TPoP: Religion and magic

[adalger]

In building a culturally rich (or at least non-flat) world, it's important to think about the role of religion in it. After all, religion is a hugely important factor in our real world, even to those millions of people who don't have one of their own. People are always trying to sell them one, or infect them with one, or what-have-you. And often, people with or without a religion have to wade through someone else's to get to any of the places they go on a regular basis.

In my TPoP setting, mystical religions have fallen by the wayside. It's difficult to claim your prophet's miracles are a sign of Godly favor, after all, when the average freshman in Applied Magic can duplicate most miraculous feats, with hardly any preparation at all. Those few magicians who did long ago manage to found religions have since been thoroughly discredited as the charlatans they were. They are now followed only by a handful of fanatics, zealots, and small-minded extremists who "hold to the old ways." Don't forget about them, though. Religious extremists are a fringe that can always be whipped into a froth by the lash of hate.

There are also some enclaves who don't condone the rampant use of magic, or in some cases any human use at all. They prefer the fruits of physical science and the human intellect. Some think the ease of magic corrupts us to laziness, some think magic is the power of evil, and some think magic is for God and we humans should keep our ... wands or whatever off of it. Whatever the inspiration, they choose to use only electric / mechanical / chemical / mundane devices and power sources. They are often mocked by the mainstream, but these sorts of enclaves almost universally demonstrate great dignity and humility.

Current religions do, of course, differ widely over cosmology, and even hold a variety of attitudes toward magic. However, the pervasiveness of modern magic ensures that any religion that disapproves too strongly of magic will be relegated to "wacko" status in the "civilized world."

What does this put onto the TODO list? Develop at least two or three fairly complete religions; create some cultures in codependent relationships with those religions; start working on some secular philosophy concurrent with the stages of religious development. In case it slipped past anyone's radar, I'm already fairly sure I'm going to have a group borrowing from Amish culture but translating the Amish attitude toward technology into my group's attitude toward magic. I don't suppose I have any Amish readers to help me get it right?

Up next: cosmology (in hard science). I promise.

Comments

[holyschist]

I'd recommend David Kline's Scratching the Woodchuck as a really lovely book that offers some insight into one Amish farmer's life. He was drafted for Vietnam and so spent some time working in (iirc) a hospital in a city, and he edits a farming magazine, plus obviously his books have been published with modern technology. There's a lot of variation and nuance. I heard him speak at an event once, and one of the things he said was that it wasn't so much about the technology itself but about how technology can separate people from other people. I don't know how typical that take on it is, but it's an interesting way to look at it.

[adalger]

That sounds pretty consistent with what I remember, which is that "labor saving" is insufficient reason. The characterizations could range from laziness to dehumanization, but the common theme was that machinery and technology should only be used for good purposes that are unobtainable without them. Thus, it's easy enough to get water into your kitchen without putting in pipes. Circulating a magazine profitably ... needs a powered printing press at the very least. Thus, while the water tower and pipe system is just laziness, and the ATM is greedy dehumanization, the press at the publisher's is equipment that can be put to good use to achieve worthwhile goals that would otherwise remain impossible.

I'll check my local library system for Kline, to supplement my understanding. Thanks for the feedback!

[holyschist]

There's some more stuff about Kline here (he uses a battery-powered word processor to write), second article down:

http://www.keybridgeltd.com/mennonot/issue5.htm

There are some really interesting possibilities for the outlook of your magic-resisters.