As the DGP religious profile generation process has some flaws, and is not
open to "public" use, I am attempting to work up an alternative from first
principles. One of the aspects that I have come up with is what I am
calling the "model" of the religion, and have come up with the following to
define it. Please critique and discuss.

There is some prefatory material that defines some of the terms I use; I
have not included that material here. If you need clarification of a term,
please ask.

* * * * *

Model

The goal for any religion is to provide a common worldview to bind a
society into a cohesive whole. Part of that common worldview involves the
rules for interacting with the religion itself. We call this the Model of
the religion, and have identified three basic possibilities:

Propitiatory

The purpose of devotional activities is to either induce the Deitic
Principle to favorable action, or to deter the Deitic Principle from
unfavorable action. This includes devotional activities where no specific
request is made, such as prayers of thanks or of acknowledgement of
suzerainty.

Ethical

The purpose of devotional activities is to maintain society as a whole in a
functional mode viewed as positive, or to remind devotees of the need to so
maintain the society. This includes self-focussed activities that are
intended to make one a "better person" to the extent that the normal
behavior of the "better person" is favorable to maintaining society as
above.

Transcendental

The purpose of devotional activities is to bring oneself closer to some
idealized state, representing a "perfection" of the self, or to a state
where there is no distinction between the self and the Deitic Principle.
Occasionally, this is interpreted to focus on becoming "more/better than
human" or to develop abilities that are considered exceptional (for
example, psionics). (For individuals other than humans, substitute
appropriate species identifier, e.g., "more/better than
Vargr/Aslan/Virushi/Gurvin/etc.)

A Note on Hybridization

It is actually unusual for an "organic" religion (that is, one that
developed naturally, rather than being specifically 'designed') to be
purely in one of the three classes; often, a religion will change as the
society does, and a religion that might be classed as 'Ethical' may well
have 'held over' elements that would suggest a 'Propitiatory' model (e.g.,
prayers before and after meals), or one that is principally
'Transcendental' may also have elements of an 'Ethical' model regarding how
the Improved self should interact with those who are less Improved. Even
'designed' religions may have 'mixed' aspects, as the designers will often
take acceptable aspects of other religions into their own for multiple
reasons, including increasing the "comfort levels" of the devotees
(familiarity of ritual) or deception (influence non-devotees and
prospective devotees toward the belief that the new religion is a
variation/reinterpretation of an older, more acceptable one).

* * * * *

®Traveller is a registered trademark of
Far Future Enterprises, 1977-2020. Use of
the trademark in this notice and in the
referenced materials is not intended to
infringe or devalue the trademark.

--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
    The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
http://www.freelancetraveller.com

Freelance Traveller extends its thanks to the following
enterprises for hosting services:

onCloud/CyberWeb Enterprises (http://www.oncloud.io)
The Traveller Downport (http://www.downport.com)