I had the same thought before I even responded, but a discussion of the presence of religion within the game is a bit different than simply a general discussion about religion. Obviously the decision isn't up to me, but as long as people remain civil I don't see why things like this can't be discussed here. It as, after all, a discussion about the game. If the mods feel otherwise, I'll totally respect that call though.

edit - By the way, is your screen name a Grateful Dead reference?

I think that was put in there as something of a Walking Dead easter egg. His name is Pastor Gabe, and there's a Father Gabriel on the Walking Dead. Ghoul=Walker, for all practical purposes (yes, I'm aware of the difference). As far as I know though, there isn't a quest attached to it.

Not surprising that Mormonism was in New Vegas due to Obsidian containing a bunch of devs that originally worked on Van Buren. Apparently, a bunch of Mormons in bought shares in Vault 70 which was the Vault in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City as most are aware is Mormon Central. What makes Vault 70 funnier than most vaults is that the Vault Suit extruders fail after 6 months of operation. So a lack of clothing in a group that have to wear undergarments as part of their religion. Van Buren would have had us visit New Canaan. Although, it seems to be different from what New Vegas displayed.

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/Blog:News/J.E._Sawyer_on_Real_World_Knowledge_and_Game_Design

To me Honest Hearts was a perfect way to portray religion. It wasn't religious or anti-religious agitprop. They didn't preach in your face. They didn't demean people who were believers (seehttp://kotaku.com/5988935/im-a-mormon-pop-culture-often-mocks-my-faith-but-fallout-treated-it-right). They presented interesting and believable religious characters as part of the world.

Belief systems did not disappear in a puff of atomic smoke. People survived, books/data survived or was stored in the Vaults. New belief systems also appeared along the way, such as the Children of the Atom.

It is part of human nature to believe in that which is beyond themselves, it is something they are advanced enough to realize.

It is easy to look at people with differing opinions and dismiss them, as only one's views are somehow more superior than others.

Swearing and cussing, regardless of what is exclaimed, didn't disappear with the end of the world as they knew it in the Fallout timeline. I'm amazed no one exclaims 'Great Caesar's Ghost!'

It has been mentioned a few times here, but I really love Honest Hearts. The two Mormon protagonists are both portrayed in a very balanced, diverse light. I also tend to think Christianity in the Fallout universe has evolved in much the same way the Sorrows adopted it. Blending the teachings of Mormonism with their previous reverence for the "Father in the Caves" mirrors some of the blending and adaption Germanic and Slavic paganism underwent when Catholicism was introduced to the populace.

The thing you need to keep in mind is that in real life religion has evolved as well. Look at Christianity from, say, 1000. Now look at how Christianity is viewed in 2016 in terms of how the belief systems work. Look back on Christianity between 1816 and 2016 and you'll notice the staggering differences and how much of 2016 Christianity will regard 1816 ways as 'outdated' or 'improper' or some other form of cancelling it out. It's not at all uncommon to believe the same is true in Fallout. Of course, the vast difference is Fallout's universe isn't a properly organised society like the Pre-War world, so names and words can easily get lost to generations but the belief stays alive. Look at Rivet City and how it's a very mirroring image of Catholicism or the Abbey of the Road or even the New Canaanites whose beliefs also changed some as well. But the point is that Christianity does exist in shattered forms around the Wasteland, although they'd be considered by Pre-War standards splinters, offshoots or other tribal type beliefs. But you have to expect a major religion of people with people being cut off from others would over time change up or be distorted. It's just the way humanity works. It's not exclusive to religion. The same is true for language, history and cultures in general.

I've never realized this before but the fact that the capital of the US is dominated by a nuclear bomb cult and Catholics must be the worst nightmare of people actually from the 50s.

Oh god I hope so, I was shocked that they weren't there. It seems that, outside of the main plot and four main factions, there is zero lore in F4.

Like, did the Institute really have to be responsible for the supermutants as well? Couldn't there have just not been supermutants for once?

That only matters if they are pushing a belief, not exploring it.

Look at Honest Hearts, a very great exploration of philosophy (particularly Mormon philosophy) made by non-Mormons for an audience that's primarily non-Mormon.

I did appreciate their presence and that they seem very different. The only problem I have was...

Note to Bethesda: changing factions is cool, but explaining how and why they changed is even better.

Indeed. The Institute FEV plot is just shoe-horned in to provide an excuse for super-mutants being The Commonwealth. No rhyme or reason for it either. I don't know why we couldn't have just gotten an interesting new set of enemies rather than more SM's.

The appearance of the Abbey of the Road would definitely help salvage Fallout 4's lore for me. I want some post-apocalyptic monks chanting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlr90NLDp-0 in a secluded old brick monastery.

As I've said in another post, I'm shocked that the same company that brought the world Morrowind seems to be so scared of taking chances with theme, plot, characters, and factions now.

That would have been absolutely wonderful to have.

Morrowind was a completely generic D&D fanatasy world full of stirotypical "clan" based faction systems such as

-MUH HONORABLE WARRIORS! - Redoard

-MUH RECLUSIVE AND dikeISH WIZARDS! - Telvanni

-MUH MERCHANT HOUSE! - Hlaalu

Morrowind is by far my favorite TES game, but people need to stop acting like the world was anything but the same stock D&D copy-paste that basically all fanatasy games are.

Here's a big question.

Why aren't there any non-christian variant religions or other in the setting? Where are the Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc?

Now to be fair maybe there in there and I've just missed them. Or maybe the idea is that you only get a few fragments of christian variants because it was the larger religion in the US.

Or maybe it says something FAR darker and so far unmentioned about the actual Fallout setting. Specifically, pre-war America in the Fallout universe.

This is an alternate history where there was no cold war, and while certain technologies grew at a phenomenal rate, others stagnated (transistors), but the country as a whole stagnated culturally. Maybe that Fallout pre-war America was a far far less tolerant place?

Fallout is based on 50s America.

Gallop's data from 1950:

What is your religious preference-Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, another religion, or no religion?

Protestant-66%

Catholic-25%

Jewish-4%

Other-3%

None-(not available)

No Answer-2%

Rest of the decade is similar- http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx

Words like brahmin and yao gui hunt at some diversity, but my assumption is that if America was stuck in the 50s it would remain homogenously Western. Then again there are Asian characters like Li and Ayo and Dr. Amari still has an accent (recent arrival?) so maybe its just not touched upon.

At the very least Morrowind had some actual soul in it. By far the best game Bethesda's ever made in my opinion. Everything after has been progressively feeling more and more like a corporate interest board made it.

No more or less then any other TES game. the static never moving NPCs and the copy-paste encyclopedia dialogue made it feel less alive then any game made after.

Static NPCs were a bit of a problem, but the writing made the NPCs feel like something other than a Quest Dispensing robot trodding the same path for eternity waiting for someone to pass close enough that they could spit out the same little bit of dialogue and pray that the recipient of said dialogue would begin their quest.

Go to dungeon, kill all the goobers, discover that there is a convenient exit at end of said dungeon that drops me off back at the entrance. Fantastic.

Plus even if you say "generic D&D" someone can pretty quickly counter with "generic fantasy" and "generic Conan" for Oblivion and Skyrim.

That's all I'll say though, not the topic here.

Regarding Christianity in Fallout, it's always been around albeit not in as front and center a position as it was in Fallout 3. I was pretty surprised when they had straight up Bible quotes in the Main Questline.

I hope to see a new fictional esoteric religion in the next ES game, assuming the next ES game is set in a non-human land or perhaps Hammerfell. Explore a little bit deeper what orcs, khajit, argonians, all the elves, and the Redguards believe about the world they live in.

I think the difference between how we look at it is completely different.

I see a strange, unique region of an alien world that is in the middle of a bizarre conflict (the weakening of their living gods) that was followed up by the most standard fantasy game that could possible be made of the series followed up by something with a lot more heart in it but suffered from a very weak main questline.

I agree, opinions strongly differ. I would call nothing about Morrowind's plot or setting generic, even if the game play is really bad.

I always really like exploring the ideas of religions in a fictional world. It's just interesting to see what a people far from real life would come up with to explain things. One of my favorites is the Tribunal in Morrowind. I'd also love to see that in the next Elder Scrolls game.

This has gone off topic.