OpenGeofiction
Hello everyone,
I’ve got a difficult question. As you all know, there are churches and other religion buildings in our OGF world. But I was always thinking: what text is (for example) in the bible in this world? Cause, there is no Israel in our world. Does someone know the answer, or are there no rules made up about this here?
Greetings, Niels20020
Discussion
Comment from histor on 26 February 2016 at 14:22
You do not see on a map, what is spoken in a church.
You can draw synagogues, but you must not have a state like Israel (as in reality til 1947).
I do not know, if Mazan is an islamic land - may be? And in some other countries some other religions may exist - more or less so, as in reality.
You can draw churches or other “place of worship” as a symbol of tolerance to different religions without the exact definition, what a certain religion says in the real world. In your world you made this definition.
Comment from niels20020 on 26 February 2016 at 14:26
Okay, I understand. I just always thought of this when I was building churches and other religious buildings
Comment from Ūdilugbulgidħū on 26 February 2016 at 16:24
I’ve had a few thoughts about this in the past. If it’s any help, this is basically how I see it: all religious cultures and practices, whatever their spiritual or philosophical origin, are ethnically derived and related, because they come from a particular real world culture or individual. Does real world ethnicity exist in OGF? Do real world individuals exist in OGF? If they don’t, then real world religions shouldn’t exist either, on the map or on the wiki. So the text for a Bible or a Quran might exist, but the names of the places and the individuals in the text would be different. Would ‘la Biblia’ be called ‘la Biblia’? - that is what I don’t know, but if your country’s language is Spanish then I suppose it makes sense that the Spanish word is used too. Where is the ‘Holy Land’ la Tierra Santa referred to in this ‘Biblia’? That I think has not been decided yet. It is not easy to know.
Comment from Pawl on 26 February 2016 at 19:20
There was quite a long discussion about religion here, although I don’t think anything was settled for sure.
I’m referring to “Christicism” as the equivalent of Christianity, and using its symbolism etc, while avoiding specifics of doctrine, origins and scripture. I think it would be good to have an agreed framework for this and other religions, since they have played such an important part in history.
Comment from clik on 26 February 2016 at 20:51
I don’t really know what to think about it.. Eganian religion is a kind of Christianity.
Central TA027 (a future large metropolis on the strait of Abren) is more or less planned to become a holy land.
Comment from Ernestpkirby on 27 February 2016 at 02:11
With Freedemia and Woolonia I have continued to use Christianity but I just minimize references to specifics. I honestly would feel a little uneasy about making/using a parody of my religion. However, considering the fact I don’t throw it in people’s faces and it’s there in a respectful manner, I’ve never had any issues. As a whole in news articles and such I usually use phrasing like “God-centered community” and such just to minimize direct references.
Comment from Luciano on 27 February 2016 at 03:01
Religion in OGF is a difficult topic, as it is in the real world.
In response to Ernestbcosby, I would only add that “parody” of one’s religion isn’t the only option. Reflective allegory is another way someone of committed religion can work in geofiction without replicating the “real world’s” religions. Great geoficticians of the past, such as JRR Tolkien (Middle Earth) and CS Lewis (Narnia, Malecandra/Perelandra, etc.), were also committed Christians who chose to reflect (mirror) their religions through allegory in their fiction.
For my own part, I have created some “parallel” religions in Ardisphere (Ortholic = Catholic, Gautamic = Buddhist, Amicus = Quaker, etc.) as well as more original alternate-world religions such as Derakassy in Mahhal or the Altazorian Shamanic religion(s) in the Ardisphere.
The one thing that we have recommended to users in the past is that there be some degree of separation between one’s “real world” commitments and the commitments of one’s countries and characters in OGF. Without that separation, it is too easy to become too invested in specifics, and feelings can get hurt.
Put another way, if you’re going to have religious conflict in OGF, great! In my own case, religion is quite important: the Ardisphere is full of religious conflict, and Mahhal is, of course, a theocracy. But please “fictionalize” that conflict to some degree, so real-world feelings don’t get hurt. One good way to do that is through parody, but allegory is perhaps the more meaningful approach.
Comment from bhj867 on 27 February 2016 at 03:52
I had this pretty concrete plan about the catholic religion in Pretany, but it never panned out because there were too many conflicting religions from around the globe to create a cohesive story. language is another very complicated matter in the opengeofiction world. It took months of hashing out language before we came up with a mostly cohesive story with a few outliers here and there.
Comment from niels20020 on 27 February 2016 at 09:19
Wow, this is very complicated, hehe. Maybe we should write some wiki articles about the religions, so everyone can see what is the other name and how the religions are different in our world…
Comment from Myrcia on 27 February 2016 at 12:06
In Myrcia I’ve used Christicism as a fairly direct OGF version of Christianity. The ‘Kirk’ (church) in Myrcia is essentially Christic but with a major pagan influence relating to the land and the seasons. I’ve also begun to place ‘Séftenhús’ (Quiet House) places of worship in my neighbourhoods which are similar to the Quakers but again with more of a pagan influence.
Being a self-contained island makes it somewhat easier to work with religion. There are Christic settlers in history from Ingerland but Myrcia has been independent from a very early time and has a very strong national ‘pagan’ identity.
Comment from Rasmus Rasmusson on 27 February 2016 at 20:51
Religion normally doesn’t interest me much both in the fictional and the real world (I couldn’t care less if our reality was created by a bearded lady or the accidental byproduct of a devine school project), but for my fictonal countries mostly I try to come up with someting new. For Řots there’s a tetratheism and for Wyster… it will come one day :)