How long is an athiest going to be an athiest when encountering a vampire? I quite imagine that the nearest holy object would do whatever it is.
For a gay vampire I think it would be a really ugly swatch of wallpaper with baby ducks or something. Unless by gay you mean lesbian, in which case it would be an “i” dotted with a heart on pink stationary.
Vampires are creatures of fantasy, in this case somehow become real; why not use the symbol of another fantasy to drive it off ? Vampires are not incompatible with atheism, nor is a cross driving one off. There’s all sorts of alternative explanations other than God. Some of which I’ve seen in various stories.
I have a vision of a vampire confronting an athiest…
VAMPIRE: AIIEEE! HE’S HOLDING NOTHING!!
Oh sure technically vampires can exist in a world without God, but the implication of a vampire is that there is something beyond science to explain things. I think any athiest would quickly learn about faith in the presence of a vampire.
See, this is just the problem with atheism – it’s just not as much fun. No vampires, no Heaven or Hell, no Satan, no God, no Easter bunnies or even Santa Claus! Party poopers!
Confronted by an atheist, a vampire would scoff, “I don’t believe in you!”
I recall reading a fun little short story in which a vampire made it into the Upper East Side home of a pair of urbane, rich, high-powered, self-satisfied uber-Yuppies. The husband tries to ward him off with a little gold cross charm his wife is wearing, but the vampire just laughs. In panicked desperation the husband then pulls out his wallet and starts flinging money at the vamp, screaming, “I’ll pay you! Just leave us alone!”
That did the trick.
I’ll go away too if someone will fling a handful of twenties at me.
Not really. In various stories I’ve read :
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Vampires are a species evolved to prey upon humans; faster, stronger, smarter as you’d expect such a species to be. They are no more supernatural than anyone.
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Vampires are a biological weapon of sorts, or created by one. They spread by the bites, but it’s a disease and has nothing supernatural about it.
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Vampires are the physical manifestion of the effect of humanity’s thoughts and beliefs ( those that pertain to vampires, that is ) upon it’s collective psychic potential, and as such are constrained to act according to vampiric rules. They used to be affected by crosses, as that was a symbol of good; as it became just the symbol of one more religion, often corrupt or disbelieved in, crosses stopped working. Garlic, sunlight and running water still work because they are vampire-specific. There were gods in that world, and still is a God, but they are just another manifestion of humanity’s collective imagination ( and nowhere near creator of the universe level; we made them )
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Vampires are robots programmed to act like the vampires of legend. Including flinching at crosses, but that’s programming, not God.
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Vampires are supernatural beings that have a neurotic fear of whatever they held holy in life.
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Vampires are supernatural creatures who in some cases may draw back and snarl when you wave a holy object because they are offended at you mishandling a holy object.
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Vampires are supernatural, but can ignore holy objects.
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Vampires are a hominid species evolved to prey upon other hominids, and produce phermones that produce such mindless attraction that the victim can’t resist. They are also nonsentient, and wouldn’t recognize a holy object if you hit one with it.
I’d . . . go away closer.
Vampire bats, if they’re prepared.
So athiest or not a cross wont do any good.
So athiest or not a cross wont do any good.
So athiest or not crosses wont do any good but garlic might.
So athiest or not, use a cross.
So athiest or not, find out what these beasts held holy in life.
So athiest or not, mishandle as many holy objects as possible.
So athiest or not a cross wont do any good.
So athiest or not a cross wont do any good.
Of course for any vampire where being an athiest makes a difference the supernatural must be envoked; therefore, the athiest will go through a quick reconsideration of faith.
Nope; you can still believe in the supernatural and be an atheist; and there are other possibilities than God why being an atheist might make a difference. Most obviously, if it’s belief and not divine power that make the cross effective, it won’t work for an atheist whether or not there’s a God. In a universe where belief can affect to real world, that belief could easily produce effects that appear to be evidence of a God, even though it’s nothing more than the local people’s collective imaginations, for example.
Or, you might be hooked up in some alien’s virtual reality simulator and brain scanner undergoing psychological experimentation, and belief matter’s because that’s part of the program and it can read your mind to tell if you do believe. Or the universe you are in could be a giant psychological experiment to seen how people would behave if there was a God and other supernatural entities, and the cross’s effects on vampires and other religious effects are carefully arranged by the managing AI to simulate a God.
Fire. Fire always works.
… what?
In the comic book series Vamps, the symbol itself was unimportant - it was the wielder’s faith in its protection that mattered. In one scene, a vampire was confronted by a deranged homeless man who held up a hubcap and stated that it protected him from all evil. And it worked - the vampire couldn’t approach the man because he sincerely that a hubcap had the power to protect him.
The only truly protective Jewish symbol I can think of is also the simplest - the written word. If I were confronting a vampire I’d probably grab a small book of Psalms, rip a Mezzuzah from a doorjam, or evem write the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) on my forehead with a felt-tip pen (or barring that, blood).
(Incidentally, the hand symbol is called a Hamsa, and it’s not uniquely Jewish - Arabs of various faiths use it too. It is considered a protective symbol, though).
According to this historically accurate tome communists can be saved from vampire attack by judicious use of a Hammer and Sickle tatoo.
I maintain that the ability of a cross to repel vampires has nothing to do with faith. Crosses are a christian holy symbol because Jesus was crucified on a t-shaped frame. The romans crucified criminals etc. because it was an agonizing death, which took days. The romans used to nail victims to other kinds of frames (such as X-shaped, or a wooden wall, or just hanging from hooks and/or chains from ramparts), but vampires would feed upon these victims on their first night nailed up, thus cutting short their suffering. The few t-shaped frames happened to repel vampires for some reason; the romans eventually caught on and started using t-shaped frames exclusively. This is why Jesus was nailed to a t-shaped crucifixion frame, which became a symbol for christianity. Nobody knows why the t shape repels vampires. Speculation ranges from it being a symbol of some ancient forgotten god, to the way the shape refracts ambient ley energy, to just another “glitch” in the curse of vampirism (the vampire’s aversion to garlic is thought to be another such “glitch”). What we do know is that the t shape’s ability to repel vampires predates christianity.
Also, sarif fonts are a vampire conspiracy, because while print peppered with the sans sarif t is repels them, the sarif t does not affect them.
First thing I thought of, that and the Terry Pratchett novel that addressed the opposite point of view in the OP.
That or dropping garlic on them from orbit.
Technically yes, but in reality all of the athiests I know do not beleive in the supernatural. Rather, they hold their faith in science. Any vampire where being an athiest makes a difference would fly in the face of science. Therefore, the athiest goes through a quick adjustment of beleifs.
OK I admit, its fiction so you can make up anything you want and say its true. In my version, the athiest picks up faith rapidly.