What is Superman's relationship with God(if any)?

[Fantasyartist]

I'm curious- even though I'm not a big follower of the Man Of Steel- what if any is Superman's relationship with God( denomination irrelevant).
Remember he is a MAN not a GOD(like his closest marvel counterpart, the Mighty Thor)- does he ever appeal(pray) to a Higher Power (God)?

Terry

[hopefuldreamer]

http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/Superman.html

According to this website, he's a Christian (Methodist to be precise).

[alinafrancis]

Of course I too have read somewhere that he is a Christian and he is like a god's angel send to us for rescuing from extreme situations.

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[Spider-Fan83]

tho, I am sure he was raised with Christian value by the Kents, ironically doesn't his existences (as an alien from another planet) kinda disprove religious teachings

[Llama_Shepherd]

Originally Posted by Fantasyartist

I'm curious- even though I'm not a big follower of the Man Of Steel- what if any is Superman's relationship with God( denomination irrelevant).
Remember he is a MAN not a GOD(like his closest marvel counterpart, the Mighty Thor)- does he ever appeal(pray) to a Higher Power (God)?

Terry

He knows the Abrahamic God definitely exists, he fought the Spectre and wrestled an angel. But he may not have a relationship, many deities exist, so he may not have any real relationship.

[Redwolf]

Originally Posted by Spider-Fan83

tho, I am sure he was raised with Christian value by the Kents, ironically doesn't his existences (as an alien from another planet) kinda disprove religious teachings

How does the existance of aliens disprove religious teachings exactly??

[Comics N' Toons]

I always thought the comics were explicit in the fact that the Kents were METHODISTS (protestant) and raised Clark as such. (am I wrong?)

[The Hill]

Who is Rao?

[Comics N' Toons]

Originally Posted by The Hill

Who is Rao?

Rao is the name of the Kryptonian red sun!

In the earliest days of Krypton, the sun was worshiped which is where you get the phrase "GREAT RAO!"

[The Hill]

Ohhh, okay. Every time I've read that expression, I always thought he was referring to a Kryptonian Deity. Seems I wasn't too far off.

[Thundercrack85]

I assume Clark isn't a conventional Methodist. Comes off more like a deist.

Though Superman worshipping (or even name dropping) Rao is kind of strange. Unless he has like a religious experience.

[Comics N' Toons]

Originally Posted by Thundercrack85

I assume Clark isn't a conventional Methodist. Comes off more like a deist.

Though Superman worshiping (or even name dropping) Rao is kind of strange. Unless he has like a religious experience.

We have to assume he is a deist and feels the same way about god (the same skepticism and wonder that the founders of the U.S. had). How does a man/alien who is god-like reconcile the idea of a god.

[SuperFerret]

Originally Posted by Comics N' Toons

We have to assume he is a deist and feels the same way about god (the same skepticism and wonder that the founders of the U.S. had). How does a man/alien who is god-like reconcile the idea of a god.

Depends on how you define "god". Superman is the equivalent of the gods in most of the classical mythologies. The Abrahamic God/The Source is far above them in terms of scope of power and influence.

[Thundercrack85]

Well, I'm a bit rusty on my Kryptonian theology, but I figure it stands to reason that if people like Jor-El, and Zod revere or worship Rao (either nominally, or outright), then I don't see why Superman couldn't worship a similar deity. Or perhaps Superman is something more like a unitarian universalist.

No matter how powerful you are, there's always a bigger fish.

[Comics N' Toons]

Originally Posted by Thundercrack85

Well, I'm a bit rusty on my Kryptonian theology, but I figure it stands to reason that if people like Jor-El, and Zod revere or worship Rao (either nominally, or outright), then I don't see why Superman couldn't worship a similar deity. Or perhaps Superman is something more like a unitarian universalist.

No matter how powerful you are, there's always a bigger fish.

But Rao is the Kryptonian sun, so for Superman to be like Jor-El or ZOD in that regard, he would have to worship our sun, which is fitting since he gets all his powers from it LOL!

[Thundercrack85]

Actually, Rao is both the name of Krypton's sun and the name of the god.

I assume that Rao was once identified with the sun, the same way some human religions identified their chief deity with our sun (I.e. Ra).

The Kryptonians presumably don't literally worship their sun. At least not by the time they mastered interstellar travel.

[jjgravitas]

Originally Posted by Thundercrack85

Actually, Rao is both the name of Krypton's sun and the name of the god.

I assume that Rao was once identified with the sun, the same way some human religions identified their chief deity with our sun (I.e. Ra).

The Kryptonians presumably don't literally worship their sun. At least not by the time they mastered interstellar travel.

According to the version of Zod that appeared on Smallville Season 9, the Kryptonian religion involved the worship of science and shared knowledge. In that context I suppose that Rau represented the embodiment of all scientific knowledge. Of course, Zod at the time was using the shared knowledge issue as leverage to try to convince Clark to share his knowledge / powers with the rest of the Kryptonian community as they had arrived on Earth totally powerless.