Atheism in the Space Age

[Saint Marcus]

While playing a game of Civ4 (18 civs, huge continents map) I found the Arabs on a continent surrounded by other civs. To my surprise, none of the Arab cities had any religion. None. However, Saladin did chose a Theocracy civic, thus making it impossible for ANY religion to spread in his lands. Saladin stuck with Theocracy through the entire game, eventhough he gained no benefits from it (having no state religion). So well into the space age, the Arabs still had no religion in none of their cities, and they therefor had no temples, no monastries, nothing. This is some pretty weird decision making on the part of the AI.

Or could it be that Saladin become a hardcore atheist and figured out the only way to prevent any of his citizens converting? It did work like a charm, intended or not.

[kolpo]

Theocracy is the favored civic of Saladin so that could explain why he still uses it, so he might believe so hard in this civic that he shall still use it even if it makes no sense. Thought having a Theocracy without religion is rather strange The closest thing in the real world would the USSR.

[Sloth_DC]

Originally posted by kolpo
Theocracy is the favored civic of Saladin so that could explain why he still uses it, so he might believe so hard in this civic that he shall still use it even if it makes no sense. Thought having a Theocracy without religion is rather strange The closest thing in the real world would the USSR.

The USSR had a religion: Marxist-Leninism. It has a holy book (Das Kapital), a Great Prophet (Marx), Saints (Lenin, Stalin), a Manifest Destiny (the dialectic), and, like other religions, really hated competition.

[Nikolai]

[Snotty]

It stops any of the other countries spying on your cities by sticking their religion in them

Sounds like a good idea to me if you dont want to be pacifist

[Kekkonen]

If you have Theocracy with no state religion, what happens to Theocracy's +2 experience bonus given to troops built in cities which have your state religion? Do you need to have a city without religion to get it, or do you get it everywhere because it's the baseline for every city?

[NanoDingo]

Atheism in the Space Age:

"If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself."
- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye"

[gdijedi7]

Good comment on the Soviet Montrosity. Salidin would, I think, be in trouble in this situation. I would suggest having atheism added as a religon, maybe the first person to discover Liberalism would found it...

[Sloth_DC]

Originally posted by gdijedi7
Good comment on the Soviet Montrosity. Salidin would, I think, be in trouble in this situation. I would suggest having atheism added as a religon, maybe the first person to discover Liberalism would found it...

That seems kinda backwards - I mean, atheism is the natural default state of the human machine. Religion is an unnatural program which must be imprinted into the machine. Treating atheism as a religion really doesn't seem to make much sense.

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by Sloth_DC


I mean, atheism is the natural default state of the human machine. Religion is an unnatural program which must be imprinted into the machine.

World history, as well as most human experience, is against you there, pal.

[Jonah5]

I don't agree with the adding atheism as a religion, that would be somewhat of an irony.

[Sloth_DC]

Originally posted by Nikolai

World history, as well as most human experience, is against you there, pal.

Really? If you raise a baby with no religious indoctrination or even knowledge of religion, will she automagically believe in a Sky Father, Goddess of Infinity, or Invisible Pink Unicorns? Religion is something that has to be added to the human machine via indoctrination, it is not built-in. Hence, atheism is the default state.

[Nikolai]

Every human being wants to believe in something greater than itself. Whether or not it results in a god or something else, or one wants to call it religious, is another matter. But some kind of religon or religious thought is a part of every human being, either it results in a religion as Christianity or Islam, something newageish or the belief in science/humanity.

[Datajack Franit]

Saladin will always refuse to convert to any kind of religion that Arabic Empire didn't invent. So if they don't invent any religion they don't convert. I don't know what happens if some of their cities are being converted by religious spreading before they manage to use Theocracy though.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Originally posted by Nikolai
Every human being wants to believe in something greater than itself.

This is an assumption typical of those who are religious. Those who are not religious will make the opposite assumption, as we have already seen in this thread. Interestingly, unless you intend to raise a child in a glass bottle with no interaction with any forces, neither of you will ever prove yourselves right. Next!