I wonder what kind of religion(s) would there be in Trentons time....

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Just a tad off in a tangent, but also the phrase, "Change the world." has no meaning in space...

"Men? What men? Who's after you?"
"Men...Govenment men... They're after me... I know what did this to us, to me... I saw what destroyed Freeport 7... There were these ships... they were there but they weren't there...

I sure do love that part...

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Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.

I personally loved the Church of Man Retros in Privateer 1. "DIE by the very technology you adore!" I had more fun picking those guys off ... fond memories of just three weeks ago.

My advice to anyone, if you have a favourite game, always keep that old computer you use to play it. Never, I mean never get rid of it. Newer computers just can't handle the DOSsies.

Spectre

yep any one that had a belief in space and dared to covert me to it, would get a nice free covertion to scrapmetal from me.

Why not space Jehovah's or Mormons (you can shoot them with a photon cannon rather than just slamming the door in their faces!!!)

I'm sure I read some novel years ago where one of the main plot themes was Mormons in outer space.



..you think you're done with the past; but the past isn't done with you..

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My advice to anyone, if you have a favourite game, always keep that old computer you use to play it. Never, I mean never get rid of it. Newer computers just can't handle the DOSsies.

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Not if you know what to do with your computer. I play Privateer 1 on this very computer, which is an Athlon XP that dual-boots with Win XP and 98. The most expensive piece of software on my computer is a DOS based flight training simulator!!

But on the other hand, my 486 is still in perfect working order and has the highest reliability record out of my 3 computers...

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War does not decide who is right, only who is left.

Um.. Its set over 800 years in the future, religion will be dead by then.

"Um.. Its set over 800 years in the future, religion will be dead by then."

Um.. no. Religion is terribly persistant. Christianity (the religion I'm most familier with, though by no means believe) has influences, themes, and rituals that not only reflect early christianity, but far more ancient religions as well. The Baptism and Eucharist both come from a tradition of Mystery cults, a phenomonon that evolved only slightly before Christianity. The Veneration of Saints in Catholic and Othrodox churches is remarkably similar to the worship of locad deities, a custom far, far older than Christianity. Cosmic Good vs. Comsic Evil originated in Zoastrianism, a religion founded between 1500 and 1000 BC (and is still practiced today). Prayer, the idea that the spoken word can influence God or gods, is a holdover from proto Indo-European culture, at least (very least) 6000 years old. Time does not kill religion.
Neither does Technology kill religion. The Western world has significant technologies and is producing more exponentially. Christianity (essentially a European religion) current has the most self-delcared adherents of any on the planet (3 billion).
Nor does location kill religion. Both the Europeans and the Arabs were able to export their religion to new continents very effectively.

Many people benefit amazingly from their faith, even today. And always, in uncertain situations (space being particularly uncertain in my opinion) Religion shows up to help people manage. The idea that Religion is going to die out or be bled out of us as a culture implies that Religion is primitive, when in fact is can be terribly modern. It is certainly utilitarian. We will be keeping it for a very, very long time.

For those of you not familier with him, Frank Herbert has written a fantastic set of novels that look at religion, among other things, in a spacefaring society. The Dune books are old now, but certianly classics.

Knew my Roman/Greek civ degree would be good for something

Disclaimer: the above post is based on my understanding of religion as gleaned from my education/life/religious expirences. If you disagree, please don't hurt me.

don't apologise, I'm really please you posted it, i have a Humanities degree in Classics too!

i agree with you wholeheartedly, religion is very persistent, even in our own times when regular church attendance is falling in western society, the need for some sort of belief system is still there, even if it's "new age" stuff with dragons or crystals etc. or foreign mysticism And of course in less developed countries organised religion goes from strength to strength.

A subject I wanted to include in my final dissertation but got talked out of was a comparison between contemporary western society and the mid-to-late Roman Empire in respect of the decline of traditional "socially acceptable" and state sanctioned religions and the rise of mystery cults and alternative religions. You know what I'm talking about I'm sure. Anyway I see no reason not to extend these parallels into the future, organised religion as we know it (Church of England, Roman Catholicism etc) might well die out eventually but "religion" will continue in some form or other. Besides which the catholic church has survived and flourished for nearly 2000yrs, i see no sign of it fading away anytime soon.

Indeed in Canticle for Liebowitz it rose to prominence again after a nuclear war. Which was also introduced in one of the final B5 episodes. And if you recall in the last Dune book, Heretics i think, Jews still exist in the year 30,000 or whatever it was.

but I still think Trent's a Jedi...

..you think you're done with the past; but the past isn't done with you..

Time kills religions, its a fact! Look at the Ancient Egyptians\Greeks\Romans\Vikings they all had their own religions which are now dead. By 800 years time i belive science will have disproved religion.

Anyway, its not 800 years, its 300 (they left in the 23rd centuary) + 800 (When they arrived) + However long it took to travel. Religion will have been disproved by science, It is today more and more all the time.

Nay. Religions that we know exist today might become extinct, but religion will persist. Mankind will always find a new question and dilemma after the last one is solved by science.

Not necessarily. There could be new religions. plus, it's pretty impossible to prove a religion, and it's equally imposible to dis prove a religion. (For example, how could anyone ever prove/disprove that God exists) It's all a matter of faith. Even if the majority of Sirius' citizens are non-religious, there would still be a minority who would probably travel, trying to convert people.

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maybe "religions" but I doubt people would believe in Creationism by then or gods at all.