Commander Shepard: Atheist?

[Daviso452]

I originally skipped over Mass effect 1, but went back and played it, and I learned that in the Mass effect universe, it appears to be the norm for humans to be atheist because of a reaction of Shepard's to a crewmate who believed in God.

It just seemed odd for a company to envision a future where those who believe in God are the minority. Personally, I feel it is an accurate idea, but I felt that most would consider the opposite. It also got me thinking whether other sci-fi characters were atheist, like doctor who, or Master Chief.

When you think about what society will be like in 500 years, do you see God playing as major a role as he does today? Do you see Less? More? And what do you imagine the religions themselves will be like?

 

[tree]

I would have to say that with my experience around other young people in my generation, mid-twenties and younger, that there are far more atheists or agnostics. Especially compared to our parent's generation. I would say that the rest that are religious are far less religious than earlier generations. For example their parents are the kind of Christians that go to church every Sunday, but they are Christians only in name and actually don't practice any form of organized religion.

So over time I think the trend of a secular godless society will only become more and more the reality.

 

[Zoe Doidge]

Star Trek is probably worth a mention here, plenty of different races and therefore different beliefs. Ranged from the Bajorian’s, whose religious beliefs were pretty much central to their culture, right up to the Borg Collective that just saw religious belief as one more component of individuality to suppress. The only human that comes to mind that could be said to be religious was Ben Sisko, but I don’t recall anyone on ST that followed a human religion of today.

Much the same in the Mass Effect universe, although Ashley believes in God we’re never told what religion (if any) she follows. She is initially worried that it’ll cause problems for her, which does suggest atheism is the norm for humans or at least the military. But there are other races (Asari, Drell, Hanar) who do have specific religious beliefs.

Atheism does seem to be a fairly common situation in sci-fi (at least with humans), and given the rise of atheism/agnosticism in recent decades I could sure see it happening.

A big problem for religions is adapting, even now we have mainstream religions that don’t accept evolution, gay people, formation of the earth, sex before marriage etc. If they update they have to reinterpret their holy texts and end up losing the more orthodox members, if they don’t the more liberal members abandon them. It’s a rock and a hard place situation.

 

[Erebus]

Atheism is quite common in sci-fi largely because the focus is on technology, aliens, space etc rather than anything spiritual. Religion can be difficult to tie in convincingly with the aesthetic of the genre. Prayer and ritual tends to look out of place next to lasers and space craft.
However in dystopian sci-fi you may have a religion as either a tool of corruption or a sign of the persecuted. Think of V for Vendetta for example (not entirely sci-fi but definitely dystopian) and consider the position of Christianity and Islam. Christianity is a feature of the twisted and corrupt government while Islam is persecuted and demonised.
I myself will typically avoid religion when I write sci-fi simply because there's already too much to try and fit into the story. You walk a knife edge with sci-fi, fantasy and to a degree horror, purely because you have to balance vivid description and atmosphere with brevity. It's not easy to create a distinct world without waffling and religion is often something that does little to add to the story (with the odd exception) yet requires a vast amount of explanation.

For an example of sci-fi in which religion, magic and deities feature heavily I recommend having a look at the background to Warhammer 40k. The main protagonists of the setting are fanatical zealots willing to burn anything and anybody who looks or believes differently from them. Yes, it's very much a dystopia

 

[Orias]

I originally skipped over Mass effect 1, but went back and played it, and I learned that in the Mass effect universe, it appears to be the norm for humans to be atheist because of a reaction of Shepard's to a crewmate who believed in God.

It just seemed odd for a company to envision a future where those who believe in God are the minority. Personally, I feel it is an accurate idea, but I felt that most would consider the opposite. It also got me thinking whether other sci-fi characters were atheist, like doctor who, or Master Chief.

When you think about what society will be like in 500 years, do you see God playing as major a role as he does today? Do you see Less? More? And what do you imagine the religions themselves will be like?

Well first off I would like to state that video games make great references for the future, people see ideas they like and then they incorporate them within their own ideas, thus leading to the desired future. Though again, the role they play is merely for entertainment, which I guess subjects "God" to your amusement.

However, assuming society can last another 500 years, I doubt the existence of "God" as most people would say it would be mainly wiped out. This can be observed simply because of the people that label themselves non-theist because of the Christian God (which can be associated with all others on occasion). Really though, it is common for people to deny one God and then seek to deny all others (even if they are completely different and used in non-literal ways) this is because man has a general need to label things as he sees fit (as the individual).

I think religions may become more synchronized, and by this I mean that they won't really be religions at all just communal expression. Religions are more of a "clan like" thing, which is why it would be more difficult for them to prevail in the near future assuming that humans can over come such territorial hostilities and self segregations.

All in all, I don't foresee a future, nor do I attempt to predict it, I simply strive to remain aware of now and how later is effected.

 

[Quintessence]

Ideas about power(s) greater than humanity will always play a central role in human philosophies. Humans will always be engaging in a search for purpose and meaning and how they fit into something larger than themselves. Whether it gets called "god" or "religion" or not is irrelevant. "God" can be defined any way one wants. If it ceases to be relevant, it is only as a semantical label for phenomena. These phenomena will be around long after humanity is extinct.

 

[Daviso452]

That ended faster than I thought it would

 

[connermt]

I originally skipped over Mass effect 1, but went back and played it, and I learned that in the Mass effect universe, it appears to be the norm for humans to be atheist because of a reaction of Shepard's to a crewmate who believed in God.

It just seemed odd for a company to envision a future where those who believe in God are the minority. Personally, I feel it is an accurate idea, but I felt that most would consider the opposite. It also got me thinking whether other sci-fi characters were atheist, like doctor who, or Master Chief.

When you think about what society will be like in 500 years, do you see God playing as major a role as he does today? Do you see Less? More? And what do you imagine the religions themselves will be like?

With the exception of a massive disaster/change of life event, the concept of god will likely never go away, though it will change as society evolves, just like it has over the past centuries.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Probably apathy of religions and theologies and philosophy etc in the future

 

[Sgloom]

the more recent battlestar galactica had some heavy religious themes, it was kinda interesting because most of the humans had a polytheistic religious base whereas the cylons were monotheistic from what i remember, its been awhile since i watched it, but the religious themes were very central to the plot

 

[idav]

As long as there are still unanswered questions and some mystery left in the universe, people will continue to be mystics. In the future we will become more isolated and the core answers may not be forthcoming.

 

[Carpenter Rabbi]

He might not be an atheist, but he's definitely a Canadian.

And judging by the growth rates of religions, if you mix deism, agnosticism, and atheism into one pot of "irreligion", then we're one of the fastest growing movements out there. Unlike (apparently) Christianity and Islam, most of us are converts rather than born into it. (Though they are growing faster than the birth rate would suggest.)

In any case, I can't see religion playing anywhere near the role it has in the past and present.

 

[Straw Dog]

I originally skipped over Mass effect 1, but went back and played it, and I learned that in the Mass effect universe, it appears to be the norm for humans to be atheist because of a reaction of Shepard's to a crewmate who believed in God.

Easy there. Remember you're controlling your Shepard and you can choose to say that you also believe in God so it's not necessarily the case for Shepard to be an atheist if you aren't.

Besides that, I do think the religions in the Mass Effect universe are interesting. The Drell are traditionally polytheists and the Asari are a kind of pantheist and some Humans are still monotheists, so there still seems to be some degree of diversity there.