Is it possible to have an empire with no religion?

[xBlackWolfx]

Is there a way to prevent your empire from gaining any sort of religion throughout it's history? I'm sure having closed borders and mercantilism (to prevent foreign trade routes) would help alot, but mercantilism isnt available for quite some time and that may not stop religions from coming in through rivers and coast lines and such.

Is there a way to make an atheistic empire, without of course just modifying the game.

 

[Joshua368]

You can last for a long time without a religion in an isolated start... the religions won't spread to you before astronomy. Not sure if you can use things like theocracy/mercantilism/etc to keep it out though. I know closed borders don't.

 

[xBlackWolfx]

The closed borders idea came after isabelle sent a jewish missionary into my territory. All i know is that religions apparently can only be transferred with missionaries, and along trade routes rivers and coastlines. I have noticed that my new coastal cities tend to get a religion by themselves almost right away.

 

[thadian]

I sometimes go without a religion whatsoever. other times, i change it a lot. if im spiritual, i change it every time im asked unless its a minority religion or i plan to change civ's soon.

the reason is if i have neighbors on both sides and they have different religions, i don't want to get nailed by the other. sometimes its ok diplo to just not make anyone mad, or even to jump back to paganism briefly if you meet a powerful civ you need as an ally, without spoiling your neighbors.

however, if i can i run theocracy/vassalage as often as i am building units. i change religious civic's in phases. theocracy pre-war or on turn 1 if attacked. at the end of the war, org religion when its time to build and re-structure economy. however when i plan on building units again, i change back.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Start isolated, and get to theology after that religion is gone/build paya. Either works. Then run theocracy with no state religion. You'll never, ever get one in any city anywhere.

Merc does absolutely nothing. Closing borders stops missionaries but not auto-spread. Theocracy stops both.

 

[Tatran]

You'll never, ever get one in any city anywhere.Theocracy stops both.

You have to turn off the events too, or see picture

 

[xBlackWolfx]

Start isolated, and get to theology after that religion is gone/build paya. Either works. Then run theocracy with no state religion. You'll never, ever get one in any city anywhere.

Merc does absolutely nothing. Closing borders stops missionaries but not auto-spread. Theocracy stops both.

Thanks, didnt know if you could even select Theocracy without having a religion.

You have to turn off the events too, or see picture

Could you explain it? I dont understand the significance of the picture...

 

[Tatran]

Of course, xBlackWolfx

A religious event gave me the opportunity to spread Judaism.
Three cities (1 American and 2 Spanish), maybe more, got Judaism
this way despite a religion or not.
Izzy is Christian and runs Theocracy, but it didn't prevent to spread
another religion by this event.

 

[xBlackWolfx]

I managed to make an atheistic empire, and i wasn't isolated. It appears religions will only auto-spread if they're connected to a religious city by a road, as evidenced by the fact that I had only one city gain a religion before I converted to theocracy, and that didnt happen until i connected it to a russian city with a road.

 

[r_rolo1]

Start isolated, and get to theology after that religion is gone/build paya. Either works. Then run theocracy with no state religion. You'll never, ever get one in any city anywhere.

Merc does absolutely nothing. Closing borders stops missionaries but not auto-spread. Theocracy stops both.

You have to turn off the events too, or see picture

No. Atheist Theocracy does not prevent religion autospread since Warlords.This was made to prevent that theo lover AI ( Izzy, Ramesses,.... ) that by acident didn't founded a religion would never get one.

I managed to make an atheistic empire, and i wasn't isolated. It appears religions will only auto-spread if they're connected to a religious city by a road, as evidenced by the fact that I had only one city gain a religion before I converted to theocracy, and that didnt happen until i connected it to a russian city with a road.

Religion autospread is only possible if there is a possible trade route from a holy city to the target city ( that is not the same than a actual trade route: closed borders will not prevent autospread... and it does not work both ways: religion will not spread if there is only a possible trade route from the target city to the holy city ). See the VoiceOfUnreason article on religions for more details

So, on topic...

There is only one way to have a full-proof atheistic empire:
-Go to WB in beginning of the game and give yourself Theocracy and a religion. Get back to WB and clean the religion of every city on Earth. That will enable to have a religion Theocracy, but without the religion.

P.S With events off as well, as Tatran said

 

[Dave_Oz]

I dont see a reason why you wouldnt want a religion, unless you just wanna much around?

Those religious bonuses are to nice to pass up

 

[Supr49er]

Welcome to the Forums xBlackWolfx.

 

[Weasel77]

On the other end of the spectrum, one "victory condition" I made up for myself is what I call jihad. I try to get as much of the world's population to have my state religion. Here's a pic of a successful christian jihad game.

 

[Supr49er]

How many cities do you have?

Welcome to the Forums Weasel77.

 

[Weasel77]

Thanks Supr49er.

That screenshot is from long after victory was won in the game, and I had 61 cities in 1935, covering the entire map. Most of them were rebuilt on the ruins of destroyed "non-believer" cities.

 

[Tronicoz]

 

[Tephros]

For the converting events:

Event 166 is obsolete with mass media, but doesn't actually occur much like the tsunami event.

Event8:
Inspired Mission
Prereq: City with 2 religions 1 of them your state religion
Obsolete: None
Active/Weight: 75/200
Result:
1.State religion spreads to 4 own cities (with 1 or no other religions)
2.you pay 10 gold AND State religion spreads to 4 own and 1 foreign cities (with 1 or no other religions)
3.you pay 25 gold AND State religion spreads to 4 own and 4 foreign cities (with 1 or no other religions)

So in 75% of games this event can occur, but I wouldn't say it's extremely common. Most of the time it wouldn't be a problem.

I did this once in warlords and had the intention of doing it from the beginning. I had to play a level below what I normally do. Having no religion is a serious handicap. I used theocracy to prevent spread, which sucks because theocracy only gives you a benefit with religion. I got the idea from noticing that an AI civ that liked theocracy was using it without a religion in a previous game, lol. An atheocracy, lol.

Naturally my leader was named Satan and I had to raze hundreds of cities. It was my first, and only, conquest victory on a huge map.

 

[xBlackWolfx]

The reason I wanted to do it is partially to see if it's possible, and partially bc I think religion does nothing but cause problems. But that is not a discussion appropriate for a civilization website.

 

[Tephros]

The reason I wanted to do it is partially to see if it's possible, and partially bc I think religion does nothing but cause problems. But that is not a discussion appropriate for a civilization website.

It's possible but requires some luck and is a real challenge.

One can argue that religions are problematic IRL, but in the game it's a huge help.

 

[Justy]

You should beware that without a religion helping to pump out culture you'll be hamstrung in the culture fights. Those Cathedrals really pump out culture with that fat bonus they give.

In addition you get major happiness bonuses from all those temples. You'll be artificially lowering your city growth.

Lastly, if you take religion out of the game the civs are still going to delcare war on each other for different reasons. Just a thought.