Do some bronies treat MLP like a religion?

[Sonicwing 57]

I sincerely hope not. As far as religions go, there are worse. Having a belief system centered around someone else's imagination suggests a certain sence of divorced from reality. That being said, I myself have found that I've applied various morals and ideals from the show into my own life. So there are elements of a religious practice going on, but I doubt that anyone actually worships the show.

[ParadoxBlade97 10]

Not a religion...? Heresy! 

 

Ignore these heathen naysayers! Infidels such as these should hold their tongue! 

 

We are all united by our undying love for Princess Celestia and unquestioningly abide by her divine teachings, just as the prophet Twilight Sparkle did before us.

 

Lest we all suffer eternal banishment to the moon...

Edited October 20, 2014 by ParadoxBlade97

[Rethajni 2,020]

i still wonder if religion is really necesary but okay

 

 

ill say yes, because it is a valid reason to have our own philosophy and follow the rules as a guidance of life, sadly MLP is a religion by some bronies 

[Megas 27,102]

Probably, there are those people in any fandoms who takes things a too far

 

Now if you'll excuse me, I don't want to be late for Mass at the First Church of Celestia

[An Unknown Pony. 370]

Some bronies do treat mlp as their religion,but I don't

[Kel_Grym 1,917]

Hi guys...

 

I just wanted to say...

 

[Lakes Geek 15]

Hmm hard to say, I'd say not that many.  From my perspective: I'm certainly a very rabid Brony, I won't lie.  Though it's not my sole interest, I have a lot of others!  I guess if you looked at my internet presence or my bedroom as of late you might wonder though xD

 

Having said that, I don't know about religion.  I don't believe it's real or actively try to convert others (not that all religions do that either). I certainly take inspiration from it and enjoy the "love and tolerance" thing that we (mostly / arguably) have going on but it's also not a rulebook.  

 

Subculture, sure.  Bronies have generally tended to find that we're very like-minded, so it's quite understandable that people (including myself e.g. with the t-shirts) use it as a visible part of their identity - it's pretty rare in my experience to meet another Brony IRL and not get along with them famously like pretty much "instant friends" so of course, people will make it a visible thing so they can find others.

[Kel_Grym 1,917]

I believe in Celestia.

 

She's real.

 

Came to me in a dream.

 

Gary Busey was there too.

 

But let us speak of the brony subculture itself. Is it a religion? I do not believe so. In fact, there is probably a more appropriate way to describe bronydom.

 

They are simply a group of people that enjoy a common fetish.

 

fe·tishnoun \ˈfe-tish also ˈfē-\

: a strong and unusual need or desire for something

: a need or desire for an object, body part, or activity for sexual excitement

: an object that is believed to have magical powers

 

Full Definition of FETISH

 

1

 

a :  an object (as a small stone carving of an animal) believed to have magical power to protect or aid its owner; broadly :  a material object regarded with superstitious or extravagant trust or reverence

 

b :  an object of irrational reverence or obsessive devotion :  prepossession

 

c :  an object or bodily part whose real or fantasied presence is psychologically necessary for sexual gratification and that is an object of fixation to the extent that it may interfere with complete sexual expression

 

2

:  a rite or cult of fetish worshipers

 

3

:  fixation

 

My little pony is a fetish.

 

Suck it up, cause it's the truth.

 

Every single one of those varying definitions of fetish apply to the fandom in one way or another.

 

For some it's simply and obsession. And that's just it, an obsession. Very relative term. We usually just call it normal fanboy/girlism.

 

For others...it's kinkier.

 

And there are even a few that feel as though there is some mystical truth in the show...and when they get together you have a cult.

 

btw...

 

Join my Cult.

[Rethajni 2,020]

 

Join my Cult.

 

i guess is a little special the dream you have isnt it father Kelgrim?

 

now i would like to talk about this topic, i already talk about religion and MLP and i think i owe a proper update.

first of all, what is a religion? in my personal opinion a religion is a system of beliefs and faith dedicated to one or more gods. that includes, the belief in afterlife  Heaven and hell in some cases, rituals, things to do to gain heaven and restrictions.

Am not gonna talk or critisize any religion, i dont want anypony feel offended, this is my personal opinion.

 

I believe that a religion it is based on its followers only, lets imagine that a powerful religion of today, exist only in just one person in a parallel universe, people claim that their religion is the true one but what if we take one person of certain religion and put him on a place where science is the official religion and he is the only person that believes in a god in all the universe? he is still considered to have the truth? is not the same if we put that same person in a inhabited planet where he is the only one, if that person believe in a god then he have the truth.

 

sounds confusing huh? that we take an example to see who holds the true religion think about it is not as crazy as it sounds, religion is sustained by the number of people and their faiths, thats what i think, and to be honest i ask to myself if God created us or we created Him? this is still more confusing and even offensive for some persons but it is not my intention; allow me to share a story.

 

it is the year 1 B.C the place is in a desert, there was a kid who walked in the sands and always been imaginative, one day  he walk in a small village in the desert, and he buy some bread for his family, the bread looks fresh and delicious for the boy, then feeling happy for having a bread to eat he return to his home and serve the fresh bread with his mum and dad, the mother of the boy serves some water, the father bring some herbs and they are about to dinner. When the boy cuts the first slice he can see something weird inside, what is it? is white and rounded, carefully he opens more the bread to catch the misterious item, Such a  surprice! it is a egg! what does an egg inside of a bread? how did it ended there? the boy and his family think "it is a bread that brin life and provides our nutrition" the boy claims to find a bread that create eggs he show the food to the rest of the people, in that time there was no scientific explanation just opinions, the boy received attention, there was people who believe him and people that dont but only the people who believe on him foloow the kid and whorship the bread as a miracle, nobody ate it, the kid decides to show the world the existance of the miracle so the boy and the followers went to other places and announce the existance of a miracle bread, and the result was the same, people who believe and people that dont and the people who believe decided to announce the existance of the same item to the rest of the world, and something that started as a curiosity ended in a "Truth" for the amount of people, the popular voice and in these days we can see the Holy Church of the Divine Bread Giver of Life of the Mighty Egg.

 

as we can see we must take some factors in order:

the first years of civilization the mankind didnt had the answers of the natural phenomena we have today, so people create the Gods for an explanation, and in a very clever way we say "we cant understand their purpose but as long as we worship the rain, the fire and the death we are fine".

Second, people wants to be safe, people wants to feel that their life goes on a purpose thats why priests of elder religions that couldnt understand death said "if you die you are still alive" how? "your body dies but there's something (we are gonna call it soul) that keeps you alive" yay! but if you serve our god he will bring you to a place with gold and food and pleasure

 

i know i went off topic a lot but trust me, there's its explanation. the point is that religion promises happiness and wants to take us to Heaven, there's no scientific proof that heaven exists but, theres the detail i see: do we have developed science to its maximum? that we cant move more and advance even more? science close old doors to open new.

but science is on diapers even in these days, the more discovering the more questions appear and the full science and technology is far from be discovered. For example, i remember that i saw a video of how big the universe is, i bet you have see that before, the video of the size of the universe and the size of the smallest thing ever, but we i reached the maximun size of the universe i didnt see a heavent but hey! i found something that is really logical, it says: "if the universe is infinite there must be an exact copy of you somewhere in space" that take me to some theories i read, the existence of multiverses, posibilities and dimentions is the universe is infinite, that bring me just to ponies, i say "if the universe is infinite there must be a ponified version of you!", i leave you to your imagination about this fact

 

And this brings me finally to the concept of this topic finally! there's nothing wrong to consider MLP as a religion, if the universe is infinite there's the chance that Equestria as we know it exists, if we rewind to the religion theme i bring, i can say surely "i am a human like the same priest and preachers, the other people give them their positions as holy men" so i can say "there's this almighty thing that protect us and bring us happiness and friendship and turn on the flame of kindness, honesty, loyalty, generosity laugh and friendship in out hearts, she forged the 6 pillars of the true harmony, and she manifested in the most inocent things where she resides, her temple is the inocence of the children and most of little girls and she has so many forms and she is manifested in so many forms but her most true form, is so powerful that she awoke even in grow men and boys and girls of all ages, the Elements of Harmony, and this true form is an alicorn and we call her Celestia, that true form came as an inspiration, in dreams and projects of a woman named Lauren Faust to take her word and expand it to the continents to announce that the real face of harmony is here and we bronies are the privileged to see that face and worship, true inocence and harmony and peace doesnt need to come from books and scripts from people that didnt have the explanations to the things we have now. harmony and peace came in form of a show and toys and is logical, where do you find most inocent, pure and powerful? the show and the toys are the nest, the root of the image of the True face of peace, in the most inocent object and manifestations, the Good doesnt need to be majestic, it needs to be inocent and the Being that awake our inner lights did it as she foreseen, Celestia is Love, Celestia is Life".

 

okay i exagerated on the last words (and am sure that some persons will get the reference)

and all this is a yes, i see MLP as a religion and people should not be embarrased for believe in Celestia, my point is that if a cross, a star or books awake in us good feelings and a sense of love and devotion, why MLP not? lets make the comparison.

Religion promises you happiness if you do certain things, MLP just show you the way to be good but doesnt force you to follow it, religion tells you to forgive your enemies, MLP shows you to love and tolerate, religion had prophets and their lifes and adventures, their valuable lessons and the miracle of God, in MLP we have the mane 6 and their adventures, which is the same thing, Religions says that God is the form of Love and Mercy, in MLP we dont need to say it to realize that they are manifestations of good feelings, forgiveness and love, saying that Celestia and Luna are the ponification of love and mercy is clearly obvious, in religion there's a place for evil beings and demons that burn forever in hell, in MLP enemies can be forgiven and reformed like Discord and Luna, they dont die like Crysalis or Tirek (except King Sombra..... poor guy ) there are more examples and comparisons i can make but you are free to make your own and more important i leave you these examples to realize what MLP and religions can do. Bronyism can be a religion, if Jedi religions exists why MLP dont? the face of Peace, happiness and good feelings treasures of the soul can have many forms, so worship ponies cuz they awake you those feelings and devotion isnt that crazy if you think about it

 

for last point i invite you to read this and analize it, remember that is there something you are not agree with all this exposed, ill be more than pleased to have a educated and friendly conversation via PM to debate our points, and i must recall that is not my intention to hurt anypony's feelings and beliefs, you are free to comment or ignore it, remember that is my personal point of view of you and i wanna see yours. thank you for reading it

 

 

 

[Lucky Star 971]

I don't know about other bronies....

 

but do I?

 

 

Maybe....

[skbl17 199]

Much like how some fans of Google treat it like a religion, I do think that there are some bronies who revere the princesses and/or Lauren Faust, see the mane six as prophets, and treat MLP like a major religion.

Edited December 6, 2014 by skbl17

[SpyroDash 17]

Our 6 commandments:

Thou shalt be honest in all deeds, from the smallest proclamation to the largest decree.

Thou shalt be kind to others as thou art to ones self.

Thou shalt not suffer the pain of grief, nor shall allow others to do the same.

Thou shalt always help to thy best abilities everyone.

Thou shalt never betray thy loyalty to anyone.

 

Thou shalt stray from the power of the Celestials, for their power is not ours.

[Guest]

You can treat anything as a religion, to be honest. Just as long as you have some followers.

[Queen Sparkle 104]

Nope no I don't at all

 

<font size="0.1">lies all lies</font>

Edited December 7, 2014 by EB Creations

[RainbowtheBr0ny 0]

I would say that my religion is based from MLP (mostly alicorn centered but also mane 6 centered) although what would you call it...

Equestrainity, Celestiainism (I dont know) anyways i even believe in a portal to Equestria

 

[Luminance 2,181]

I can see why one would treat it as such but for me, it's still only a TV show that I like. 

[ZethaPonderer 2,196]

To answer this question, I have to say only one thing.

 

4chan

[heavens-champion 1,893]

Yes. Yes, they do. It's kind of disturbing, really.

I like ponies as much as the next individual, but when you treat the characters and Lauren Faust like deities, that's going too far.

Edited July 28, 2017 by heavens-champion

[Catpone Cerberus 23,438]

Yes, but that's not Brony-problem. Everything that exists, that you can be a fan of/admire, has probably someone who treats it like religion, not necessary as religion, but like religion. 

[cmarston1 5,952]

Unfortunately there are people in the fandom who treat it like such.

But that's a problem within every fandom and isn't just a FiM one.

[Rose Tea Written 60]

In the past I have unfortunately fallen into the trap of having my life revolve around a series that I love, but that was when I was younger. During strange periods of my life when I was a kid/teen, Pokémon was my life. While I still love Pokémon, I recognize that (as full of fuzzy warm nostalgia as those times tend to be for me), that wasn't the best way for me to live my life, and I do not wish to live my life in such a manner ever again. Whether that be with Pokémon itself or any other interest I happen to have, which includes MLP.

Yes, I'm a huge MLP:FiM fan. I have so much merch it's ridiculous, I watch and re-watch all the episodes, etc, but I don't let my life revolve around it. I do have other interests after all, and I had other interests before 2011 (when I first got into the show), and if I were to quit watching MLP I'd still have other interests afterward. I certainly don't view the show as any sort of religion, neither do I view bronydom in general as a religion. I'm actually non-religious and I don't intend to change this. Sometimes I get a bit tired of MLP and take breaks from it, as I do with my other interests.

People who seem to only like MLP remind me of the ten-year-old me, the kid who pretty much just wanted Pokémon 24/7. For me, time was the best remedy for this; as time went on, I gained more and more interests. It's funny, because back when I was around eleven I actually predicted that I'd get another major interest years into the future, and that this interest would involve cartoon animals. Several years later, I turned out to be right.

Every interest/group/etc has its extreme members. That's life.

[Hierok 11,829]

I think so. I think there are people who see their computer as a religion.

[Guest]

Some of them do, I guess. People tend to go over-the-top with things.