Now, before this thread devolves into something the mods have to lock, let me remind all of the pertinent forums rule.
And in addition general forum rules about posts need to be kept in mind.
With that said, onwards!
So, we are now 1000+ years in the future, and humanity has learned a lot more about the state of the universe. Irrefutable facts that cannot be denied by the religious, expect perhaps for some holdouts, like modern day flat-earthers. Mankind has found various forms of life on many worlds, and at least one advanced civilization in the form of the Thargoids.
This naturally would cause some rumblings in the religions up to the time of the ED setting.
AFAIK, there is nothing in canon lore about this (someone correct me if i'm wrong) except for some vague references from Frontier regarding religious colonies.
What do you think might have happened?
My personal view:
Some religions would have adapted/merged, similar to how the church had survived in Peter F. Hamilton's books, with the main Christian religions coming together to form a Universal Church. Long gone would be the belief that god made the universe with just Earth in mind. I could see two major splinter groups here. One side that believes that they must go out to meet other races and bring to them the word of god, thus creating new waves of missionary/explorers, who go out to preach the word of the christian god to alien races (could be tricky trying to do that with the Thargoids of course), the other side looking for proofs in the religions of other races or alien artifacts that god has appeared to other races to spread the word.
Some religions would have continued more or less as they are, the most likely candidate for this would be the Jews, and this is portrayed is a number of Sci-Fi stories. The Hyperion books show this a bit, and also shows how the Catholic church might have survived and evolved in such a universe. Keeping to their core beliefs with no significant changes except saying that their god is bigger/better than they even originally understood.
Islam could have a hard time. They are highly bound to their tradition of the Haj and praying towards Mecca several times a day. Travel for everyone could be a problem for those who were to emigrate to distant planets (remember, we Commanders are the Elite, a rare breed who actually own private spaceships). Knowing the right direction to pray could be a nightmare without some sort of galactic compass indicating the exact direction of Sol/Earth for the believers. Also their beliefs tend to be anti-technology and a seemingly strong desire (at least the more fundamental ones) to live a simple life. This is not very compatible with high technology. My suspicion here would be that many groups of Muslims would look to make Earth their stronghold, and keep expanding their influence there.
Bhuddism could have an interesting split. Those who beleive reincarnation can occur between different species from different planets (eg: Babylon 5 - Humans and Mimbari sharing the same pool of souls) and those who believe that to leave their connection from Earth might risk losing their soul to another soul pool, never to be able to be reincarnated as a human again.
Some religions, such as the Mormons and Scientology might find more fertile ground with the new understanding of the cosmos. Both have at their core science fiction elements, the former stating that god and his children come from a far away planet, and the latter, well, Xenu, evil overlord from another planet. They might well send missionaries out into space looking for the planets that are meant to be the source of their religions.
However, as we see today, the old religions seem to be in decline, but many people still need to fill a void within themselves answering the old questions "Why am i here?" "What is my purpose?", and this can lead to increased spiritualism. Imagine the long distance Explorer, out there, thousands of LY from Earth, no other human contact for a long time. They will start asking some very deep questions of themselves. Hell, the whole of UC might be full of philosophers, spiritualists, and madmen!
From this one could imagine a wide range new of religions and philosophies arising. People coming back from the core and saying they have heard the voice of god! Or that they have had some awesome insight into the nature of life, the universe, and everything. Such people could gain countless followers by preaching their newfound knowledge/insights.
I would expect there to be remote colonies set up, each catering to a specific religion, only welcoming those who share their beliefs, trying to create paradise in their new home, free to the "sins" and "influences" of the old world. A new Eden if you will.
I can understand why FD might have shied away from having too much content like this in game. Too great a chance of some person or group taking offence at such content. You only have to look at things like how D&D was demonized (pun intended) by certain christian groups back in the 70s and 80s, or other more recent violent incidents based on cartoon drawings have made the news. Last thing FD want's is an extremist person or group getting over-excited about their game.
However, it doesn't stop us having some lore based theories about what might be a thousand years or so from now.
And in addition general forum rules about posts need to be kept in mind.
With that said, onwards!
So, we are now 1000+ years in the future, and humanity has learned a lot more about the state of the universe. Irrefutable facts that cannot be denied by the religious, expect perhaps for some holdouts, like modern day flat-earthers. Mankind has found various forms of life on many worlds, and at least one advanced civilization in the form of the Thargoids.
This naturally would cause some rumblings in the religions up to the time of the ED setting.
AFAIK, there is nothing in canon lore about this (someone correct me if i'm wrong) except for some vague references from Frontier regarding religious colonies.
What do you think might have happened?
My personal view:
Some religions would have adapted/merged, similar to how the church had survived in Peter F. Hamilton's books, with the main Christian religions coming together to form a Universal Church. Long gone would be the belief that god made the universe with just Earth in mind. I could see two major splinter groups here. One side that believes that they must go out to meet other races and bring to them the word of god, thus creating new waves of missionary/explorers, who go out to preach the word of the christian god to alien races (could be tricky trying to do that with the Thargoids of course), the other side looking for proofs in the religions of other races or alien artifacts that god has appeared to other races to spread the word.
Some religions would have continued more or less as they are, the most likely candidate for this would be the Jews, and this is portrayed is a number of Sci-Fi stories. The Hyperion books show this a bit, and also shows how the Catholic church might have survived and evolved in such a universe. Keeping to their core beliefs with no significant changes except saying that their god is bigger/better than they even originally understood.
Islam could have a hard time. They are highly bound to their tradition of the Haj and praying towards Mecca several times a day. Travel for everyone could be a problem for those who were to emigrate to distant planets (remember, we Commanders are the Elite, a rare breed who actually own private spaceships). Knowing the right direction to pray could be a nightmare without some sort of galactic compass indicating the exact direction of Sol/Earth for the believers. Also their beliefs tend to be anti-technology and a seemingly strong desire (at least the more fundamental ones) to live a simple life. This is not very compatible with high technology. My suspicion here would be that many groups of Muslims would look to make Earth their stronghold, and keep expanding their influence there.
Bhuddism could have an interesting split. Those who beleive reincarnation can occur between different species from different planets (eg: Babylon 5 - Humans and Mimbari sharing the same pool of souls) and those who believe that to leave their connection from Earth might risk losing their soul to another soul pool, never to be able to be reincarnated as a human again.
Some religions, such as the Mormons and Scientology might find more fertile ground with the new understanding of the cosmos. Both have at their core science fiction elements, the former stating that god and his children come from a far away planet, and the latter, well, Xenu, evil overlord from another planet. They might well send missionaries out into space looking for the planets that are meant to be the source of their religions.
However, as we see today, the old religions seem to be in decline, but many people still need to fill a void within themselves answering the old questions "Why am i here?" "What is my purpose?", and this can lead to increased spiritualism. Imagine the long distance Explorer, out there, thousands of LY from Earth, no other human contact for a long time. They will start asking some very deep questions of themselves. Hell, the whole of UC might be full of philosophers, spiritualists, and madmen!
From this one could imagine a wide range new of religions and philosophies arising. People coming back from the core and saying they have heard the voice of god! Or that they have had some awesome insight into the nature of life, the universe, and everything. Such people could gain countless followers by preaching their newfound knowledge/insights.
I would expect there to be remote colonies set up, each catering to a specific religion, only welcoming those who share their beliefs, trying to create paradise in their new home, free to the "sins" and "influences" of the old world. A new Eden if you will.
I can understand why FD might have shied away from having too much content like this in game. Too great a chance of some person or group taking offence at such content. You only have to look at things like how D&D was demonized (pun intended) by certain christian groups back in the 70s and 80s, or other more recent violent incidents based on cartoon drawings have made the news. Last thing FD want's is an extremist person or group getting over-excited about their game.
However, it doesn't stop us having some lore based theories about what might be a thousand years or so from now.
