Question on religion

[reddishrecue]

Simple reason really, I had built every useful science improvement in all four of my citites and my production was high enough that I could build these wonders quickly without much impact elsewhere. Also, the extra culture can't be a bad thing as it helped me complete social and ideology tennants quicker!!

You could remove your units away from the hills and back inside into the research buildings to make way more science. Not only that but you could also get great scientists that boost your science furthermore.

 

[FrostK]

Ofc, it is better to have your own religion - u get founder bonus, but mostly important is that other religion may be just awfull.
But if u see that u cannot found religion without investing tons of hammers/gold etc. you can play without it.

 

[sixty4half]

Also, in your case, while you did get a good religion with Mosques and Pagodas, those are one of the few benefits that you get to keep once you convert to another religion.

What you could have done is;
Get the foreign religion
Build your Mosques and Pagodas
Generate a GPr somewhere along the lines
Once you have the Mosques and Pagodas you need; Form your own religion and spread it to your cities.
Then, you'll have the benefits of your religion, and you still keep the buildings you bought, retaining the Faith/Culture/Happy bonus

 

[Sclb]

Also, in your case, while you did get a good religion with Mosques and Pagodas, those are one of the few benefits that you get to keep once you convert to another religion.

What you could have done is;
Get the foreign religion
Build your Mosques and Pagodas
Generate a GPr somewhere along the lines
Once you have the Mosques and Pagodas you need; Form your own religion and spread it to your cities.
Then, you'll have the benefits of your religion, and you still keep the buildings you bought, retaining the Faith/Culture/Happy bonus

What the OP has is that he never founded a pantheon, so no religion, therefore no great prophets unless he built Hagia Sophia or choose GPr from liberty finisher or play as maya.