My beta asked me why do I just pick what parts of religions my characters follow - that they can't be really religious if so. I know rules can differ or be lax. I mean I personally know Muslims who eat pork and a Buddhist who actually works in a slaughterhouse, or ones who never go to places of worship or pray, and of course all the LGBT ones and those having premarital sex, etc. But honestly I don't understand what makes one religious in the first place when you decide your own rules.
At my church today, we did an exercise where two people stood at opposite ends of the room and made opposing statements, like “Winter is my favorite season!” v. “I can’t stand winter.” People then arranged themselves on the spectrum between these two opposites.
One of the statement pairs was “I’m spiritual” v. “I’m religious.” Literally everyone stood on the “I’m spiritual” end of the spectrum except for myself and the senior minister. Not weird/uncommon at a Unitarian Universalist church.
“Being religious” has a lot of baggage in North America. People associate it with adhering fiercely to some creed or dogma and being judgmental of/rejecting others who don’t fit that creed. That’s why people often say, “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” They see their faith as being a personal journey or exploration, not having to do with following rules or decrees.
But really, what it comes down to is, you’re religious if you decide you’re religious. How is anyone else going to define that for you? “Being religious” looks and feels different depending on who you ask. As you’ve noted, there are Muslims who drink and Jews who happily eat bacon; there are Christians who protest outside of abortion clinics and Christians who bless those same abortion clinics; there are Buddhists who burn incense in their homes every day and never set foot in a temple, and there are Buddhists who meditate on the reg in their sanghas. Sure, there are people who will say someone “isn’t really a Christian” or “isn’t really a Muslim” because they don’t follow this rule or that, but who made them judge of that? Religion, like so many other things, is largely made up, in the same way that “gender” or “capitalism” is made up.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Gender and capitalism are, despite being made up things, also things that have enormous influence over people’s lives and deaths. Just because they’re rules we made up doesn’t mean they don’t have power. What’s important is recognizing when rules should have power, and when we should change them.
That got awfully philosophical, and I don’t even know if it answered your question! I guess what I’m saying is, there’s no real answer to your question. But it’s a question worth answering, and an answer worth pondering.
Related Viewing: The Good Place (the first two seasons are on Netflix; the third season is currently airing)