Table of Contents
Religion
“When an angel comes to you bearing proclamations and commandments, spread the news far and wide. Engrave the words on stone so that they are not forgotten, and bring them to all the people of the Earth. Engrave them also on your hearts, and follow them always.”
—Tabaga, March 1, translation corrected, Tabaga, May 3267
Scripture
The main source of information on spiritual matters is the proclamations of angels, saints, and occasionally God Themself. Not everything Heaven has said is scripture, but whenever a revelation is considered to be particularly significant rather than only being applicable to the people it was said to, it is added to the canon. The wiki page headings are just a sample of the thousands of revelations that constitute the scripture. Updated books are published frequently as new revelations are made, with varying degrees of additional commentary. It is not considered entirely infallible, as there are occasional revelations that contradict each other, but any reason for doubting its accuracy requires a very high degree of authority.
Core Tenets
There are certain beliefs and behaviours, inferred from the scripture, deviation from which is considered heresy and punished appropriately. As God hears everything spoken, written, or otherwise said, in most cases the Commission is able to respond rapidly to heretical ideas before they are able to be spread.
Some of the main things falling in this category are
- Nothing good can come of associating with Demons, whose evil agenda is contrary to God's will and human flourishing.
- God's role as creator of the universe, and source of all moral influence within it.
- Angels and saints' role as agents of God and humanity's guide.
- Humanity's role as a natural part of the uncaring universe, hanging in the balance between Heaven and Hell.
- Trust in Heaven's intentions, plans and authority.
- Responsibility, honesty and fidelity towards your fellows and yourselves.
- Obedience to Heaven and its representatives on Earth.
- Caution, thoroughness and diligence.
- Bravery, in moderation.
Variation
Revelations are often vague, with multiple possible interpretations. In some cases, there is no official stance as to which interpretation is correct. It is encouraged to ponder the scripture to come to a deeper understanding of God's will beyond the individual commands, and allowing personal choice in some matters of interpretation is considered useful in promoting the correct open mindset.
Apart from opinions on individual revelations, there are some broad groupings of ways of interpreting the scripture as a whole. One major such axis is whether commands that can be understood as rules of thumb where the underlying principle seems to have become clear should still be followed as originally stated, or whether it is acceptable to follow only the underlying principle if you are confident you understand it. For example, followers of the first camp (originalists) would insist on always using ritual soap, made according to the original recipe revealed by Sapa, August 403, while followers of the second camp (essentialists) would use any convenient recipe that gives the same effect.
Another major axis of differentiation is how literally the revelations are taken. There was a trend a few decades ago of signalling allegiance to a scriptural literalism by having favourite revelations, or excerpts of them, tattooed on the chest (in response to “Engrave them also on your hearts”, in the revelation in this page's header), although nowadays that has shifted more towards a general signal of devotion, used by figurativists as well.