Akronism: Difference between revisions
→Beliefs
mNo edit summary |
|||
Line 30:
Actions in self-defense are considered to be acceptable under the command to respect and protect life. If a person is under attack and in danger of losing their life, they may act to protect themselves with any force needed to protect their own life. However, any member of the Church who kills any person or animal in self-defense must undergo a ritual of penance that requires isolating from the outside world for a period of 28 days, spending that time fasting and praying. This doctrine is also used to justify the existence and actions of the Acronian Armed Forces.
===Death and The Afterlife===
Compared to some other world religions, Akronism says relatively little about the afterlife. Whereas the Tavari folk religions that preceded Akronism were often centered around worship of ancestors, Akronism is centered around gratitude for what exists in the present. Generally, church teaching holds that after death, a soul either ascends to exist within a "shared communion" with Akrona and all the other souls of the deceased, or is reincarnated if it is "not ready" for the eternal communion. A person who, in life, acted with disregard towards living creatures and was ungrateful of Akrona would be considered to be "not ready," but this is not generally considered to be a "punishment." There is no concept of Hell in Akronism.
Souls that have entered into the eternal communion are considered to no longer have distinct personhood or individual essence - that is, they have all merged together and with the power and consciousness of Akrona herself. The souls of the departed cannot see, know of, or have any effect on events and affairs on Urth, and communion with Akrona is permanent. The study of the eternal communion is a very esoteric subject within Akronist religious thought, and it is not particularly prominent in mainstream Akronist scholarship. Indeed, a 2011 survey indicated that 23% of Akronists did not even recognize the name of the concept at all.
A result of the Akronist relative disinterest in the afterlife is a change in burial practices in the region. Prior to Akronism becoming the majority faith in the area, the Tavari embalmed and buried the bodies of their dead in graves which also served as small shrines. As Akronism moved away from the veneration of ancestors and of death in general, cremation became the dominant practice - first borne out of a wartime act against the Tavari by refusing them the opportunity to venerate their war dead, and maintained after the war because graves in the ground were associated with Tavari (now heretical) religious practice. Generally, Acronians keep the ashes of departed loved ones in the home for a period of bereavement - which can be as short or as long as they like - and then take the ashes to the ocean to be scattered. The remains of the deceased that have no one to claim them, or the remains of people whose families have no place to store them, can be kept at the local temple.
''For Akronist beliefs about the Goddess Akrona personally, see "[[Akronism#The Goddess Akrona|The Goddess Akrona]]" below.''
| |||