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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 Doctrines and 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.

Name	Text	Meaning
God Ruler	/	The chosen head of faith is considered god themselves and has full executive control over the religion. Their will is the will of the religion.
Spiritual	The physical world and the spiritual world are not alike. We must ensure the spiritual world has it's own leader, to guide us and to protect our faith from being profaned by physical desires.	The head of faith is a medium to the spiritual. Their word is what god told them, so they have near-executive control over the religion. This is only constrained by how much the religion allows its believers to stray from official doctrine.
Temporal	The spiritual and the physical are intrinsically bound together, whole and inseparable. It is foolish to have two different leaders for one realm.	The head of faith does not act in any official capacity of the high god and merely manages human affairs on earth. They take care of human interests on earth (ie. they might administer churches or holy sites), but have no say over the religion.
None	It is utter folly to assume that any one person can truly comprehend the will of [High God]. We must follow our own hearts to discover what their plan for us is.	God themselves is the leader. While god might commune with individuals, individuals do not speak for god and gain no extra significance within the religion. The hierarchical structure of this religion has two levels: God, and everyone else.

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

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.

Category	Name	Text
Theism	Monotheist	Only one god is worshipped. Other so-called 'gods' are at best empty idols, and at worst attempts by some malign deceiver to tempt the faithful away from proper worship of [High God].
Theism	Polytheist	The cosmos is full of powerful deities and spirits. There may be a set of gods established in a clear pantheon, but it may be that the spiritual world is uncountable, pervades everything around us, and does not even have named gods.
View on Gender	Male Dominated	Men are stronger and better equipped to lead us in this harsh and unforgiving world, so we shall entrust them with governing our society.
	Equal	It is foolish to deny skilled people a role in government purely because of their gender. We shall allow all who are able to govern our society.
	Female Dominated	Women have proven time and time again that only they have the wisdom and prudence necessary to properly govern our society.
Religious Attitude	Fundamentalist	Our faith is the one true faith, our word the one true word. Any deviation from the [Religious Text] is inherently blasphemous.
	Righteous	As mortals we cannot fully comprehend [High God]'s will, but our priests still have a pretty good idea of what is holy and what is profane.
	Pluralist	It is utter folly to say that there is only one right interpretation of divine will, and that all the others views are wrong. Each of us has our own way of worshiping [High God].
Pilgrimage Attitude	Forbidden	The presence of [High God] can be felt everywhere and the notion that certain places are more divine than others is nothing short of heresy.
	Encouraged	This faith encourages its members to visit earthly locations deemed to be of spiritual significance as a means of demonstrating reverence for [High God].
	Mandatory	It is expected that all able-bodied adherents complete a spiritual journey to a holy place as soon as they are able. Failing to do so represents a failure to submit oneself to [High God].
	Local Rites	Adherents of this faith prefer the comfort and stability of routine rites at local shrines over the hazards and strain of lengthy pilgrimages.
Marriage	Monogamous	Marriage is a sacred bond between two individuals. Attempting to form such a bond with multiple people at once is sacrilege.
	Polygamous	Since marriage is a holy union, having multiple marriages is clearly more holy than having just a single marriage — so long as each marriage is holy in and of itself.
	Consorts & Concubines	Marriage is a sacred bond, but as long as their spouse takes priority one may be permitted to have concubines or consorts to engage with as well.
Divorce	Always Allowed	Marriage is merely a partnership between two people, and like all partnerships, can be ended at will.
	Must be Approved	While the bonds of marriage should not be taken lightly, extenuating circumstances can sometimes make divorce a necessity.¹⁾
	Disallowed	The vows of marriage are final and binding. Only death may do us part.
Bastardry	No Bastards	Blood determines lineage, not marriage. Children born out of wedlock are just as legitimate as any other.
	Legitimization	Marriage is holy, so children born outside of it must be blessed in another way if they are to be considered legitimate.
	No Legitimization	The bonds of marriage are sacrosanct, and children born outside of wedlock will always be illegitimate.
Funerary Tradition	Stoic Burial	The body has died, but the soul lives on. Death is not a time for grief and lamentation, but rather a funeral is to honor the dead by committing their body to the earth in a quiet, humble ceremony.
	Bewailing Funeral	The soul has begun its long journey to [afterlife name] and we will never see them again in the living world. It is imperative that all who knew the dead gather and offer their grief in a public show of bewailment. This both honors the dead and cleanses our souls of the grief felt by their departure.
	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].
	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.

Crime	Doctrine	Text
Same-Sex Relations	Crime	The sinful desires of sodomites are a danger to society itself, so they shall be punished and locked away for their transgressions.
	Shunned	It is unnatural for two men to engage in sexual relations with one another, regardless of the circumstances.
	Accepted	Love transcends physicality into something so profound and wondrous that it cannot be restricted by mere gender.
Adultery²⁾	Crime	It is a crime for one to engage in intercourse outside of marriage, and they shall be punished accordingly.
	Shunned	It is sinful for one to engage in intercourse outside of marriage, but like all sins it is the divine who must judge them for their failings.
	Accepted	There is nothing inherently wrong about a one deciding to engage in intercourse outside of marriage, so the decision is theirs alone.
Deviancy	Crime	It is clear that there is only one proper way to love another. Any deviations from that form are sinful and should be punished.
	Shunned	There are some sexual practices which are simply abnormal and strange. It stands to reason that people with those desires are equally abnormal and strange.
	Accepted	Love is beautiful and sacred, no matter the form it takes. Everyone should be permitted to love and do as thou wilt.
	Virtuous	The pleasures of the flesh bring us closer to the divine, and thus those who are unshackled by conventional desires are the height of virtue in our faith.
Witchcraft	Crime	Only the divine have the right to work miracles on this earth. Any who make profane attempts to do the same shall be punished for their hubris and arrogance.
	Shunned	The divine have the rightful jurisdiction over supernatural forces in this world, so any attempt to coerce those forces into obeying a mortal's will is inherently misguided.
	Accepted	Magic fills the world around us, and it is our right and our privilege to engage with it the way our ancestors did.
	Virtuous	To practice witchcraft is to put one's own soul in danger from evil spirits. For their bravery in this necessary aspect of keeping our own souls clean, witches are to be venerated.

Clerical Doctrine	Doctrine	Text
Clerical Function	Control	The priest derives its authority from the divine, and that still applies here on Earth.
	Alms & Pacification	Our priests are entrusted with ensuring that the poor and downtrodden have sufficient food and shelter when they can not provide it for themselves.
	Recruitment	Every able-bodied person has a duty to take up arms and defend our faith, and it is the responsibility of our priests to remind everyone of this.
Clerical Gender	Only Men	Only men can shoulder the great responsibility of serving as priests of our faith.
	Either	Anyone who has felt the call of the divine should be able to serve as a priest, no matter their gender.
	Only Women	Only women are wise enough interpret the divine will and serve as priestesses of our faith.
Clerical Marriage	Allowed	Marriage is a holy institution, and priests should be able to take part in it just like any other faithful adherent.
Clerical Marriage	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.

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.
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.
Adaptive	Dogmatic adherence to old restrictions only harms the faithful. As long as we stay true to the core beliefs of our faith, we may adapt our laws to the world around us.
Asceticism	Materialistic pursuits blind us to the divine truth. Only by devoting ourselves to live simple lives without luxury can we achieve spiritual enlightenment.
Carnal Exaltation	The pleasures of the flesh are sublime in a way that transcends other earthly experiences, bringing us closer to the divine. We should glorify our sexual desires and seek out opportunities for us to fulfill them.
Communal Identity	Our faith and our culture are intrinsically linked together. This practice strengthens the bonds of our community, though it tends to exclude foreigners.
Communal Possessions	[High God] intended for us all an equal share of the resources on earth. We should hold all things in common, and re-distribute the stolen wealth of the powerful.
Communion	Our rituals are not merely symbolic — they invoke the very presence of the divine itself. Those who cannot or do not join us in their practice cannot be true believers.
Exaltation of Pain	Pain is the universal emotion, violence the universal language. To bestow pain upon another is to give them a blessing, so receive pain one's self is to receive grace.
Gnosticism	Through knowledge, the divine spark that rests inside all humans may be liberated and returned to its heavenly source in the spirit-realm.
Legalism	Our laws are the result of generations of wisdom and devoutness, and adhering to them is by its very nature pious. A sinner, no matter who, will never be above the law.
Literalism	Our holy texts clearly state divine intent, and human interpretation is of limited value.
Mind Without Mind	The mind that is mindless is the mind that has achieved true mindfulness. A state cultivated by artists, craftsmen and martial artists, where the body responds to all challenges without thought.
Monasticism	The pleasures of fine food and drink only serve to distract us from service to the divine. Isolating ourselves in remote monasteries is the best way to avoid these temptations.
Natural Primitivism	Civilization is unnatural, a futile and blasphemous attempt by man to impose order on an inherently unordered creation. We embrace naturism and live as god intended, wild and free.
Polyamory	Our love for each other should be as unconditional as [High God/Fertility God]'s love for us. We must cast away the outdated notions of one person owning the affections of another.
Pursuit of Power	What is and is not righteous is transient, defined by those who currently hold power. This means that the pursuit of power is the only truly righteous cause.
Religious Law	The border between theological and legal arguments is thin, and spiritual qualities can and should be considered in secular settlements.
Ritual Cannibalism	Mankind is blessed to have been bestowed with the spark of the divine. Human flesh is therefore sacred, its presence something to be savored, not buried or burned.
Ritual Celebrations	The worship of the divine is something to be exalted in and shared with our community. Organizing great festivals to honor and praise the divine brings us all together.
Sacred Childbirth	The bathhouses where mothers give birth must be cleansed and prepared with the proper rituals, in order to encourage the divine to grant us their blessing during childbirth.
Sacred Lies	Lying is the most profound art in existence. Those who can convince others of their lie are holy. Those who can successfully lie to themselves are unstoppable.
Sacred Mountains	High away from villages and farms, mountains touch the very clouds above. It is there, among the peaks and crags, that the sacred can be truly found.
Sacred Murder	When ordinary warfare will not avail, it is our duty before [High God] to destroy their enemies through infiltration and deception. We must fear neither death nor pain, and eagerly lay down our lives for the greater cause.
Sanctioned False Conversions³⁾	If your life is threatened, it is acceptable to confess a false faith, as long as you keep the truth in your heart.
Sanctity of Nature	The natural world is the creation of the divine, and we are merely guests in it. We must respect and honor every tree, every animal, and even the ground itself.
Unrelenting Faith	Our convictions are strong, and we will gladly fight and die for our faith. No matter how badly the odds are stacked against us, we shall not surrender.
Vows of Poverty	Money corrupts the hearts of men and pushes them away from the true faith. We must shun the acquisition of material wealth if we are to focus on what really matters.
Adorcism	The spirits of the world can do great works of both good and evil. By honoring and respecting them we can only hope that they will do their good to us and their evil to our foes.
Aniconism	The worship of graven images has blinded far too many to the divine truth. We will cast all icons out of our holy places so that our faithful will not fall into that trap.
Bhakti	Mortals cannot live up to the full glory of the divine, but by selecting a single aspect of divinity to emulate, worship and devote oneself to, we can come closer to them than otherwise would be possible.
Dharmic Pacifism	We are all part of the cosmic order. Violence against anything is violence against everything, oneself included.
Hedonistic	The divine filled this world with a bounty of pleasures for us to indulge in and enjoy — to not partake of such things is to snub the very work of creation itself.
Human Sacrifice	The best way to prove our devotion is through the act of sacrifice. The most valuable sacrifice we can offer is the sacrifice of human life.
Pacifism	Violence is an abhorrent act that only leads to suffering, pain and regret. By working to avoid it whenever possible we can build stronger, more secure societies for the faithful to live in.
Reincarnation	We have lived many lives before this one, and will continue to live many lives after it. Every death is only the beginning of something new.
Ritual Hospitality	Hospitality is one of the greatest virtues mankind can exhibit. Guests in our home, be they mortal or divine, should always be treated with the utmost honor and respect.
Ritual Suicide	When we grow old or sick, we perform a ritual to cleanse our soul of sins. Once that is done, we quickly and definitively end our lives, so that sins do not have the opportunity to infest us once more.
Inner Journey	Only by understanding one's self can we understand the world. The journey of self-discovery is important as it is long and difficult.
Gruesome Festivals	We are all born in blood. We survive by the blood of our livestock, our family, our foes. It is only natural that the gods demand their fair share.
Benevolent Governance	Those who govern over the masses have a moral duty to promote that which is good and abjure that which is evil. It is only by adhering to this principle that a ruler may truly be just.
Filial Piety	Filial piety and obedience to one's elders are fundamental to the actualization of human goodness. When our parents are alive, we serve them with propriety; when they die, we bury them with propriety, and then worship them with propriety.
Harmonious Society	Everything must be balanced: individuals, nature, society. The [High God] sets the tempo and we follow his chant.
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

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:

1. 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 to justify their belief in a doctrine/tenet, giving you some attempt at a 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 unverifiable.

2. 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.

¹⁾

In religions with a gender preference, this is often used to make divorce harder or impossible for the party of the not-preferred gender.

²⁾

In religions with a gender preference, the preferred gender will typically be favored in this. They will often only get shunned instead of being considered a criminal.

³⁾

“Spiritual Warfare”

Ramblings

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