I had what I thought was a fun idea for nations with the Atheism policy while I was out on a hike this morning - what if you got to have your own little French Revolution in the aftermath of the policy's passing? It's topic I've long enjoyed reading about - the germ of my nation's lore began with a Fanatic Materialist Stellaris nation - and I've acquainted myself with many of the peculiar practices that briefly arose before being washed away by history (and Napoleon) in the revolution's aftermath to better flesh out a believable history for my supremely secular nation. I believe that I have characterized this draft in a sufficiently distinct fashion to largely differentiate it from #1014, but if it appears to others that there may be too much overlap, I'll see what I can do to make it more unique. I hope everyone enjoys this good faith attempt at an issue having a little bit of good fun at the irrationality of rationality.
Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are always welcome! TITLE: Bad Religion
VALIDITY: Has Atheism policy
DESCRIPTION: In between body-racking sobs, your brother stammers out, "...and then my youngest, she—she asked me, 'Daddy, does God love me?' I don't know where she could have gotten such a sick notion in her head! We—you've got to find out who's corrupting the minds of our children and putting religious ideas like this in their heads, and put a stop to it!"
OPTION 1: "Look around! Look around," loudly proclaims radical futurist Umberto Broccoli. "Everywhere we see, our frescos and façades, the statues in our streets, the poems on our parchments, they all bear the indelible stain of religion and uphold the irrational! All your niece would have to have done is visit any gallery or public avenue to see pieces by the so-called 'great masters,' and the gods and old ruling order they upheld." Lighting a priceless Da Finci painting on fire, he roars, "It's time to abolish it all! Burn down the museums, smash their sculptures, sack the libraries filled with their archaic screeds - their stranglehold on the arts must be ended once and for all!"
OUTCOME 1: every record has been erased and every picture painted over
OPTION 2: "Ah, the sad truth is," muses the newly appointed National Philosopher Max Togaspierre, "she may well have learned such foolish notions from those who meant best for her; one of her instructors might well have asked her to recite the days of the week: Thor'sday, perhaps?" Loudly slapping an out of date calendar on the wall, he continues, "look, even the length of the week reflects some ancient creation myth! There should be a much more logical system of horology: base-ten perhaps? It's high time we expunge the sciences of every trace of the rotten remnants of religion!"
OUTCOME 2: the second day of the week has been renamed from Tuesday to Twosday
OPTION 3: Slamming his fist on a table, atheist hardliner Jakob Hubert begins a furious rant. "It's not the paintings of dead men or the postulations of some dead monk that are poisoning the minds of our children, it's the religious! The living, damnable religious! Even now they ferret their sickening tomes in secret places, and practice their wretched rites in the shadows! For all we know they could have left some putrid pamphlet that your niece stumbled across in public! We must turn the full surveillance capabilities of the state against this cancer. Every man, woman, or child we even suspect of harboring irrational belief should be brought in for 'interrogation,' and when we uncover some unsanctioned ceremony - public executions for the whole lot of them!"
OUTCOME 3: the guillotine's a-swingin' all night long
OPTION 4: A mysterious robed figure waves a dismissive hand, "the child is simple, she merely craves the comforts that religion once offered the people; community, structure, systemization of the world around them. We must offer our own enlightened alternative: secular and rational cults! We can take the old shuttered churches and cathedrals and appoint them our Temples of Reason! The streets will reverberate with mantras of supreme atheist logic! At every corner we will proclaim a euphoric new dogma of our truth and liberty!"
OUTCOME 4: soi-disant free-thinkers line up for their weekly sermons
