As an atheist, will I sabotage myself by not pursuing faith?

[Alumenad]

That's something that has bothered me in CIV.

Not that I feel offended or sensitive to religion, but as I build my own citities and civilization, I'd like it to be free of religion, since I am an atheist and would not want religion to have any part orinfluence in my civilization as I think it's detrimental to just about everything.

If I don't however, build any religious constructions, would that not sabotage my campaign?
Additionally, I feel that atheism should be something in the game that if the player develops an atheist civilization (vs religion), perhaps cities will flourish in science, medicine, technology earlier and at a faster rate, not being held back by the science vs religion battle in the middle age and so on.

Any thoughts on this?

[Mayhem Effect]

create atheism as a faith. it has eveloved so far that it has become a religon in itself.

[Alumenad]

Originally posted by Mayhem Effect:

create atheism as a faith. it has eveloved so far that it has become a religon in itself.

Atheism is not a religion in any way, shape or form. But if they would package it that way in the game it would be preferable to real religious doctrines.

[Yacinor]

Originally posted by Alumenad:

Originally posted by Mayhem Effect:

create atheism as a faith. it has eveloved so far that it has become a religon in itself.

Atheism is not a religion in any way, shape or form. But if they would package it that way in the game it would be preferable to real religious doctrines.

Atheism is actually a faith. u believe in nothing, u still believe still you dont have proof.

[ballomatic]

Originally posted by Alumenad:

Atheism is not a religion in any way, shape or form. But if they would package it that way in the game it would be preferable to real religious doctrines.

As agnostic I think Atheist believe in no Gods. Back to game, make Flying Spaghetti Monster your religion. You can name them as you like, I propagate Transhumanism.

[Alumenad]

Originally posted by Sig:

Originally posted by Alumenad:

Atheism is not a religion in any way, shape or form. But if they would package it that way in the game it would be preferable to real religious doctrines.

As agnostic I think Atheist believe in no Gods. Back to game, make Flying Spaghetti Monster your religion. You can name them as you like, I propagate Transhumanism.

Oke so you can create your own religion in the game? name it like you want and what else? But they'll still be "holy" sites and so on? Kind of goes against the entire idea but hey it's something :P

[Yacinor]

Originally posted by Alumenad:

Originally posted by Sig:

As agnostic I think Atheist believe in no Gods. Back to game, make Flying Spaghetti Monster your religion. You can name them as you like, I propagate Transhumanism.

Oke so you can create your own religion in the game? name it like you want and what else? But they'll still be "holy" sites and so on? Kind of goes against the entire idea but hey it's something :P

Man, create your religion : modern way of life and your holy sites : Hollywood. Then it is nor much far from the reality eh ?

[Darkwing]

Careful not to let such a topic derail so fast.

As religion exists in the game, you neglect it at your own peril. I have a suspicion that in the later game you will have the governmental option for freedom of religion or secular society, or whatever they choose to call it where you will benefit from having few religions present in your city ( that was the model for it in civ iv).

[aWhiteScreen]

I think the religious part of the game is fine. Like in real life when human civilization evolved so did their faith and they either ended up founding one themselves or adopting a foreign one. Also like in real life there has always been a dominant religion in every country despite there being no official religion in most western countries. There is no way to be free of religion anywhere except if you want to live in The Soviet Union(or other countries that shared their ideology) under Stalin where there was an ideological objective to replace religion with atheism where religious property was confiscated,believers harassed,general propaganda against religion and people like the Clergy were arrested.

[Alumenad]

Originally posted by By Honor:

Originally posted by Alumenad:

Atheism is not a religion in any way, shape or form. But if they would package it that way in the game it would be preferable to real religious doctrines.

Atheism is actually a faith. u believe in nothing, u still believe still you dont have proof.

Not that I want to move the discussion into this direction, but I have to say something about this.

I'm afraid this is a fallacy. Atheism is not a faith or a religion. Believing in nothing is an oversimplification quite frankly. How does one believe in nothing? Atheists do not believe in a supreme being. That's not the same as following or adhering to a faith. Atheists intellectually reject the notion of a God being.

Also one can not prove a negative. Meaning I can't just fabricate something and then tell you to prove it doesn't exist :) So for example I could tell you the sky is actually pink and there are phantom elephants floating around, but you can't see them. You would tell me that's BS. I would ask you to prove it? How do you know? Prove to me it doesn't exist.

In the abscence of any physical / emperical evidence, discarding a notion like religion does not make your train of thought a faith and does not categorize atheism as a relgion or faith.

It's just a statement based on the objective reality.

[Alumenad]

Originally posted by TheGreatLegion:

I think the religious part of the game is fine. Like in real life when human civilization evolved so did their faith and they either ended up founding one themselves or adopting a foreign one. Also like in real life there has always been a dominant religion in every country despite there being no official religion in most western countries. There is no way to be free of religion anywhere except if you want to live in The Soviet Union(or other countries that shared their ideology) under Stalin where there was an ideological objective to replace religion with atheism where religious property was confiscated,believers harassed,general propaganda against religion and people like the Clergy were arrested.

Yes but this isn't real life. You actually control your cities and civilizations in this game. That's the entire appeal of it. I would like to a model a civ in my view of the "perfect" society. Since if I do nothing, nothing will happen and there is no organic development in the game, yes I would like to do without it :)

Religion has dominated everywhere, also in western countries. The US for example is the most religious western country on the planet and they're quite religious. Western EU is also very religious. Not the same as in the middle east but they are quite religious.

[aWhiteScreen]

Yes but this isn't real life. You actually control your cities and civilizations in this game. That's the entire appeal of it. I would like to a model a civ in my view of the "perfect" society. Since if I do nothing, nothing will happen and there is no organic development in the game, yes I would like to do without it :)

Religion has dominated everywhere, also in western countries. The US for example is the most religious western country on the planet and they're quite religious. Western EU is also very religious. Not the same as in the middle east but they are quite religious.

I guess the closest thing to your "perfect utopia" is just naming your religion "No Religion" ;P
Picking Order Or Autocracy and using inquisitors to remove any other religions.Also because you can control your cities that does mean you can actually control what your citizens want,think or believe.

[Darkwing]

Originally posted by Alumenad:

Originally posted by By Honor:

Atheism is actually a faith. u believe in nothing, u still believe still you dont have proof.

Not that I want to move the discussion into this direction, but I have to say something about this.

I'm afraid this is a fallacy. Atheism is not a faith or a religion. Believing in nothing is an oversimplification quite frankly. How does one believe in nothing? Atheists do not believe in a supreme being. That's not the same as following or adhering to a faith. Atheists intellectually reject the notion of a God being.

Also one can not prove a negative. Meaning I can't just fabricate something and then tell you to prove it doesn't exist :) So for example I could tell you the sky is actually pink and there are phantom elephants floating around, but you can't see them. You would tell me that's BS. I would ask you to prove it? How do you know? Prove to me it doesn't exist.

In the abscence of any physical / emperical evidence, discarding a notion like religion does not make your train of thought a faith and does not categorize atheism as a relgion or faith.

It's just a statement based on the objective reality.

I think, for the sake of the discussion, it's perfectly fine to take a moment to clear up any confusion about the term Atheism.
Here it is, by definition:
"disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods."
Notice, anyone who insists Atheism is a religion, faith, or a belief, that this definition does not include "a belief in nothing" or anything of similar wording. It is the explicit denial of an assertion being made by non Atheists that there does exist a God or Gods. Atheism is not a belief and does not encompass a set of believers - it is disbelief and a label for non believers.

[Carog the Fat]

Not sure why you think believing in god is counterproductive to science Albert Einstien believed in some intelligence behind the universe. Univercitys in Europe were developments from teaching in cathedrals.

[Bouncer]

I never understand these kind of things. So... consumed, for lack of a better term, by what you (don't) believe that you'd preferably want nothing to do with a mere game mechanic?

Just don't worry about it. Whatever you think of religion in real life shouldn't be having much of an impact on a game like this.

[ballomatic]

Just name your religion Science, or Technology. This is OK?

ps if you thinning something (don't) exist and you don't have a prof, you believe.

Edit: If you don't create religion, your citizens probably be folowers by religion of other players. You probably don't want this.