The Buffyverse and Religion?

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Phantom Dennis

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One think I don't understand is since 'The Powers That Be' are seen as the creators of the universe in Buffy (and therefore similar to Gods) why do crucifixes and holy water, used by and are symbols of Christianity work against vampires? Could someone please explain this?
 
E
eunsoma
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I'm gonna go with "tradition." That, and the rules governing vampire slayage were put in place long before the PTB were conceived of.
 
I don't see any evidence to suggest that the Judeo-Christian God exists in the Buffyverse. If he does, then he takes no interest in anything that goes on. The fact that good people can have their souls snuffed out of existence indicates that if he exists, he's not minding the store, or he's not all-powerful against evil.

Symbols like the cross have power against evil because they focus human ideas of goodness and morality into a tangible form, not because they have any magical powers conferred by God. Religion is just one of the ways people express those ethics.

This would be in line with Joss's secular humanist beliefs.
 
Because Joss knew that if he dared do something different then the same would happen to him that has happened to Stephanie Meyers?

Or, the way I prefer to look at it is that God is not confined to one religion, however we, as humans, have decided to do just that.

In doing that, we have imbued these religious artifacts with the power of God and as the demons are older than religion, they feel that continuing power from way back when.

I do believe any item of relgious significance would cause the vampire 'damage'.
 
It's kind of ironic how, depending on the degree of faith being practiced, Religion, especially Judeo-Christian based religions, have admonished the supernatural for ages, witches and magic etc... but vampires and the basis of this shows as well as other shows are based heavily on lore that involves some aspect of religion.

did that make sense? late night...

EDIT: My Adopt(er) *points up 🙂
 
Are the PTB creators of the universe? or are only they there to oversee what is happening?.
Crosses and holy water have an affect on vampires because when vampires were first written about ( and as able to be read on a large scale to the western civilisations ) religious ferver was very evident.
It also was dependant on the religious knowledge of the author.
Are the crosses and holy water only the symbols of christianity or do other religions use them? I don't think Joss would have used religious artefacts more than what was needed for the story as what is sacred to one religion may be ignored by another.
IE Jesus Christ is viewed by some religions to be very important, yet the Orthodox Jews see him as similar to a religious heretic.
Even when the Knights of Byzantium started saying let Gods will be done, they were non specific as to whose God..
 
I think I've said this in a different thread, but I like to think that, back in the early days of vampires, some mega-powerful monk or sorcerer decided to curse vampires so that religious artifacts burnt them (which begs the question, is it just Christian artifacts that hurt them or is it all religious items and crosses just seem to be the most convenient?).

Still, the tradition thing is the more likely explanation.
 
I believe that it depends on what the vampire believes to cause him damage does that. I think I recall the Master saying he has overcome his fear of the cross so it doesn't damage him anymore simply because he doesn't believe in that anymore. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The show takes place in the US and the vampires featured mainly are from England, Ireland and the US so they probably all learnt about the Western vampire lore. So a vampire raised on other religious views and vampire lore would not be harmed by a cross or holy water.

It's a whole big "And what do you believe?" thing.
 
B
BillyidolwannaB
Remember the cross still burned the master though.
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