A werewolf relgion?

[Anubis]

I think we haven't done this before. We talked about if we should show relgion in the "Freeborn" movie, but we haven't really talked about it. Mabey becauseits a delicate topic, but they don't exsist or at least not anymore. Oh yeah, this is not a debait about the how many werewolves are there. I'm asking what it would a werewolf relgion be like if they had one.

What would you think a werewolf relgion is like? I think werewolves would worship earthly elements like the earth and the moon mabey they have multible gods or god like figures. A werewolf relgion could be extermely unqie. I always was curious about what a werewolf would belive in.

On a personal note if this has already been done, or some body is offended by this, I'm sorry.

[outwarddoodles]

I think it has been brought up or as they have beleived as a human. Yet I still think a werewolf would beleive in the same as before, unles through some experiances they may change apon their beleifs. If they did worship anything at all it'd most likely be the moon.

[Jamie]

As to a religion, I think werewolves would be more likely to be skeptical about religious claims in general and leery of Christian fundamentalism in particular. After all, they would have personal experiences of things that no religion explains, and they would probably be scared by reading about the werewolf trials.

As to a religion just for werewolves, it would be unlikely to develop if werewolves are rare. A small population lessens the chances for a religious pioneer, and werewolves would come from enough different backgrounds that it would be hard to convert even half of them to the same religion (the single most important determinant of your religion is what your parents believed). There would need to be a big heap of evidence for this religion (like with Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Gaia and the Wyrm) in order for most werewolves to accept it. Otherwise, I can't easily imagine this happening.

As far as what werewolves believe, though, I would expect to see certain patterns. Being outsiders, outcasts, and privy to a huge, mindblowing secret would cause them to tend towards the weirder end of things in the spiritual beliefs. After all, if werewolves exist, who know what else might exist too. It opens up a lot of possibilities. Werewolves would not necessarily buy into weird fringe religions and cults, but they would probably have a tendency to wonder about the weirder things a lot more than ordinary people do.

In real life, in my researches into modern beliefs about werewolves, I have generally found that people who believe in werewolves have a tendency to believe in an awful lot of other things too. This makes sense, because there is not much evidence for werewolves when compared to other famous mythical creatures. If you are going to believe in something with just a little evidence going for it, you are more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to ghosts, witches, sea monsters, spoon bending and lots of other things. The other trend I've seen is a skeptical backlash, especially within therian groups. People get sick of hobnobbing with people who believe in nearly everything, so they start being extra-skeptical about everything except werewolves.

If you modeled the beliefs of fictional werewolves on those two trends, then you would probably see a lot of werewolves (especially new or younger ones) who were extremely open-minded about spirituality and religion, along with a number (especially older ones) who were sick of outlandish religious or metaphysical topics and reacted with hostility towards anyone who brought up such subjects of conversation.

[WolvenOne]

Hmm? No I don't think Werewolves would be "naturally skeptical" of religion. The consensus seems to be that werewolves are people and there are a ton of different types of people with different types of beliefs, and these beliefs arn't likely to change over-night just because one has become a werewolf.

if ANYTHING I would think that some werewolves would actually be pushed to be more accepting of religion. After all, something has just happened to them that from thier perspective is like magic. Science cannot explain it, a phenomena like this by all means shouldn't exist, then who is to say that God doesn't exist?

Granted, a werewolf that is devoted to athiesm will come up with his own makeshift explanation to justify his beliefs. Just as a devote Christian Werewolf would come up with his own resoning as to why he wouldn't be going immedietly to Hell upon his death.

After all, people are very adaptable.

[Silverclaw]

I also think that most people would keep there religion after they got bitten.

Their could be a very good chance that WWs would find nature, night and the moon really spiritual.

[Fenrir]

You make it sound like there would only be one, there maybe hundreds, just like humanity, just because they may have a small number of werewolves doesn't mean there wouldn't be many numbers of religeons.
Most people would keep their old religeon, I mean would you change something you have been taught to believe in and uphold all your life. So that means that the members of a werewolf religeon would be like a father to child thing so it would be somewhat rare. Though the main religeons would be tweaked a littlle, so it would end up something like The Church of Lyconthropy. And god gave Kane the protection from the rest of the world wich he so desired( The beggining of lyconthropy).

Wo I didn't mean to bore you so here have a duckie

[WolvenOne]

Heh, well it's true that there arn't a countless number of mainstream religions in the world and the werewolf population is likely to reflect that. What I meant is that there's a nearly endless amount of varience to the thought and opinions among the people in this world, even amongst people of the same religion.

The overarching point I was trying to make was that everybody is gonna react a little differently. Everybody is unique so it'd be illogical thinking to expect two werewolves whom are both catholic or mormon to react the same way to becoming a werewolf.

Oh, and don't worry, you're not boring me. ;)

[Figarou]

Wolf marine......there happens to be a thread about werewolf religion.

http://calypso-blue.com/werewolf/viewtopic.php?t=252

We told you more than once to read through this section and post in an existing thread. Don't start a new one.




Now you're telling others to stop going off topic in your thread.

http://calypso-blue.com/werewolf/viewto ... 0991#20991

That is not a nice thing to do. Especially when we asked you to stop starting a new thread when all you can do is post in one that already exists. Fenrir thought I was offened. I had to go off-topic and tell her that I wasn't. Vilkacis went off topic to show me the difference with Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Sometimes going off-topic is a good thing.

Please read through these threads before you start a new one.

[DarkWolf]

Its Not Because Somebody Is A Werewolf That His Religion Changes,Me Personally I Dont Have A Religion And That Wouldnt Change If I Would Become A WereWolf

[Fenrir]

Fenrir thought I was offened. I had to go off-topic and tell her that I wasn't

This is very imbarrising, but There is a sertain part of this statement wich is wrong.

(hint- Iam not a her)

[Figarou]

Fenrir thought I was offened. I had to go off-topic and tell her that I wasn't

This is very imbarrising, but There is a sertain part of this statement wich is wrong.

(hint- Iam not a her)

Oops, sorry.

Should've posted in this thread. It would've made it easier for me to know.

http://calypso-blue.com/werewolf/viewtopic.php?t=632

[Scott Gardener]

That one would go into lycanthropy taking one's existing religion and its perspectives is generally a given. That lycanthropy could disrupt and play havoc with those beliefs is also a given. People filter their experiences with the world through their world view, and religion plays a huge part of that filter. Things that challenge their world-view will for the intellectual often force a re-thinking of religion. To someone less prone to thinking, the efforts will be to persist in holding beliefs in spite of new evidence, and attempt to force the experience into the belief system as-is. Granted, if one's belief system already has an opening for werewolves, you could be genius or idiot without having to rethink religion--as you might have plenty of other things with which to deal anyway.

But, for a lot of people, religion drives their core motivations and core outlook. If the person believes that werewolves are demons or are condemned to eternal torment in the afterlife, becoming one would be an ultimate horror. The experience would make Fundamentalists within Islam and Christianity more prone to serious psychological problems, ranging from post-traumatic stress to depression and anxiety. It could set off psychotic episodes.

A more open-minded outlook, such as, say, an intellectual Methodist Christian, an agnostic, or a Wiccan, would have an easier time accepting that one hasn't become a minion of Satan, but instead a person who can turn into a wolf.

Religions such as Wicca, which is nature-based and honors rather conveniently (among other cyclical events) the full moon, could actually embrace the experience and see it as a good thing. Indeed, a disproportionate number of therians are Pagan compared to the general population, suggesting that followers of nature-based religions would be more welcoming of such a transformation. However, even the most radical, out-there of the Pagan community would still have to deal with the culture shock of the perceivable reality shift, and the horrifically painful first transformation that we have come to assume would no doubt cause one to challenge one's faith, at least until it passed. Afterwards, one might rationalize it as a rite of passage.

[WordWolf]

That one would go into lycanthropy taking one's existing religion and its perspectives is generally a given. That lycanthropy could disrupt and play havoc with those beliefs is also a given. People filter their experiences with the world through their world view, and religion plays a huge part of that filter.

But, for a lot of people, religion drives their core motivations and core outlook. If the person believes that werewolves are demons or are condemned to eternal torment in the afterlife, becoming one would be an ultimate horror. The experience would make Fundamentalists within Islam and Christianity more prone to serious psychological problems, ranging from post-traumatic stress to depression and anxiety. It could set off psychotic episodes.

Humans being fairly adaptable in a psychological sense, it should be taken
as a given that most, if faced with suddenly becoming a werewolf, would be
able to find ways to retain/adapt their faith in such a way that they would
not be damned/condemned for becoming one.
(If some people can believe God wants them to kill people-like Manson's
followers did and other have-this isn't as big a leap.)

[WolvenOne]

Well, somebody on an extreme end of a spectrum would have an extremly hard time adapting, but many people that fall under this classification have a hard time adapting to far-more mundane things then lycanthropy. People with such a fragile and out of the mainstream mental-state are not likely to be indicitive of how the majority of people would handle it.

[Greylan]

Its Not Because Somebody Is A Werewolf That His Religion Changes,Me Personally I Dont Have A Religion And That Wouldnt Change If I Would Become A WereWolf

Feels the same way here.

[Scott Gardener]

I could easily see a fanatic deciding that he or she is the "angel of death" and go on a rampage.

I can also see fanatic werewolf extremists who feel that all of humanity should be infected, who might go on hunting raids, attacking and biting the heck out of everyone in their path. The other werewolves would almost certainly want to step in and stop these guys.

[outwarddoodles]

I could easily see a fanatic deciding that he or she is the "angel of death" and go on a rampage.

I can also see fanatic werewolf extremists who feel that all of humanity should be infected, who might go on hunting raids, attacking and biting the heck out of everyone in their path. The other werewolves would almost certainly want to step in and stop these guys.

This is why I think that if werewolves do feel a need to have more werewolves then they would be selective on t who they bite. And may also keep them monitored and watched as they go through some changes so they may teach them, or posibly teach them before being bitten.