Christain values in FMA

[CrimsonRyu17]

i don't know if this is true but has anyone else ever noticed that there might be christain values in Full Metal Alchemist? i've heard Scar say something about god in the last few minutes of " the night the chimera crys" episode. i'm just a little confused but i've also noticed some other things in it too. but that would be great if there is if you know what i mean. has anyone else seen that episode? just to confirm i'm not going deaf.

[GrubbTheFragger]

yea there r some christian values in FMA but when scar refers to God he is not referring to our God he is referring to the ishbalin God but still they do show some very postitve values in FMA.

[CrimsonRyu17]

oh . . well i thought he was reffering to our God . . . i mean THE God . . . but i did also notice that the homoculi or whatever you call em are named after sins like greed and lust. but yes i still love full metal alchemist the only problem is it comes on so late. i kinda miss them sometimes.

thanks for posting i've been wiaiting hours for someone to post.

[Fireproof]

Fullmetal Alchemist's values aren't explicitly Christian, but very moral and positive. Ed and Al show mercy to their enemies, try to right their wrongs, and defend innocent people. Also, they set limits on what they're willing to do to accomplish their goals, completely snuffing ou the concept of "the end justifies the means."

[Shepherdmoon]

oh . . well i thought he was reffering to our God . . . i mean THE God . . . but i did also notice that the homoculi or whatever you call em are named after sins like greed and lust. but yes i still love full metal alchemist the only problem is it comes on so late. i kinda miss them sometimes.

thanks for posting i've been wiaiting hours for someone to post.

i don't know what God they are talking about,but i don't think it is the God of the Bible. Wasn't there a similar thread elsewhere?

[Tommy]

It`s not on that light. 11:30 is better than 1 IMO.

I`ve only seen messages against Christians so far...I guess it`s debatable whether the themes are positive or not. there was a thread like this, mainly referring to the Pentagrams drawn to use Alchemy..they should use a different symbol.

[GrubbTheFragger]

actually tom the symbols used actually are not pentagrams but they do share a resimblence (i no i spelled that wrong but hopefully u get the point) to pentagrams. I thought they might have been pentagrams my self till i found more info about it and took a better look at them

[Fireproof]

It`s not on that light. 11:30 is better than 1 IMO.

I`ve only seen messages against Christians so far...I guess it`s debatable whether the themes are positive or not. there was a thread like this, mainly referring to the Pentagrams drawn to use Alchemy..they should use a different symbol.

They never draw a pentagram for alchemy. Pentagram =/= Polygon.
A polygon is a two-dimensional shape with sides. Transmutation circles have lots of these. Also, some of the polygons therein may have five sides, but they're not the same ones used by Satanists.

[Shepherdmoon]

also see this thread it has may of the same questions FMA .

[Mr. SmartyPants]

http://www.christiananime.net/reviews.php?display=127

read the last section

[Heart of Sword]

They aren't pentagrams. Only time there was ever a pentagram/near-pentagram in FMA was when
[SPOILER]Greed died.[/SPOILER]
The other symbols are just triangles in circles. A pentagram is a five-pointed star, flipped upside-down; VERY different.

As for Christian values, I believe they ARE referring to THE God because of last night's episode. A man was using alchemy to heal someone and was praying as he did so to the "Almighty Creator". And as for "ishbalin God", no...they don't say "The Ishbalin God" they say "God of Ishbalin" (or whatever they're saying) kind of like "God of Abraham".

[Radical Dreamer]

[quote="Heart of Sword"]They aren't pentagrams. Only time there was ever a pentagram/near-pentagram in FMA was when
[SPOILER]Greed died.[/SPOILER]
The other symbols are just triangles in circles. A pentagram is a five-pointed star, flipped upside-down]


Heehee, did you notice that that was Johnny Yong Bosch?

I was a little bit confused about last night's ep, on more than one level. One, was he praying to the Ishbalin god, or not? Two, if he had a philosopher's stone, why was he using a transmutation circle? O.o Anyways, yeah.

[hawaiishirtguy]

One, was he praying to the Ishbalin god, or not? Two, if he had a philosopher's stone, why was he using a transmutation circle? O.o Anyways, yeah.

As to the god Lujon was praying to, it may or may not be Ishbala (the name of the Ishbalan diety). Lujon's prayer was simply to "god".

Transmutation circles are used to harness alchemic reactions. The philosopher's stone is an amplifier of alchemic reactions, not an instigator. In FMA only those who have seen "the gate" (i.e. Ed and Izumi) can perform alchemy without having to use a circle.

[starwarsboy90]

"As for Christian values, I believe they ARE referring to THE God because of last night's episode. A man was using alchemy to heal someone and was praying as he did so to the "Almighty Creator". And as for "ishbalin God", no...they don't say "The Ishbalin God" they say "God of Ishbalin" (or whatever they're saying) kind of like "God of Abraham". - Heart Of Sword


I was actually wondering about that. For the most part, you can see Christianity in certain areas of the series. We also know that Edward doesn't want anything to do with God, so we see that somewhat exists, especially with that one Episode of that con/ thief women, Psiren.

[CookinLikeSanji]

Awesome, I was just about to start a thread like this and here it is already...

I just got through watching episode 46, I have to say that one part of this episode really stuck out.

[spoiler]Ed returns to Izumi for something that I won't say specifically, but in turn Izumi starts telling Ed about the truth of Dante. She shows him a letter that Hoenheim had sent to Dante and remarks how it goes by the dating method from "The Birth of Christ", she then goes on to say how the dating system isn't used anymore because it's based on an "Old Religion".

That is where my head nearly exploded from not getting the setting of the series. I was under the impression that FMA was set in a completely different world, then I hear a specific reference to Christianity. So now I'm wondering, is this supposed to be our world? Or is it supposed to be some other world where Christianity ended up like Greek Polytheism?

I love this series, don't get me wrong, it's one of the best animes I've seen in a while. But it just really would bug me if the series was trying to imply that Christianity is a false religion that's going to die eventually.[/spoiler]

For those of you who read the spoiler, what are your thoughts?

[R. Zion]

Well, if you want to know the truth about the world, read below, but be prepared f rom spoilers from the movie and the end of the series....

[spoiler] The world of FMA is actually a parallel world to our own. The way I understand it, there's some way one can pass through the gate to our world (circa World War I). I do believe that's where Hoenheim Elric has been all these years, soon to return.

In our world, it would be noted, there are doubles of the people in the FMA/Amestrian world. In fact, in the movie alone we see double of Law, Dorochette, Lyra, Bradley, Hughes, Lust, Scar and Al. There may be more, but those are the one that I've heard about. It also seems out world is portrayed historically accurate (for the most part), which is cool.

[/spoiler]

[CookinLikeSanji]

Yeah, I know about the movie and such...

[spoiler] But the thing is, if one world was raised on Alchemy, the other (ours) on Technology, is that saying that God could exist in our world, but not the Alchemic one?

It's a bit disturbing to think that way, but it might be what they're trying to say.[/spoiler]

That's my two cents on it.

[CrimsonRyu17]

yes i saw that episode too about the man praying and i think there just might be a resemblance to THE God. its really confusing me about the god thing in FMA. but i think that he was praying to THE God.

sorry I havent been up here much, and thank you all for posting ^ ^

[R. Zion]

[spoiler] Well, Alchemy is science and our technology is but the by-product of our science. Why should the fact that there's Alchemy be a bi-product that there is no God in the Amestrian world?

To be honest, we really know too little about the religious set-up of the Amestrian world to make an opinion. As I mentioned in the other FMA thread, we see churches, nuns, crosses, pastors (there's one as a character in the first FMA game) and now Lujon praying to God (and not Leto or Ishbala, as far as we know), so some kind of Christian/Catholic-religion established there. Hypothetically speaking, if this were some kind of real world beside ours, God would also work to bring about Redemption for their world as well, and, assuming Izumi's use of Christ's name and referring to that 'old religion' wasn't some knowledge she got from the gate or something she did read or learn from the letter, something DID occur in their world.

You could then either interperet this as: a. Either Izumi's personal opinion and interperetation of the religion or b. The state abandoned the BC dating system for whatever reason they may have. Most likely its lent itself to secularization, similar to what we see happening in our own country.

*shrugs* These are just the random ideas that came out of my mind. Take them as you will. ^_^ [/spoiler]

[Roy Mustang]

I was actually wondering about that. For the most part, you can see Christianity in certain areas of the series. We also know that Edward doesn't want anything to do with God, so we see that somewhat exists, especially with that one Episode of that con/ thief women, Psiren.

Well, Edward believes that in the start of the series. As the series goes on, he changes his view point on it thinking like that.

Plus Vic Mignogna does the voice of Edward in the english dub, and he is a christian.


Wingzero22

[CrimsonRyu17]

yeah i got the first volume of Full metal alchemist yesterday and i've been watching it all day ^ ^. i did notice also he did'nt want anything to do with god but i guess since i've been told he does later on i'm starting to like this series more and more. I love Full Metal Alchemist!

P.S.: i like the voice of Ed better in the english version than the japanese. and i think its pretty neat how its a christain doing the voice, thats pretty cool.

[GrubbTheFragger]

yea FMA rocks and i liked eds voice better in english later on cuz he seems to capture the emotion of whats going on better

[CrimsonRyu17]

yeah i love it! its like my favorite anime. my favorite characters is Ed and Lt. Hawkeye. but yes Ed's voice in english is definently better than in japanese. I wish i could watch it again but (how conveniant) my DVD player isn't working!!!! AAAHH!!!

[hawaiishirtguy]

Yeah Vic Mignogna does a great job with Ed's voice on the english dubbing.

As to whether the FMA world considers christianity a dead language consider that the government trying to drop B.C. in favor of a different dating system shouldn't be surprising. There are numerous groups in our own world that use C.E. (Common Era) instead of B.C. Also, I have more people say to me in college, "Well the Bible is just an old book of stories. It's not relevant today." It's sad to me when I hear that, but it is the fact of many people's point of view nowadays.

So anyway, I think FMA is relatively fair as far as its depiction of religion goes. I have yet to see them bashing anyone for being religious, even if Fullmetal has his issues with God's existance. Who knows, maybe one day Ed will realize that there are powers that transcend even alchemy.

[Radical Dreamer]

Transmutation circles are used to harness alchemic reactions. The philosopher's stone is an amplifier of alchemic reactions, not an instigator. In FMA only those who have seen "the gate" (i.e. Ed and Izumi) can perform alchemy without having to use a circle.

Obviously true in some cases, but what about Cornello? He didn't have to use a circle, and both Edward and Alphonse realized it was because of his philosopher's stone. Also, the false "Elric" brothers in eps 11 and 12 didn't have to use circles because of thier philosopher's stones that they created. So...Apparently, it's not ALWAYS necessary to have a circle if one has a philosopher's stone.

[hawaiishirtguy]

Ah good point, I'd forgotten about that. Thanks for the correction.

[Lochaber Axe]

*Sigh* We can go on and on about this part of the show, that part, oh and that one interesting bit, but we are still missing the true point of the discussion. To accurately justify the assertions in any literary work (I lump anime and movies because they all start with a script), you have to look at the author of that work.

To my knowledge Arakawa-san isn't a Christian, though I wished she was of course. Though she does give a fair assessment of secularism vs religion [SPOILER] Except for Greed's execution in the manga, that was completely unnecessary. [/SPOILER], we have to remember, this work was not created by God's will. It is a wonderful story, but to see beyond that is dangerous.

[bigsleepj]

I agree, Lochaber. I also thought that part was totally unneccesary.

[Lochaber Axe]

I agree, Lochaber. I also thought that part was totally unneccesary.

[SPOILER] It would have been understandable to end his life like that, given his abilities, but what really ticked me off was how he was "figuratively" crucified. There was no need for the slab of stone to be made into a cross. [/SPOILER]

[CrimsonRyu17]

was Greed's death really all that bad? i only saw him die because of Ed. but there are still christain values in it ( not to argue ). and are you sure that Arakawa-san is'nt a christain. maybe she is but then again i can't say either. oh did anyone see last nights episode of FMA!! i've made a theory and i'm gonna need some help here but *SPIOLER* it is said that ed's world is parralel to ours is that correct? if so then maybe the people of Ishbal are like Jewish people in our world. why else would they be sent to camps and be hated just because of who they are? kinda reminds you of something eh? and scar did say " the land we were promised to " kinda like god promised the jews thier land ya know. and maybe they call god Ishbala and we call ours Jehovah. but this i have not proven sure. i'm just saying anyway but it did make me think about it. * sighs * more research is required i know.