> The deal is, I've got this idea for a fantasy story that is pretty much just about people. On this fantasy world there's all these different religions, viewpoints, alternate lifestyles, etc. Just like Earth. And in this story, I plan to tackle some pretty serious subjects, like opposing religions.
>
> Which got me to thinking. If I wrote this story to take place in the real world, people would obviously see that I'm opposed to this religion, and this lifestyle, and so on and so forth - but if I wrote it as a fantasy, with religious systems I worked out instead of Christianity and other religions simply given goofy names, would people be more willing to accept this story?
>
> I guess my point is, it seems to me that if you write a mainstream story about good and evil, somebody's going to get mad at you for saying what they do is evil. But if you write a fantasy story about good and evil, everybody accepts it because you're writing about Elves and Dwarves, not human beings. Or are you?
>
> I'm afraid I'm not as eloquent as I wish I was, so I haven't been able to express all my thoughts into words (and yes, I'm scared I might offend someone), but I think I got my general idea down. Any thoughts on this?
>
> ~Quartz

I like your idea and yes I think it'd work, but the main problem you have is the fear offending people.
Theres a pretty simple way around this, mainly show both sides of the story, why people belive what they do, if their beliefs change then why's that happening. Also don't try to go for the simple goody versus baddy, it's an extremly harsh thing to say and I'm probably going to get slated but its extremly easy. Religion is not something thats black and white, good or evil, to be blunt, various shades of grey have to be there. Try to express those, even if it means offending someone, but be able to justify it, every action has to have motive, even if it doesn't seem that way at first, i.e. a person senslessly hurting another, will have a motive, even if its just for wanting to see the reaction. Explain that and offense can be limited.
But really don't be afraid of offense in a way its a seriously great form of criticism, what you've writen will have provoked someone, thats a huge compliment to you because you wrote something that has really stuck in their mind, but don't offend for the sake of it.

Dix"Hope at least some of this makes sense"ie