7 Religions?

[Crazy Eskimo]

What about the whole hierarchyt of angels and demons and the devil? Seems polytheistic to me.

I guess England was never a monarchy, what with all those earls, dukes, and barons running around. Sounds like a polyarchy to me!

I understand that the three main Gods of Hinduism (who presided over the three main phases of existence) were incarnations of the same God, but my understanding was also that there were other, minor Gods who were not.

Regardless, I envision polytheism more like the Greek polytheism. Tons of gods, contending against one another, none with absolute dominance. Contrast that with Christianity, which has one God (with three aspects) that has absolute dominance over everything.

And yes, you are right that the exact nature of Christ served as a point of division among Christians in the past (which, in itself, is silly), but all of them agreed that they were in Monotheistic religion. Christ, whatever is nature, served God the Father, no matter how they were related. Just because there's a prince and a king doesn't mean the country isn't a monarchy.

There were also other dividing factors between the east and west church, such as whether or not "icons" were sinful and, most importantly, earthly power over one another.

 

[oldStatesman]

That said, generic religions don't have to be boring ones, nor one's that are completely dissassociated with today's religions. Civ is about gameplay, not historical accuracy. You can replace Christianity, Islam, etc. with the "generic" religions of Monotheism, Polytheism, Hedonism, Sciencism, etc. ...

... Even better is generic religions could add to gameplay. Right now, all religions are the same, because Firaxis doesn't want to offend anyone. Make the religions generic, and you no longer have to worry about that.

Wow. That post was awesome.

Kinda like govs...we don't have American Democracy/French Democracy or British Monarchy/Spanish Monarchy or Soviet Communism/Chinese Communism .... we just have Democracy and Monarchy and Communism.

Works for me.

 

[Hannabir]

In my opinion there is really very little difference between a monotheism with angels and demons, and a holy trinity perhaps, and a polytheism with a head god, possibly with three faces, and a bunch of lesser gods.

The difference between religions is rather in the way they view life on Earth.

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

In my opinion there is really very little difference between a monotheism with angels and demons, and a holy trinity perhaps, and a polytheism with a head god, possibly with three faces, and a bunch of lesser gods.

The difference between religions is rather in the way they view life on Earth.

...with the exception that in the Bible, specific angels and demons aren't really discussed too much. The angels are there to enact God's will. The demons are there to thwart it. Occasional, one will be named, but there's little to distinguish amongst angels or amongst demon. My understanding is that there's more to the minor Hindu gods than that (as in, a reason to worship them, a description of their nature, something). Most of the hierarchy stuff concerning the angels is not in the Bible itself, and is more a tradition/mythology aspect of the different sects of Christianity.

But, I agree with you that the defining characteristic of a religion (outside of Civ) lies in their understanding of the interaction of the supernatural and the natural. For instance, Christianity and Islam are both Monotheistic, yet approach the world in completely different ways.

 

[kitsquad]

I once read a funny email that compared 3 religions to icons on a desktop that need to access the c: drive - with the c: drive being heaven or your version of.

Christians believe that there's a Jesus icon on the desktop that when you double-click on it, you're taken to the c: drive.

Muslims believe that you cannot access the c: drive through an icon, but you must access the actual memory allocations of the drive using a hardware language.

Hindus believe you can click on any icon on the desktop and you can get to the c: drive.

hahaha ok none of this pertained to the discussion at hand so sorry. Sorry to those who do not believe in icons as well.

 

[OLX]

Here's my Short List of Possible Religions in Civ4's Future

Secularism
Catholicism
Spanish Catholicism
Irish Catholicism
Eastern Orthodox
Russian Orthodox
Ethiopian Orthodox
Shinto
Sun Worship

Don't Even ask me to Cover all the Divisions of the Protestant Church.

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

Why not? It'd be fun to see all the steam come out of your ears!

Yet another reason to go with generics. You can see the European monotheism as any one those sects you want (well, except for the Russian and Ethiopian... but you get the gist).

 

[Dearmad]

I guess England was never a monarchy, what with all those earls, dukes, and barons running around. Sounds like a polyarchy to me!

I understand that the three main Gods of Hinduism (who presided over the three main phases of existence) were incarnations of the same God, but my understanding was also that there were other, minor Gods who were not.

Regardless, I envision polytheism more like the Greek polytheism. Tons of gods, contending against one another, none with absolute dominance. Contrast that with Christianity, which has one God (with three aspects) that has absolute dominance over everything.

And yes, you are right that the exact nature of Christ served as a point of division among Christians in the past (which, in itself, is silly), but all of them agreed that they were in Monotheistic religion. Christ, whatever is nature, served God the Father, no matter how they were related. Just because there's a prince and a king doesn't mean the country isn't a monarchy.

There were also other dividing factors between the east and west church, such as whether or not "icons" were sinful and, most importantly, earthly power over one another.

Try feudalism... England was very rarely a Monarchy. Glad you recognize that.

And if "christians" worship, and pray to Angels and Saints (each one has his/her own little dominion of power- like patron saint of blahblah), and pray Mary and fear the "power" of a deity outside of "god's" pervue (the devil)... it's polytheistic.

 

[Crazy Eskimo]

Try feudalism... England was very rarely a Monarchy. Glad you recognize that.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Feudalism and Monarchy, though exclusive governments in Civ, are not necessarily mutually exclusive in real life. Monarchy simply means rule by a monarch (which England definitely had), but feudalism touches on the economic and social systems as well. The king or queen of England was still the monarch, not a "polyarch", even though they had a feudal system.

Regardless, English is a constitutional monarchy TODAY, yet still has all of the dukes, earls, and barons, as well as democratic elements mixed in for good measure. None of this changes the fact that the Queen is the Monarch of England despite other powers within the government.

And if "christians" worship, and pray to Angels and Saints (each one has his/her own little dominion of power- like patron saint of blahblah), and pray Mary and fear the "power" of a deity outside of "god's" pervue (the devil)... it's polytheistic.

I can't argue with that. But a vast number of Christians* DON'T do that. I don't know the exact nature of how saints and angels fit into Catholic doctrine, so I'll leave explaining that to a Catholic. However, Protestants definitely do not do what you laid out. It's simply not scriptural.

We pray to God and God alone, not saints or angels. Saints are simply exceptional Christians that we seek to emulate. Angels are under God's orders, so praying to them accomplishes nothing. Not even the devil is outside of God's pervue. Only because God has given us free will and allows us to act without His interference is there any chance that the devil can do anything. When God does act, the devil is impotent. Modern mythology has hell as the devil's domain, but it's actually his prison; God reigns in Hell as well. The only reason to have fear of the devil is the knowledge that, without God, we'd be helpless before the devil by ourselves and in our own power, same as a peasant would be totally helpless before a bandit, if the King's guard was not around.

All this is said not to proselytize. I'm not trying to convince any of my system of beliefs; I'm trying to show that Protestant Christianity is Monothestic. Catholic Christianity, I leave to a Catholic. I agree with Dearmad that the behavior he describes seems polytheistic, but it's not the type of behavior I've seen the Christians that I know exhibiting.


*in a previous thread, I made a statement that could be construed to mean that Catholics were not Christians. I'd like to take this opportunity to make clear that the statement was meant to indicate that Catholics are just one subset/sect of Christianity, and thus do not represent the whole.

 

[Eduardo Sellan]

The seven religions is:

Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Taoism.

Mods may exist in other religions, such as:

Zoroastrism, Shinto, Sikhism, Jainism, Hellenism, Kemetism, among other

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I'm sure the OP figured it out somewhere in the past 4 years since posting .

But, welcome to the forums!

 

[Belisar]

...the 8th is Necro-Ism

 

[Saim]

I understand that the three main Gods of Hinduism (who presided over the three main phases of existence) were incarnations of the same God, but my understanding was also that there were other, minor Gods who were not.

Wrong. They're all Brahman.

 

[mechaerik]

The seven religions is:

Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Taoism.

Mods may exist in other religions, such as:

Zoroastrism, Shinto, Sikhism, Jainism, Hellenism, Kemetism, among other

I would suggest looking at the date off the last post before posting. Thread Necromancy is generally looked down upon.

 

[Ramesses]

I hope no-one mistakes this guy for me.