Marnagarthean Integration

Marnagarthean Orthodoxy is a faith with trillions of adherents on thousands of planets. We would have to respect it for this alone, even if its doctrines were clearly laughable. But, in fact, Marnagarthean Orthodoxy is unique among the faiths of the galaxy by how in some ways it is more like a science than a faith. This is not to make any silly claims about Marnagarthean Orthodoxy being provable. It is not, and if you lack faith you will find yourself unable to believe it. But it is based upon a rigorous study of the spiritual world, and is noteworthy for not having dogmatic answers to certain questions with which most faiths have no problem at all, simply because the scholars of the Marnagarthean faith have not yet found definitive resolutions of these questions, and do not accept the facile answers that other creeds have produced. Like scientists, they seek the truth, and make no claim to having yet found it in its entirety. The spiritual realm is a realm of mystery, and only gradually have we solved a few of its puzzles.

By the way "Marnagarthean Orthodoxy" is quite a mouthful, in speech or in writing, and I hope no one will be offended if I shorten the name of the faith to Moxy, and refer to its believers as Moxians.

Here are some of the truths in which Moxians generally believe. As you read this list, keep in mind that the heart of Moxy is not the worship of one or more powerful Gods. Rather it is about the residents of the spiritual world and how they interact with the residents of the material world such as ourselves.

The universe is made up of two worlds, the material and the spiritual. Residents of the two worlds can interact and communicate, but in subtle ways that are not generally visible to those in the material world. Communications of spirits are generally interpreted as the recipient's own thoughts.

The lesser beings of the spiritual world are of three types: "angels", "imps" and "demons". (Little is known of the greater beings of the spiritual world, other than that they exist.) The "angels" are friendly to those in the material world. The "demons" are hostile towards those in the material world. The "imps" are playful beings who enjoy playing pranks upon material creatures, but who in general bear material beings no hostility.

Every sentient being has a "guardian angel" and a "demonic tempter". The guardian angel attempts to steer its charge towards goodness, and the tempter to steer its charge towards corruption, through subtle influence. (There is no such thing as possession by either class of spirit.)

Prayer provides a way for sentient beings to contact the spirit world. Often prayers of petition are impossible to grant, but angelic spirits may be capable of offering hope or guidance to sentient beings in difficult or painful situations.

...to be continued...

I feel I must begin with a discussion of what Terran Jihad is not. I disavow most of the previous comments, and pray that listeners will understand that all religious traditions, even that of Marnagarthean Orthodoxy, include occasional fanatical and intolerant believers, and that it is unwise to judge a belief system by its most extreme followers.

Terran Jihad does not believe in the sacrifice of any sentient beings, which is abominable in the sight of God. While we believe that Terra belongs to Terrans, and that our planet should be allowed to leave the Marnagarthean Commonwealth, we cannot use violence to achieve this goal, lest we become that which we are trying to fight. We have vowed, in the words of a great Terran poet, not to "become the monster, so the monster will not break us".

It is true that many of our believers do perform animal sacrifices. These rites, ordained by ancient Terran scriptures, allow us to demonstrate our fealty to the God of Earth by dedicating a portion of every meal to Him even when we are hungry. Animal sacrifice is often interpreted as an act of cruelty, but when performed properly it is actually an act of devotion and thanksgiving. And let me emphasize that to sacrifice a sentient being is a blasphemous abomination.

Terran Jihad is a worldwide congregation of believers in various traditional Terran creeds, including Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Shintoists, who believe that Terra is the home of a single mighty and jealous God, called Jehovah, Allah, Brahma and Amaterasu as well as many other names. The Marnagarthean Empire has trespassed upon the domain of the Lord of Terra, and we, the Children of that Lord, are understandably upset about it. We constantly pray, petition and agitate for the Marnagartheans to realize that, while we bear them no ill will, they do not belong here, and it would be better for all if they were to repent of their aggressions and return to their own domains to meditate on how better to coexist with the many other races in the universe we share.

By any measure, Terran Jihad is a humane, reverent religion, like many other lesser beliefs, and we merely ask to be given the same respect as is given to other communities of faith.

Envoy Smabadoras, will you introduce the next speaker? I admit I am sickened by their perversion of religious belief, and think that, under the circumstances, it would be better if you were to perform the introduction.

Let me take everyone back to the days when the Marnagarthean fleet invaded our planet. We had nukes, we had hypersonic missiles and laser weapons, we had tanks and subs and I'm sure we had superweapons which ordinary citizens never even heard about. None of them worked. Those ships came after us like we were armed only with spears and just took over.

Arthur Clarke once wrote that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I tell you that I am not superstitious, and do not believe in magic. But I think that what Clarke should have said is that wielders of any sufficiently advanced technology are indistinguishable from gods. A physicist friend of mine told me that it is impossible to prevent an armed nuke from going off by any known scientific or technical means. And yet, it is very much like the captains of the Marnagarthean fleet simply ordered our nukes not to detonate, and they obeyed. In fact, they melted, and no traces of radioactivity could be found where the remnants landed. What hypothesis other than godhood could explain that?

I will give you another example. The homeworld of Marnagarthea is thousands of light-years from Earth. Our scientific theories, which have been tested hundreds of times, say that it would take thousands of years for anything to travel from Marnagarthea to Earth. And yet their fleet took about two days to do so. What about wormholes, you say. Perhaps they came through a wormhole in space. It is true, according to my scientist friend, that wormholes might exist, and might provide a shortcut from one point in space to some distant point. But, as far as we know, if there are wormholes, traveling through one would tear any living creature to shreds due to gravitical forces, or something like that. And yet, somehow, this fleet of warships made it to Earth in two days. If we exclude magic, which we must do (after all, what magician could possibly cast a spell with such an enormous effect), this could only be the result of divine intervention in the natural order of the universe, which is to say, a miracle.

I admit that, to my knowledge, no Marnagarthean has ever claimed divinity. I'm sure that relations with their imperial subjects probably go more smoothly if they represent themselves as funny-looking folk otherwise just like us, who just happen to have a highly advanced civilization. I don't buy it. If it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck, and if it acts like a god, it probably is a god. And by recognizing their godhood and offering them our prayers, our thanks and our worship, we expect them to appreciate our enlightened attitude, as opposed to the ignorant masses who don't understand who they're dealing with.

And suppose we are wrong, and a Marnagarthean is just an alien life-form, not a god at all. They still rule the World, and have the power to make life easier for their friends. It's just good business to treat Marnagartheans as if they were gods, as one never knows when you'll need the rulers on your side. This may sound cynical, but worshiping the Marnagartheans is the best way to get ahead, whether or not they are in fact worthy of worship. It's a win-win, for us and for them.

All hail the all-powerful Marnagartheans! How can we serve you today?

As noted by the Marnagarthean Chief Envoy, many Terran governments support the rejection of religious belief as unscientific, ignorant, ridiculous or other similarly negative characterizations. This belief system (or perhaps I should call it an unbelief system) is commonly called Atheism, which is usually interpreted as the doctrine that there are no gods. As you may have noticed from the discussion of Moxy, Atheism in this sense is actually compatible with some forms of religion. A better term is Aspirituality, the doctrine that no spirits of any sort exist, and that all mysterious or miraculous phenomena can ultimately be explained materialistically, even if no materialistic explanation is known at the present time.

As the Chief Envoy pointed out, a large plurality of Terran satrapies have governments which support Aspirituality. Note that Aspirituality differs from Secularism, as practiced by the governments which describe their outlook as "any gods you like". A secular government simply has no opinions about religion, while an Aspiritual government takes action of some sort against religious belief, ranging in degree from placing a small tax on religious organizations to treating belief as criminal or as an indicator of mental illness. Some Aspiritual nations have claimed to have completely eliminated religious belief within their borders, but there is strong reason to disbelieve such claims, and the Bureau of Vital Statistics does not take them seriously either.

Consider the case of the historical Terran nation which called itself the Soviet Union. This Aspiritual nation made life very difficult for admitted believers, in some cases sending them to forced labor camps. Few citizens were willing to risk the possible government reprisals for being open about their religious beliefs. But when the Soviet regime fell, Soviet citizens flocked back to the Russian Orthodox Church, which rebounded in its influence to pre-Soviet levels. Many Soviet citizens had parroted the government line in public, while practicing their faith as best they could in private.

I believe this situation to be universal. For many people, their faith is as important to them as their patriotism, their national culture and their sexuality. Such attributes can be obscured by government action, but they are essentially impossible for a government to expunge entirely. We believe this to be as true for the current Terran satrapies as for the Terran nations which preceded them.

It is clear that the Bureau of Vital Statistics agrees with me on this. It has refused to accept Atheism or any similar term as a legitimate national religion. It ordered any government which sought to describe its religion as Atheism to instead submit the name of the most commonly practiced faith within its borders. Most of these governments have complied, though a small number of satrapies are still refusing to name any creed as their national religion.

Amusingly, there was a bit of a complication here. There are a lot of Terran religions, and The Bureau of Vital Statistics was unfamiliar with many of them. Furthermore, some of the so-called Atheist nations submitted joke religions, such as the Church of Pizza and Santaism. The Bureau was forced essentially to give up in disgust. It has now recorded all the nations which labeled themselves as Atheist as having a national faith described as "an ancient Terran religion". As a practical matter, in most cases this is actually correct, as, with the exception of Moxy, there has been little penetration of Terra by Marnagarthean or other extraterrestrial faiths. Most residents of supposedly Atheist nations still observe the "faith of their fathers", whatever their government thinks of it.