Questions tagged [religion]
For questions regarding the impact of religion in a given scenario or the creation of a religion for use in a fictional world.
3
votes
2answers
282 views
How can the priesthood gain control of the military? [closed]
I need to design a country in which the military is owned by the priesthood of the land. Soldiers are ultimately more loyal to the faith and those who administer it than the state. Governship is ...
36
votes
19answers
7k views
Can there be a theocracy that also practices religious tolerance?
My main character is one of 5 deities that make up the "Terram faith" The country she resides in is a theocracy of that faith; with a king and queen appointed by high priests and priestesses.
The ...
1
vote
4answers
79 views
Would it be weird or impractical for a princess who has a High Priestess title to have a family? [closed]
My character is the King's only daughter in a patriarchal succession system. She's raised to become a High Priestess (the most important woman in the whole land), because only women of a male ruler's ...
5
votes
4answers
2k views
how can a society maintain its population if it considers maternal death rates a sign of weakness?
This human society is similar to the Drow in that their world is broken down into matriarchal houses. Each house has branch clans that support their own lineages, but pay homage to the main house. ...
3
votes
5answers
122 views
Why would genocide not hasten the apocalypse? [closed]
This is a follow up question to this link:
Why would a deity not be made weaker as more souls are being born?
When human beings die, their spirits go to the soul forge. This forge is at the center ...
1
vote
7answers
318 views
Why would a deity not be made weaker as more souls are being born?
This setting follows a religion in which god, originally a perfect entity and the seat of human consciousness, split himself into two separate beings and reincarnated into two mortal forms. These two ...
0
votes
4answers
260 views
The Greeks were right [closed]
So somehow, the world's scientists find solid evidence that the Hellenic Gods are the true gods. It's them and them alone. Think Zeus, Hera, Hestia, etc. This evidence is unquestionable.
How would ...
4
votes
5answers
199 views
why would a priesthood only accept young children into its ranks?
This is a follow up to this question:
Why would a priesthood of a world religion worship a different god from their followers?
This organization is the only official religious order in this setting. ...
0
votes
3answers
125 views
Why would any diety need to reincarnate into mortal forms to gather data on its own creation? [closed]
This setting follows a religion in which a god, originally a unisex entity and the seat of human consciousness, split himself into two separate beings and reincarnate into mortal forms. These two ...
5
votes
2answers
341 views
How can I make this religion believing in “creating time traveling gods through science” believable?
I want to popularize the following or a similar belief.
In many thousand years people will travel back in time to give us an afterlife, if we make it possible, by going the steps, that will lead to ...
0
votes
1answer
84 views
Capture a city of wild spirits by humans without an arms battle? They can be attracted to a vessel they will attach/feel drawn to and stop resisting [closed]
I need to attack a city under the control of evil spirits to take back control. Since the enemy are spirits, physical or arms warfare will not help. Since spirits are shown to exist, magic is ...
17
votes
13answers
4k views
How to make religious sacrifices to their dark god sympathetic?
So, on the planet Dalia, there exists a civilization of intelligent creatures called the Dalians. The Dalians are extremely primitive (compared to most others) and have an extremely tribal, clan-...
22
votes
21answers
6k views
Why would god conduct multiple raptures if he depends on human beings for worship?
A being known as Dea is the creator of all things in the mortal world. He created human beings as living batteries in order to fuel him and give him power. Dea feeds off of human worship, which it ...
22
votes
9answers
7k views
How can I legally reduce religion in my world?
Religious rights are protected, and freedom to religion is secured, how can we reduce religion in a country without breaking religious rights laws.
Here are some examples:
Ban religious schools (...
35
votes
18answers
5k views
How can I use my dominance of the software industry to get my customers to worship an eldritch abomination that they don't believe in?
The world is going to hell. Global warming, overpopulation, economic crises and other such issues plague humanity. The only logical solution is to summon Hastur, The King in Yellow, an elder god from ...
0
votes
2answers
141 views
Gods are dogs, but why? [closed]
It’s obvious, really: “God” and “dog” are just two sides of the same coin. Literally any pantheon, deity, or divine force that’s ever existed - yep, they’re all dogs somewhere.
But why? What reason ...
6
votes
3answers
156 views
All hail the sun disk! How to maximize ancient Egypt's acceptance of Ahkenaten's religion?
Premise
Ahkenaten was a bit of a heretical pharaoh in ancient Egypt. While it was customary at the time for the pharaoh to choose a god to be associated with, Ahkenaten went further and proclaimed ...
35
votes
14answers
11k views
How can prostitution be made acceptable in a religiously conservative society?
The dominant faith in this world is religiously conservative and believes that the only legitimate form of sexual intimacy is between husband and wife, and that homosexuality and extra marital affairs ...
8
votes
6answers
1k views
Preventing the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire
In this alternative reality Constantine the Great never embraces the Christianity and the Roman Empire remains polytheistic.
So I would like to know what realistic change(s) could have prevented the ...
13
votes
9answers
2k views
How to make a death-worshipping race seem less evil? [closed]
How does one make a race that worships a personification of Death less evil? This race believes that dead souls go back to the River of Life to be reincarnated into a new form, so their beliefs aren't ...
5
votes
4answers
942 views
Who administers soul exchanges? [closed]
Mythology is replete with examples of people selling their soul to the devil. Except... how does that actually work, mechanically?
Let's say you sign a contract agreeing that the devil may take your ...
0
votes
4answers
119 views
Why Would People Follow an Anti-Christ or a Similar Figure? [duplicate]
Why would people follow the Anti-Christ, or a similar figure? I can imagine some would follow him out of fear, some out of a desire to hurt others, and others out of greed, but what other reasons ...
-6
votes
1answer
107 views
Why might people mistake a nuclear warhead explosion for Lucifer rising? [closed]
So, the cult of Uranius in Kansas City have just detonated a 50 megaton nuclear warhead, and the entirety of KC is now a deep, deep radioactive crater. A few people saw the bomb explode from about 40 ...
11
votes
16answers
2k views
The plausibility of peaceful coexistence between religions where they view the other religions as heretical
So this is for the same story as my "Boats for tall people" question earlier, but not about boats. In this world there is one religion that almost every race has a different interpretation of.
For ...
5
votes
4answers
339 views
How can a single clergy rule over a religion that has different interpretations of its deity?
The multiverse is made up of different realms, each with their own human population. These realms are planet sized, and have their own cultures and traditions. Realm gates exist in each of those ...
11
votes
8answers
401 views
What might cause body-modest human planetary colonists to need to practise nudism
The Context
A few years from now, perhaps around ten years or so, after first contact with star-travelling aliens, humans have acquired FTL and other technology making a new diaspora of humanity to ...
7
votes
6answers
435 views
How would the existence of multiple mythological and religious pantheons be justified?
It's common trend for many stories within the Urban Fantasy genre to feature various mythological pantheons co-existing with one another. For example, High School DxD has a universe where Judeo-...
88
votes
13answers
16k views
A mosque on Mars?
Premise
Mars has been terraformed and has seen its first few stages of large-scale colonization. The colonists are middle to upper class Earthlings. Earth is not a dystopian planet per se, but Mars ...
17
votes
3answers
366 views
Reality check: Buddhist Aztecs
Idea
Is the following alternate history setup conceivable:
Central Mexico has been converted to Buddhism by missionaries arriving from East Asia or South-East Asia hundreds of years before European ...
-1
votes
1answer
70 views
Why might the king want to break off from Seattle? [closed]
In the holy lands of Seattle, where the great Kodiak is said to have meet his mortal martyrdom, the holy figure and leader of the Kodiakist religion resides. His name is Prophet Ground-Zero, and he is ...
30
votes
9answers
4k views
Would a weaponized priesthood violate separation of church and state?
The Situation
For reasons unimportant to the question all divine/infernal beings ceased contact with humanity in the dark ages. For reasons equally obscure they are now back and busier than ever. Law ...
43
votes
5answers
5k views
Would a demon be afforded civil rights?
Synopsis
For reasons unimportant to the question all divine/infernal beings and deities took a hiatus from interacting with the earth in the dark ages. For reasons equally obscure they are back and ...
0
votes
3answers
144 views
How could the religious leaders explain why their leader died? [closed]
So, out in the holy lands of Seattle, the mutant Kodiak started a religion that worships the great glowing god “ICBM”. Kodiak told that he was the son of ICBM, and that mutants were a blessed people, ...
15
votes
4answers
2k views
Could Catholicism have survived as the dominant religion in England if it had allowed aristocratic polygamy?
The proximate cause of the Anglican Church's split from the Roman Catholic Church, which retained more vestiges of Roman Catholicism than other major early Protestant Church denominations, was the ...
2
votes
2answers
79 views
Is there a race practicing a religion integrating both transcendence and ancestor worship?
For example, think of our species. We have members that embrace trans-humanism and tribes that appease their great-grands with offerings. The two are different and very unlikely to be related, thus ...
11
votes
10answers
3k views
A patriarchal society worshipping a Mother-goddess
So I'm currently writing a story set in an Arabian-influenced medieval world. This society worships a mother goddess, and I was wondering if a matriarchal religion is culturally consistent for a ...
0
votes
3answers
147 views
Why might a computer want to play God [closed]
In my story their is a primitive culture out near the Tijuana ruins that worships a ZX-15 CyboTek Super computer inside a factory. They ask it for good harvest, give It offerings of fish and beef, and ...
10
votes
6answers
516 views
How can a superpowered being avoid religions being created around itself?
From dimension Omicron, came a being that could split planets (not that it will do it, but you get the idea). Open your favorite superhero power encyclopedia, it got All the cool superpowers, most of ...
3
votes
5answers
246 views
Would religion still have a play role in society after the apocalypse?
So, the classic nuclear apocalypse happens, 90% of the human race is gone, and the cities of the world have been totally destroyed. Life was PERMANENTLY changed for the survivors. People were reduced ...
1
vote
2answers
195 views
Chapel on a starship? [closed]
Highly related to Maggots at a party... How would alien races dine together? but hopefully not duplicate.
I am designing my own Starfleet. I want it to be original, but I know that if I want to avoid ...
3
votes
3answers
192 views
Can religions like Islam or Hinduism be represented respectfully in a fictionalized/fantastical Earth? [closed]
Assuming this fictionalized Earth possesses features common to post-Tolkien fantasy: monsters/cryptids, sorcery, intelligent humanoids, etc.
In the past, firebirds, djinni, spirits, angels, demons, ...
47
votes
27answers
11k views
Why would a god tolerate an impostor in his church?
I have a noble god in my world that is answering prayers, guiding his believers and bestowing divine powers onto selected priests.
Now his church is fragmented into several factions on ideological ...
-1
votes
1answer
92 views
How large would this religion need to be to rule the world? [closed]
Human beings have colonized a planet in the outer habitable zone of a K-type star with approximately 1.5 Earth oceans of water, living in peaceful coexistence with mixotrophic birds who saved the ...
2
votes
0answers
131 views
A world without mass religion? [closed]
I was talking to one of my friends about religion, and she talked about a very interesting idea.
Instead of not believing in God, you create your own personal God. For one person their God might be ...
5
votes
4answers
252 views
A “Temple City”
Trying to come up with a general feel for a city dominated by temples, where evil gods may be openly worshipped alongside good gods. It is an independent city-state in a 2000 year old world, near the ...
-2
votes
2answers
175 views
Ban on Religion
How would the population of a large medieval country react to a sudden ban to a certain widespread religion.
Several information regarding the setting:
Gods have real impact on the world. They can ...
18
votes
6answers
2k views
How to enforce belief in technology as divine without an enforcing class
I have a civilization in my story structured around the idea of worshiping the sun(s) as gods. The Church is the ruling body of this interstellar civilization and ensures that the "Blessings of the ...
1
vote
2answers
159 views
How can Religion take control of a technological society [closed]
Rox Dwight is a very well known scientist in the space-faring society of Startopia. He owns the Rox Corporation and the general populace enjoys the wide variety of products that he invents and ...
30
votes
15answers
11k views
How recently could a god be born? [closed]
Supposing you were creating religions in your world, and your world has advanced along a technological spectrum similar to Earth's. What is the latest point in history that a new god could be ...
3
votes
1answer
219 views
How to create a medieval army secretly? [closed]
My story takes place in a Middle Ages world. A fog has appeared all around the country, and no one knows why, but it makes you get sick. They have never seen a disease like that, it's very contagious (...
