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[massive_effect]

The C-Sec officer, Baily, joked about sending him a Christmas card. The reason I think this is cool is that most science fiction posits that Christianity will die out. Since Christianity has only grown over 2000 years, it makes sense that it would last another two hundred.

(Please don't turn this into a religious war topic. This is just an observation of a rarity in sci-fi.)

[ImperialOperative]

Christmas isn't a purely christian celebration, especially now that it's more of a consumer event than anything else.

[massive_effect]

ImperialOperative wrote...

Christmas isn't a purely christian celebration, especially now that it's more of a consumer event than anything else.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ for me.

[Kid_SixXx]

I don't think that Sci-Fi posits the death of spirtuality, rather it posits the death of the "intelligent design" aspects of Christianity being accepted as fact.



As well it should be given all of the physical evidence to the contrary.



Sentient beings seem to have an inherent need to believe in something beyond themselves and even sci-fi that seems to embrace the harder sciences has some aspects of spirituality to them, especially cyberpunk.



Even belief in the absense of God is arguably faith based since it is important to your philosophical well being that there is no cosmic father figure keeping track of your lapses in morality.

[keginkc]

I don't think it's a big surprise. I always considered Ashley to be a Christian in the first game, although as I recall she only mentioned "God" in a vague sense.



To be honest, I've often wondered if that's part of the reason I don't like her.

[Kid_SixXx]

Heh. People always try to link Ashley's xenophobia to her faith when there are plenty of reasons to be wary of the Council races that have nothing to do with Christianity.

[Big_Stupid_Jelly]

In the Mass Effect universe, for all intents and purposes, even though they aren't any such thing, the Reapers would classify as an all-powerful entity ie. GOD.

Edit: Hopefully with all the bounty that the Mass Relays brought, some of the religious clap trap could be done away with, such as 'man' in God's image. It's hard to look at a Volus and think that isn't it.

Modifié par Big_Stupid_Jelly, 26 février 2010 - 06:54 .

[keginkc]

Kid_SixXx wrote...

Heh. People always try to link Ashley's xenophobia to her faith when there are plenty of reasons to be wary of the Council races that have nothing to do with Christianity.

I thought her xenophobia stemmed from her family history.  I never thought it had anything to do with her faith. 

I should probably clarify that when I mentioned I didn't like her, I meant I wasn't interested in her as a love interest.  Christians are fine and dandy in a general sense, I'm just not interested in becoming romantically involved with someone whose views are so different from my own.  Not because I think they're wrong in any way - big fan of people believing whatever the hell they want - but because I believe that, in the end, conflict would always ensue.  Same reason I don't see myself dating either a staunch conservative or hardcore liberal.  Space gypsies in enviro-suits and blue-skinned women are more my style.

[obie191970]

massive_effect wrote...

ImperialOperative wrote...

Christmas isn't a purely christian celebration, especially now that it's more of a consumer event than anything else.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ for me.

You're in the minority here.  And going back through history, almost every culture has some sort of celebration for the Winter Solstice, so there still being one in the 22nd century is not surprising.  I obviously don't know the intent of the writer, but saying I'll send you a Christmas card. was probably easier than I'll send you a "Made up 22nd Century holiday with associated Codex entry" card.

[keginkc]

One of the coolest things was the Cerberus Network posting about Valentine's Day and how it was spreading across the galaxy, especially with the Asari and Volus.



Which is ironic, because I hate Valentine's Day with a passion.

[Big_Stupid_Jelly]

keginkc wrote...

One of the coolest things was the Cerberus Network posting about Valentine's Day and how it was spreading across the galaxy, especially with the Asari and Volus.

Which is ironic, because I hate Valentine's Day with a passion.

Just think of all those arrogant Asari being ripped off, by buying roses and chocolates at dramatically inflated prices!!

Modifié par Big_Stupid_Jelly, 26 février 2010 - 07:03 .

[Goth Skunk]

In the first ME book, where Captain Anderson goes on his mission with Saren, the topic of religion is briefly touched upon.

I'm paraphrasing here, but basically it was written that after the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars and the knowledge that was found there, there was a major shake-up on Earth and religions started seeing their congregations disappearing in droves. The Prothean ruins proved at the very least that if Humanity isn't alone, they certainly weren't the first to explore space. The First Contact War further escalated the turning away from Religion as a source of guidance.

Religion isn't dead in the Mass Effect universe, but it no longer is as influential on people as it was in the past.

Having said that, the celebrations of things like Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc would likely continue to happen even in the complete absence of religion and spirituality, if only for the sake of tradition. Whether you're Christian or not, Christmas is treated even amongst atheists as a time for the family to get together and celebrate that togetherness. Never let it be said that merriment ought be justified.

Modifié par Goth Skunk, 26 février 2010 - 07:13 .

[Aisynia]

Kid_SixXx wrote...

Heh. People always try to link Ashley's xenophobia to her faith when there are plenty of reasons to be wary of the Council races that have nothing to do with Christianity.

And plenty of reasons NOT to be xenophobic BECAUSE of it.

[Big_Stupid_Jelly]

Goth Skunk wrote...

In the first ME book, where Captain Anderson goes on his mission with Saren, the topic of religion is briefly touched upon.

I'm paraphrasing here, but basically it was written that after the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars and the knowledge that was found there, there was a major shake-up on Earth and religions started seeing their congregations disappearing in droves. The Prothean ruins proved at the very least that if Humanity isn't alone, they certainly weren't the first to explore space. The First Contact War further escalated the turning away from Religion as a source of guidance.

Religion isn't dead in the Mass Effect universe, but it no longer is as influential on people as it was in the past.

Having said that, the celebrations of things like Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc would likely continue to happen even in the complete absence of religion and spirituality, if only for the sake of tradition. Whether you're Christian or not, Christmas is treated even amongst atheists as a time for the family to get together and celebrate that togetherness. Never let it be said that merriment ought be justified.

Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are now just parodies of themselves, personally I could do without the lot of them and the only detriment to me would be the lack of holidays for easter and xmas.

[Harbinger of your Destiny]

churches still exist you hear one of the cerberus guys somewhere say that they married in a church.

[Big_Stupid_Jelly]

Harbinger of your Destiny wrote...

churches still exist you hear one of the cerberus guys somewhere say that they married in a church.

Maybe it had nice architecture?

You don't knock down churches because religion has died, or almost died, their still architectural marvels in their own right.

[Aisynia]

Goth Skunk wrote...

In the first ME book, where Captain Anderson goes on his mission with Saren, the topic of religion is briefly touched upon.

I'm paraphrasing here, but basically it was written that after the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars and the knowledge that was found there, there was a major shake-up on Earth and religions started seeing their congregations disappearing in droves. The Prothean ruins proved at the very least that if Humanity isn't alone, they certainly weren't the first to explore space. The First Contact War further escalated the turning away from Religion as a source of guidance.

Religion isn't dead in the Mass Effect universe, but it no longer is as influential on people as it was in the past.

Having said that, the celebrations of things like Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc would likely continue to happen even in the complete absence of religion and spirituality, if only for the sake of tradition. Whether you're Christian or not, Christmas is treated even amongst atheists as a time for the family to get together and celebrate that togetherness. Never let it be said that merriment ought be justified.

I shook my head at that personally. I'm not saying it wouldn't happen on some scale, but that's just not giving peoples' faith enough credit.

With science, you seek the truth.

With religion and spirituality, you start with the truth.

Someone truly faithful isn't going to automatically abandon a lifetime of faith because we make contact with aliens. Crisis of faith? Very possible, but automatically assuming a majority of people, of ANY religion, are going to abandon their beliefs is arrogant.

I would wager that MOST modern christians, myself included, believe in evolution and the big bang and that the idea of God goes far beyond, as that Cerberus officer said in the IFF mission, "an old man with magical powers".

Anyways, gonna hitch a ride out of this thread now. I like it when religious and non-religious people can have a civil discourse without arguing or trying to force their beliefs on others, like this thread has shown thus far, but I'm not counting on it staying that way. By all means prove me wrong..

Oh and one last thing. I think the biggest missed opportunity in ME2 was exploring the ramifications of being DEAD for TWO YEARS and coming back to life. Religious or not, that's a big deal, and a lot of philisophical questions would come up for a lot of people. Shepard just goes "wut 2 years? wow." like twice maybe and then forgets about it.

[Big_Stupid_Jelly]

MrHimuraChan wrote...

massive_effect wrote...

ImperialOperative wrote...

Christmas isn't a purely christian celebration, especially now that it's more of a consumer event than anything else.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ for me.

For me too, but ask some children the meaning of christmas and many of them will say "Birth of Santa Claus". For me is still a religious celebration, but i must admit, it's also the most "money making" event in the year.:innocent:

The problem is it isn't the Birthday of Jesus, if he existed. The only reason you have it there is so it replaced the Pagan festival.

Modifié par Big_Stupid_Jelly, 26 février 2010 - 07:24 .

[massive_effect]

There was a point when science was mixed with faith. Science slowly separated from faith after hard lessons in the Catholic Church. But, today we see a resurgence in faith-based-science. The faith, however, is global warming and evolution theory.



Science should remain striclty empirical. In other words, science will never prove or disprove God's existance. That's why we have faith.

[Aedan_Cousland]

Human religions that exist today still exist in the ME universe. For example it is mentioned in one of the codex entries that after contact with humanity, Confucianism and  Zen Buddhism became popular on Turian worlds, since they had a lot in common with Turian philosophy. It is also likely that Christmas is celebrated in the Mass Effect universe much like it is today, and is both a religious and a secular holiday depending on how someone observes it.

What is never mentioned (as far as I know) but must surely be going on, is whether any alien religions or cults have become popular on human worlds. I would imagine that Asari beliefs about a godess would be popular with some humans, especially feminists, neo-hippies, and New Agers.

Modifié par Aedan_Cousland, 26 février 2010 - 07:29 .

[Big_Stupid_Jelly]

Aisynia wrote...

Goth Skunk wrote...

In the first ME book, where Captain Anderson goes on his mission with Saren, the topic of religion is briefly touched upon.

I'm paraphrasing here, but basically it was written that after the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars and the knowledge that was found there, there was a major shake-up on Earth and religions started seeing their congregations disappearing in droves. The Prothean ruins proved at the very least that if Humanity isn't alone, they certainly weren't the first to explore space. The First Contact War further escalated the turning away from Religion as a source of guidance.

Religion isn't dead in the Mass Effect universe, but it no longer is as influential on people as it was in the past.

Having said that, the celebrations of things like Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc would likely continue to happen even in the complete absence of religion and spirituality, if only for the sake of tradition. Whether you're Christian or not, Christmas is treated even amongst atheists as a time for the family to get together and celebrate that togetherness. Never let it be said that merriment ought be justified.

I shook my head at that personally. I'm not saying it wouldn't happen on some scale, but that's just not giving peoples' faith enough credit.

With science, you seek the truth.

With religion and spirituality, you start with the truth.

Someone truly faithful isn't going to automatically abandon a lifetime of faith because we make contact with aliens. Crisis of faith? Very possible, but automatically assuming a majority of people, of ANY religion, are going to abandon their beliefs is arrogant.

I would wager that MOST modern christians, myself included, believe in evolution and the big bang and that the idea of God goes far beyond, as that Cerberus officer said in the IFF mission, "an old man with magical powers".

Anyways, gonna hitch a ride out of this thread now. I like it when religious and non-religious people can have a civil discourse without arguing or trying to force their beliefs on others, like this thread has shown thus far, but I'm not counting on it staying that way. By all means prove me wrong..

Oh and one last thing. I think the biggest missed opportunity in ME2 was exploring the ramifications of being DEAD for TWO YEARS and coming back to life. Religious or not, that's a big deal, and a lot of philisophical questions would come up for a lot of people. Shepard just goes "wut 2 years? wow." like twice maybe and then forgets about it.

I'd have to question your logic when you say "Religion starts with the truth".

Also as far as I can tell if your neurons in your brain are intact in some form, and the tech exists to sort the rest of your body out, why not? After all your brain is essentially 'you'. If the synapses and neurons can be 're-energises', what we think of as ourselves would return, hence the questioning at the start to ascertain memory and persona etc.

[massive_effect]

MrHimuraChan wrote...

massive_effect wrote...

ImperialOperative wrote...

Christmas isn't a purely christian celebration, especially now that it's more of a consumer event than anything else.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ for me.

For me too, but ask some children the meaning of christmas and many of them will say "Birth of Santa Claus". For me is still a religious celebration, but i must admit, it's also the most "money making" event in the year.:innocent:

There's nothing wrong with making money. Loving money is bad, however. Also, it is the time when people give the most.

[Big_Stupid_Jelly]

massive_effect wrote...

There was a point when science was mixed with faith. Science slowly separated from faith after hard lessons in the Catholic Church. But, today we see a resurgence in faith-based-science. The faith, however, is global warming and evolution theory.

Science should remain striclty empirical. In other words, science will never prove or disprove God's existance. That's why we have faith.

Nearly there. The faith remains as global warming, evolution is a definite, and as you're probably aware a scientific theory is more cast iron than a fact.

Now before I'm jumped on you can be environmentally conscious, without buying into Global Warming.

[Big_Stupid_Jelly]

massive_effect wrote...

There was a point when science was mixed with faith. Science slowly separated from faith after hard lessons in the Catholic Church. But, today we see a resurgence in faith-based-science. The faith, however, is global warming and evolution theory.

Science should remain striclty empirical. In other words, science will never prove or disprove God's existance. That's why we have faith.

Nearly there. The faith remains as global warming, evolution is a definite, and as you're probably aware a scientific theory is more cast iron that a fact.

Now before I'm jumped on you can be environmentally conscious, without buying into Global Warming.