Is nothing sacred?
Another Gahan Wilson fan!
The X-Men once confronted a vampire and Wolverine tried to hold him off by making a cross with his claws. The vampire laughed it off - Wolverine’s cross was powerless because he didn’t have faith in it. Colossus was also unable to wield a cross effectively because he was raised as an atheist. Then Nightcrawler arrived and, as a devout Catholic, he was able to properly scare off the vampire with a cross.
Little Nemo that wasn’t just any vampire. It was Dracula himself. Kitty Pryde also attempted to ward him off with a cross. She failed as she is Jewish. She did however burn the Count with a star of David.
I reiterate that fire would have proved effective in that instance as well.
Fire: It’s what’s for dinner!
I recall the Sluggy Freelance bit where Sam gets an “invitation to enter” by shooting the occupant (who is otherwise alone) in the leg – either let Sam in to patch him up or bleed to death.
(Not that Sam was terribly bright; it was Bun-Bun’s idea to take a gun.)
If a vampire can only be warded off with a religious symbol held by a believer, then faith is obviously an important component in a vampire’s victims. It sort of follows that they’re hungry for consecrated blood of one kind or another. Therefore, a vampire wouldn’t attack an atheist at all because they would taste HORRIBLE. Bland gruel with no seasoning and nothing but empty calories.
In Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tapes Dracula is not affected by a cross, having been a good Catholic both before and after his (un)death.
In fact, that’s what I was thinking of when I said this :
Good book, and a good series following it.
Wouldn’t the vampire just disappear in a puff of logic?
So I should carry an immortal Scottish swordsman?
Or a time travelling samurai with a divine sword.
Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - 2007)
vampires are not repelled by holy grounds
there was one clan that would “tattoo” themselves with the Virgin Mary
by standing naked in a sunbeam filtered through a stained cut glass image
high in the congregation chamber
But I don’t see how it follows that the atheist necessarily goes through a quick change of beliefs. There are plenty of explanations for atheism making a difference that don’t imply the existence of god and don’t have to fly in the face of science. In the first place, as others have said, the presence of the supernatural doesn’t necessarily imply god. In the second place there is no reason to suppose a vampire is supernatural. Anything that looks supernatural may well be something you can’t understand or something you didn’t observe very closely. In the case where being an atheist matters it could be explained by the vampire sensing body language or smelling pheromones coming off the person.
Is it belief in something or a belief in god that matters? If it’s simply a belief in something (e.g. the efficacy of crosses against vampires) then there isn’t a clear reason for an atheist to start believing in god at all. If you simply must believe in god, then there is a clear reason (i.e. not getting killed or enslaved) for the atheist to start believing in god. However, it still doesn’t necessarily follow that god exists, just that you must believe in him in order for his symbols to work to ward off the vampires. (Granted, the atheist now believes in god, but this may simply be an error in reasoning, albeit a useful error).
That’s how demons work in my Champions Universe
Best answer.
Would now be a good time to mention how I once kept a wampyr at bay with my circumcision scar?
OK so maybe with two athiests in the room the second one would find God. The first one is vampire food.
You can’t just decide to believe in something. If the second atheist, tried to use a cross, he’d end up just like every hypocritical, faithless priest in a vampire story; as dessert.