Religion in Society?

hmmm... added to this could be something like possibly trading bonuses to players trading with other players having the same religion, or penalties to attacking players with the same religion, or ideas like that... Different religions in conquered provinces leading to some kind of morale bonuses or penalties depending on whether you cater to the other religion, or forcibly change and ignore their beliefs...

Oh, and obviously divine magic/help/luck/bonuses...

Dunno... but that's a few basic ideas that popped into my mind for the subject...

*goes off on a Holy Jihad against the heathens not worshipping the almighty Domo-kun*

p.s. so no one cares... but I finally got my Domo-kun t-shirt... So now... being a Domo myself... I get to be awesome and walk around being more Domo-ish...
Here's a link to the shirt: Link

yes, tho It is a subject that today, must be handled with kid gloves. It would be best it they used Religions that are not real or close to real so as to not offend any of those people who have no humor when it comes to their Religion. Other than that it would be a cool concept to have in the game. IMHO.

Like you said though it took 4 iterations of civ before religion was brought in to the fold. I think it can add an additional dynamic to a game, but is definetly like playing with fire. There are many ways for something like that to go awry, but at least that brings with it a modicum of publicity.

Well, im not very religious, but i can see the benefits of having religion in Society. If your people are united under 1 religion then things should be smooth sailing. However, if your people are divided...and lets say war were to come, i could see people who believe in 1 religion fighting while those who believe in another religion feel the war is 'unnecessary'...

I agree with the notion, but it would be safer if it was based around either a moral or idealogical system rather than religion.

  This has been used in who know's how many games, but there's always the old polytheistic approach. One god for peace, one for war, one for...ahem...fertility. You get the idea. You can basically do anything with that kind of set up as you could with the Civ stuff (shrines, holy cities, etc).

Kid gloves isn't ture. The only time I can think of a real problem from being insensitive was cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a suicide bomber, it would be hard to do anything that bad ingame.

Of-course non-real religions should be used just encase and for flexibility.

Personally I think there are two ways to handle religion ingame and I'm not sure whats better:

1) the alimated churge of real and medeling deitys: you have you god of war, justice, weather etc. same for all players. Each of these gods is appeased seprately or angered for bonuses and penaltys

2) Civ style religion is polotics

An aspect of Religion in Society would make it very flexible, especially with the ones we have in reality. Christinaity, Islam, Buddhism, Jewishism, ecetera. However I agree on allowing players in an circle to establish an religion. Especially the influence Religion should have upon players empires whether they're not that religion or not. When it comes to be 'cautious' and 'careful' about religions in games, how sensitive is it really? Civilization 4 is very unique and much more interesting with this aspect as it allows domination type games, more abilities, unitation or 'holy wars'.

Religion, especially in the middle ages setting, is Politics. Just look at the world today and you will see that Organized Religion is a political beast.
In the middle ages the "church" gave or with held permission for war, marriage and divorce among other things. The Church called for war on countries where other religions were predominant. People of 1 religion within a country attacked people of another during times of conflict. Study the crusades, study the treatment of Jews and other minorities during the history of Europe, for example. Religion is Politics. Religion is in situations such as these is very important - just from a financial stand-point - Religions are usually rich. Religions are also a good starting point for spies - missionaries are everywhere. I do think tho that any Religions in Society should not be those represented in Today's world. Not because there will be problems in game, but because there will be attempts at censorship from outside the gaming world. Please note Christians and Muslims and other Religions are all equally concerned with how their Religions are represented. If we use "made-up" Religions then we are giving no offense to any existing religions. Free-speach works in a lot of ways...if we have a right to "use" their religions they will have a right to trash this game based on that use. Me - I want to see this game reach it's potential and Religion can be a big part of that.

Hmm interesting concept. I agree that they should utalize fictional religions or even allow you to make your own
(Ideas about making your own religion): Maybe choose fundamental ideals and such, maybe even declaring yourself God-Emperor (Yea Xerxes! lol), or require you to martyr someone, perhaps one of your royal family, to become the subject of their worship.

I agree that the creation of new religion should be in the game. The world has had (enter # of years according to your beliefs) of the current religions and its about time we get some new ones. Plus becoming a god emperor would be pretty freakin' awsome.  

  As a Athiest, I dont personally believe in the divine, but I am all for using "the divine" to manipulate others   

Religion would open so many awesome options. You could have crusades, bonuses for some religious things. You could even end up with a place like the vatican, a tiny nation that unifies lots of seperate nations by virtue of extreme religion. The politics in society are gonna be crazy.