Is there any advantage to founding more than one religion?

[epsilon97]

In my last game I founded judaism, christianity and islam. Is there any advantage to founding more than one religion?

Thanks

[Hayden]

yes theres a couple of very good reasons

1. You get money from every city that has that religion in it when you build a shrine in that religions holy city. The more religions/holy cities/shrines you have then the more money this will make you. It wont make or break the game but it will allow to run much closer to 100% science.

2. Possibly even more important is the fact that you can build the religious buildings for both all religions you have in a city which is great for culture and science and happiness. Also, the free religion civic gives you 1 happy person per religion in a city which is often critical in getting your cities to grow beyond about 15.

[epsilon97]

Thank you very much. What happens if I say that i dont want the religion to spread? How do i get the religion to spread?

[Martinus]

Also, religion is a great tool in diplomacy with the AIs, since they like you much more when you have the same state religion as them. If you control several holy cities, you can make sure that only the shrine of your state religion is built, therefore significantly limiting spread of other religions you have also founded.

[epsilon97]

How do you set the state religion?

[Skanky Burns]

Go to the religious advisor and change it from there.

Another great benefit is the massive amount of culture you can generate in a city by having multiple cathedral-level buildings in it. Not that you can't with religions others have founded too, but then you are helping them get more money rather than filling your own coffers up.

[LDiCesare]

In my current game (prince) I founded buddhism, hinduism, judaism, christianityand, I nelieve, Confucianism. The late game religions are quite unimportant, though they can give some money.
The main point of funding more than one religion, particularly the first three ones, is you can spread whichever religion you want to who you want. For instance in my game, judaism spread faster so I switched to judaism and converted everyone. Had I wanted two nations to be at war, sending hindu missionaries one way and jews the other way would have done it. Religion gives lots of money and is also a very cheap and powerful way of controling what the ai diplomacy will be.

[Kriegsspieler]

In a situation where you have founded more than one religion, what religious civic is most desirable? Organized religion or theocracy? I would imagine the former.

[Bhruic]

If you are going to be doing a lot of warring, then Theocracy. If you are going to be doing a lot of building, then Organized Religion (ditto if you want to spread your religion via Missionaries quickly).

Bh

[Kriegsspieler]

Originally posted by Bhruic
If you are going to be doing a lot of warring, then Theocracy. If you are going to be doing a lot of building, then Organized Religion (ditto if you want to spread your religion via Missionaries quickly).

Bh

Hmm -- so it seems that the plurality of religions is not itself a factor in making this choice, because I would do the same thing with only 1 religion.
Thanks!

[Bhruic]

The only civic that gets impacted by having more than one religion is Free Religion*. And even in that case, you don't need to have founded the religions to benefit from it (although it most likely would make it easier).

The major benefits from founding multiple religions are financial and extra diplomatic control.

*Actually, not entirely true, as Theocracy actually makes it impossible to spread multiple religions within your own empire, making founding multiple religions less advantageous.

Bh

[cal_01]

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=142704

There's a nice screenshot of what happens if you found all seven religions.

[ElConejo]

Originally posted by cal_01

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=142704

There's a nice screenshot of what happens if you found all seven religions.

HOLY COW!!!
At first I didnt mean that as a pun!

[Martinus]

*Actually, not entirely true, as Theocracy actually makes it impossible to spread multiple religions within your own empire, making founding multiple religions less advantageous.

Or the opposite, if you want to found some religions in order to "contain" them, making the whole world follow your state religion.

Please note that you only get LoS in other civs' cities if you have the holy city AND they have the same religion as your state religion. So it is essential, if you want to benefit from this feature and control multiple state religions, that other civs adopt one religion that is also your state religion, not any religion you control. That's when theocracy comes in handy, since the less the non-state religion spreads in your realm, the less likely it is to spread to other realms.

[drunkandarmed]

My last game, I was Saladin at Noble level. I founded all the religions but 1. My goal was to monopolize the religions. However the Chinese beat me to confucionism (spelling?) Anyway, I built shrines for all the religions except islam and I concentrated on converting everyone to Judaism. Mecca, my capital, was producing almost 200 commerce by the end. Every civ had adopted Judaism for their state religion, except for the chinese and Greece. Greece hated me. I dont know if it is the best way to make money but you can greatly effect diplomacy. Also I think that I noticed, as your state religion spreads to a larger percentage of the worlds cities, you get a larger positive bonus from same religion civs.