On God and Gods in Fiction

Whether you’re religious or not gods and God are in fiction and life. People swear by saying “Jesus Christ” or “Oh my God,” days of the week are named after Thor, Odin, and Frigga, and even the symbol for medicine is taken from the Greek god Asclepius. Thus when creating story worlds, we include gods and/or God because it’s just natural that these worlds would have deities of their own. But instead of just writing a post about how to create religions I want to dive a little deeper into divine beings in fiction.

Fake Gods

This is really common in science-fiction. The story finds a scientific explanation for whatever god or gods primitive people worships. Usually, these gods are portrayed as hostile so you’re rooting for the characters to find out the truth behind them and defeat them. Some examples are Apollo in “Who Mourns for Adonis?” from Star Trek: The Original Series, Grandfather from “the Rings of Akhaten” in Doctor Who, and Mount Vesuvius from “The Fires of Pompeii” in Doctor Who.

All of these “gods” have supernatural powers or can even grant powers to others like in the case of “The Fires of Pompeii” but in the end, they’re aliens and can be killed whether that be by a volcanic eruption or move on to another dimension. This proliferates a view that gods aren’t really real. That they can be explained by reasoning and there isn’t such thing as a divine.

Lower-Case G Gods

These are the most common in fiction and sometimes they’re definitely real and other times we don’t really know if they’re real or not. Since sometimes they’re seen, sometimes they’re only mentioned, and sometimes they reveal themselves but not in a tangible way.

Benign Gods – I feel like these are the rarest of the three groups to encounter. The two that come to mind are Eywa from Avatar and the Goddess from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Goddess mostly grants you health and stats in the game and doesn’t exude a strong sense of power. Eywa on the other hand has a far more fleshed-out religion. She is intangible but her influence shoes in nature and her holy places. Even the most scientific people in that movie begin to believe in her, which was a fascinating twist.

Malevolent Gods – There are some fictional worlds that take the stance that we shouldn’t have gods. That gods haven’t helped mortals but hurt them. The strongest example that comes to mind is Zanza from The Xenoblade Chronicles. This god created beings for selfish purposes and only wishes to use them for his own benefit.

A Mix of Both – This is the most common world view in fiction. There are good gods and there are bad gods. American Gods, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Sky in the Deep, Final Fantasy XV, Mistborn, and Game of Thrones take this stance.

In the case of the former two, these gods are basically super-powered humans. They can live for a long time and can only be killed in specific ways, but they have human motivations and desires. In American Gods, Mr. Wednesday (or Odin) enjoys …. women … and food. He gets discouraged, angry, and sad, but he also can see into the lives of other people and thrives on the worship of humans.

In Final Fantasy XV, the gods don’t take on human forms. Their forms are often more animal-like. They have the features of the gods I just mentioned, but these gods also have insight into the future and even acknowledge that a stronger power rules them too.

In Game of Thrones, there are a variety of belief systems, but you’re never quite sure if they’re real or not. Whether it be the Seven-Faced God, the Drowned God, the Lord of Light, or the Great Stallion. People obviously worship these beings but whether or not they actually exist is unknown. In this world, you’re hesitant about the truth of the supernatural. Are gods influencing the events of the story or is no one really there? Judging by Jon Snow saying there is nothing after death I’d say the stance is none of them are actually real.

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young takes a more positive stance about gods. Eelyn is strongly religious and believes in the Askan gods while the Riki believe in their god. At one point you see a sacred animal of the god does something a bit miraculous, so you wonder if they’re actually real or not.

God

Since I’m a Christian, I believe that God exists and since God is so prominent across cultures of course He’s at least mentioned in a lot of media. Some of the portrayals are good, but most really aren’t.

Mentioned – In period pieces, God is at least mentioned since many people in the Western world believed in God. This is mostly either through going to church or prayer (though come on people we rarely say “The Lord’s Prayer.” Shake it up, sometimes.) This is fine, but usually, God doesn’t play a big part in stories in these instances.

The Non-Theological Way – A lot of people have non-canonical ideas of God, mostly formed from, what I can guess, a shallow theological understanding of God. I guess you could say that these groups are cults, but it sure does feel like the cults get more attention than normal believers.

A big example is the Handmaid’s Tale. 98% of the people in the show are nutsy cultish believers that believe in backward notions. Another one is in The Last of Us Part 2 where a cult hunts down homosexuals.  In a really radical way, some creators have thought of extremely blasphemous portrayals like in the His Dark Materials series where in the last book the characters kill God himself. This feels so disrespectful to my beliefs, and it feels like Christianity comes under the most fire for this, but if this were done to Allah, then that work would never be published.

The Theological Way – I’ve rarely seen God portrayed correctly in non-Christian media. The best I can think of is in Evan All-Mighty of all things. That depiction of God was the closest canonically I’ve seen. In a less direct portrayal, I really enjoyed Shepherd Book in Firefly. He was a religious man who wasn’t crazy, but also followed Biblical teachings.

In Christian media, the most infamous example is The Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan is a physical manifestation of Jesus who is part of the Trinity. Throughout the series, he creates the world of Narnia, sacrifices himself in parallel to the crucifixion, and is with the characters in Heaven. Since C.S. Lewis was a devout Christian this portrayal was very accurate and canonical.

In the Out of Time series by Nadine Brandes, God isn’t seen but plays a major role in Parvin’s life. He guides her and reveals himself to her. It’s a really inspiring portrayal and offers deep insight into the Christian life.

Conclusion

I remember distinctly as a child when my dad actually scolded me for loving Greek Mythology so much. He said, “Why don’t you memorize real stories in the Bible?” I responded, “I do memorize biblical stories, but I like these too.”

Reading about mythological gods has actually increased my faith, not dampened it. Like I’ve mentioned before the gods in myths are basically super-powered humans. They have human emotions, desires, and motivations, but they are just immortal (or nearly indestructible) and have powers. The God that I believe in is not that way. He is perfect and he won’t curse me just because he’s having a bad day. He’s just, caring, patient, and kind. He’s everything good wrapped up into one totally blessedly inhuman being. I for one do not want fickle imperfect beings ruling the universe that’s for sure. That’s why I put my faith in the creator of all things. A being who is, who was, and who always will be. He is I AM.

What are your thoughts in including mythology in fiction? How do you think writing God in fiction should be done? Have you created a religion of your own for your stories?