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Judging by the example of modern Earth, religion will not go away unless driven out by other religion.
Actually, trends in many countries over the past few decades have shown 'non-religious' groups growing at accelerating rates. There are strong correlations between religiosity and poverty, conflict, and lack of education. Remove or reduce those problems and people begin to feel less need for 'God' in their lives.
I keep hearing that said, and it sounds nice in theory, but in practice it doesn't seem to work.
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Judging by the example of modern Earth, religion will not go away unless driven out by other religion.Actually, trends in many countries over the past few decades have shown 'non-religious' groups growing at accelerating rates. There are strong correlations between religiosity and poverty, conflict, and lack of education. Remove or reduce those problems and people begin to feel less need for 'God' in their lives.
All is well and good in North Korea which is why they need no gods :-/
Camera crews can visit the Outer Planes, do a documentary, and broadcast a view of Heaven and Hell to all the Arcologies in the solar system.Great. Reality TV in future Golarion. :P
Reality Scrying: Type visually observed; Addiction major, Will DC 20; Price — (plus cost of scrying device) Effects 1 hour; subject is fascinated, -1d4 penalty to Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks, -1d4 penalty to morale and concentration checks, fatigue Damage 1d4 Wis damage
Reality Scrying: Type visually observed; Addiction major, Will DC 20; Price — (plus cost of scrying device) Effects 1 hour; subject is fascinated, -1d4 penalty to Charisma checks and Charisma-based skill checks, -1d4 penalty to morale and concentration checks, fatigue Damage 1d4 Wis damageCamera crews can visit the Outer Planes, do a documentary, and broadcast a view of Heaven and Hell to all the Arcologies in the solar system.Great. Reality TV in future Golarion. :P
Yep. This times infinity.
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With the largest sci-fi feature (FTL travel) being divine magic (or mundane technology developed and handed down by a deity in somewhat Promethean fashion), and with the most significant historical event (the sudden lack of history and disappearance of a cosmically significant planet) being a collective divine act, deities actually seem a bit more involved/meddling than in Pathfinder. It seems like it provides good opportunities for the devout (plenty of deific activity), those against the meddling (again, lots of deific activity of a very scary sort), and the unconcerned (go grab a comfortable planet before someone else does).
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Judging by the example of modern Earth, religion will not go away unless driven out by other religion.Actually, trends in many countries over the past few decades have shown 'non-religious' groups growing at accelerating rates. There are strong correlations between religiosity and poverty, conflict, and lack of education. Remove or reduce those problems and people begin to feel less need for 'God' in their lives.
Something I find interesting in this post is the implicit faith in progress, ie that better technology entails both higher education and better living conditions. Which is not always true IRL.
And in Science Fiction, whether the impact of technology on society is positive or negative is a fundamental choice that impacts your whole setting. I hope that Paizo succeeds in meshing both possibilities in its Starfinder setting
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I just want my mechapaladin of Iomedae to fight against the Kajiu cyborg of Moragu(sp).
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Judging by the example of modern Earth, religion will not go away unless driven out by other religion.Actually, trends in many countries over the past few decades have shown 'non-religious' groups growing at accelerating rates. There are strong correlations between religiosity and poverty, conflict, and lack of education. Remove or reduce those problems and people begin to feel less need for 'God' in their lives.Something I find interesting in this post is the implicit faith in progress, ie that better technology entails both higher education and better living conditions. Which is not always true IRL.
Then you've misunderstood. It certainly isn't about faith, or even about people who still (unfortunately) have miserable lives. Its that on average, tech and science have provably made lives better: longer, healthier, more food, less disease (note the complete lack of smallpox, and the accompanying pockmarks that afflicted the survivors).
Just because it ain't perfect doesn't mean it isn't better. The real poverty and suffering of past centuries is shrinking- to the point that most people in the western world can't even fathom or imagine it. That those effects are spreading too slowly in the rest of the world is something that needs more focus and resources. But probably the biggest benefit in this regard is folks are less accepting of the idea that suffering is the natural state of things just to be accepted and ascribed to the will of gods, which wasn't true even a century ago.
I keep hearing that said, and it sounds nice in theory, but in practice it doesn't seem to work.Have you ever met someone who was not religious?
Voila! Proof "in practice" that religion can be 'driven out' by something other than another religion.
Well, that's the thing: I haven't met very many of them. They were almost vanishingly rare in Georgia, even in Atlanta, where I grew up, but even in Massachusetts, for all that it is made out to be godless, non-religious people seem to be a tiny minority, although they tend to be concentrated into the modern arcane professions sciences and academia, which is where I work, so that I can actually find a decent fraction (but nowhere near 100%) at work, but it is still painfully obvious that they are a small minority of the whole population.
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Well, that's the thing: I haven't met very many of them. They were almost vanishingly rare in Georgia, even in Atlanta, where I grew up, but even in Massachusetts, for all that it is made out to be godless, non-religious people seem to be a tiny minority, although they tend to be concentrated into themodern arcane professionssciences and academia, which is where I work, so that I can actually find a decent fraction (but nowhere near 100%) at work, but it is still painfully obvious that they are a small minority of the whole population.
About 23% of the total U.S. population... and rising ~1% per year.
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I kinda want most divine Spellcaster to be the "Old Guard" of sorts in Starfinder. Iomedae's clerics still wield longswords of the traditional sort, Desnan clergy still use Starknives. Even more so than Holy Symbols, the fact that they do use traditional weaponry distinguishes them in a very Jedi-esque way.
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I kinda want most divine Spellcaster to be the "Old Guard" of sorts in Starfinder. Iomedae's clerics still wield longswords of the traditional sort, Desnan clergy still use Starknives. Even more so than Holy Symbols, the fact that they do use traditional weaponry distinguishes them in a very Jedi-esque way.
[tangent] I want sneaky clerics of Desna that use shuriken, instead of starknives, darnit! [/tangent]
That said, yeah, some gods, particularly more lawful or tradition oriented gods like Erastil, Iomedae and Pharasma probably wouldn't upgrade their favored weapon. Others, like Abadar, Brigh and Torag, are kind of 'gods of civilization' or 'gods of artifice,' and so an update to a more 'modern' weapon, like a blaster or energy weapon, might make sense for them.
About 23% of the total U.S. population... and rising ~1% per year.
The social effects of this don't seem to be showing up, except for a handful of issues for which the evangelicals themselves have some members that have changed position.
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*goes back to wondering if you summon the power of the Inheritor, do you get mecha tigers*
Traditionally, gods tend to send help that's appropriate for the setting. In a primitive culture, that might be an animal messenger. In an advanced culture, it might be a robot.
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Yes but I want a mecha tiger to form Iomadae, the Defender of the Universe!
Plus the whole anime trope....
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What I got out of their post involving the gods and the position of Golarion was that the perspective is from Golarion, it's just in a different part of the galaxy. The gods are silent as to why (but let's be honest, that's one huge dangling piece of Campaign gold) but are still very present. I do hope they update the pantheon to better fit the new setting. With some gods growing, evolving, or outright being substituted so that the religion is familiar but fresh.
I'd like this as well, but especially if they mix things up a bit. Some of the more common PF faiths (Asmodeus and Iomedae) are either nonexistent or very rare, while others you might not expact (Erastil or Kurges) expand greatly in thematic, but unexpected ways.
Leave a bit of room for new deities, too, and maybe a few that can completely morph into something different, as long as they make sense, (or purposefully do not).
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Well, that's the thing: I haven't met very many of them. They were almost vanishingly rare in Georgia, even in Atlanta, where I grew up, but even in Massachusetts, for all that it is made out to be godless, non-religious people seem to be a tiny minority, although they tend to be concentrated into theAbout 23% of the total U.S. population... and rising ~1% per year.modern arcane professionssciences and academia, which is where I work, so that I can actually find a decent fraction (but nowhere near 100%) at work, but it is still painfully obvious that they are a small minority of the whole population.
Well, 23% includes agnostics, so not really Not religious in my book. Atheists are only 3% of the whole.
Also 2 points (2007 and 2014) do not a trend make. Nothing really proves that there is a steady 1% per year increase :-/
We would need far more data to see what the trends are.
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Well, 23% includes agnostics, so not really Not religious in my book. Atheists are only 3% of the whole.
Odd. I consider agnostics less religious than atheists... though the two terms are also used nearly interchangeably by many.
Also 2 points (2007 and 2014) do not a trend make. Nothing really proves that there is a steady 1% per year increase :-/
We would need far more data to see what the trends are.
True, but various other studies have shown similar results. The Pew study also shows much higher incidence of unreligiosity in younger generations... which will perforce result in continuation of the trend as the older, more religious, generations die off. This is also mirroring the transition that began a few decades ago in most of western Europe.
Whether the same logic (knowledge & comfort = decreasing religiosity) would apply in a setting with 'active' gods is much more difficult to determine. However, access to modern (let alone future) medicine and agriculture should still make the NEED to rely on the gods for survival less than in the Pathfinder setting... which in turn should logically result in fewer people doing so.
*sponsor the use of a Mecha Iomedae against Kajiu. *
Unless the deities actually sponsor technology or even grant it ;-)
Monsatan: The God of Alchemy Chemical Engineering and Necromancy Biotechnology.
Rahadoum says 'See, GODS DO SCREW EVERYONE OVER'
Nah. Rahadoum is just an example of how well mortals think they can do in the face of the divine.
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*sponsor the use of a Mecha Iomedae against Kajiu. *
The Kuthite darksteel mecha are powered by the suffering of all the 'volunteers' chained up within it.
Meanwhile, the Sheylinite mecha is all bright colors and gentle curves, and has hundreds of people inside it painting as fast as they can, because it's powered by art...
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Set,
I assumed the Sheyln mecha was powered by song. You know like Rahxephon.
huh...it just occurred to me that we can finally have a god whose favored weapon is a boomstick
this pleases me...
huh...it just occurred to me that we can finally have a god whose favored weapon is a boomstick
this pleases me...
Favored Weapon: Grenade.
The Holy Hand Grenade!
This begs the question: Who does the counting?!
Probably best not to dwell to much on it, Nenkota.
Guessing we don't want to know about the Calistrian mecha.
THE EVER-BURNING FIRES OF VENGEANCE! And bees.
Wasps, actually.
But I expect Caeden Cailian to get excited when micro-brewing is perfected.
Well, technically, it's already been perfected in other corners of the universe.
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Set,
I assumed the Sheyln mecha was powered by song. You know like Rahxephon.
We all know that Shelynites will use the power of song to bolster their space forces on their super space fortress Not-Macross.
Probably best not to dwell to much on it, Nenkota.
We all know that Shelynites will use the power of song to bolster their space forces on their super space fortress Not-Macross.Set,
I assumed the Sheyln mecha was powered by song. You know like Rahxephon.
Suddenly I've got this vision of Shelynite Artificers commandeering a collosal statue to use as a mecha by painting emotion-sensitive pink psychokinetic goop all over the insides while playing calypso music . . . .
Unarcane,
There is that possibility.
NPC,
I always assumed it was more like Rahxephon myself...
I always pictured Norgorbean mecha more like Ken Lay.