The Source

Imbecilic Desires: Now, at the conclusion of our discussion last week, you referred to the soul of America. And I know how much you hate discussing your politics, but how religious are you?

Superman: My parents were pretty religious, my mom in particular, and they raised me in a good Christian tradition. While there are still definitely aspects of that upbringing in my moral universe, I think it would be limiting to say my worldview is entirely Christian.

ID: What happened?

S: In part, I learned I was an alien. Christianity doesn't specifically deny the existence of extraterrestrials, but it also makes no place for them, either. And I've seen other worlds, thousands of other species, comprising probably a hundred billion other life forms. And each and every one of them has their own unique religious practices. Including Krypton.

But I remember the first time I actually doubted Christianity. One of the boys in my Sunday School class, and I wouldn’t have even been a teenager yet, I don’t think, and he was maybe a year or two older, but he asked about people in Asia, and Africa, who maybe weren’t given the chance to join the Christian church. Our teacher told us, in a nut shell, that everyone got at least one chance to accept God, even if only in a single moment.

And my problem with that answer is it isn’t fair. Here I was, fairly steeped in this “chosen” religion, when there were people, not just in Asia and Africa, but so many others, like pre-Christians who weren’t Jewish who, regardless of their moral caliber or location, were being given only a fleeting shot at salvation. And that was something my young mind had trouble wrapping around, the idea of a loving but unfair God.

And it came into starker relief a few years later. When I discovered my lineage, I discovered a religious heritage I'd never known. At first, I really felt the burden of being the last Kryptonian, and I went out of my way to absorb as much of the culture as I possibly could, including the monotheistic religion of Krypton, whose God is named Rao. And I studied well, religiously, and what I found was that I couldn't figure out which religion felt right, which of my fathers' religions was mine- and I think it weakened my conviction for both.

ID: So it has nothing to do with Diana, then?

S: Oh, with her um, origins, as it were? No, I’d formed most of my religious opinions years before I ever met Diana.

ID: But you believe the claim that she was sculpted from clay by the gods?

S: You know that lasso of truth? It’s no lie, what they say it can do. And she’s constantly in contact with it. Sometimes I think it affects Diana’s tact, but by and large, I’ve never known a more honest person. And when she tells me she knows the Greek gods, and that she was molded from clay by them- I believe her.

ID: And actually, looking at the way she fills out the costume, I think I can believe she was sculpted by the gods.

S: Will you ever tire of classing up this interview?

ID: Nope. But your reticence about Christianity, does that indicate a lack of faith in something, or simply in the specific Christian dogmas?

S: I don’t think it’s necessarily a lack of faith- it’s just a lack of fit. Like, I was unpacking some stuff from my parents’ attic that they’d been storing since I got out of college and got my first tiny apartment in Metropolis, and I found a pair of my old jeans. I didn’t feel like I’d gotten any bigger- and I certainly didn’t feel like I’d gotten any wider, but the jeans just weren't comfortable anymore. So I stopped using them (God, I hope no one finds that wildly offensive).

But honestly I kind of have to believe in a higher organization of some kind, probably even in some kind of big “G” God. I mean, I personally know an angel- Zauriel- who’s done a lot of work with us over the years, including organizing a large contingent of angels to stabilize world conflict during the Mageddon crisis. Mageddon himself was a weapon used by the warring Old Gods, according to the religious beliefs of New Genesis, whose inhabitants are called the New Gods.

Of course, the biggest and probably scariest argument for a God is the Spectre. If there’s anyone who wields more power than me, if there’s anyone who speaks convincingly of a heavenly authority- specifically of being the embodiment of the Wrath of God- it’s him. I’ve always been a bit uneasy about the Old Testament description of God, but the Spectre makes me think there might be something to that, after all.

And of course, Linda Danvers, who’s a devout Methodist and for a time was Supergirl, became an Earth-born angel. Then there’s the long list of people I know who’ve died only to later return to life, and a few of them, like Ollie, actually spent some time in Heaven. Bruce can probably hide behind circular reasoning and long explanations, but to me it seems obvious that there’s more out there than what even I can see.

ID: Okay, you believe in God, so what exactly do you take issue with, with the Christian faith, then?

S: I don’t think I take issue- that’s putting it far too strongly. I think I simply diverge slightly with any specific dogma.

ID: But where do you diverge?

S: I think it’s mostly to do with the specificity. Christianity really makes this argument for a very specific, exact reality- and my experience has deviated substantially from that. So I think it’s in the insistence that their branch of the religion is right, and everyone else- often even other Christians- is wrong and hell bound, that I have trouble with. I’m not, really not, arguing against Christianity or even religion in general- I consider myself a very morally grounded and spiritual person, and I owe that in large part to my upbringing.

Religion and, perhaps more importantly, the public servitude and social cohesion at the heart of virtually all religions, is good. I think, to answer Ayn Rand, man does need values. And I think religion is often the source for imbuing future generations with values.

It’s a spiritual connection, often found in religion but sometimes elsewhere, a connection to other people and, really, beyond that to existence as a whole, that’s important. I think it takes us beyond simple concepts of what’s nice or even what’s socially useful, to a place where our decisions are based on how we should act. If it’s religion that gets you there, if it’s an atheistic anarchy- I think the destination can be as important as the path. But I think it's a journey we all take alone, and though we often find ourselves with companions along the way, it's most important that we're all moving towards those same harmonious goals.

We’ll be trying to bring you a new section of the interview every Monday. Some of the questions have already been prepared by the interviewer, but to ask Superman a question, leave a comment or send an email to DeathofSuperman@gmail.com.