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- Jul 18, 2017
*excerpt from "on religions", primary text of theological training in the American Citizens Federation, circa 2600's"
....As the strength of the Christian Church waned in the latter years of the 20th century due to the enlightenments need to rationalize all beliefs a spiritual void began to form in western society. As is now known, a human mind without some form of spiritual foundation is a house built on sand. It will inevitably collapse into Nihilism. But for the men and women of this era, the collapse of traditional spirituality was seen as a liberating force and the void of negative spirituality that had formed in their minds was seen as somehow revolutionary and a promise to replace it with something "better".
For a time an attempt was made to fill this void with esoteric foreign religions. Buddhism, Pre-Christian Paganism, African and Native American tribal shamanism, among many others. Yet all these practices also failed to answer the questions posed by the hyper rational enlightenment that had so decisevly prevailed in the centuries leading up to the mid 20th century.
And so a new religion began to emerge from the Enlightenment itself. It formed in much the same way all the ancient religions formed. An attempt to give form to forces beyond the comprehension of the Lay person. Though instead of Thor or Zeus being the cause of the Lightening, these forces while divine in nature lacked any of the basic humanity these old and dead gods possessed. The results were predictable but shall be explored in another chapter. For now we shall introduce you to the "Gods" of this new pantheon that became increasingly codified in the early 21st century prior to the fall.
"The God's of the Enlightenment".
THE MARKET- Goddess of Fate and Fortune, Queen of the God's
The Market was the divine personification of overly complicated economic forces that effected every day people. From whether or not they could feed their children to whether or not they would survive disease and calamity. Politicians and Heads of State in this era would routinely attempt to divine the Will of The Market in order to determine if a chosen public policy was good or bad. The Priests of The Market would routinely preach publicly and oftentimes omens of woe or blessing were divined prior to any decisions by government being made. Much like the Chinese Emperors of more ancient ages with their mandate of Heaven, western leaders found themselves shackled to the will of The Market. With their rule often cut short if The Market deemed them unfit.
THE SCIENCE- God of Knowlege and King of the God's.
If ever the Enlightenment had a divine King, it would be "The Science" for it was "The Science" who slew the One God at the start of the 20th century and assumed the rod of dominion over the earth. At least according to the proclamations of thought leaders in this age. For knowledge is what had freed man from so much suffering. And it was knowledge that ended baseless superstition.
While leaders of men would look to The Market for good omens of their works, it was The Science they turned to for authority for their authority came from The Science and all had to obey. Much like Zeus on mount Olympus, or the One God in his Heaven, the will of The Science was often hard to divine. Indeed it came to be believed that understanding of The Science would require years if not decades of intensive religious training before true knowledge of this God of Knowledge could be obtained. Over time a priestly caste emerged who guarded this rite of passage jealously, requiring ever increasing tithes to gain theological positions within the Temple of The Science. Worse, political leaders discovered Priests of The Science were more then happy to say whatever they wanted them too. For a price.
This corruption is believed by the eminent 23rd century historian Robert Cassius to be a major contributing factor to the Fall. For while belief in The Science could have been a good for humanity if handled more properly, it was instead handled with all the grace of the Catholic Church following the publication of Martin Luther's thesis'.
THE EXPERTS- Messenger of the God's.
We now come to the first among the second order of deities below the King and Queen. It is a common mistake to confuse "An Expert" with "The Experts". An Expert was the name for one of the late Enlightenment era Priests, for they too in their small way were emissaries of the God's that existed to preach their divine will to the masses. The Experts on the other hand was the divine personification of the whole priestly caste.
In more base terms political leaders often viewed it as presumptuous to claim that The Science or The Market decided to speak to them directly. As if such divine personages would ever. Further they could not simply act on the proclamations of a single priest. And so they would often pray to The Experts himself to act as an intermediary between himself with The Science and The Market. If their actions were acceptable to the doctrines of the faith it would be proclaimed throughout the land that "The Experts Agree". While none of the people hearing such proclamations would interact with The Experts, it was common belief of the time that if it was said "The experts agree" then whatever was being done was truly the will of The Science and The Market
Jesus-God of Mercy and Peace
It is important to note that the Jesus of the Enlightenment pantheon has little in common with the pre-enlightenment Christian God, though he did share a name and similar attributes. In the mythos, when The Science slew the One God, who was Jesus' father, the Enlightenment Jesus chose to embrace those aspects of himself that better comported to the new age. Namely forgiveness for all transgressions and desire for peace at all costs.
In practice the Enlightenment Jesus was used as a salve for more traditional elements of Western society in much the same way the early Christian Church came up with the idea of Saints. Saints were used to play to the familiarity of former pagans used to a wide pantheon of God's covering all aspects of human life. It was as always, a pressure valve meant to make the adjustment easier and in this way the Enlightenment Jesus made it easier to facilitate worship of The Science and The Market.
THE MEDIA- Goddess of Culture, Art and Chaos
The Media is an interesting divinity in the Pantheon because she was both happy ally to The Science and The Market and at the same time also their enemy. This duality of nature was often confusing, and in that respect she was a perfect personification for a confusing time.
Men of this age both hated and loved The Media, and often on the streets people would loudly condemn her for all the woes she caused. Yet all would keep shrines to her in their living rooms and dutifully attend to her rituals. This dichotomy would play out among her Priests as well, where Priests of The Media would loudly condemn their own Goddess, or more specifically, Priests of The Media not part of their own monastic order.
With the advent of the Internet, The Media gained great following among the masses, and eventually worship of The Media began to surpass even worship of The Science and The Market. Efforts by their Priests were made in the early 21st century to coopt the Priests of The Media, but this was a grave error. For the Goddess held the aspect of Chaos and above all else reveled in suffering because it was suffering that drove "ratings", The Media's metric for divinity. Historians looking back now often attribute Media worship as the greatest contributor to the Fall.
THE EARTH -Goddess of Nature
The Earth was the Enlightenment eras nature Goddess, the giver of life. According to the religious teachings of the time she was ever threatened by the forces of evil. In many respects she was a primordial deity, for among The Sciences duties as King of the God's was to protect The Earth. This often led to marital strife with his wife The Market and mythological texts of this era are replete with stories of conflict between The Market and The Earth.
In more practical terms the Enlightenment unleashed powerful scientific and economic forces that greatly destabilized the planetary ecosystem. By the early 21st centuries fears of ecological collapse led to almost paranoid delusions about the immediacy of The Earth's wrath. It was among the followers of this Goddess that true Nihilism took full root. They came to believe humanity was itself the enemy to be fought. The Media took great delight in these beliefs, seeing them as a way to generate further ratings.
Now that we have gone over the primary God's of the late Enlightenment, it is time we discuss how the steady corruption of the priestly caste and the growing Nihilism within the Earth cult that contributed to the seminal pre-fall incident that began in Central china....
....As the strength of the Christian Church waned in the latter years of the 20th century due to the enlightenments need to rationalize all beliefs a spiritual void began to form in western society. As is now known, a human mind without some form of spiritual foundation is a house built on sand. It will inevitably collapse into Nihilism. But for the men and women of this era, the collapse of traditional spirituality was seen as a liberating force and the void of negative spirituality that had formed in their minds was seen as somehow revolutionary and a promise to replace it with something "better".
For a time an attempt was made to fill this void with esoteric foreign religions. Buddhism, Pre-Christian Paganism, African and Native American tribal shamanism, among many others. Yet all these practices also failed to answer the questions posed by the hyper rational enlightenment that had so decisevly prevailed in the centuries leading up to the mid 20th century.
And so a new religion began to emerge from the Enlightenment itself. It formed in much the same way all the ancient religions formed. An attempt to give form to forces beyond the comprehension of the Lay person. Though instead of Thor or Zeus being the cause of the Lightening, these forces while divine in nature lacked any of the basic humanity these old and dead gods possessed. The results were predictable but shall be explored in another chapter. For now we shall introduce you to the "Gods" of this new pantheon that became increasingly codified in the early 21st century prior to the fall.
"The God's of the Enlightenment".
THE MARKET- Goddess of Fate and Fortune, Queen of the God's
The Market was the divine personification of overly complicated economic forces that effected every day people. From whether or not they could feed their children to whether or not they would survive disease and calamity. Politicians and Heads of State in this era would routinely attempt to divine the Will of The Market in order to determine if a chosen public policy was good or bad. The Priests of The Market would routinely preach publicly and oftentimes omens of woe or blessing were divined prior to any decisions by government being made. Much like the Chinese Emperors of more ancient ages with their mandate of Heaven, western leaders found themselves shackled to the will of The Market. With their rule often cut short if The Market deemed them unfit.
THE SCIENCE- God of Knowlege and King of the God's.
If ever the Enlightenment had a divine King, it would be "The Science" for it was "The Science" who slew the One God at the start of the 20th century and assumed the rod of dominion over the earth. At least according to the proclamations of thought leaders in this age. For knowledge is what had freed man from so much suffering. And it was knowledge that ended baseless superstition.
While leaders of men would look to The Market for good omens of their works, it was The Science they turned to for authority for their authority came from The Science and all had to obey. Much like Zeus on mount Olympus, or the One God in his Heaven, the will of The Science was often hard to divine. Indeed it came to be believed that understanding of The Science would require years if not decades of intensive religious training before true knowledge of this God of Knowledge could be obtained. Over time a priestly caste emerged who guarded this rite of passage jealously, requiring ever increasing tithes to gain theological positions within the Temple of The Science. Worse, political leaders discovered Priests of The Science were more then happy to say whatever they wanted them too. For a price.
This corruption is believed by the eminent 23rd century historian Robert Cassius to be a major contributing factor to the Fall. For while belief in The Science could have been a good for humanity if handled more properly, it was instead handled with all the grace of the Catholic Church following the publication of Martin Luther's thesis'.
THE EXPERTS- Messenger of the God's.
We now come to the first among the second order of deities below the King and Queen. It is a common mistake to confuse "An Expert" with "The Experts". An Expert was the name for one of the late Enlightenment era Priests, for they too in their small way were emissaries of the God's that existed to preach their divine will to the masses. The Experts on the other hand was the divine personification of the whole priestly caste.
In more base terms political leaders often viewed it as presumptuous to claim that The Science or The Market decided to speak to them directly. As if such divine personages would ever. Further they could not simply act on the proclamations of a single priest. And so they would often pray to The Experts himself to act as an intermediary between himself with The Science and The Market. If their actions were acceptable to the doctrines of the faith it would be proclaimed throughout the land that "The Experts Agree". While none of the people hearing such proclamations would interact with The Experts, it was common belief of the time that if it was said "The experts agree" then whatever was being done was truly the will of The Science and The Market
Jesus-God of Mercy and Peace
It is important to note that the Jesus of the Enlightenment pantheon has little in common with the pre-enlightenment Christian God, though he did share a name and similar attributes. In the mythos, when The Science slew the One God, who was Jesus' father, the Enlightenment Jesus chose to embrace those aspects of himself that better comported to the new age. Namely forgiveness for all transgressions and desire for peace at all costs.
In practice the Enlightenment Jesus was used as a salve for more traditional elements of Western society in much the same way the early Christian Church came up with the idea of Saints. Saints were used to play to the familiarity of former pagans used to a wide pantheon of God's covering all aspects of human life. It was as always, a pressure valve meant to make the adjustment easier and in this way the Enlightenment Jesus made it easier to facilitate worship of The Science and The Market.
THE MEDIA- Goddess of Culture, Art and Chaos
The Media is an interesting divinity in the Pantheon because she was both happy ally to The Science and The Market and at the same time also their enemy. This duality of nature was often confusing, and in that respect she was a perfect personification for a confusing time.
Men of this age both hated and loved The Media, and often on the streets people would loudly condemn her for all the woes she caused. Yet all would keep shrines to her in their living rooms and dutifully attend to her rituals. This dichotomy would play out among her Priests as well, where Priests of The Media would loudly condemn their own Goddess, or more specifically, Priests of The Media not part of their own monastic order.
With the advent of the Internet, The Media gained great following among the masses, and eventually worship of The Media began to surpass even worship of The Science and The Market. Efforts by their Priests were made in the early 21st century to coopt the Priests of The Media, but this was a grave error. For the Goddess held the aspect of Chaos and above all else reveled in suffering because it was suffering that drove "ratings", The Media's metric for divinity. Historians looking back now often attribute Media worship as the greatest contributor to the Fall.
THE EARTH -Goddess of Nature
The Earth was the Enlightenment eras nature Goddess, the giver of life. According to the religious teachings of the time she was ever threatened by the forces of evil. In many respects she was a primordial deity, for among The Sciences duties as King of the God's was to protect The Earth. This often led to marital strife with his wife The Market and mythological texts of this era are replete with stories of conflict between The Market and The Earth.
In more practical terms the Enlightenment unleashed powerful scientific and economic forces that greatly destabilized the planetary ecosystem. By the early 21st centuries fears of ecological collapse led to almost paranoid delusions about the immediacy of The Earth's wrath. It was among the followers of this Goddess that true Nihilism took full root. They came to believe humanity was itself the enemy to be fought. The Media took great delight in these beliefs, seeing them as a way to generate further ratings.
Now that we have gone over the primary God's of the late Enlightenment, it is time we discuss how the steady corruption of the priestly caste and the growing Nihilism within the Earth cult that contributed to the seminal pre-fall incident that began in Central china....
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