Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Science fiction where an advanced civilization has given up religion as backward and primitive. Alternately, religion is shown as [[Scam Religion|a form of control without any real moral purpose]]. This is usually an [[Author Tract]]. Eventually, [[Easy Evangelism|everyone "comes around" to the author's point of view]], realizing that [[The Presents Were Never From Santa|the miracles were natural]] and [[Windmill Political|the demons they were so afraid of never existed]].

 

{{examples}}

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* In [[Warren Ellis]]' ''[[Supergod]]'', faith is stated to be a biological ''flaw'' in human neurology that enables group behavior ''without'' the enlightened self-interest that should preclude it; a "narcotic response" to the concept of a higher power. This means most of us will follow leaders based on their ability to evoke that response rather than their ability to encourage survival. It also means that most of us would be quite willing to surrender our free will to [[Blue and Orange Morality|powerful forces that don't even see us as bacteria]]. You can guess how that turns out.

* Subverted in Robert Zubrin's ''[[The Holy Land]]''. The aliens regard Christianity as primitive, bizarre, contradictory, and dub it "anti-rational", not being particularly impressed by the fanaticism and terrorism it is used to inspire. Meanwhile, they worship Minerva and/or Hera and/or Aphrodite, have fought wars over the different interpretations of their religion, debate theology (including strict monotheism versus a triune goddess), call each other heretics, and take the occasional strong moral stand based purely on their religious faith. Less of a [[Take That]] to organized religion than [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]].

** Since the humans in that book are used as a not-really-masked metaphor for Arabs and other ethnicities of developing nations, it carries the [[Unfortunate Implications]] that Arabs/Palestinians are barbarians ''and'' (since the Minervans are obviously representing Zionist Jews) that Jews are arrogant nerds, leading to a conclusion that perhaps the [[Unfortunate Implications]] are not as "unfortunate" as they appear.

** Said atheists are the local equivalent of Greece's philosophers. They also quickly point out said god of ice has a sense of humour when somebody quips it's gotten colder.

* Sort of ''both'' used and averted in the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' novels, where humans and thranx and several other species look to the United Church for guidance. It's a synthesis of the basic ethical tenets which all humanx religions share, shorn of world- or culture-specific trappings that would fall under this trope's "superstition" label. Essentially, Unitarianism's gone multispecies: they don't attempt to define or disavow a Higher Power; they just agree that if there ''is'' such a thing, this is how he/she/it/they would surely want folks to live, and if there isn't, it's still good to live that way.

* In the ''[[Uglies]]'' series, the people of the future sarcastically refer to gods as "invisible superheroes in the sky". There are some groups that try to bring religion back, but it isn't catching on. In all, the books don't pay very much attention to this, and it's mostly a detail to help show how different society has become since our time.

* Played straight in Susan Collins' [[The Hunger Games (novel)|The Hunger Games]]. There's no mention of religion in any of the trilogy, and even the word count of religion based words is quite low.

 

* Averted in ''[[Firefly]]''. Though Captain Reynolds is a bit of a [[Hollywood Atheist]] and doesn't like displays of religion on his ship, one of his passengers is a vaguely Protestant monk/minister, and most of the others try to be respectful of his faith, although their personal level of observance isn't made clear. Religion isn't portrayed as universally positive (as seen when River is almost burnt alive under suspicion of witchcraft) but its presence in the future is pretty much taken as a given.

** If you watch the initial Pilot, you see Mal kissing a cross at the Battle of Serenity valley. Following that disaster, he evidently (and understandably) lost his faith.

** Meanwhile, Inara is Buddhist, and there are minor characters that are Jewish.

* This appears to some extent in ''[[Star Trek]]''. ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' was the most into it, with [[Gene Roddenberry]] being a proponent of the idea; after he died, it waned. However, religion still gets scant mention among the humans in the [[Trek Verse]], and nine out of ten alien religions turn out to be based around [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] cabals anyway. There are some significant subversions of the trope as well.

** In "Balance of Terror", at the wedding of Tomlinson and Martine, the bride genuflects before the altar in the ship's Chapel. In Kirk's opening address to the gathered celebrants, he states that they are gathered to witness the joining "in accordance with our many customs and many beliefs".

** In another episode a very powerful energy being states that, even though she's very powerful indeed, she can't create life, because 'that is for the Maker of All Things.'

** In "Bread and Circuses" Kirk says that the Federation represents many religious beliefs, and it's mentioned that the slaves of the Romans worship the Sun. {{spoiler|But these [[Human Aliens]] also [[Aliens Speaking English|happen to be speaking English]] and actually worship "[[Jesus|The Son]]"}}.

** In "The Ultimate Computer", the ''computer'' states that "Murder is contrary to the laws of man and God." {{spoiler|The computer's beliefs were patterned after its creator's, a genius, albeit an emotionally unstable genius}}.

** The Klingons are stated to have once had gods, but their distant ancestors killed them all off because the gods proved to be more trouble than they were worth. In spite of this, they have an underworld ruled by "Fekh'lar." One episode of ''[[The Next Generation]]'' deals with Kahless, a divine, Christ-like ancestor figure in Klingon history. There is a shrine of Klingon priests who await the return of Kahless and Worf has had spiritual visions of Kahless speaking to him in the past. Generally, their faith in Kahless is treated in a positive light.

** In an episode of ''[[Voyager]]'', Tom Paris suggests that B'lanna should go to church if she wants to explore her spirituality, instead of invoking a near-death experience to save her mother from Klingon Hell.

** The most [[Anvilicious|Anviliciously atheistic]] ''Star Trek'' ever got was the third season ''TNG'' episode, ''Who Watches the Watchers''; a group of Federation scientists are using holographic technology to watch a primitive Vulcanoid culture that has apparently abandoned religion. The Federation equipment breaks down, revealing their existence and "magical powers" to the locals, one of whom declares they must be gods and tries to restart the Old Time Religions.

** In "Where Silence Has Lease" Picard is asked by Data about death; interestingly his philosophical answer seems to hint that while he isn't personally religious he seems to have equal problems with a purely atheistic view.

** ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' is a 7 year mix of affirmations and aversion/subversions of this Trope. The Commander of the station was declared to be alien Jesus in the first episode, later finding the alien Gods to confirm it, then having visions and becoming a god himself.

** Ivanova is a religious Jew. At the beginning of the series she has lapsed in her practice of Judaism, but when her father dies in the first season she finds solace and closure in her once-lost faith.

** Commander Sinclair was educated by Jesuits when he was young.

** The Centauri are modeled on the late Roman Empire, with an official polytheism almost nobody still takes seriously.

** In the third season, an entire chapter of monks shows up on the station to research ''other'' races' religions, looking for common ground; each one is a [[Badass Bookworm]], highly respected in various prized fields such as computers, medicine and physics.

*** [[J. Michael Straczynski]] has noted online that most of the representatives were [[Babylonian Productions]] staff and crew, and most were really of the religion named.

** In "By Any Means Necessary", Na'Toth states that she is an atheist - a huge contrast with her deeply religious (if less than law-abiding) boss, G'Kar. His response is that everyone believes in something greater than themselves, if only the blind forces chance - she sneers that chance favors the warrior. G'Kar points out that that is [[Not So Different|still a belief]], albeit a highly productive one.

** The same priest during the story remarks on how much of its influence Catholicism has lost since mankind went to the stars. The demons tempt him to exorcise them right then and there, saying that it would give him proof enough of the reality of God to restore the Church to it's former power and status.

* Some could see ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' as one big [[Take That]] against organized religion. The titular team spends at least half of the plot convincing primitive groups that their [[No Such Thing as Space Jesus|gods are fake and should forget about them]], even the ones with the characteristics of actual gods: they ''are'', after all, merely [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|sufficiently advanced aliens]] posing as gods, either snaky parasites out to exploit mankind or well-meaning Little Gray Guys trying to help. With the Ori, things are more blurry: they actually qualify as gods according to one [[Real Life]] religion and would do so in most fantasy series, but writer intent evidently considers them false gods as well.

** Many other episodes also reference religion in subtle or [[Anvilicious|not so subtle]] ways, like The Sentinel, where the Latonans refuse to evacuate in the face of an alien invasion, constantly referencing their "highest law".

* ''[[Farscape]]'' takes an interesting perspective on religion for a sci-fi show: though it doesn't discuss religion extraordinarily often, it does have practitioners of various alien religions among the crew, some of them quite devout. Plus, the show also demonstrates that gods and magic really do exist in their universe, some of them more visible than others - like the Builders that Moya worships. The Peacekeepers, on the other hand, play this trope straight, with an entire episode, "Prayer", devoted to Aeryn recounting the ancient legend of a Sebacean goddess (implying that they no longer believe in gods in the present day) and praying to her for rescue; for added desperation points, Aeryn notes that the reason this particular goddess doesn't have any followers anymore is because she killed them all on a whim.

* A sketch on ''[[The Kids in The Hall]]'' featured a futuristic society that celebrated [[You Mean "Xmas"|Bellini Day]] in which the characters referred to a time period where mankind was so stupid they actually believed in someone named God.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** Presumably the combination of sci-fi technology (and its accompanying wave of rationalism) on the one hand, and the very real and somewhat provable existence of the old ones on the other made everyone less interested in religions that have a very specific world view that excludes either of those things.

* ''[[Fading Suns]]'' thoroughly averts this with the Urth Orthodox church holding roughly as much influence over the Known Worlds as Catholicism held over Medieval Europe.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Can be inverted in the famous ''[[Star Ruler]]'' mod ''Galactic Armory'': One [[Min-Maxing|Trait]] prevents you from using certain esoteric tech, most to do with Spatial Dynamics, with the reason that your people's religious beliefs forbid it.

* Completely skewered in [[Albion]]. For starters, while the crew of the Toronto never mention God, a news report from Earth confirms that the Catholic Church at the very least still exists, and is being led by the pope (one called John Paul the twenty-somethingth). The Iskai and Celts living on the planet worship the Goddess Animebona who is in fact the planet itself, and is quite real and alive. Her antithesis, Animenkhna is technically the "god" of terran humans, being the embodyment of science and all. The actual God is handwaved by the natives as the unknown. Christianity is implied to be an attempt at compromise, that ended up being too irrational for the terrans and too rational for the Celts.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Inverted by Caligula of ''[[The Law of Purple]]''; instead of an advanced culture that once had religion but derides it as worthless now, there was almost never any organized religion to speak of and parts of the population are only now discovering it. However, most Caligulians view religious groups as nothing more than cults and consider them highly abnormal.

* The punchline of [https://web.archive.org/web/20110213174949/http://www.comicblasphemy.com/?p=31 this] ''[[Comic Blasphemy]]''. (Look at the title. What do you expect?)

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In the universe of ''[[Dominion and Duchy]]'', a group called the Cathedrum is explicitly compared to the Catholic Church and the Vatican in particular. It is also described as being the oldest group still in existence.

* In ''[[Orion's Arm]]'' humanity just replaced them with new ones (or started worshiping the [[Deus Est Machina|Archailects]]), and even then few religions have died out.

 

== Western Animation ==

'''Bruce Wayne''': Of course I do. I've seen it all, demons, witch boys, immortals, zombies, but this thing ... I dunno, it just feels so ... so high school. }}

* Played with in [[Futurama]]. Though religion certainly exists, most of the current ones have merged into the First Amalgamated Church. The second coming of Jesus has occurred, but life continued normally, save for the destruction of all VHS tapes. [[The Oprah Winfrey Show|Oprah-ism]] and Voodoo are considered mainstream, and there is a reptilian "Space Pope," who has some influence over safety filmstrips.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Religion Tropes]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:We Will Use An Index In The Future]]

[[Category:The War On Straw]]