My research is all from books, at my other home, that I rarely visit any longer, and I'm not going to rely on something unreliable. . . .

Well, let's consider the sources I linked to. The Zohar, the Bible, and the writings of a rabbi and a couple of Christian preachers. I'd be happier if the first link on angeology referenced its sources properly, but I'd say the rest of them are about as solid in terms of reference material as you'd get from any book.

The entire Internet isn't full of misinformation, after all. Just most of it.

My point however, is that merely stating "I'm right and you're wrong because I've got a bigger collection of books than you" isn't extending the depth or scope of the discussion. We're talking about people's theories on the actual beliefs of The Order, right? And maybe bringing in a bit of outside knowledge to help form those theories?

They have Church, prophecies, and such, those are elements of Christianity.

Yea, and about a hundred other religions.

Churches and prophecies are far from unique to Christianity. XD
The only elements of the cult that, in my mind, suggest a Christian inspiration are the designs and archetecture of their religous buildings (besides the tower prison >_>. Where the hell is that supposed to be in Silent Hill, anyway? I just get the impression that all of it except the cell area is just invented by Walter's mind instead of based on the reality of the building.)

>Where the hell is that supposed to be in Silent Hill
On the southeast side of Toluca Lake, near Wish House.

>I just get the impression that all of it except the cell area is just invented by Walter's mind
Tell that to Joseph Schreiber. He visited & wrote about it.

I meant, the look and design of the rest of the prison. It seems to be floating in midair, with nothing else near it, and no entrance or exit. It's less similar to a real world place than, say, Wish house, or the subway, or the apartment building. By comparison, it seems much less a real world location twisted by Walter, and more a small segment of a real world location with most of it's unknown features filled in by imagination.

Well. Of course the location Henry goes to is fake: it's a dream-world, an amalgamation of Walter's memories. Everywhere Henry visits is a specious representation of reality, including the apartments, the "building-world," the subway, &c. . . . They're all from nearly thirty years ago, when Walter visited them as a child--save for the subway: it's from eighteen years earlier.

The SH religion is based off of a mixture of different religions. Some included are: Kaballah (sp?), Christianity, Aztec/Mayan beliefs, Gnostic, etc.

Did you bring this three years-dead thread up just to summarize it?

I've noticed that there is one monotheistic religion that worships a female God (Goddess) that may have influenced Silent Hill religion. No one has brought it up yet.

It's Shaktism. Devi (Sanskrit for literally Goddess) is the only one true Creator, which is exactly monotheistic (mono-many, theo-god). It is speculated that Romani were originally ancient Shaktas (practitioners of Shaktism) a long time ago. Romani are known to believe in tarot, fortune telling, etc. All which seem to influence Silent Hill.

Perhaps the. God in Silent Hill is really a Goddess aka Devi (mahadevi)?

Books on Shaktism

Devi Gita (this is the better one imo)
Devi Mahatmya

Also there is a book called Gospel of Our Mother God, which again is influenced by Shaktism.

From Myth Painting 5 in SH3...

"God created beings to lead people
in obedience to Her.
The red god, Xuchilbara;
the yellow god, Lobsel Vith;
many gods and angels. Finally,
God set out to create Paradise,
where people would be happy
just by being there."

From this we can see that the Order does indeed interpret their primary deity (Creator) as female. We can also see that their religion is polytheistic, with many lesser deities arranged under the Creator. So, while there are similarities with the religion you describe, I don't think the comparison is completely accurate.

Also, this may have been a typo...

...but "mono" means one, "poly" means many. Wanted to point that out just in case.

Yes, you are correct, I went back and researched SH3 where the myths say " many gods and angels"..the gods part proving my theory wrong regarding the religion of the town..it is polytheistic..

Mono means one not many, yes that was a typo mistake lol.

Though in Silent Hill 4, the religion seems monotheistic with a female deity, similar to Shaktism
Each game is kinda different about beliefs of the number of gods there are, unless I'm wrong.

Any difference in the Order as depicted in the games is due to it's different sects.

The Sect of the Holy Woman is what we see in SH1 and SH3. It's high priestess was Dahlia Gillespie and later Claudia Wolf. They were attempting to birth god through rituals related to immolation and pain, which they tried on Alessa and Heather, respectively.

The Sect of the Holy Mother is shown in SH4 (and referenced in SH2's Rebirth Ritual). It's high-level members ran Wish House and were attempting to birth god through the power of the Mother Stone and the Ritual of the 21 Sacraments, which they tried on many of the orphans in their charge and ultimately Walter Sullivan.

There are other splinter groups (Sect of the Holy Way in Shepherd's Glen, Jimmy Stone's Sect of Valtiel), but I'm not aware of any differences in the pantheon of deities in any of these sects. They merely have different functions and methods for birthing god. Now, I could be wrong, as I don't recall anything like SH3's Myth Paintings in SH4, but I think with the absence of evidence to support either claim, it's best to assume all sects have the same polytheistic structure shown in SH3.

Another important perspective to be taken in consideration regards the development timeline.

During the development of the first two titles, there were no indications that the Order was polytheistic. It was only later that Silent Hill 3 introduced the 'yellow' and 'red' gods as servants to the God.

In fact, I remember having read somewhere (though I can't remember where) about a contradiction regarding the translation of the original script for Silent Hill 2. While the Japanese script mentions one 'god', the English translation refers to the 'gods'.

^ But isn't Xuchilbara also referenced in SH2? Taken with the fact that Incubus in SH1 is not Xuchilbara, wouldn't that give hints toward polytheism as early as SH2?

Granted, I'm sure there were alterations being made to the mythos as they went along.

Xuchilpaba. Not Xuchilbara. Xuchilpaba is the God, which is mentioned in the Book of Lost Memories in SH2. Xuchilbara is the red god, mentioned in the myths of SH3.

In truth, that's a different kettle of fish. Incubus is solely Dahlia's manifestation of God, just like Incubator is Alessa's.

In this case, I wouldn't call them alterations (as that might imply change or contradiction), but rather updates if you wish, as the myths in SH3 don't contradict SH2's mythology. They expand it.

Good points. I had forgotten the "-paba"/"-bara" distinction.

@Don

Yes xuchil..the red god is supposedly referenced in SH2. She, or He, is called"the crimson one" in the Crimson Ceremony book. I believe that this crimson one,red god, is the God of Serpents and Reeds aka Creator of Paradise. Although in the myths it states the separate red god and yellow god, which means that yes the crimson one could be another god, a minor god, while the "merciless sun" could represent the Creator of Paradise aka the True God. But in my opinion, I believe that the Silent Hill religion is monotheistic, and that the Red God aka Crimson One, is the one God. But I could be wrong.