Religion

(Copied straight from .XML 'backup' file, needs formatting and corrections. ZM User (talk) 20:15, 22 April 2024 (PDT))

Religion in the Diaspora

In general, Confederacy worlds are not hostile to religious faith, but no faith-based institutions exist on colonies apart from the Cosca and the Islamic colony of Escardis which are cultural outliers. While authors have treated religious persons sometimes with dignity, and at others with disdain and even contempt there seems to be a strong sense of a new form of "disestablishmentarianism" that seeks to not only ensure a separation of church and government, but to go beyond that to minimize even the existence of any corporate establishment of faith-based institutions. As sponsors are dedicated to participating full-time in either the defense of the Confederacy from the Sa'arm or a supporting role directly related to that purpose, there exists no established avenue for personnel dedicated to religious pursuits to actively follow them as a vocation.

(Need to add text about the colony "New Jerusalem" in the system "Bethat", which was set aside for ethnic Jews. Since there is little difference between ethnic Jews and religious Jews, this is effectively a religious colony. -ZM)

Writers can take many opportunities to discuss the value of faith in Confederacy life, from decrying what they see as the pointless nature of such fantasy and positing that religion will eventually die out in the Sa'arm era, to proclaiming that there never has been a more meaningful time to have faith as part of one's life given the trials and tribulations of this new existence. Audiences exist for both perspectives, and all those in-between.

Colonies of Faith

The colonies established by the Cosca have a distinct Catholic culture, albeit one modified significantly by the changes that Catholicism endured on Earth as a result of the announcement of the Sa'arm menace. Many faithful Catholics will find the depiction of their faith in the Cosca series rather unnerving and uncomfortable at best. Non-Catholics won't likely care much about it beyond its narrative value.

The colony of Escardis was established as an Islamic colony, albeit with significant contention between the culturally moderate leaders and those influenced by Shia'a Ayatollahs. Duke of Ramus and Zipper D Dude who wrote about this colony may not fully understand all the nuances of Islamic culture but they both handled the subject with consideration of their culture and practice.

No colonies have so far been written about as being established as religious enclaves like the early Massachusetts colony in America, and it is unlikely there will be, but faith organizations developing within established colonies would seem like a likely eventuality unless authors universally subscribe to the notion that anyone who believes in God wouldn't pass a CAP test. Several stories already have dispensed with that notion, such as A Shepherd No More by ShadowWriter. Someone with a very strong faith would absolutely feel compelled to establish a church, perhaps informally and in one's pod on a new colony as long as there was no prohibition in doing so. As long as they don't bother anyone else, there's no reason why an AI would prevent such an operation.

Story Usage

A textual analysis of the story repository, current as of 9/2019 and performed on 2019-09-23 and using SS Lib ver 1.15.09 (9/21/2019) identified the following top ten usage counts for Religion and terms associated with that word:

• The Academy by Thinking Horndog 121 instances.
• Building a CAP Based Future by Allan Joyal 48 instances.
• The Librarian by deGaffer 42 instances.
• All These Things That I've Done by ElSol 39 instances.
• The Interview by Justin Radically 36 instances.
• Genesis of a Family by Justin Radically 35 instances.
• Inviting a Pickup by dirtycopper 34 instances.
• Cherries in the Garden by Bad Line Ghoul 33 instances.
• Going, Going... by Tomken 32 instances.
• Mary's Story by dirtycopper 32 instances.

(Someday this will be a navigation template.  It will provide a bar across the bottom of each article with useful navigation links.  Until then, this is just a placeholder to get rid of all the red "broken link" indicators. -ZM User (talk) 10:00, 3 May 2024 (PDT))