58 réponses à ce sujet

[Johnny Chaos]

I know there are acouple of references to the bible in Mass Effect and didn't Legion take his name from the book of Matthew but anyway I'm curious what humans believe, I know someone made a comment "Humans can't decide on their own religion." ans I know alot of people believe aliens helped guide civilization.  I'm not trying to start a religious debate, just curious. 

[mellifera]

The same as now? Whichever religion an individual chooses to believe in. There's no universal Earth religion.

[AdmiralCheez]

I was going to reply, but yukidama nailed it.

[GodWood]

This was a pretty silly question.

[Sinapus]

Cmdr. Jeffrey Sinclair:
[shaking hands or bowing or giving the appropriate
gesture] This is Mr. Harris. He's an atheist. Father Cresanti, a
Roman Catholic. Mr. Hayakawa, a Zen Buddhist. Mr. Rashid, a Moslem. Mr.
Rosenthal, an Orthodox Jew. Running Elk, of the Oglala Sioux faith.
Father Papapoulous, a Greek Orthodox. Ogigi-ko, of the Ebo tribe.
Machukiak, y Yupik Eskimo. Sawa, of the Jivaro tribe. Isnakuma, a Bantu.
Ms. Chang, a Taoist. Mr. Blacksmith, an aborigine. Ms. Yamamoto, a
Shinto. Ms. Naijo, a Maori. Mr. Gold, a Hindu. Ms....

Modifié par Sinapus, 06 décembre 2010 - 06:14 .

[SSV Enterprise]

There are several Biblical references and allusions in Mass Effect, actually. The most blatant one is Legion's name, but there are more subtle ones. Commander Shepard dies and comes back, and has 12 followers? Obvious connection there, if you think about it. Sidonis in Garrus' loyalty mission can be seen as a parallel to Judas, although Garrus takes a diametrically different approach than Jesus: "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" (another Biblical allusion).

As for the thread question: Mass Effect is right, in that there is not one dominant world religion. Overall the religion with the most "believers" is Christianity, though many within Christianity would disagree just what constitutes belief in Christ. The runner up is Islam. However, neither holds a majority, so neither can be pinned down as the faith of humans.

EDIT: @Sinapus:  Nice reference. What I especially like about that quote is that it implies that atheism is itself a belief, rather than simply being the absence of belief.  To say there is no God requires just as much faith as saying that there is a God.

Modifié par SSV Enterprise, 06 décembre 2010 - 06:25 .

[Alexine]

I think in the Mass Effect universe, humans are follow a diversity of religions, but there are no set ones, or dominating one.

It is interesting, however, that we haven't seen any humans follow any alien religions. But then again, it would probably be difficult to flesh out in detail.

[GodWood]

I seriously doubt the game's alleged biblical allusions are intentional, they're just common plot elements.

[Northern Sun]

The only head-on discussion of religion I've seen in the series is Ashely's talk about her belief and a passage from the first book talking about how discovering the Prothean ruins severely damaged established religions and caused many new religions to spring up.



Ashley's hesitance in admitting her belief and asking if Shep "has a problem with it" implies to me that atheism/agnosticism is more widespread than it is today.

[Sinapus]

SSV Enterprise wrote...
EDIT: @Sinapus:  Nice reference. What I especially like about that quote is that it implies that atheism is itself a belief, rather than simply being the absence of belief.  To say there is no God requires just as much faith as saying that there is a God.

JMS is an atheist. After the episode first aired he wrote that putting the atheist in first (and making him the snappier dresser) was just a coincidence. Really. That's his story and he's sticking to it.

 

[aeetos21]

well, when you look it up in the codex under how humanity changed when they discovered they weren't the only species in that galaxy (after the prothean discovery on mars) it was a mixed bag really. starting from the most extreme a lot of religions simply chose to ignore the entire existence of the proof - even when we fought the turians - they chose to turn inward and really stick their heads in the ground refusing to believe the cold hard evidence that not all their teachings were true: ie. God made humans in his own image for example



other religions recognized that yes, okay, some of our teachings got a little off but hey there's still a lot of room left for faith. these faiths generally splintered into different sects with each one having their own separate way of thinking but generally all still believing that so and so is their savior or demigod or whatever.



still others literally couldn't cope with the new existence of alien species at all and their heads literally exploded and those religions went the way of the dinosaur.



and of course people of all faiths kinda said "screw this none of you know what you're talking about" and either went aetheist or they actually took up alien religions like the asari's "embrace eternity" or whatever. i find it interesting that many turians took up humanity's own zen buddhism/confuciansim.



anyway thats about it in a nutshell and why Ash was a little nervois when explaining to Shepard that she's a devout christian or whatever

[PrinceLionheart]

Well it's already been covered, but yeah, there is no dominant religion among Humans. That one Asari on Illium even references by saying Humans can't even decide on a single religion.



If I recall, there was a codex entry on a lot of humans having a "Crisis of Faith" after discovery of the Mass Effect Relays.

[NovaZero]

Or not. The idea is, above all, that humanity is supposed to be EXTREMELY diverse. You'll get your fanatics, your ARYANS are now Terra Firma (don't say otherwise -- I'm just messing around), your Christians will likely have some other big way of hauling people in with their adaptive book of god (they've always done it), your Buddhists are still Buddhists but now you got a few Turians to tend to your monasteries...



Heck, the idea that even today people believe in god despite our advances in science and understanding of physics should give you an indication that religion will still be widespread. I think Mordin even states something about religion and a civilization's culture.



Still, Ashley's hesitance just paints a picture... it's like she said, most people look at her weird probably because anyone that actually gets out of the house and flies around in a space ship will probably have a very different view from some reclusive colonist or a resident from earth. And the "Enkindlers" tick off all the markers for how a religion would look like -- rubbish, full of belief but firm belief despite the evidence.



Bottom line? Religion stays the same.

[Bourne Endeavor]

SSV Enterprise wrote...

There are several Biblical references and allusions in Mass Effect, actually. The most blatant one is Legion's name, but there are more subtle ones. Commander Shepard dies and comes back, and has 12 followers? Obvious connection there, if you think about it. Sidonis in Garrus' loyalty mission can be seen as a parallel to Judas, although Garrus takes a diametrically different approach than Jesus: "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" (another Biblical allusion).

As for the thread question: Mass Effect is right, in that there is not one dominant world religion. Overall the religion with the most "believers" is Christianity, though many within Christianity would disagree just what constitutes belief in Christ. The runner up is Islam. However, neither holds a majority, so neither can be pinned down as the faith of humans.

EDIT: @Sinapus: Nice reference. {smilie} What I especially like about that quote is that it implies that atheism is itself a belief, rather than simply being the absence of belief. To say there is no God requires just as much faith as saying that there is a God.

Mass Effect is full of biblical references. The Lazarus Project itself is likely reference to Lazarus of Bethany who is restored to life by Jesus Christ after four days.

Modifié par Bourne Endeavor, 06 décembre 2010 - 05:41 .

[Cerberus Operative Ashley Williams]

Bourne Endeavor wrote...

Mass Effect is full of biblical references. The Lazarus Project itself is likely reference to Lazarus of Bethany who is restored to life by Jesus Christ after four days.

Yes there are quite a few.

Another one is Eden Prime. The humans have characterized it as "paradise." This is obviously alluding to the Garden of Eden.

[Badpie]

There are definitely references to the Bible. That's for sure. I don't necessarily think that's an indication of the game being overtly Christian, etc. (not that anyone was saying it was), but more of a "here's a book of way cool stories that we could apply to this universe" maybe.

[SSV Enterprise]

aeetos21 wrote...

anyway thats about it in a nutshell and why Ash was a little nervois when explaining to Shepard that she's a devout christian or whatever

I appreciated the attempt to make Ashley look like a reasonable theist, but I was disappointed that BioWare didn't have the balls to specifically name her beliefs.  Shepard's "atheist in a foxhole" comment angers atheists plenty already; why not go all the way and label Ash a Christian, or Muslim, or whatever else?

[CaptainZaysh]

SSV Enterprise wrote...
EDIT: @Sinapus:  Nice reference. What I especially like about that quote is that it implies that atheism is itself a belief, rather than simply being the absence of belief.  To say there is no God requires just as much faith as saying that there is a God.

And to say there is no Flying Spaghetti Monster requires just as much faith as saying that there is a Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Modifié par CaptainZaysh, 07 décembre 2010 - 11:26 .

[Ulathar]

Sinapus wrote...

Cmdr. Jeffrey Sinclair:
[shaking hands or bowing or giving the appropriate
gesture] This is Mr. Harris. He's an atheist. Father Cresanti, a
Roman Catholic. Mr. Hayakawa, a Zen Buddhist. Mr. Rashid, a Moslem. Mr.
Rosenthal, an Orthodox Jew. Running Elk, of the Oglala Sioux faith.
Father Papapoulous, a Greek Orthodox. Ogigi-ko, of the Ebo tribe.
Machukiak, y Yupik Eskimo. Sawa, of the Jivaro tribe. Isnakuma, a Bantu.
Ms. Chang, a Taoist. Mr. Blacksmith, an aborigine. Ms. Yamamoto, a
Shinto. Ms. Naijo, a Maori. Mr. Gold, a Hindu. Ms....

omg, that was actually the first thing that came to my mind when reading the thread title. Such an awesome scene.

[Jedi Master of Orion]

I know it's a fool's hope but I'd like to think this topic will stay on target rather than turn into a debate on religion and belief in general.

Anyway, as far as the demographics in Mass Effect universe go. I imagine most if not all the religions that exist today still exist in the Mass Effect universe. Ashley says that she's met peopled who are weirded out by her faith so presumably there are somewhat more irreligious people too. I think it's kind of unrealistic to imagine there will ever be only one belief anyway.

Although, given the level of backlash that Ashley sometimes gets just for having a fairly generic belief in God, it's not exactly surprisingly Bioware didn't specify. And probably for the best too.

The thing is though, it struck me as kind of a little stupid for that Asari mentioned earlier to say that because according to the Codex (and some of the other characters too I think) that Asari can't have figured out one universal belief for their species either. They have more than one system aswell.

Modifié par Jedi Master of Orion, 07 décembre 2010 - 12:12 .

[Kronner]

By 2185? Hopefully none.

[JediMB]

Atheism seems to be dominant in Mass Effect, and as far as traditional religions go... their scriptures probably aren't as strictly followed or interpreted as they can be today.

SSV Enterprise wrote...

EDIT: @Sinapus:  Nice reference. What I especially like about that quote is that it implies that atheism is itself a belief, rather than simply being the absence of belief.  To say there is no God requires just as much faith as saying that there is a God.

Atheism is not a belief. It's rejection of belief in gods, and related concepts.

Usually due to insufficient or nonexistent verifiable evidence.

Modifié par JediMB, 07 décembre 2010 - 12:16 .

[aeetos21]

I like the Turian philosophy when it comes to this: believe what you want to believe as long as it doesn't effect your job.

[Grand Admiral Wong]

Its as per JMS from Babylon 5 said. For humanity, the sheer diversity of religion is by itself unique. Whereas the other alien races tend to be more streamlined in general belief, meaning that most Asari have a somewhat monotheistic Goddess combined with universal love which is aligned with Ba Hai, Buddhism or even christianity, or the Salarians belief in the wheel of life, said by Mordin to be similar to Hinduism, for humanity, there is NO dominant religion. Hell even today there is no dominant religion although I like to think that its either Christianity or Islam.



There's no guarantee Atheism is the main belief of most of humanity. We only have a few human characters to judge by, Ashley, Kaidan, Miranda and Jacob. Zaeed and Kasumi we can't exactly talk to them so its hard to get their perspective. But its easy to think most humans in Mass Effect are atheists, judging that Ashley is the only one who ever raised the subject.



then again, as mentioned in the Codex, some Turians have even embraced some Earth religions such as Zen Buddhism. Which means to say there are still active practitioners of Earth religions. I doubt Turians visited Earth and got converted, so its more likely that when humans started settling down in the Citadel, they brought their religions to it. Wouldn't surprise me. If the Hanar have Enkindlers on the citadel, whose to say there isn't a church, mosque or temple somewhere on the Citadel?



So to conclude, I believe most of the religions of Earth is still around, its just that none of them are so dominant that its obvious to the alien community what humanity in general believes. As far as the galactic community is concerned, Humans are dangerous/strong precisely because of their diversity.