so the religion practiced in The Lion King isn’t really developed but seems to be based on the structure and stability of the food web
are there religious extremists? is Simba heretical for eating below his normal trophic level?
I assume there is a spiritual aspect as to why the herbivores recognize and respect an apex predator as liege; they understand nutrient cycling and the benefits of biodiversity. The prey animals just fuck off and leave when Scar takes over, so I would guess that there are mutually beneficial religio-social contracts the lions and herbivores usually observe which were violated by overkill…
So. When Simba comes back, having adopted an insectivorous diet out of necessity, is it like… is it weird? Is it seen as a religious transgression? Is there societal unrest over the implications of the king trespassing in on the niche of other animals?
Is Simba Akhenaten ?
No, I don’t think think so. He’s not really an apostate on purpose, and ultimately he returns in order to reinstate the social order as it was under his father. Scar could probably be considered a heretic but it doesn’t seem as though he was attempting to replace the existing state religion with a new one. Scar was more of a Nero than an Elagabalus.
to my knowledge it isnt uncommon for religions with dietary restrictions to allow breaking those in times of necessity
True—but by the time he returns from exile, Simba has spent most of his life eating bugs. Readapting to being an apex predator would probably be difficult; would he even have the gut flora to digest red meat, or would he have to build it back up over time?
Then again, would the spiritual system of the pride lands make concessions for engaging in taboos for personal necessity? If it’s based on acceptance of the circle of life and one’s niche or role in the food web, it seems possible to me that a strict religious interpretation might actually discourage individuals from adopting behaviors to ensure their own survival if it threatens the stability of the ecosystem. I can even imagine particularly devout individuals self-sacrificing in times of hardship for the purpose of returning their nutrients into the community. An antelope fasting to death in order to allow over-grazed vegetation to regrow, a lion choosing to starve itself rather than prey upon the first offspring of a herd of giraffes after a large die-off…
Of course, Simba is a keystone species and even if individualism were transgressive in this hypothetical culture, perhaps he is given extra leeway by virtue of being a lion, royalty, and a liberator from the larger transgressions of Scar’s heretical tyranny…
It could get. Real weird, is what I’m saying.
I mean if we’re gonna bring gut flora into the analysis then we also have to acknowledge that obligate-carnivorous megafauna can’t survive on an insectivore diet, so the whole thing kinda falls apart with that, but at the same time this also makes me wonder how atheism works in this universe if the basic concepts of ecology are a religion.
#how would facing god and walking backwards into hell work if your religion is just the carbon+nitrogen cycle#I mean I guess the boring nihilistic answer is ‘there is no greater purpose to the balance of nature it just happens with or without us’#but I’m curious what the animal equivalent of an edgelord 'religion is gay lol’ atheist is here#…is that just the hyenas???
What complicates things for me is that ghosts exist and can interact with the living. Simba has a vision of his father, which could be interpreted simply as a manifestation of his internal sense of duty, except that Rafiki totally saw it too and is implied to hang out with Ghost Mufasa on a regular basis. So there is an element of souls being independent of the circle of life and retaining individual identity after death, as well as connections with non-relatives. Possibly ancestor worship? Simba’s reaction to seeing Ghost Mufasa was one of surprise and disbelief, so maybe spirit-interaction is an esoteric aspect of the more mainstream form of the religion.
I’m speculating wildly here (that’s the point), but I would hazard a guess that the “greater purpose” of such a religion might be less about achieving an end goal of being accepted into heaven, creating paradise, reaching nirvana, or ascending from the cycle, and more about just… ensuring the continuation of a particular status quo. Perhaps the “afterlife”, such as it is, is tied to the physical world and the survival of one’s own descendants–and so the spirit world could be imperiled by ecological changes within the living world. Religion, then, might provide social cohesion for a biodiverse interspecies community that is intelligent enough for war-making but theologically invested in maintaining a particular balance.
It seems that the pride rock religion is nontheistic. If there is no defined deity or deities, then “atheism” as we understand it in contrast with something like Christianity wouldn’t necessarily be applicable. The closest equivalent probably would be Scar’s rejection of the established values and laws and the violation of interspecies contracts. Why were the hyenas discontented in the first place, I wonder? Maybe they were expected–temporarily or permanently–to refrain from hunting and behave only as scavengers, and objected to being forced to remain within a singular narrow niche that did not reflect their full instincts and capacities.
