Ever noticed that every show that deals with afterlife uses Christianity as a model?

[Hexen]

I don't know where to put this thread to be honest (I think it can go to the Literature & Films subforum) but since it deals with religion I decided to put it here for now. Anyway I have recently discovered this forum post (http://www.tv.com/shows/supernatural/forums/how-come-every-show-that-deals-with-afterlife-uses-christianity-as-a-model-13786-1429340/?page=0) from the TV forums which brought up a rather interesting point that no one has seem to notice or often overlook.

Ever noticed that in TV shows, Films, etc in the west especially in the US when their dealing with the supernatural especially the afterlife they always use the Christian model where they could be using other various different mythologies but instead they keep choosing Christianity as if it's the 'default' model as if they treat it as universal? Get's to show how deeply embedded/rooted Christianity is in US society don't you think?

[Rafiq]

Who cares? It's much more entertaining, and plus, most shows are made in Europe and the United States. And shows made elsewhere, are influenced by which.

[OHumanista]

I don't know where to put this thread to be honest (I think it can go to the Literature & Films subforum) but since it deals with religion I decided to put it here for now. Anyway I have recently discovered this forum post (http://www.tv.com/shows/supernatural/forums/how-come-every-show-that-deals-with-afterlife-uses-christianity-as-a-model-13786-1429340/?page=0) from the TV forums which brought up a rather interesting point that no one has seem to notice or often overlook.

Ever noticed that in TV shows, Films, etc in the west especially in the US when their dealing with the supernatural especially the afterlife they always use the Christian model where they could be using other various different mythologies but instead they keep choosing Christianity as if it's the 'default' model as if they treat it as universal? Get's to show how deeply embedded/rooted Christianity is in US society don't you think?

Heh. I know exactly what you mean, it's often kinda overwhelming and repetitive. Sometimes they do something pretty great and creative with it but those are the exceptions.
Of course like Rafiq said that has everything to do with the fact they were probably produced in Europe or the US. Our culture though a lot more secular than it once was is still heavily influenced by christianity.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I think it varies by area and what religion has the more domination. I assume that if you were to move to other locations on the globe you would find Islam, Buddhism and others being used as the model.

[Hexen]

Our culture though a lot more secular than it once was is still heavily influenced by christianity.

Therefore a we're actually living in a secularized christian based society to be more accurate. If it was completely secular, then we would be treating Christianity like no other mythology like we do with Pre-Christian religions today (I betcha in a Post-Revolutionary society, we would be making God of War style games involving killing God).

[Rafiq]

I think that this question poses another question: Do you really expect anything otherwise?

[Rafiq]

Therefore a we're actually living in a secularized christian based society to be more accurate. If it was completely secular, then we would be treating Christianity like no other mythology like we do with Pre-Christian religions today (I betcha in a Post-Revolutionary society, we would be making God of War style games involving killing God).

Not necessarily, no. What gives us the entertainment value form Ancient Greece is not so much Religion, but the aspects of Mythology, and "Urban Legends". Such would most likely exist in the future.

[Astarte]

I don't know where to put this thread to be honest (I think it can go to the Literature & Films subforum) but since it deals with religion I decided to put it here for now. Anyway I have recently discovered this forum post (http://www.tv.com/shows/supernatural/forums/how-come-every-show-that-deals-with-afterlife-uses-christianity-as-a-model-13786-1429340/?page=0) from the TV forums which brought up a rather interesting point that no one has seem to notice or often overlook.

Ever noticed that in TV shows, Films, etc in the west especially in the US when their dealing with the supernatural especially the afterlife they always use the Christian model where they could be using other various different mythologies but instead they keep choosing Christianity as if it's the 'default' model as if they treat it as universal? Get's to show how deeply embedded/rooted Christianity is in US society don't you think?

There have been some interesting Twilight Zone episodes, actually, that deal with this theme from a thinly veiled "science fiction" angle.

The one specifically that comes to mind is called "Shadow Play". Basically, the message about life/death that comes across is that we keep re-living the same life over and over but with slight variable alternatives


A man convicted of murder, Adam Grant (Weaver), tries to convince those about to execute him that the world all around them is just his recurring nightmare. The story opens with the jury finding Grant guilty of murder. He laughs uncontrollably and then rants that he refuses to die again. He claims that the district attorney and lawyers are all people he has known in his past who are playing parts in his dream.
They ask why he cares about dying if it's all a dream. He explains that he cannot get a decent night's sleep because he always wakes up screaming. He tells the district attorney to go home and he will find that what he thought was for dinner will be something else. This happens and unnerves the district attorney, who discusses the issue with a friend. The friend reasons that the man's claims constitute reasonable doubt as to his sanity, and that the district attorney should ask the governor to issue a stay of execution. With reservations, he places the call and asks the governor to do so as Grant is being prepared for execution. He tells the reporter that the governor said he would make the necessary phone call. The stay of execution arrives too late, and we discover that Grant was correct: the world was a dream for them and a nightmare for him. Everything vanishes and goes dark.
Grant then finds himself in the courtroom being sentenced to death for murder again, with the same people in different roles (e.g., a fellow inmate is now the judge behind the bench)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Play_(1961_The_Twilight_Zone_episode)

[Lenina Rosenweg]

What Dreams May Come (with Robin Williams) seems to take place in a Buddhist/occult version of the afterlife. There is reincarnation, people ascending/descending to various levels depending on their emotional state and level of empathy towards others, etc.There isn't a "god" figure, as far as I remeber, imagery seems channeled though one's subjective viewpoint.

Ither than this I don't remember having seen any movies on the "afterlife".

[l'Enfermé]

I think it varies by area and what religion has the more domination. I assume that if you were to move to other locations on the globe you would find Islam, Buddhism and others being used as the model.
Islam, being an Arabized rip-off of Christianity, has pretty much the same afterlife shit as Christianity.

Now, really, this is a pretty stupid question. Why would the Christian model of the afterlife by predominant in the West? Oh, right, it's probably because the West is predominantly Christian...

And anyways, the Dharmic religions have a shitty afterlife. Buddhism doesn't even have an afterlife at all, the whole point of Buddhism is to escape the reincarnation cycle and attain "Nirvana", i.e "extinction". It's even worse than the whole death-worship thing the Muslims and some Christians have going on with all that glorification and worship of the coming apocalypse.

[Goblin]

Its what most people in the west relate to i guess

[Zealot]

And just what the hell does the Christian afterlife look like? I've never really been given a coherent explanation by a Christian. Although I did once see a Christian and Muslim have a debate over this: the Christian thought the afterlife was just going to be one long walk with god, beholding his glory for eternity, while the Muslim said that would be boring and that the Muslim afterlife will be full of hot girls and alcohol. I kid you not...The Islamic afterlife is basically indulgence in everything they shunned in this life.

If what the OP is saying is true, I demand a movement to have the Muslim afterlife recognised as the default model because it sounds much more interesting.

[Rafiq]

A "Default" Muslim afterlife serving through popular culture would be signification of more cheap Sexism.

[Tenka]

I heard that Christian Heaven is like a gated community, located behind the visible universe, with many mansions and the frenzied piping of angels.
It doesn't sound like a very good place. A more populist idea of a positive afterlife, or "Heaven", is a sort of paradise unique to each individual, which would sound good if it wasn't wishful anti-materialist hogwash.
But anyway, dominant faiths should be expected to be influential on global media. (This dominance is not calculated in mere numbers of believers, either; but also in the relations of these believers to the productive centres of global media.)

[El Oso Rojo]

There was a 7 year old tornado surviver who lost her family, saw christ and heaven? before she woke up

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

There was a 7 year old tornado surviver who lost her family, saw christ and heaven? before she woke up

And you don't think this was because of upbringing and being exposed to such imagery? Do you think she would have seen it had she been living in a country without predominant Christian imagery and culture, or in a family without such religious ties? Hardly surprising a traumatic experience would bring such a vision to light under those circumstances.

[El Oso Rojo]

And you don't think thiIs was because of upbringing and being exposed to such imagery? Do you think she would have seen it had she been living in a country without predominant Christian imagery and culture, or in a family without such religious ties? Hardly surprising a traumatic experience would bring such a vision to light under those circumstances.

Yes, i agree. I find it funny xtains say they are oppress but there more stories of afterlife and returning from them than muslims.

[Rafiq]

Yes, i agree. I find it funny xtains say they are oppress but there more stories of afterlife and returning from them than muslims.

Wrong. Muslims generally talk about "prophets" and older, dead relatives visiting their dreams. For them, dreams are one of the largest sources of spiritual connection. A lot don't talk about returning from heaven or talking to their god because they consider it blasphemous. Zizek, despite his sketchyness, did a great analysis on Islam and how for them a God is not like Christianity, i.e. A father like figure, but a void in which a desert of the unknown seperates him and his worshippers. This is why they don't allow potrayals of their deity (other than the fact that it's easier for human brain to criticize an imagined figure than a mere uknown one).

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[El Oso Rojo]

Wrong. Muslims generally talk about "prophets" and older, dead relatives visiting their dreams. For them, dreams are one of the largest sources of spiritual connection. A lot don't talk about returning from heaven or talking to their god because they consider it blasphemous. Zizek, despite his sketchyness, did a great analysis on Islam and how for them a God is not like Christianity, i.e. A father like figure, but a void in which a desert of the unknown seperates him and his worshippers. This is why they don't allow potrayals of their deity (other than the fact that it's easier for human brain to criticize an imagined figure than a mere uknown one).

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Christain used to not allow that too, but change the rules.

[Lev Bronsteinovich]

I guess I am belaboring the obvious here, but dominant ideologies tend to dominate. I am sometimes quite amused when people get all pissed off about some newer religion, like Scientology, and say "they are ridiculous." In my mind they are all fairy tales, and the flavor you choose is the one you will uphold as "making sense." As a kid, I allowed myself for a brief period to think that Judaism, with only a single deity, and none of the holy trinity jazz, somehow made more sense than other religions. Then I started paying attention to the meaning and implications of the actual prayers and texts. Completely absurd. Of a particular time, of course, and this is not to belittle people that believe in this stuff to help give life meaning and structure. But it is so fucking sad that people still need this stuff.