/jp/ - Otaku Culture

[Anonymous No.]

Does Touhou promote religiousness or agnosticism with the way divinity works in its settings? Not trying to start a shitstorm here, I'm just curious about how its fans perceive its effects on religous beliefs.

On one side of the coin, Touhou promotes religiousness because in its settings, the gods are real, they're active, and believing in them produces tangible results. It conveys a message that believing in your religion will be good for you and that the faithless have less to rely upon. No one religion is more "correct" than the other, so have absolute faith in whatever you pray to and follow the tenets of.

On the other hand, Touhou promotes agnosticism because it lumps in gods, the servants of the divine, and holy miracles with magic slinging wizards, shapeshifting druids, mindwarping psions, fire breathing dragons, the living dead, and other creatures that are out of this world. We think to ourselves "This is so silly and unbelievable that this couldn't possibly exist in the real world", and after being exposed to this over time, we might subconsciously think that the same applies to religion.

Has Touhou affected how you think of religion?

[Anonymous No.]

Cirno.

[『 五角场 ～ 之 ～ 无名氏 』 No.]

Being Daoist, no.

[Anonymous No.]

What

[Anonymous No.]

>because in its settings, the gods are real
Yeah, that's the big difference between gensokyo and real world

[Thirteen No.]

No, because I can't get far enough into the games to actually know the story.

;_;

[Anonymous No.]

i'd cirtenly be more religious of god was a cute loli.

[Anonymous No.]

It made me think that whatever deity I believe in, it'll just get blown out of the sky by a trigger-happy miko anyway.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3600959
I know how you feel.

[Anonymous No.]

I will disagree. Having gods active in a setting is against the concept of faith in general and most religions specifically. The way their gods work is more a government, with the gods telling their mikos (acting as police or army of the government) to protect humans from youkai and get offerings for the gods.

It's not necessarily acting in faith - you -know- you'll be punished if you don't follow their rules, and you know their personalities are twisted enough you won't enjoy the punishment.

... If anything, the "religious" message is: Be glad your god doesn't hang out around your house drinking all your tea and then telling you to go around fighting ridiculously strong monsters, armed with a stick.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3600942
Gensokyo writes a functional system of apotheosis whereby the accumulative belief of followers is the initial threshold. Divinity is much easier after that. Belief is power, knowledge is power: that is the law of Gensokyo mysticism. Some youkai are powerful for reasons independent of human fear or belief because of their increased awareness of some facet or knowledge.

And, for some reason, intangible concepts such as faith and item become itemized in Gensokyo. What's with that?


I think the major problem is the question itself. Touhou does not promote or devalue religion at all, and should not be construed as one or the other. Touhou is about all the ancient wonder having drained out of the modern world and retreating, for its own survival, under a bubble-world that can support its existence.

[Anonymous No.]

Gensokyo: a place for things that have passed into the realm of fantasy, i.e., belief in things like gods, kappa, youkai, ghosts, etc. has no place in the real world.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3601001
i want people to stop believing in me then so i can go there.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3600942
It's just fiction.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3600942
Gensokyo writes a functional system of apotheosis whereby the accumulative belief of followers is the initial threshold. Divinity is much easier after that. Belief is power, knowledge is power: that is the law of Gensokyo mysticism. Some youkai are powerful for reasons independent of human fear or belief because of their increased awareness of some facet or knowledge.

And, for some reason, intangible concepts such as faith and time become itemized in Gensokyo. What's up with that?

I think the major problem is the question itself. Touhou does not promote or devalue religion at all, and should not be construed as one or the other. Touhou is about all the ancient wonder having been drained out of the modern world and retreating, for its own survival, under a bubble-world that can support its existence. Gods. Monsters. Magic.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3600959
>>3600966
I can beat them on Hard. It feels awesome when the Subterranean Sun, Virtue of Wind God or Legendary Flying Sauce implodes. You're all like, TAKE THAT BITCH.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3601020
It feels awesome to lose your last life to WoVG Lunatic with 2 seconds left for the game clear.

I don't really care since it was a random run and I had 1cced beforehand, but had I not, it would be a true screen-punching moment of anger.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3601020
It feels awesome to lose your last life to VoWG Lunatic with 2 seconds left for the game clear.

I don't really care since it was a random run and I had 1cced beforehand, but had I not, it would be a true screen-punching moment of anger.

[Anonymous No.]

Touhou is my religion.

聖☆おねえさん

[Anonymous No.]

Unaffected.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3600942

>We think to ourselves "This is so silly and unbelievable that this couldn't possibly exist in the real world", and after being exposed to this over time, we might subconsciously think that the same applies to religion.

In other words we start to se how religion is just the same as believing in dragons/living dead/Santaclause and so on.

[Anonymous No.]

Oh man, this was a thread from crappily edited onto /tg/, with "D&D" replaced by "Touhou". Same OP image too. That's why you have references to psions and dragons.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3601112,1
And no one ever realized it.

UNTIL TODAY.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3601112,1
>Oh man, this was a thread from crappily edited onto /tg/, with "D&D" replaced by "Touhou".

And I apparently screwed up that line somehow. It was supposed to be: Oh man, this was a thread /tg/ that was crappily edited for /jp/, with "D&D" replaced by "Touhou".

>>3601112,2
The boundary between /jp/ and /tg/ has been blurring ever since /tg/ got added to the archive. /tg/ even has regular Japanese Bird threads now.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3601112,1
>Oh man, this was a thread from crappily edited onto /tg/, with "D&D" replaced by "Touhou".

And I apparently screwed up that line somehow. It was supposed to be: Oh man, this was a thread /tg/ that was crappily edited for /jp/, with "D&D" replaced by "Touhou".

>>3601112,2
The boundary between /jp/ and /tg/ has been blurring ever since /tg/ got added to the archive. /tg/ even has regular Japanese Bird threads now.

[Anonymous No.]

>/tg/ even has regular Japanese Bird threads now.
And /jp/ doesn't.

COINCIDENCE? ITHINKNOT.

[Suigin !YUsuiginy. No.]

I want my bird here