Post by mongoose on Mar 20, 2007 17:33:06 GMT -5
I propose that in the Sci Fi galaxy, christianity, or rather, the worship of the one true God, whatever we call Him (El something?) is all but dead. It has come, flourished, and been long since forgotten.
Let's look at how things are going now, in Europe just to be a little more obvious than to refer to our own situation here in America (It's too close to home.) You had your Christian era, up until, say, the great Welsh and Westlian revivals. Those revivals were, indeed, revivals of a dying faith among a people turning to deisim and moralism. They believed in logic above faith and Truth, and logic said that if people were good, society would do better. So people had better be good. It also said, "if the universe is logical, and it must be, then it must have a logical creator." But the religion of logic could not accept the miraculous, which meant that said creator must have put the watch together, wound up, and left it alone on the beach to work on its own. Over time, God faded from the corporate consciousness. After all, he wasn't there interacting with people, so what was the point in people's interacting with him? They simply needed to be moral for the upholding of society. It was logical. The modern Era.
Eras come and go, and people grew fed up with the absolutism posed by the modern era and its religion of logic. You got the post modern, post Christian era. Multi-culturalism, feminism, human and civil rights, environmentalism, etc. All, including the good and the bad parts of each, rose up to challenge the "facts" proposed by the religion of logic, moralism, and expediency. No longer was it accepted that God wound up the watch and left it alone. No longer was it accepted that one had to be moral to uphold society, nor even that society ought to be upheld. In the confusion and chaos that followed the deconstruction of accepted norms, many people worked like mad to re-construct various religions from the pieces, and you got a relativistic and pluralistic society in which it was thought there were many paths to truth, all of equal validity. Unfortunatly for said Truth, if there are many paths of equal validity, those paths claiming to be the only valid ones were decried and became the enemy. The post-modern era
But time goes on, and people see the shallowness and sentimentality of their parents ways, and rebell. Where relativism and pluralism failed, or were proven false, the new generation rejected this search for truth alltogether, reverting to a neo-modernistic way of operating. The highest concern was no longer God, nor personal enlightenment, but rather what was most expedient for society, and more particularly, for those in power. If it worked, it was truth, be it moral, logical, fulfilling, or otherwise. Logic re-gained some of its own strength, as what is logical will often also be expedient, and will work, but it was no longer exalted as Truth. The search for Truth had been abandoned. It was now simply about survival for most, and getting ahead and prevailing for a few. The neo-modern era.
Eventually, this neo-modern way of thinking and operating became codified, the national religion of the empire, much like the religion of the communists under Stalin. Let's call it the post-neo-modern era. The lack of a religion, the advancement of the powerful, the practice and value of expediency has become the religion both of the masses and of the government.
Into this post-neo-modernistic world we come with a few faithful holdouts to the Alliance of Faith (or whatever it was called in the settings thread.) They are forced to remain integrated into society, lest they be summarily executed for practicing a religion other than the support of the existing government. Due to the prevelance of high tech survailence, underground worship and fellowship, and much more, evangelism, are practical impossibilities. Those who continue in faith do so undercover, in effect, leading normal lives with normal jobs, pretending not to believe. They are afraid and weak, hoping for some sort of deliverance in the after-life, but despairing of any hope for themselves or their people in this life. There are only a few who seek a better way, an opportunity to worship in freedom, outside the reach of the long arm of the empire. They go to other planets, trained, equiped, and sent by those few of the few faithful who have position and power enough, courage enough, or insanity enough to risk their lives and the lives of their families and loved ones to take a more active role.
Due to necessity and fear, these few, active members of the Alliance of Faith have developed an incredible security and intelligence network actually rivaling that of the empire's security and intelligence forces, both in its secretiveness and its effectiveness. Though they are commited not to do violence, or perhaps because of this commitment, their agents have become effective spies, burglars, pick pockets, and martial artists. They are able to pass unseen where they wish, even to the electronic surveilence networks. They are masters of disguise and subterfuge. they have people in the highest places, reporting on every movement of the government, and others among the wealthy who purchase information at all levels. They have transportation networks that can only be effectively used by those endorsed by the leadership, and upon gaining word that they've been made and the government is about to mount an assault, can dissapear without a trace only to re-group later in other safe locations. In all, the upper echelons of the Alliance Of Faith is the ultimate high-tech secret society and cult.
BTW, why is called an alliance? What are the members of the alliance, as the term indicates relationships among several soveriegn social/political/economic/religious entities?
Let's look at how things are going now, in Europe just to be a little more obvious than to refer to our own situation here in America (It's too close to home.) You had your Christian era, up until, say, the great Welsh and Westlian revivals. Those revivals were, indeed, revivals of a dying faith among a people turning to deisim and moralism. They believed in logic above faith and Truth, and logic said that if people were good, society would do better. So people had better be good. It also said, "if the universe is logical, and it must be, then it must have a logical creator." But the religion of logic could not accept the miraculous, which meant that said creator must have put the watch together, wound up, and left it alone on the beach to work on its own. Over time, God faded from the corporate consciousness. After all, he wasn't there interacting with people, so what was the point in people's interacting with him? They simply needed to be moral for the upholding of society. It was logical. The modern Era.
Eras come and go, and people grew fed up with the absolutism posed by the modern era and its religion of logic. You got the post modern, post Christian era. Multi-culturalism, feminism, human and civil rights, environmentalism, etc. All, including the good and the bad parts of each, rose up to challenge the "facts" proposed by the religion of logic, moralism, and expediency. No longer was it accepted that God wound up the watch and left it alone. No longer was it accepted that one had to be moral to uphold society, nor even that society ought to be upheld. In the confusion and chaos that followed the deconstruction of accepted norms, many people worked like mad to re-construct various religions from the pieces, and you got a relativistic and pluralistic society in which it was thought there were many paths to truth, all of equal validity. Unfortunatly for said Truth, if there are many paths of equal validity, those paths claiming to be the only valid ones were decried and became the enemy. The post-modern era
But time goes on, and people see the shallowness and sentimentality of their parents ways, and rebell. Where relativism and pluralism failed, or were proven false, the new generation rejected this search for truth alltogether, reverting to a neo-modernistic way of operating. The highest concern was no longer God, nor personal enlightenment, but rather what was most expedient for society, and more particularly, for those in power. If it worked, it was truth, be it moral, logical, fulfilling, or otherwise. Logic re-gained some of its own strength, as what is logical will often also be expedient, and will work, but it was no longer exalted as Truth. The search for Truth had been abandoned. It was now simply about survival for most, and getting ahead and prevailing for a few. The neo-modern era.
Eventually, this neo-modern way of thinking and operating became codified, the national religion of the empire, much like the religion of the communists under Stalin. Let's call it the post-neo-modern era. The lack of a religion, the advancement of the powerful, the practice and value of expediency has become the religion both of the masses and of the government.
Into this post-neo-modernistic world we come with a few faithful holdouts to the Alliance of Faith (or whatever it was called in the settings thread.) They are forced to remain integrated into society, lest they be summarily executed for practicing a religion other than the support of the existing government. Due to the prevelance of high tech survailence, underground worship and fellowship, and much more, evangelism, are practical impossibilities. Those who continue in faith do so undercover, in effect, leading normal lives with normal jobs, pretending not to believe. They are afraid and weak, hoping for some sort of deliverance in the after-life, but despairing of any hope for themselves or their people in this life. There are only a few who seek a better way, an opportunity to worship in freedom, outside the reach of the long arm of the empire. They go to other planets, trained, equiped, and sent by those few of the few faithful who have position and power enough, courage enough, or insanity enough to risk their lives and the lives of their families and loved ones to take a more active role.
Due to necessity and fear, these few, active members of the Alliance of Faith have developed an incredible security and intelligence network actually rivaling that of the empire's security and intelligence forces, both in its secretiveness and its effectiveness. Though they are commited not to do violence, or perhaps because of this commitment, their agents have become effective spies, burglars, pick pockets, and martial artists. They are able to pass unseen where they wish, even to the electronic surveilence networks. They are masters of disguise and subterfuge. they have people in the highest places, reporting on every movement of the government, and others among the wealthy who purchase information at all levels. They have transportation networks that can only be effectively used by those endorsed by the leadership, and upon gaining word that they've been made and the government is about to mount an assault, can dissapear without a trace only to re-group later in other safe locations. In all, the upper echelons of the Alliance Of Faith is the ultimate high-tech secret society and cult.
BTW, why is called an alliance? What are the members of the alliance, as the term indicates relationships among several soveriegn social/political/economic/religious entities?
