Talk:Religion in the Twelve Colonies (RDM)/Archive 1

Religeous Variance

Specifically, in the bit about funerals... It sounds a bit harsh to say that priests do the funerals regardless of the beliefs of the deceased. It makes it sound like they're Muslims getting Catholic funerals. I couldn't tell you the difference between a Methodist funeral and a Protestant funeral if my life depended on it. I think that this (apparently) unilateral handling of funerals is more indicative of the (mostly) unified religeon of the Colonies, rather than a callous behavior of some kind of oppressive theocracy. The only people who seem like they have a truely different religeous idea are Tigh, Adama and Billy, and they don't seem to strongly anti-religeon that they'd roll over at their religeous funeral. I didn't make an edit to reflect this, though, because this is rather subjective. --Day 04:23, 10 September 2005 (EDT) (Post Script: I'm working on getting that picture. My Mac's having some technical issues.)

Unknowns

Rules applying to the priesthood may or may not be the same throughout the Twelve Colonies. It is possible that certain schools of the priesthood practice celibacy, but Chief Tyrol stated that his father was a priest and his mother an oracle, so it would not be adhered to by all denominations of the religion of the Twelve Colonies.

This may vary considerably from one Colony to the next: Gemenons believe in the literal truth of the Sacred Scrolls and are quite fundamentalist, while Capricans seem fairly secular in their treatment of Church-State relations.

I really don't see the point in noting may-or-may-nots and it-is-not-knowns. The idea here is to state everything we do know - everything we don't state is logically unknown. I'm not opposed to informed speculation, but simply listing the areas we haven't heard about seems fruitless.

The Chicken And Egg Origin of the Greek/Kobol Gods

Since the 13th Tribe populated Earth, all the while bringing their religion from Kobol, this suggests that the Greek gods are the offshoots to the Kobol gods, not the reverse. This fits with the other Olympian gods not (yet) mentioned in the Kobol religion, but present in the Olympian religion.

This suggestion creates several interesting possibilities for thought.

• There wasn't a human population already on Earth with its own religion. The religion of Kobol grew to form the Olympian gods.
• There was an existing human population, and the Colonial humans and native terrans merged genes and religion, which might have included other beings we know as the Olympian and quasi-Olympian gods.
• The Tribe somehow lost their technological base of information and went into a new dark age similar to what the Tribes experienced before, increasing their need for divine aid (and expansion of the Kobol religion to form the Olympian components). This also kept the 13th Tribe from returning to know the fate of their brothers in the other Tribes.
• The 13th Tribe landed in the Mediterreanean area of Earth (presuming their Earth is "our" Earth), in what we historically have called the "seat of human civilization."

The hologram in the Tomb of Athena suggests that the constellations and celestial bodies of Earth were either known already to the Kobol tribes and were programmed into the Tomb before they left, or a 13th Tribe member from Earth returned to do this. If neither are true, then there is real problem with how the Tomb received this information, and the need or ability for the Arrow of Apollo to be available (and noted in the Sacred Scrolls) as capable of showing the way to a place the Tribes had not yet visited (unless you count in the "all this has happened and will happen again" part of the Scrolls).

I edited the article with the point in mind as it seemed too strong to suggest otherwise. Thoughts on this or points against the notion? (This also keeps us from blowing brain cells on who created what.) Spencerian 16:34, 3 October 2005 (EDT)

See the "Three Exodus" portion of Sacred Scrolls for something that explains this. It was written by me, so perhaps I'm biased towards it being true, but if it is, then the pictures inside the Tomb of Athena do fall under the "All this has happened before..." clause. As does the dissemination of the Gods. However, I agree that it's probable that the 13th Tribe brought the Lords of Kobol with them to Earth. It's just that, after that, they also brought them back to Kobol so that they would be there to be brough to Earth again in the next cycle. I hope that's coherent. It's hard talking in circles like this. --Day 18:07, 3 October 2005 (EDT)

I don't think its necessary or interesting to note that in this much detail - the History article covers the origin of the twelve colonies in substantially more detail. To that end, I'd prefer to revert your comments, if you're not terribly attatched. --Peter Farago 18:10, 3 October 2005 (EDT)

Actually it's not that bad. I'm going to clarify it slightly, but it would probably be useful to keep it. --Peter Farago 18:16, 3 October 2005 (EDT)

Zephyr

About where in the episode is this mentioned? Is it explicitly stated that the Zephyr is named after a God, or is it just mentioned? It is my understanding that a zephyr is a gust of wind and, thus, not an imp[robable name for a ship with that meaning. Unless it's explicit, I think this point is ambiguous at best. --Day 18:11, 3 October 2005 (EDT)

No, he's right. See Zephyrus. Very nice catch, Spence. --Peter Farago 18:14, 3 October 2005 (EDT)

Woah! Zephyrus lived in a cave on Thrace? That can't be accidental. It hadn't occured to me until I saw it, but I knew this. I played a pice a few years ago called the March of the Young Thracians or something. Anyway, I'm not sure about Zephyr, still. He wasn't one of the "main" Greek Gods, as it were, so I don't think we can make an assumption that he's a Lord of Kobol. They may have lesser gods like the Greeks did that just have never been mentioned, or it might be that some effects dude at Zoic named the ship that because it makes a good name for a ship, not realizing that it's also an allusion to a Greek god. --Day 18:22, 3 October 2005 (EDT)

Right, but he is a god, the Colonials apparently know about him, and we don't have any knowlege on whether the colonials separate the Lords of Kobol from minor deities - so it's probably important to note, and there isn't really a better place for it. (FWIW, they did apparently distinguish between upper and lower demons). --Peter Farago 18:29, 3 October 2005 (EDT)