Atheism

**Atheism** is the absence of any belief in the supernatural, or the refusal to accept any and all such beliefs.

## In the Rabydosverse

### Second Age

The Anevondir Empire was an atheistic civilisation. It banned all forms of religion and spiritual belief to rebel against the Celestial Empire, although its armies venerated an immortal jellyfish as their symbol.

Before the Fifth Age, there was also another atheistic civilisation that thrived at the western part of the Galaxy. Although they did not have any temples or deities to invoke, they were masters in sorcery, to the point that their interstellar fleets were powered by a magical force as a backup fuel. This civilisation of atheists was a strong ally of the Londurilli humans, and together they fought the demons and monsters that infested the far western edge of the Galaxy.

### Sixteenth Age

During the later Sixteenth Age, atheists in the Gauvajut Empire were banished to the Eastern Enclaves over a few activists desecrating temples. The Gauvajut government also branded and condemned all atheists as "traitors" over these desecrators, accusing them of treason and service with Red Ardesch. Meanwhile, the Socialist Republic of Ardesch was officially an atheist state, and during the reign of the Anti-Theists its armies went to war with other countries to forcibly eradicate all forms of spirituality to build its proposed world state. Even then, many atheists in those times often declared that they were not associated with Red Ardesch, either because they were disgusted by its brutality and cruelty, or to avoid persecution from being accused of treason to Red Ardesch.

Black Ardesch, a nation that rebelled against the Ardeschen Empire and Red Ardesch, was one of several atheist countries during the Sixteenth Age. To celebrate their "freedom from the gods", the pirates of Black Ardesch desecrated and plundered temples and committed countless blasphemies, leading to worsening attitudes towards atheists in other countries. In spite of their atheism, the Black Ardeschen sometimes practiced sorcery to exact their vengeance on the Ardeschen empires; likewise, the Red Ardeschis also experimented with sorcery to bring ruin to their enemies. The Black Ardeschen did not see sorcery, or the harnessing of magical energies, as an invocation to some deity, but simply as a superweapon right in their very fingertips. They planned that in their world state, magic would had also be used as a fuel source for their technology.

Because atheism was often associated with Red Ardesch and some of the Terran armies, the Denlotia prohibited atheism within all of its member states. Like monotheism, atheism was erroneously stereotyped as something that made a person more hateful against society and everyone around them.

Ironically, the founder of the Denlotia never actually worshipped the gods, but only pretended to worship them. He was filled with hatred of all the gods, blaming them for allowing every misfortune in his sad life. He created the Denlotia initially to protect cultures and religions, but his progressive influences were done out of hatred of what the gods and all religions had done to his world. It was all nothing but revenge, even though it was meant to free his world from every form of corruption, no matter whether the gods were honoured by that or not.

### Elsewhere

As atheism is the refusal to worship or believe in any deity (or the lack of belief), therefore it was branded as a heresy under the Igarin Empire. They were also blamed for the actions of the Fifty-Six, the ancient nations of Gausari that waged its third global war under three anti-theist alliances, to the point that the dreaded numbers 56 and 58 were associated with them. Suspected atheists were not only killed as sacrifices to the sun god Faneson or as war criminals, but were also depicted as worshippers of Neelo, the masked god of division. Even though the atheists of the Galaxy never worshipped Neelo, they sometimes used him as a symbol of resistance against the Faneson cult.

There were some exceptions to the imperial ban on atheism - certain militant groups, descended from exiled Terran humans, were permitted to settle in the empire to wage war on the empire's enemies. Over time, their attempts to erase religion had less to do with atheism and more to do with vengeance, and preparing for war against Jerde's people for exiling them.

On the other hand, atheism is sometimes described as "fighting without a shield" or "wearing no armour". Without any gods to help them, atheists are sometimes seen with admiration as more braver than other people, or mocked as more foolhardy in such a dangerous Galaxy filled with warlords and devouring deities.

In many Galactic polytheistic religions, what one believes in does not necessarily determine where his or her spirit goes after they die. What is more important is what they do in life, usually by the good and evil that they do, which determines whether they can go to Paradise or Heaven, or descend into Hell. That would be another reason why atheists are sometimes praised: without caring about what will happen to them after they die, the good they do would become more sincere and pleasing to the Gods. Such raw good would not doom them to Hell, as expected by their enemies, but instead earn them a place with their loved ones in Paradise.

Some legends even had atheistic warriors instead ending up in Valhalla for their unparalled courage and ferocity.

### Nandegakkovian atheism

Nandegakko is well-known throughout the Galaxy for being one of a few societies that are openly atheist (instead of being secular), causing many other people there to treat it as "weird". In spite of its stereotypes, Nandegakko's people preserved many historical documents and traditions (that became bloodless) that were otherwise destroyed as "heresies" by the Igarin Empire. Among the reasons for atheism becoming a part of Nandegakko's distinct culture include: disappointment that the gods never intervened to save people from disasters, the cruelty of the Igarin state cult's deities, and their homeworld being a prison colony for atheists during Igarin rule.

In place of sacred texts, its founding president Kurita composed the Krazacha, a code of conduct for his people to keep themselves disciplined, and to avoid the cruel and destructive errors of various Galactic civilisations. Nandegakkovians can be easily identified from other Resparins by their lack of rituals compensated with their excessive love of their mythology; whereas the Resparins are very devout, yet they do not always saturate themselves with references to their mythology (except in talismans, murals, banners, and war chants).

It also made the Nandegakkovians develop an attitude centred on independence and diplomacy, making them braver and more alert. After all, if the whole Galaxy is doomed, and cannibalistic gods await them in the afterlife, the best they could do is to preserve whatever that is good from being swept away in oblivion. To save the Galaxy from utter ruin, Nandegakko must avoid repeating the errors of other civilisations, preserve the histories of the Galaxy to instruct the future ages, and help the free and weaker peoples of the Galaxy defend themselves from torment and extinction. That also meant allowing its allies to continue venerating their various gods if they wanted, as long as they did not commit any disgusting or cruel acts.

In the early years of Nandegakko's existence, its leader Kurita sent diplomats to seek help from three secularist rebellions that broke out in the western part of the Galaxy. Two of these leagues demanded Nandegakko to ban all religion and punish every form of spirituality. But Nandegakko refused: its people instead tolerated religions and celebrated their own mythology, so these leagues declared war on Nandegakko. The third of these, the Golden League, went in to support Nandegakko, going all the way to evacuate its people during the Igarin conquest. These three alliances later waged a crusade against the Igarin Empire, and were later defeated. Their war on the Igarin Empire and their usage of the numbers 56 and 58 angered the Igarins, who used this to declare another war to eliminate all atheism from the empire.

Some of these same atheists were among those banished to Nandegakko, by then a prison colony. They were later assimilated into the general Nandegakkovian people, who still chose diplomacy and tradition instead of antitheism. Some civilisations denounced the Nandegakkovians' form of atheism, as they regarded their love of mythology and tolerance of spirituality as "keeping the Galaxy backwards from achieving the greater utopia": others celebrated the Nandegakkovians' kindness, because it led to cooperation between the various resistance movements against the Igarin Empire, leading to its downfall.

Some people in the Galaxy think that the Nandegakkovians are quite ironic. They refuse to worship the Gods, and yet their preservation of many ancient histories makes them unknowing servants and instruments of the Heavens: specifically, their love of knowledge and their creativity is also considered pleasing to Odin, the god of knowledge. When the Nandegakkovians heard of this, some of them thanked their allies for their compliment. They were even invited by Odin to Asgard, where he wanted to help them preserve information by allowing them to do research in Valhalla, and he sent several strange "golden men" to defend their archives.

Although Nandegakko is a secular state, religious and mythological art is commonly seen in government buildings, mostly because these were seen as expressions of art and cultural pride. Almost all attempts by unruly activists and Terran humans to stop the practice and enforce a sort of "neutrality" were condemned and denounced by Nandegakkovian society as "cultural destruction". People who supported the enforcement of this form of secularism were referred to as "bone-whites", referring to a building stripped bare of its symbols and art.

The Nandegakkovians are also fiercely protective of the continuation of their traditions. For example, when an Igarin governor killed a turtle in front of a crowd, the crowd got very angry. One attempt by another governor to ban Unowane (a traditional festival) to promote "true atheism" instead led to riots all over Nandegakko and the governor being exiled.

#### Death in Nandegakkovian culture

In Nandegakkovian culture, souls do not really exist, and spirits are just beings of another kind of energy, so ghosts are just people who turned themselves into creatures of energy.

Therefore, the best "afterlife" for the atheistic Nandegakkovians is not Heaven, not Paradise, and not even becoming part of a greater consciousness. Their "Heaven", in their poems, songs, and classics, is the minds of everyone who can remember them, and every book and computer that mentions their names and deeds. Conversely, the "Nandegakkovian Hell" (if there is such a thing) is where the condemned are reviled, or even forgotten for ever, a fate worse than Hell. Although Nandegakkovians see it as a duty to perserve all forms of knowledge, enemies are reviled in records as warnings never to follow.

This is why some funerals are happy celebrations. Although the deceased is no longer a being who can sense, they still live on as knowledge that anyone good enough can use for the improvement of all. That by itself is like an "ascension", becoming like a "guardian" who can inspire people to do greater and better things.

In a way, those who die, and get their names and deeds recorded, become one with Knowledge itself!

### Magic

Technically, *anyone* can learn magic and develop sorcerous powers, including atheists. In fact, during the Fifth Age, there was an atheistic civilisation in the western Galaxy that utilised magic alongside their technology, neutral to most civilisations except the Londurilli, whom they regarded as their greatest allies.

However, without a deity to invoke or worship, atheistic spellcasters tend to have weaker spells. The only ways for them to become stronger spellcasters than their theistic counterparts would be from certain tomes that would make the learners more powerful, or more intense training.

Some Nandegakkovians happened to be born with magical powers. Although magic is generally avoided in Nandegakkovian culture because it could burn the user to death, spellcasters are not simply killed or hated. They are just kept away in complexes and protected, trained and encouraged to use their powers more carefully.

Atheist spellcasters are luckier: their refusal to venerate any deity during the powers makes their powers weaker, but more stable, allowing them more time to plan carefully with their own powers. This could also make atheists better at being demon-hunters and exorcists. That was why if an atheist wanted to be a demon-hunter, he might be more likely to be accepted, because his lack of magical saturation allows him to avoid demonic attacks, making it much easier to defeat some demons.

### Bujan

Before the Wannaenid conquest of Bujan, atheists were stereotyped in Zvesta as extremely brave and reckless, due to their refusal to be afraid of the Gods. This led to an activist campaign that suggested that atheists can also feel fear, so they should not be treated as superhuman or strange. It is also to protect younger atheists from being sent to the front lines so soon due to that dangerous stereotype.

Because they were persecuted during the Wannaenid rule over Bujan, many atheists became members of the resistance. Some founded secret rebellions against the aristocracy, and others were welcomed as fellow liberators of the island kingdom.

After independence, many Terrans registered themselves as "atheist" in official censuses. This was to allow them to continue practicing their religions in secret, which are banned in Bujan because of the religions' association with Terran rule. Some people in Bujan, including Hindus and other atheists, wanted to help them reintegrate themselves into Bujanski society and win the trust of their fellow citizens.

A small portion of ethnic Bujanski are atheists, according to national censuses. This is defined by their refusal to attend temples or have any religious beliefs, yet they are still seen as trustworthy and loyal as any other citizen.

## In the Rinnarverse

In the Rinnarit Republic, atheists were regarded as just another religious minority: they were tolerated as long as they did not aggressively insult or attack people over others' beliefs, as such behaviour was denounced in propaganda as "American behaviour". Because atheists do not worship gods or have temples, they tend to be more relaxed than their religious counterparts, leading to Rinnarit stereotypes of atheists as "lazy" or "inconsiderate".

Identifying one's self as "atheist" (like how Westerners practiced it and formed activist movements supporting it) was considered in Rinnarit law as "atheism", but lack of religious belief and lack of such identity was known as "trothlessness" (irreligion). Atheists were identified with a large red "A" as their symbol, just as the Christians had their crosses, the Asatruar with their mjolnir-hammers, and the Irkavennai with their flames. They were regarded as one of the Rinnarit Republic's four main communities, but atheists in the Rinnarit Republic also advocated for equal rights for Christian Rinnarits, who are being discriminated and hated over associations with historical tyrants and terrorists. Many of these godsless activists have allies among the other pagans and the Hindus, who saw the Rinnarit treatment of Christians as a stupid repeating of Earth's miserable history that has to be stopped: their reformist coalition made the Rinnarit Republic a realm that truly honours the Gods as they led to fairer treatment of minorities within the nation.

While atheists in neighbouring Bigton enjoy more freedoms than their northern counterparts, they managed to get along with other communities, as well as being 40 percent of Bigton's population. It was due to the risk of persecution and deadly clashes between them and their pagan neighbours, that led to Lindisfarna Blot being banned in Bigton.

The Earth Union enforced atheism in its territories. At first, it punished anyone who promoted any religious belief, as religion was considered one of "the many things that ruined humanity". But due to growing rebellions against its rule and to discourage its subjects from turning to the Shielded Nations, its rulers later tolerated religions in later times. Although its Marixai allies in the Galaxy claimed to follow the Earth Union's version of socialism, they instead worshipped Karl Marx as a god.

The Farsiders hated atheists, blaming them for the Soviet Union, the American civilisation's excesses, communism, activism, and pop culture that characterised Earth's troubled history; on the other end, their Galaxial enemies instead enforced their own version of atheism upon its conquered territories, as its Supercomputer perceived any spiritual belief to be exterminated, like individuality.

In Akhand Bharat (India), atheists are considered as Bramiki ("Abrahamists"), alongside Christians and Muslims, due to their association with the enemies of Hindu nationalism. Although they have some restrictions (such as they cannot vote in some provinces, they are not allowed to turn people atheists, and they are forbidden from insulting Hinduism), they still have some basic rights as citizens of the Hindu republic. In fact, some of the members of the Paravritti government (the founders of Akhand Bharat after the Indian Civil War) were also atheists, and even though many atheists left India due to the fear of a Hindu government unleashing mob violence, that government also has a portion of godsless supporters who saw it as the end of millennia of communal violence.

Due to the growing authoritarian tendencies of neighbouring Pakistan's leaders, especially under the domination of the Arabian Empire's imperialistic projects such as Ghazwa-e-Hind, the local atheists of Pakistan joined forces with a small coalition of reformists to survive and protect themselves from the mob. Although Akhand Bharat offered to help them, they refused, as they did not trust the Indian government for its restrictions on atheists and Muslims. After the failure of the Ghazwa-e-Hind Expeditions at World War III, this coalition of reformist Muslims and allies liberated Pakistan and expelled the occupying Arabian commander and his fundamentalist allies. They also rejected any attempts by the American warlords to take over the country. They were the ones who tried to make peace with Akhand Bharat as it rebuilt itself after the Farsider Bombardment of the world, going as far as risking attacks as both countries made compensations for historical disasters and atrocities.

## Trivia

* Nandegakkovian views of supernatural beings are somewhat similar to Buddhism, in the sense that they think of the "gods" and "demons" as nothing more than very powerful beings. Otherwise, generally, deities do not exist.
	+ Nonetheless, they always refer the monsters from the Void, summoned by their enemies, as "demons" because it sounds poetic.
* The author thought that without faith, in a world where demons and spirits exist as "energy beings", an atheist can defeat them more easily because he can avoid being contaminated from any contact with the supernatural, whereas a religious mage would risk himself being dangerously affected by magic due to his closer connection with the supernatural (or some dangerous dimension of energy that can infect his own soul).
	+ All the atheist demon-hunter needs is the right weaponry and to dodge the demon - in other words, he should at least start off as an assassin, who weakens the demon or monster before slaying it. Usually, a non-mage always needs supernatural weaponry in order to destroy a typical demon, whereas normal weapons can tear down weaker monsters.
	+ This especially applies to the Nandegakkovians - but even then, they still need Celestial weaponry because such devices can fight back against demonic magic. Unless they are well-trained sorcerers (which are rather few in their side, due to the Nandegakkovians' cultural aversion to magic and its risks), they cannot win against the most intense spells if they cannot ambush the spellcasters.

### Stereotypes about atheists, and how to tear the cliches down

Like many tropes and cliches in his works, the author enjoyed breaking down stereotypes of atheists, including the "militant atheist" often seen online.

* "there are no atheists in foxholes" - in the Galaxy, a polytheist realm, atheists are seen as more braver due to their lack of fear of the Gods. They are also the first to be conscripted or hired as warriors, almost like Gurkhas or Spartans in our world's history.
	+ In the polytheist beliefs of the Galaxy, what gods you worship do not always determine where you go after you die. What you do in life, and sometimes how you die, determine your afterlife. This was perhaps meant to be a subversion of Christian and Islamic dogma where nonbelievers are thrown into Hell for rejecting God, and the Wall of the Faithless in Dungeons and Dragons (a punishment for atheistic people in the fantasy setting, because none of its gods or demons would claim them).
	+ In the Galaxy, the expression is changed to this: "There are not just atheists in our foxholes, but they are the first to challenge our enemies. There is no fear in them! They will never surrender!"
		- Another is this, in Nandegakko: "In *these* foxholes, there are hundreds of atheists. And they have knives, swords, guns, cannons, everything at their disposal, against the ruinous and the destructive."
		- "Beware that you do not ruin the Galaxy, or even destroy vast troves of information. From the shadows, or even your own shadow, the children of Odin emerge to hunt you down!"
	+ However, like all people, even an atheist can feel fear. Nandegakko is one example - many of its people fight, because they fear they will suffer worse from their enemies if they are defeated. Fear of worse things is the motivation of their courage, to stop them from destroying the whole Galaxy. It is just that it is harder to break a Nandegakkovian's resolve, and they know that they are not invincible, so they rely on sabotage to make up for low numbers.
* "atheists hate religion and assault anything religious" - while there are straight examples like Red Ardesch, Earth Union, and some Fifty-Six Armies, they were all driven by fanaticism and a desire to dominate everything or ulterior motives such as destruction and revenge. An inversion of this trope is also in Nandegakko, where the atheistic people use their ancestral religion's art to represent their independence from Igarin domination. Nandegakkovians also tend to be more diplomatic, preferring the company of even a devout polytheist over an angry atheist who tears images of their folktales.
	+ The author plays around with this trope by having the atheist Nandegakkovians handle Terran hirelings during Igarin rule. Although the Terran governors were even more atheistic than their subjects, their destruction of classical Nandegakkovian art was more to do with fanatical obsession and malice. The Nandegakkovians later used them as an example of who everyone should not become, right next to the religious fanatics and demons they fought against.
	+ Nandegakkovians love poetry and classical art, to the extent that they even referred the monsters from the Void whom they sometimes fight against as "demons". The "demons" were summoned by enemy armies, using their corruption of reality to overwhelm their enemies, so the Nandoi counter this with weaponry designed after Celestial forms, having enough power to damage the demons.
* "atheists hate God" - again, aside from these examples, the Nandegakkovians even met the Norse Gods and were their allies. To the former, the Norse Gods were nothing more than very powerful beings; magic is just a very dangerous form of energy that doesn't belong to any universe (known as "indegy", independent energy); and spirits and demons are just creatures of the same destructive, unstable energy.
	+ To subvert this trope and fit their atheistic beliefs in a universe where magic and gods exist, the author used Buddhist philosophy and the Tau Empire's stance on Chaos Daemons as his reference on how the Nandoi see the supernatural. In Buddhism, the gods are nothing more than very powerful beings.
	+ Their obsession with protecting information and their fury at anyone who obliterates records, along with their dedication to art, is seen as very pleasing to Odin, the god of knowledge, fury, and inspiration. At one time, he even brought the best scientists of Nandegakko to his palace at Asgard, where he ordered some of his einherjar to protect their vaults as the mysterious "golden men".
	+ Galactic people even believe that atheists are more sincere because they do not do things out of fear of the Gods, making them more likely to be unknowing servants of good and benevolent deities. Some even believe that any who become warriors will absolutely have a place in Valhalla as einherjar if they die, because of their courage.
	+ In short: "the Gods love them, because they made the better choices". Their faith is not in the Gods themselves, but what good things they represent, even if they do not know it.
* atheists reject the supernatural
	+ The supernatural exist, and atheistic civilisations use methods developed by the Celestials or sorcerers to defeat any who attack them. A few of the inventors of anti-demonic weaponry were atheists who happened to improvise said technology. They are just "atheist" only because they refuse to worship any gods or believe in the supernatural.
	+ To atheists in the Rabydosverse, magic is just another kind of energy, but because it doesn't belong to the laws of physics, they are as smart as other Galactic people to avoid it in general as it is very unstable by itself.
	+ Usually spellcasters who align themselves to a god or a powerful being end up casting stronger spells. Atheistic ones tend to cast weaker spells without the influence of said beings, but they have another advantage. A spellcaster can risk damaging himself due to higher magical saturation, but an atheist spellcaster can use his weaker spells to plan his attacks more carefully, avoid detection by some entities, and even defeat them more easily (whereas the same other spellcaster could end up being corrupted, controlled, or even devoured by a parasitic being). He can still beat the other spellcaster with enough proper training or if he happens to be born with powerful magic.
	+ One of the allies of the human Londurilli was a civilisation of atheistic spellcasters, who even used magic to power their space fleets. They did not need a crew of magicians to power their vessels during the flight, as they already did it before their ships depart for space.
	+ Spellcasters in Nandegakko, especially those unfortunate and rare enough to be born with magic, are protected by the state, due to the risk of manipulation by other sorcerers or entities. They also receive training to use their powers carefully, and because they are seen as more vulnerable, other Nandegakkovians try to protect them. Most Nandegakkovians avoid any magical training because they also know that magic is very unstable.

## See also

* Asexuality, the lack of sexual attraction.