Religion
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Revision as of 18:22, 30 July 2013
All of Earth’s major religions retain followers in 2100. They often struggle to reconcile age-old beliefs with paradigm-shifting technologies such as sapient AI and human immortality. For the most part they succeed: no meme can survive centuries or millennia without being resilient enough to adapt.
In addition to larger religions, there are many smaller faiths – some of recent origin, such as the cybergnostic cults and Christian hyperevolutionists, others well established. Many are splinters of established religions, while others are secular philosophies with semi-religious overtones. Members of some new religions that engender fanatical faith and exercise high-level control over their membership are often pejoratively referred to as “cultists” or “memebots.”
Most major religions have an offworld presence. Luna tends to be more secular, but Mars has many believers; there are large Christian and Islamic groups, and many Taoists. For a time, China used the Red Planet as a safety valve for religious nonconformists. Mars boasts some of the system’s most impressive mosques and cathedrals (due to the low gravity).
Some believers go into space to escape what they see as memetic pollution created by the rise of a secularized machine society. Others leave Earth to escape real or perceived persecution for exotic beliefs or practices. Of course, many isolates stay Earthbound, using minifacturing and colonization technology to set up religious retreats in out-of-the-way locations such as Antarctica.
