1. Our society has a lot of work to do in regards to figuring out how people of different religions, etc. can get along, so taking the religious element out of stories would remove an excellent way of figuring out religious issues in real life.

    There’s a few ways that writers(especially Christian ones) can improve the religious element. One is to adapt the religion to the story world. Of course the basic tenants should be there, but they need to make sense and be a natural part of the world. In some of my Christian fiction stories, for instance, nothing resembling a Bible exists, or at least the characters don’t know it exists. That is because circumstances were such that a Biblical text was never brought to them. That could mirror a real life circumstance where people are told about the gospel, but the one that told them about the gospel didn’t have a Bible on hand, or their copy of the Bible was lost or stolen, forcing them to adapt accordingly.

    Also, writing fairly from the perspective of characters with different beliefs on spirituality is important. One of my stories, for instance, has a Christian artist that’s friends with an atheist scientist. They both get detailed and important POV sections in their story. In fact, the atheist is the main character in one of the later books in the series. This can make a story feel fleshed out, real, and fair, if done right.

What do you think?