Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Difference between revisions

** In ''[[The Space Odyssey Series|3001: The Final Odyssey]]'', the Earth of the titular year has long since abandoned religion. It's said that everyone is either a theist or a [[Deism|deist]], as defined: the theists say there's at least one god and the deists say there's at most one god.

** ''The Light of Other Days'', co-written with [[Stephen Baxter]], had a device that could see into the past; among others, Moses didn't exist, having been a merger of several different historical personages. Jesus did, but was just a good person who inspired people, rather than a miracle-maker.

** ''The Fountains of Paradise'', about the building of a [[Space Elevator]], in which humanity's [[First Contact]] with an alien AI had the AI ''disprove'' the works of Thomas Aquinas, and possibly Christianity itself(!). And that was all in the exposition. There is one religion left practicing (a Buddhist-type), but it leaves its monastery when the yellow butterflies reach the top of the hill it's on, simply because [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy|they were prophesied to do it.]] It is mentioned that Vatican still exists as a centre of Catholicism, but suffers from severe financial troubles, implying that the number of practicing Catholics is minuscule.

** The closing stories in the ''[[Rendezvous With Rama|Rama]]'' books, on which Clarke either collaborated or wrote himself, subvert this. The setting has humanity already in religious decline by default, however the very end of the series presents not only possible evidence for the existence of a divine being such as God, but an explanation for his laissez faire attitude to dealing with his creation.

** Said "prophecies" appear to have arisen due to [[Time Travel]] and are, thus, [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy|self-fulfilling]].

* [[Deconstructive Parody|Parodied]] [[Take That|rather savagely]] in the ''[[South Park]]'' episodes "Go, God, Go" and "Go, God, Go Part XII." Cartman awakens in a [[Hollywood Atheist]] future where atheism has replaced religion. Religious factionalism and conflict have been replaced by equally trivial atheistic factionalism and conflict. People shout things like, "Hail science," "science dammit", and "Science H. Logic!" instead of their religious equivalents. Ultimately the episode argues that atheism can make you just as stupid as religion does.

* In an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'' a lack of religion allows the U.S. to progress technologically by a thousand years, though the arts had stagnated for a similar amount of time.

* Subverted in ''[[Justice League]]''; Hawkgirl comes from an advanced alien civilization which gave up religion eons ago, but after a certain episode, she comes to believe that there is...something good...out there.