Editing Religion (section)

===Religion as a Bad Thing/Detractors=== 
There are several writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy that are of the opinion "Religion Is Bad", having an axe to grind (sometimes warranted, sometimes not) with either one or more specific real-life religions.  This is more common in Sci-Fi than fantasy because the focus on science appeals to the naturalist, empiricist and/or humanist worldview of such writers, with the supernatural being seen as an obstacle to that.  Despite that, the view is found among some fantasy authors as well, such as Philip Pullman (who wrote the "His Dark Materials" trilogy partially in response to C.S Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" series). Whatever the genre, this comes in flavors of "The Gods are Incompetent" (more on that below), "The Gods Don't Exist" or "The Gods are Evil".  Cosmic Horror also tends to use the latter two or combine them into "The Gods are actually Incomprehensible and Destructive Aliens" ([[H.P. Lovecraft]] himself was an avowed anti-religious atheist - hence cults are recurring villains in his stories).  This also has the side effect of inclining science fiction towards an atheistic perspective.

Another major component is personal issues of the author such as grievance or prejudice, but that's case-by-case and a major can of worms.  A writer could have issues with a specific religion and single them out in their works.  Worst case scenario, the story is a preachy anti-religious wish fulfillment story, power fantasy and/or Troll Fic.  Two examples are Frank Miller's "Holy Terror" comic series against Islam and Garth Ennis' "Preacher" comic series against Christianity.  

Whatever the motivation, writers saying this message either model their fictional religions on the worst excesses of real world religious people, distorted or strawman versions of them or a fictional stand-in.  The most frequently targeted religions are Christianity, Islam, Scientology and faiths that practiced human sacrifice such the Aztec's. <!-- Let's keep the Aztecs last, because anything after will be read as practicing human sacrifice with the way the sentence is currently worded. -->  Cults, especially those with beliefs that mainstream religions consider unorthodox or outright heretical, are especially fertile ground for this message, albeit running the risk of being misapplied to tar other groups with the same brush.