Ijad Atheists

[Grass4hopper]

Do they exist? Could they realistically exist in the current time?

I understand that Ijad culture is heavily revolved about their core beliefs.

There are human atheists from human cultures that center(ed) strongly (currently or in the past) around the major human religions. While humans and Ijad are different species with different physiology and psychology, it seems that some Ijad could eventually become atheists.

That would be interesting to see how Ijad would act if they stopped believe their core beliefs.

[Soren]

Short reply because I'm headed out the door:

[gusindor]

In humans, you often can't tell someone's religion unless you ask them. Except for the ones who get all up in your face about it, but they don't count. The point is, someone's religion doesn't normally have that big an effect on their behavior. Their values, morals etc. might have religious origins, but in the end it's independent of religion.

Ijad are able to think for themselves, so at least occasionally there must be some who question their religion. Whether their society accepts that is another matter entirely, and probably depends on the specific tribe of Ijad.

[mraichelson]

[Grass4hopper]

[Soren]

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Religion is a cultural institution that might include a requirement of its adherents to declare a belief. Many do not. The Ijad religion has no real center; it's a set of mythologies that more-or-less agree, along with a varieties of systems of ethics that have obvious common cultural ancestors. Whether or not they believe in God — remember, God for them is a giant eyeball in the sky — is only a little interesting, and is certainly waaaay down the list of things that are interesting about a religion.

Nowhere in any discussion of the Ijad have I mentioned that they have a fetish for declarations of belief. They have a mythology and a set of ethics. They interact with them in complex ways, like all humans do with all religions. Some of them are xenophobic whackjobs (Armored-Of-God, I'm looking at you) that use their religion as an excuse for their behavior. Others laugh at superstitions, while unintentionally following through on the values that their mythology has communicated to them. While others spend too much time studying planetary dynamics to believe that what is obviously a gas giant is actually a god that has a personal interest in their moral decisions.

They still don't like taking orders from people they don't know, of course. It would just be wrong.