[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Religions in freeciv?

["Daniel Speyer" <Daniel_Speyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Two thoughts, I'm not really sure where the ideas first came up, so I'm
not quoting back.

First, the "enlightenment" period is just how Europe happened to progress
-- there's nothing fundamental about it.  Many ancient nations (e.g. Rome,
Ghana) had official gods but didn't interfere with other religions (Ghana
even allowed in Muslim missionaries who came peacefully).  China in some
dynasties (Yuan I think, and others) had a complete seperation of church
and state; in other dynasties it enforced confucianism.  Most arab nations
allowed general freedom of religion but now enforce extreme theocratic law
(I know that's not technically a change, but as history actually happened,
it was).  So the role, governmental status, and self-description of
religion can change, but there's no consistant pattern to it.

Second, if each nation normally has a mixture of religions and the player
doesn't control them, then somehow the server has to model what conditions
will encourage what religions to gain converts.  Does famine encourage
Christianity?  Do libraries aid Confucianism?  Does war encourage
Buddhism? or discourage it?  The history of unpersecuted religion is weird
(e.g. Buddhism gained few converts in India but quickly dominated
indochina) and I doubt that *anybody* really understands it.  Trying to
simulate it with any realism is essentially putting it under a randomizer,
which really isn't fair.

I think that just as you can control the placement of workers, the goal of
scientest, and city productions in Anarchy, you should be able to control
the distribution of religions.  Sort of like the tax/research/luxury, you
can divide your population among as many religions as have been developed.
 Sure governments can't do that, but you're not the government; you're the
nation (I think).

my US$.02 (.04?)
--Daniel Speyer
"May the /src be with you, always"