Replacing Religions

[Kinjiru]

Originally posted by nbarclay


Can you come up with an explanation of how it could be possible for all seven of the religions in Civ 4 to be right, given the extent to which they contradict each other? If not, then how can a rational person who believes that his religion is right possibly not believe that other religions that contradict his are wrong?

Here is where you seem to be incurring the wrath of some of the folks around this forum. Christianity is not in cIV, nor is Islam, Buddhism, or any other religion.

What is in the game are seven highly abstracted 'factions' that happened to be labelled with the names of the a selected portion of the world's faiths. These factions, however, are so highly abstracted, that they bear no resemblence, at all, to those faiths in the real world.

Your point that the religions in cIV contradict each other is just not true. In the game, they do not contradict each other because they have no operative features with which to agree or conflict.

That said, if you wish to mod the names and out, it is going to be quite easy to do, as several people noted on the first page.

[LordShiva]

Give nbarclay a break. Many of you are being too quick to jump on the guy from Huntsville, Alabama (aside, in as polite and jovial a tone as I can muster, seriously: Can you say stereotype? )

Whatever his reasons, all he asked for in posting this was for ideas on alternate names for religions. That's it.

nbarclay: Do you plan to replace all religions, including Christianity, or all except Christianity? What do you think of minor or dead religions, like Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Mithralism, Druz, Secular Humanism, Shamanism, Norse Paganism, Hellenism, etc.?

[petermarkab]

I suppose we're all united in the worship of...

CIVISM

sorry but had to be typed

regards,
Peter

[petermarkab]

Originally posted by LordShiva
What do you think of minor or dead religions, like Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Mithralism, Druz, Secular Humanism, Shamanism, Norse Paganism, Hellenism, etc.?

Humanism isn't a religion but more a way of treating your fellow man, respecting his ideas and opinions as long as they or actions performed under their justification don't harm anyone else

And thats not a dead or minor idea!

regards,
Peter

[Navyman]

I think the basic problem for Christians, like myself and nbarclay, is that by having "Christianity" as a game topic, it trivializes something that is the most important thing in our lives.

[Lorizael]

Well the game itself is about human history, which is also pretty damned important.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by Kinjiru

Here is where you seem to be incurring the wrath of some of the folks around this forum. Christianity is not in cIV, nor is Islam, Buddhism, or any other religion.

What is in the game are seven highly abstracted 'factions' that happened to be labelled with the names of the a selected portion of the world's faiths. These factions, however, are so highly abstracted, that they bear no resemblence, at all, to those faiths in the real world.

The fact that the names of real-world faiths are used is itself a point of resemblence. I can live with that when I have to (for example, when playing Apolyton University games). But for my own purposes, I feel more comfortable taking the abstraction the rest of the way and not attaching names from real-world religions to the abstractions.

[Boris Godunov]

Well, I for one plan on replacing Christianity with Flying Spaghetti Monsterism.

[GeoModder]

You could have fooled me. Really thought you would play with the Godunovs.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Locutus
Football - for many people around the world this is more a religion than anything else...

That would be fun, 7 sports as religion

Football
Baseball
Hockey
Soccer
Basketball
Golf
Nascar


Fun Stuff!

[Locutus]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
Football
Baseball
Hockey
Soccer
Basketball
Golf
Nascar

Being a bit US centric are we?

Football
Volleyball
Basketball
Tennis
F1 Racing
Athletics
Cycling

[MeaCulpa]

Whenever I hear "religion" and "missionary", I have to think of the "Path of Origin". So if you are familiar with Stargate and the Ori, heck, those guys have some powerfull and cool-looking prophets.

And a note to some of you: arguing about which religion is best is like arguing about who has the best imaginery friend.

But then again, it's all about "I want to believe" I think.

[Blake]

Originally posted by nbarclay


Tolerance is not about believing that people who disagree with us aren't wrong. Only an idiot or someone who doesn't bother to think can believe that he is right about an issue without believing that other people who hold directly contradictory views are wrong. A wise person will be open to the possibility that it could be he that is wrong and the other person that is right, and will thus be willing to listen to evidence in support of a competing viewpoint. But as long as a person believes that he is probably or almost certainly right, logic demands that he also believe that other people who hold conflicting views are probably or almost certainly wrong.

I'm inclined to disagree. I seperate beliefs broadly into:
Beliefs about the nature of reality. (testable beliefs)
Spiritual Beliefs. (untestable beliefs)

For example "The world is Flat" is a belief about the nature of reality, and it's wrong. These beliefs can be right or wrong and justified by logic. It's not nessecarly wrong to hold such a wrong belief if the evidence is lacking.

Beliefs about the nature of afterlife are an example of purely spiritual beliefs - they have no basis in reality and cannot be tested. As such there is no logic backing these beliefs and logically they cannot be "right" OR "wrong". It is my belief that anyone (myself included) is welcome to hold any such beliefs and there is no need to assess such beliefs for right or wrongness.

There is also a 3rd category: "Philosophy for Life" beliefs, these should be judged not be correctness (which doesn't make much sense seeing as we don't have predefined goals in this game of life) but rather for how useful they are and consistency with other beliefs.

Anyway while I'm inclined to think that anyone who believes in heaven is wrong, I'm equally inclined to believe that my own beliefs about reincarnation are wrong (as I don't logically justify such beliefs). In other words I believe my own beliefs are exactly as right or wrong as any other person's beliefs. (atleast in theory, in practise I view any beliefs that promote hate and intolerance with quite some disdain)

* * *

Anyway... onto ontopic. This Renaming the Religions thing is quite a good idea, I approve . I don't think of Civ as a historical game at all and I think I'd prefer nonsense religion names. I'd be a bit uncomfortable taking my Buddhist regime on a murderizing rampage.

Nonsense names like Apolytonism might be fun. Or using religions that most people don't take seriously. I mean wouldn't it be fun to kick Scientologist butt?

Thinking about it, religions can be renamed right? So it should be possible to write a python script that chooses a random name for any religion that is founded, just provide it a list of a couple dozen made up religions that could be a text file.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by CrazyCanuck
What about the Church of the Flying Spagetti Monster?

http://www.venganza.org/

"May you be touched by his noodley appendage"

Well played.

[H Tower]

Originally posted by Locutus


Being a bit US centric are we?

Football
Volleyball
Basketball
Tennis
F1 Racing
Athletics
Cycling

how is athletics a sport?

And does anyone really worship tennis or volleyball?