Wait, hate to be pedantic but how could Superman have believed in Rao since the beginning if he was raised on Earth? Logically he'd share the Kents' religion, if they had one, and would presumably convert to the Kryptonian religion later when he found out about it...
...Which raises some odd questions, as the lack of other believers in Rao would surely render the worship of said deity purely an academic practice as there's no one around to instruct Clark in HOW said worship could be done.
Yup, Superman being a Rao-ist makes no sense at all. (and one reason Byrne altered Superman's default explative from "Great Rao!" to "Great Scott" was that Clark Kent invoking Kryptonian deities when he'd been raised human was a no-no)
I'd say "Great Rao" makes perfect sense in the context of someone purposely wanting to connect with their heritage because they realize it'll otherwise go extinct. It's like those Native American groups whose ancestral language died out long ago but are now purposely trying to revive it. It's the sort of thing Superman would want to do, I think.
If he was a fervent Rao-ist then I'd say fair enough, but he never seemed to be, he used the words without meaning beyond a mild expletive ,or if they did have meaning he never showed it, which would seem a bit hypocritical.
Any more hypocritical than an atheist saying "oh my god" or "Christ" as exclamations? Plus, Rao was the name of their sun too, wasn't it, so it has a meaning beyond the religious one.
I always thought that was a deliberate act by Superman -- presenting a different persona than Clark Kent. But that it was also meaningful to him in its own way. Kal-El is who he would have been if things had been different.
Adopted children very often seek out connections to their birth heritage.
Right, it'd be like if Worf cursed by invoking Klingon gods as a kid despite being raised by human adopted parents in Minsk. Sure, he could be invoking his people's culture, but since (like Clark) he approached his culture from the outside, as it were, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Well, you see, the term "believed in" can have several meanings. "Believed in" as in worshipped is different from "believing in" as in having a conviction that he is telling the truth, or able to do a specific thing, both of which seem more likely in this context.
"The beginning" is even more context-dependent. It could mean the beginning of the universe, the beginning of their association, or the beginning of this incident.
Frankly, in context, that sentence most likely means that Superman believed Rao was honest and beneficial from the moment he showed up, not that Superman worshipped him from the day he was born.
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...Which raises some odd questions, as the lack of other believers in Rao would surely render the worship of said deity purely an academic practice as there's no one around to instruct Clark in HOW said worship could be done.
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Adopted children very often seek out connections to their birth heritage.
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"The beginning" is even more context-dependent. It could mean the beginning of the universe, the beginning of their association, or the beginning of this incident.
Frankly, in context, that sentence most likely means that Superman believed Rao was honest and beneficial from the moment he showed up, not that Superman worshipped him from the day he was born.
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Supes came to earth pre-programmed with a lot of stuff.