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Many writers find it hard to get into the minds of characters whose religions (or lack thereof) are different from theirs.
It struck me that we might get some use out of a thread designed for members to ask questions of others with different religions in order to get that necessary understanding.
Obviously, this kind of thread can be risky because the questions need to be respectfully formulated and the answers seriously given.
So a good question would be, "What do (members of religion x) think about y?"
A bad one would be, "How can you (meaning members of religion x) think z about y?"
A really bad one would be, "How can members of religion x be so stupid as to not understand y?"
A real non-question would be, "If only members of religion x would understand y they would join religion z (or abandon religion x)."
This is not a thread for evangelizing or tearing into religions (indeed, this isn't a board for that). It's a thread for expanding the ranges of characters we as writers can create by adding enough understanding of various religions to our repertoires of character mind-sets.
It struck me that we might get some use out of a thread designed for members to ask questions of others with different religions in order to get that necessary understanding.
Obviously, this kind of thread can be risky because the questions need to be respectfully formulated and the answers seriously given.
So a good question would be, "What do (members of religion x) think about y?"
A bad one would be, "How can you (meaning members of religion x) think z about y?"
A really bad one would be, "How can members of religion x be so stupid as to not understand y?"
A real non-question would be, "If only members of religion x would understand y they would join religion z (or abandon religion x)."
This is not a thread for evangelizing or tearing into religions (indeed, this isn't a board for that). It's a thread for expanding the ranges of characters we as writers can create by adding enough understanding of various religions to our repertoires of character mind-sets.
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