Differences

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--- religion [2026/02/13 13:04] – ultracomfy
+++ religion [2026/02/16 11:04] (current) – ultracomfy
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 A //Religion// is a type of [[Faith|faith]] that has, over time, become a fully fledged //system of worship//. A religion is the belief in something around which a spiritual structure has formed.
-Religions in the way I think of them come with four features:
+Religions in the way I think of them come with four or five features:
   * Head of Faith
   * Sins & Virtues
   * Doctrines
-  * Holy Scripture
+  * Tenets
+  * Holy Scripture (Optional)
-====== Head of Faith ======
+While a holy scripture is optional, a head of faith //does// always exist, even if the High God themselves is the head of faith. This list is almost exclusively inspired by the video game [[Crusader Kings 3]], specifically their avilable [[https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/Doctrines|Doctrines]] and [[https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/Tenet|Tenets]]. Go check them out, this page will make a lot more sense in front of this context.
+====== Structure ======
+===== Head of Faith =====
 Religions, as lived out by humans, are inherently "human", or "earthly" as they will call it. Most religions appoint, through one justification or another, a human //head of faith// who is in charge of leading the religion to some extent. The exact extent and the position granted to that person vary between religions, however.
@@ Line 24: / Line 28: @@
-====== Sins & Virtues ======
+===== Sins & Virtues =====
 Almost all religions come attached with social structures that are followed inside of them. This has weakened over the course of the enlightenment, but was a very significant factor in the past. Regardless, religions still teach these attitudes today and present a defining feature of each religion.
-====== Doctrines ======
+===== Doctrines =====
 To really define a religion and understand what the religion is like, it is very important to look at its doctrines. These are the main rules of the religion itself and determine how the religion works internally.
@@ Line 56: / Line 60: @@
 |:::|Cremation|From ashes we came, to ashes we return. The body of our deceased is disposed of in a great funeral pyre, and the resulting ashes are spread across the earth to continue the journey of the dead.|
 |:::|Sky Burials|The dead should not be imprisoned underground — it is far better to allowed them to be consumed by scavenging birds, where in a final act of generosity they can feed the world which fed them.|
-|:::|Mummification|The body has ceased to function, but it is still the vessel by which the spirit will journey to [afterlife name]. The physical form therefore must be as constant as the soul, awaiting the judgement of [High God].
+|:::|Mummification|The body has ceased to function, but it is still the vessel by which the spirit will journey to [afterlife name]. The physical form therefore must be as constant as the soul, awaiting the judgement of [High God].|
 |:::|Family Rites|Death is a period of mourning and ritual for those who live. Hierarchy and seniority matter as much in death as in life; it is important to venerate those more elderly even after their passing, and to be seen venerating in the correct ways.|
@@ Line 85: / Line 89: @@
 |:::|Disallowed|Becoming a priest means devoting one's life to the divine. It is inherently unfaithful to consider taking a mortal spouse in addition to that.|
-^ Special Doctrines ^ Text          ^
+===== Tenets =====
+While doctrines describe the order of a religion, tenets help describing their philosophical attitutes, ie. basically their "personalities".
+^ Tenet ^ Text          ^
 |Full Tolerance|Everyone is free to choose their own faith. Our differences do not divide us, they make us stronger. (All faiths are considered righteous.)|
-Multireligious Interweaving|Together we are bound not by a single faith, but by the many faiths that make up the religious fabric of our society. Though we may call ourselves different names and follow different paths, some from outside our own belief system have learned to coexist in our society as if they were one of us.|
+|Multireligious Interweaving|Together we are bound not by a single faith, but by the many faiths that make up the religious fabric of our society. Though we may call ourselves different names and follow different paths, some from outside our own belief system have learned to coexist in our society as if they were one of us.|
 |Naked Priests|Our priests know that clothes entrap the spirit and prevent us from achieving true enlightenment. Only by shedding our garbs can we awaken our souls and experience [High God]'s love.|
 |Rightful Rulers of the World|We are those who will usher in an era of peace and prosperity for all peoples. We are the rightful rulers of the world.|
@@ Line 133: / Line 140: @@
 |Pursuit of Knowledge|Those who are naturally endowed with knowledge from birth are the most superior. Those who seek out knowledge willingly come second. Those who are dull and do not seek to learn are the lowest of people.|
 |Pastoral Isolation|All we want is to be left alone. Our practices are our own, and no more the business of anyone else than theirs are of ours.|
+|Preservation|Creation, protection, transformation. Virtue is derived from construction, from building something and watch it prosper.|
+|Sacred Destruction|There can be no creation without destruction. For something new to begin something old must end.|
+|Sacrificial Ceremonies|Human sacrifice both voluntary and involuntary bring us closer to the divine. It is customary and virtuous for one to volunteer to sacrifice oneself in ceremony, just as it is virtuous to sacrifice those who have committed unforgivable crimes against the Gods.|
+|Sun Worship|The light-bringer, the live-giver, the ever-burning flame — It reigns high in the sky as the true sovereign of the world.|
+===== Holy Scripture =====
-====== Holy Scripture ======
 Many religions have central scriptures from which they potentially derive their authority or legitimacy. If not that, it can also just be the central rulebook of the religion.
+====== Analysis ======
+Throughout the analysis I will be using the words "Tenets" and "Doctrines" to describe religions because those have become the "correct" terms in my mind. Of course I've learned about a tenet like Asceticism before actually calling it a "Tenet", so even though I use those terms here does //not// mean that I haven't thought about religions before playing Crusader Kings 3. Crusader Kings only gave me a structure that I could use to better understand and categorize different religions.
+So, the first time I seriously thought about religions and their associated doctrines and tenets are two things:\\
+\\
+. How incredibly arbitrary! If you ever ask for a justification for their doctrines/tenets, you will never get a proper response. It's either "because I feel so" or "because a book says so" or "because [High God] says so" or something to that effect. It's all circular. Individuals, ie. adherents of a religion, might actually try to justify their belief in a doctrine/tenet, giving you some attempt at a [[deontology|deontological]] explanation for why their faith correctly considers some things as either right or wrong. However, the religion itself - as opposed to individual adherents - won't even go as far as to try to justify its doctrines/tenets deontologically. It will always point to someone or something else, and that something else always happens to be [[Verifiability|unverifiable]].
+\\
+\\
+. How incredibly replaceable! There are so many doctrines and tenets in there that would be //reasonable//, but many of them are mutually exclusive. Nobody here could ever be possibly be right or wrong, yet most religions have the Righteous doctrine. This is contradictory by definition. Logically, you could quite literally just use this list to make up any kind of religion and it would be equally as valid as every other... and that's basically how it is, no? For any combination of these doctrines and tenets, odds are a religion exists matching or closely matching your choices. By defining themselves in the way that they do, religions make themselves obsolete.
+And this is really all the observations you need to go forward with your life. Until any one religion can prove any of its big claims (most crucially, that their god actually exists), this is just playing teams with your favorite celebrities.