Post Apocalyptic Religions

[beejazz]

I'm working on this RPG... far future, humans left Earth, crashed somewhere else, etc.

Long story short religion both develops on its own (and is handed down by these horrible horrible aliens, but thats another thing entirely) and is salvaged from the ruins of a past civilisation.

But the latter doesn't discriminate between actual scripture and things that we might not see as scripture. This would include everything from the prophecies of Nostradamus to the "Psalms of Rammstein" to some of Dan Brown's novels (ick).

Now, what do you think would be good things to include/forget in the  last case? Could this also be used for more mundane post-apocalypses? Or is the whole idea a bit of a stretch?

[Hibou]

I think it could work. It could be very interesting to build a futuristic setting where humans left Earth and built their religions and societies based on misconceptions of the last 200-300 years or so. It'd be interesting to see a world where movie stars, very influential politicans, and scientists were reverred as the equivalents of deities or at least saints. Hell, you could even make deities based on a past that assumes a certain country or allied union of countries won a massive world war, and the resulting doctrines and beliefs of the future represent the heroes and "villains" that were around in that time. It might seem comical sometimes, but you could make it serious (such as Korea or Iraq being the name of a god of terror, or Poe being the god of poetry). People might laugh if you do this wrong, but I think if you displayed this type of misunderstanding tragically, it could result in a very interesting setting. I know I'd be interested to see it.

Just my thoughts.

[Tybalt]

Have you ever seen the Tribe 8 game? While you might want to keep the fictional notion it is an interesting and well developed idea.

Also in Paul O. Williams' novels there are a couple of interesting post apocalyptic religions. One of them for instance involves the worship of a bronze deity (who seems to be the Buddha) that is radioactive. The 'god' apparently claims people now and then through sickness.

[snakefing]

Read  A Canticle for Leibowitz for a classic SF take on this question.

Just a friendly reminder about the classics from the resident old fart.

[beejazz]

Yes, because all gods should be radioactive.

I'll be sure to check out Canticle as soon as I finish King in Yellow and Cryptonomicon.

As for people and places having their meanings changed around... not my original intent, but a pretty nifty idea.

[Endless_Helix]

I second the call fro A Canticle. It's a brilliant book.

Actually, it would be interesting see what sort of mystery cults get put together when Old Earth finally bites the dust. The American-based cults probably would be based off of christianity or scientology. Maybe a few neopagans. But they would probably replace the gods (or saints or what-have-you's) by leading figures. I could imagine Kennedians attacking an Oswaldian cult for killing their diety. I would strongly suggest reading up on the egyptian and persian mystery cults, as they are the most in keeping with what you are suggesting. Plus you get lots of really cool names, like "Temple of the Hearing Ear".

[beejazz]

"Well, religion mostly breaks down into a couple of predictable groups. You've got your atheism, polytheism, monotheism, and mcartheism..."

[Túrin]

I'd say religion wouldn't be quite as odd as you'd think. The names might change (as has been said, Jesus might be replaced by a movie star or somesuch) but the ideas would still be roughly the same. Churches that promote love and altruism would still attract more followers than "Iraq, the god of terror".

Túrin

[Kalos Mer]

I'm reminded of the recent episode of South Park where Cartman goes to a future which (thanks to Richard Dawkins) is devoid of "religion" but people have a religious-like reverence of science and two different atheistic factions are in bitter dispute.

In short, I agree with Turin in so far as people are going to be people regardless of the specific trappings of their religion.  However (and maybe it's just that my view is askance because I live in the States as opposed to Turin who lives in Europe), it seems to ME that religions which promote terror and hatred of various kinds will attract plenty of followers...

[Endless_Helix]

I'd say religion wouldn't be quite as odd as you'd think. The names might change (as has been said, Jesus might be replaced by a movie star or somesuch) but the ideas would still be roughly the same. Churches that promote love and altruism would still attract more followers than "Iraq, the god of terror".

Túrin

I guess how I envisioned it was more along the lines of a polytheistic religion with names taken from the past to name the gods. So "Iraq, god of terror" wou be part of the same pantheon as "Angelina the Jolly, fertility goddess" and "L. Ron Hubbard, god of knowledge", rather like Hades was part of the greek pantheon, although there probably would be a stronger analogue with Phobos and Diemos.