As you saw from my previous post, Sid Meier’s Civilization and it’s progeny are among my all time favorite video games. Interestingly enough, religion plays a role in these games and it is a role that mirrors our modern secular outlook. That is to say religion is portrayed as a superstition that was useful at one time to government in controlling populations and is superseded as knowledge and democracy make it obsolete. It is fascinating to me that in Civilization II, Fundamentalism became a persistent political form that makes all citizens “contented,” but halves science output. In the game Civilization religion shows a progression from primitive religion to polytheism, monotheism, and finally nothing (secularism). Is this consistent with the history of religion? (continue reading…)