did, and as the last bit of life leaves me, I fade out thinking, man! I killed it. And it killed me. So now we’re even, life and me.” She seems unsure. “I guess we go out in a tie, 1 to 1.”
I smile. “Do you get a rematch?”
Rainbow shrugs. “Don’t know, don’t care.”
“Why not?”
Rainbow’s gaze meets mine, and for the first time today, she seems serious. “Right now, I’m fighting in this match. There’s only so much time before the clock runs out. Maybe there’s another match after. But maybe not, so I gotta make this one a win. I could spend time worrying what will happen after or wondering who’s refereeing. That’s time I’d rather spend scoring goals.” She throws her hands up in defence. “If eggheads like you and Twilight want to spend your time reading the rulebook, knock yourselves out, but I’ll be a hundred points ahead by the time you realize you won’t win if you never play.”
“Right.” I nod slowly. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash. For someone who claims not to care about religion, you seem to care where it counts.”
Rainbow frowns. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You care about living a good life, independent of belief in afterlife. That’s commendable,” I say, “and something many religious people could stand to learn. Heaven shouldn’t be the reason people do good.”
Rainbow blinks. “I didn’t say anything about doing good. Honestly, I don’t think about good and bad much. I mean, I try to be nice and loyal and whatever, but I won’t pretend I’m some goodie two-shoes like Fluttershy.”
“No?” I cock my head. “Why are you so focused on ‘winning’ then?”
“Duh, because I’m a terrible loser. Total lack of practice.” She laughs. “Look, when the timer’s running, and the ball’s in my court, of course I’m gonna dribble it and shoot a hoop.”
“But why?”
“Why not?”
I chuckle. “Because you can?”
She flashes two thumbs-up at me. “Heck yeah, because I can!”
I smirk. “I’m starting to see the wisdom in your approach. Thank you, again.”
“Any time for a friend. You good now?”
“Yeah, I think so. If I want to approach religion scientifically, I do have to consider the null hypothesis.” I blow out a puff of air. “You’ve more than provided that. Thanks.”
She raises an eyebrow at me but seems to knows better than to ask a clarifying question.
“I’m sorry, I should probably let you go back to your game.” I wink. “If I stay too long, I might turn you into an ‘egghead’.”
“Hah, I’d like to see you try.” Rainbow crosses her arms.
“Hmm.” I hold my chin in my hand. “You should observe the parallels between the traditional domain of religion to your analogies. Each seeks to answer fundamental questions: the meaning of life, righteousness, death, and so on. The essential difference, however, is that–”
She puts her hand over my mouth, muffling me as she rolls her eyes. “I was joking.”
I stop trying to mumble. Satisfied, she removes her hand, allowing me to say, “Uh-huh. Sure. Totally. Ahem.”
“Yep.” She points finger guns at me. “Catch you later?”
I point back and click my tongue goodbye.
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Excellent chapter!
You are a gifted writer.
(Again, still happy to write the SciTwi Jewish fic with you. DM me)
11230437
Thank you
Huh.
I should not be, but somehow i am still surprised that usually rainbow is making the most sense after applejack . . .
This chapter feels off. While the approach you have with Dash makes sense once she explains it, Sunset feels very different from earlier iterations. She's not reacting to their friends beliefs, she's inciting Dash to think like her, to questions the same things she's supposedly thinking herself, which we still lack a reason why she's doing other than 'it could happen'.
The fact that Sunset is quickly trying to throw Dash into some category and maybe even convince her to adopt another of her friends religions like she did with AJ before (with the difference that with AJ it was planted as a way to grow closer to Rarity) it feels at odds with the simply questioning stance she had before. While yes, the null or uncaring stance is viable, Sunset doesn't seem to acknowledge this till near the end, despite that she most likely was like Rainbow before this search for religion, if we take into account her relationship with her parent's beliefs in Equestria. Sunset should be able to know Rainbow's train of logic about religion, but instead it seems like Sunset just doesn't get that the null option exists and tried to throw Rainbow into a group for better understanding.
It just raises a lot of eyebrows at the interaction.
I think Sunset is being a bit...intrusive with Dash. If Dash doesn't want to believe in a higher power, that is her business.
@Clockwork2003
And now you try telling some religious person that their deity is gay, bi or one of the other things they keep inventing nowadays . .
Record the reaction and put it on youtube, that should make for a good few hundred thousand views and a flame war of epic proportions in the comments.
11230519
This comment is as closed minded as the ultra religious people you describe.
Opting out of the discussion is an option. Especially when you're a walking pile of hubris.
But this is the logical fourth quadrant to the previous three; the one who's never had faith in the first place.
11230468
I think that's the sticking point for Sunset. She just can't process that someone could flat out not care about such vast questions. She never even considered the possibility and needs a few tries to wrap her head around it the first time she encounters it.
I do have to agree that Sunset belabors the point a bit too much—my apologies to Fillyfoolish for not catching it in the preread—but I can see how she'd come about that stance.
11230591
This is an excellent point!
It's like looking at Patrick Star's dream in that one Spongebob episode. He's just living in the moment, riding the seahorse.
I appreciate the metaphors Rainbow's using (being a metaphor fan), but I also agree with everyone that Sunset was a little pushy here. Agnosticism is an aspect of religion (I could be wrong), so she could have just left it at that.
11230599
Sunset has every reason to be pushy.
Trauma often makes people extremely cynical, especially for such a touchy issue like religion. Even in this continuity, where she is dating Twilight, the trauma of the Sun cult "solarists" and being ostracized for being gay are sticking points. My guess is that Sunset is looking for something to believe in, that accepts her for who she is.
Five bits says Pinkie Pie will be a Pastafarian.
11230601
When you put it that way, it makes sense.
11230610
Yeah. It does.
I am trying to get Fillyfoolish to write an epilogue chapter with me, where Sci-Twi and Sunset see a rabbi (my oc, obviously
). This rabbi will try to reconcile the need for something spiritual, while acknowledging that you can be yourself and love who you want. It'll be a Talmudic maze, but it'll be worth it.
11230591
I could get Sunset not being able to understand not caring about religion if she was very religious already or before but it doesn't seem like she was and after the Solarist stuff with her parents, I'd expect her to understand Applejack and Rainbow's positions the most.
11230611
I don't understand what Talmudic means.
11230617
Jewish legal stuff.
My specialty!
11229899
Marriage has always been a weird can of worms, honestly. It used to be that a male and however many females would publicly state their intentions to be dedicated romantic partners and raise children together, and as soon as they boned for the first time they were considered married without any kind of legal documentation.
Nowadays, that stuff is really complicated. It's been narrowed down to one man one woman in most of America, or maybe same sex couples in Canada and various European countries, and always carries with it some serious taxation and legal implications.
I don't think that same sex relationships have ever been actively encouraged in the Abrahamic religions, but I do know that Jesus talked nonstop about loving and helping each other and and not condemning one another for wrongdoings or whatever, so I just choose to be accepting of it.
11230535
Stahlseele isn't directly stating any opinion on his own beliefs with this comment as far as I can tell, just saying that a great deal of people would take offense to that, which is a pretty safe assumption.
11230698
My beliefs fall somewhere between heathen of the northern pantheon, atheist and agnostic.
Depending on circumstances.
And yes, that was my entire point.
Nobody wants to believe that their imaginary friend is not as they imagine him/her/it to be.
Actually, if the argument is that man is made in gods image, then how is every human right when all humans are completely different?
skin colour, height, dick size, shoe size, eye colour, number of eyes, number of limbs, sexuality . .
Well, we could say that warhammer has it right and tzeentch was in charge of making us. That would explain a frightening lot.
11230747
I can respect all of that. Even as a Christian, I can admit to myself that I don't really know who God is beyond what is written in Scripture. Even then, there's a ton of conflicting information that allows someone to basically believe whatever they want about God and have at least one passage support it at least a little.
At the end of the day, all people are just trying to make sense of the world through various differing/competing/contradictory sources of information/governance/authority, born into different sets of circumstances that dictate a lot of who we become and what we believe. It's not useful to nurture animosity in your heart to those different from you if they aren't outright trying to cause harm.
11230779
That is the main problem with religion that has scripture in the first place.
All of the assholes go through it with a fine toothed comb and cherrypick
whatever suits their opinion and disregard everything else even going so
far as to split the entire religion into cults that could not be more different
and only have a passing resemblence to what they claim to have come from.
You want to hate the gays because the bible says so?
You get stoned to death for wearing the wrong sort of clothes now,
step over here onto this plastic tarp, we don't want your heretic blood on
our holy ground.
Consider not venting personal beefs with organized religion. The comments are better served discussing the story.
Great work on nailing "The Dash's" attitude. Made me wonder if I'm missing out on 'this game' by concerning myself 'scoring points for the afterlife.' That said, most religious practitioners would consider that attitude dangerous due to its... Ethical nebulousness.
I really like this perspective of RD; it fits her well. She just *does not care*, because the now is more important than any what-may-be. I like it. I like it a lot.
when i think about it this actually does fit too-cool-for-school Rainbow Dash really well! thinking about this stuff is for eggheads!
hehe, egghead
ah, the reductionist Western urge to label and categorize!
out of the mouths of Rainbow Dashes come wisdom
hehe she said the phrase! love it!
gottem
ugh, she's such an egghead! i am so on RD's side here, haha
11230591
What helps imo is due to Sunsets...well alien nature, its a bit more credible that the idea of someone going "I just dont care" is a viable option