I don't mind religious characters or if they talk about their beliefs as long as it is important to the plot or it doesn't take over. Just having random religious person going on about prayer and beliefs when it has nothing to do with what is going on annoys me. That just sounds preachy. When I reread the Divergent series I realized that God was mentioned a bunch because Tris' family is religious even though she doesn't quite believe in it. It wasn't overdone, but she does occasionally think about it, wondering if her parents were right about the afterlife and stuff.
On the other hand I read a book a couple years ago and the kids in it were Catholic. Not a big deal (I grew up Catholic) except religion kept coming up constantly. They all made such idiotic decisions because of their religious beliefs. Like the one girl ends up with pneumonia and instead of staying inside she insists on going to church every Sunday (it's a post-apocalyptic world) so she just gets sicker. Then the one day the boy says she shouldn't go, but she does anyway and nearly dies. I wanted to smack them all. It just went on and on about it--very annoying.
The mystery books I read have a lot of Native American lore and beliefs woven through them which has been really interesting. I've learned more about it through the series than I did studying it in school. The main character is an atheist, but his wife was all religious and he gets all spiritual after some near death experiences (thanks to his best friend who is an Indian and taught him about his beliefs).
Most of the characters I write are either atheist or don't care about religion. I have to force myself to make them do things like go to church or say grace or something. It's not stuff I think about so I forget that my characters should kind of resemble the real world and most people have religious beliefs and go to church and stuff.
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Date: 26 Sep 2014 06:33 pm (UTC)On the other hand I read a book a couple years ago and the kids in it were Catholic. Not a big deal (I grew up Catholic) except religion kept coming up constantly. They all made such idiotic decisions because of their religious beliefs. Like the one girl ends up with pneumonia and instead of staying inside she insists on going to church every Sunday (it's a post-apocalyptic world) so she just gets sicker. Then the one day the boy says she shouldn't go, but she does anyway and nearly dies. I wanted to smack them all. It just went on and on about it--very annoying.
The mystery books I read have a lot of Native American lore and beliefs woven through them which has been really interesting. I've learned more about it through the series than I did studying it in school. The main character is an atheist, but his wife was all religious and he gets all spiritual after some near death experiences (thanks to his best friend who is an Indian and taught him about his beliefs).
Most of the characters I write are either atheist or don't care about religion. I have to force myself to make them do things like go to church or say grace or something. It's not stuff I think about so I forget that my characters should kind of resemble the real world and most people have religious beliefs and go to church and stuff.