History Main / OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions

** The Eldar believe in the existence of their gods and invoke the power of one (Khaine) on a semi-regular basis, but [[NayTheist they don't worship them]]; they mostly just use them for OhMyGods. This is because all but three of their gods were ''eaten'' by a Chaos god, and there is no real point to much of their religion anymore (except for Cegorach the Laughing God, but only the Harlequins worship him).

** In alignment with Marxism-Leninism, communist nations often tried to invoke this trope. Rather than wait for religion to naturally vanish once improved economic conditions rendered it irrelevant, they decided to hurry things along (perhaps because those "improved economic conditions" were rather slow in the coming). The Soviet Union tried multiple times to invoke this trope through anti-religious campaigns, which included propaganda, secular education, and mass executions of priests and nuns and destruction of churches. Ironically, in many of these states, the ideology of Communism simply took the place of religion, with the nation's leader (Stalin, Mao, Kim Jong il, etc.) being effectively worshipped as a god through a CultOfPersonality. Religion was considered an "enemy of the revolution" not only because it was a tool of capitalist oppression, but because it was an alternate focus of loyalty and devotion - one which was not the Communist Party or its Dear Leader.

** In alignment with Marxism-Leninism, communist nations often tried to invoke this trope. Rather than wait for religion to naturally vanish once improved economic conditions rendered it irrelevant, they decided to hurry things along (perhaps because those "improved economic conditions" were rather slow in the coming). The Soviet Union tried multiple times to invoke this trope through anti-religious campaigns, which included propaganda, secular education, and mass executions of priests and nuns and destruction of churches. Ironically, in many of these states, the ideology of Communism simply took the place of religion, with the nation's leader (Stalin, Mao, Kim Jong il, etc.) being effectively worshipped as a god through a CultOfPersonality. Religion was considered an "enemy of the revolution" not only because it was considered a tool of capitalist oppression, but because it was an alternate focus of loyalty and devotion - one which was not the Communist Party or its Dear Leader.

** In alignment with Marxism-Leninism, communist nations often tried to invoke this trope. Rather than wait for religion to naturally vanish once improved economic conditions rendered it irrelevant, they decided to hurry things along (perhaps because those "improved economic conditions" were rather slow in the coming). The Soviet Union tried multiple times to invoke this trope through anti-religious campaigns, which included propaganda, secular education, and mass executions of priests and nuns and destruction of churches. Ironically, in many of these states, the ideology of Communism simply took the place of religion, with the nation's leader (Stalin, Mao, Kim Jong il, etc.) being effectively worshipped as a god through a CultOfPersonality.

* Karl Marx agreed with this trope. He believed religion was the inevitable result of unfair and cruel economic systems; the poor and oppressed, having no hope of happiness in this life, will turn to faith, hoping to find happiness in the next world. According to Marx, a sufficiently advanced society will have no need for comforting illusions and will abandon religion. It does indeed seem to be the case that people (and therefore countries as a whole) tend to be less religious when they are wealthy and comfortable, so to some extend Marx was right.

** In alignment with Marxism-Leninism, communist nations often tried to invoke this trope. Rather than wait for religion to naturally vanish once improved economic conditions rendered it irrelevant, they decided to hurry things along. The Soviet Union tried multiple times to invoke this trope through anti-religious campaigns, which included propaganda, secular education, and mass executions of priests and nuns and destruction of churches. Ironically, in many of these states, the ideology of Communism simply took the place of religion, with the nation's leader (Stalin, Mao, Kim Jong il, etc.) being effectively worshipped as a god through a CultOfPersonality.

* Karl Marx agreed with this trope. He believed religion was the inevitable result of unfair and cruel economic systems; the poor and oppressed, having no hope of happiness in this life, will turn to faith, hoping to find happiness in the next world. According to Marx, a sufficiently advanced society will have no need for comforting illusions and will abandon religion. As it does indeed seem to be the case that people (and therefore countries as a whole) tend to be less religious when they are wealthy and comfortable, to some extend Marx was right.

** The Catholic Church was unpopular among many sections of French society, being viewed as corrupt. Most of the leading revolutionaries were secular humanists and atheists, and therefore when the revolution came they used the opportunity to not only curb the Church's power and excesses, but attempted to discredit and destroy religion and belief in God altogether, pursuing an open policy of "Dechristianization." This ranged from banning religious worship, to killing priests and nuns, to replacing religious statues with those of prominant revolutionary figures, or with certain ideals like "Liberty" or "Reason" depicted as goddesses.

** Since the Catholic Church was widely corrupt before the Revolution and the largest landowner in France, a clash between them and Revolutionary forces was inevitable, beginning with the Civic Constitution of Clergy (a highly unpopular attempt to nationalize the French Church by requesting that French priests swear to the State, become public servants and abjure the Pope) and persisting with Dechristianization, which sought to replace and convert Catholic iconography with non-religious ideas which ultimately resulted in vandalism of churches, monasteries, and graveyards. Cemeteries were defaced with "Death is an Eternal Sleep", priests and nuns were targeted and censured and often guillotined, and popular Republican movements such as the Cult of Reason, preaching the perfection of humanity through reason, and replaced busts of Jesus with busts of revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat, while the statue of the Roman goddess Liberty was installed in the Notre Dame, as a symbol of the concept. UsefulNotes/MaximilienRobespierre opposed Dechristianization, but since the Catholic Church was involved in the counter-revolution, he compromised by replacing the Cult of Reason with the Cult of the Supreme Being, hoping to win over religious sentiments by transmuting it to deist Republicanism. His Festival of the Supreme Being was a huge popular success but a political suicide, and with his downfall, it ended. Ten years later Napoleon Bonaparte brought back the Church to its prior position via his concordat after becoming Emperor.
** You can see some of the influence of the anticlerical forces in ''Film/TheSongOfBernadette''. This took place in 1858, and the French Emperor is shown declaring that an atheist is "the most stupid thing a sovereign could be", but the church is still plenty worried about anti-Catholic officials and journalists who try to use Bernadette's visions to stir up public antagonism toward the Church.
* Karl Marx himself disagreed with this trope. He castigated atheist activists of Germany, such as the Young Hegelians, for focusing exclusively on religion as the main problem of contemporary society and the key stumbling block of progress. Marx regarded income inequality as the key reason why religion had appeal, and he noted that it continued in many capitalist and developed nations such as the United States. The famous quote of his usually neglects the sentence which follows: ''The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.'' i.e. as poverty and income inequality reduces, religious belief will likewise decline and religion is just one part of the general ideology of state capitalism. A fine print that communist nations neglected. The idea may have ''some'' merit since wealthier countries have grown less religious over time, although that may not be the cause (or just one among many).
** Though, it could be argued that the income inequality-religion dynamic is due to a "Whistling past the graveyard" effect that wealth produces. In short: the more wealthy you are, the more said wealth provides a kind of buffer between yourself and the vast existential questions/dread that plague the human condition. Those who on the other hand do not have the buffering effect of wealth turn to religion instead. Tellingly, in developed countries, many people are not necessarily irreligious in terms of not believing in God/other, but in the sense that they do not even think about religion at all or at least only a little bit (putting them closer to agnostics or apatheists instead). This is not incompatible with the above as one factor in religious decline.
* Communist nations tried to invoke this in a very repressive manner. In practice, Communist nations often found themselves having to appeal to some form of traditional symbolism and usually compromised by creating a CultOfPersonality revolving around leaders made into something akin to saints and prophets.
** The Soviet Union tried multiple times to invoke this trope through anti-religious campaigns which included propaganda, secular education, and mass executions. UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin for his part promoted atheism in education and privately but he struck a balance by mostly targeting the Orthodox Church which was seen, not without cause, as oppressive to minority religions in the Russian Empire and highly reactionary. Lenin enacted laws helping or respecting Jews, Muslims, and Old Believers while he persecuted the Orthodox Church. This reversed under Stalin who initially targeted all religions, including minority beliefs, and during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII he halted the persecution of the Orthodox Church and allowed it to revive in a big way after the war until Khruschev mounted a fresh anti-religious campaign. After him, it was mostly relaxed once more.
** When Mongolia became a communist state, its leaders purged the Buddhist monks and shuttered their monasteries, when the communist regime fell in 1990, Buddhism returned, with American Protestantism arriving in the new religious tolerant Mongolia.
** Pyongyang was once known as the Jerusalem of the East, with its large number of Christian institutions. With the rise of Kim Il Sung, ironically the descendant of a Korean minister, these institutions were extirpated, and the worship of Kim became the de facto religion.
** The UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution was an ''extreme'' example of a communist state wiping out old ideas and customs, including churches and mosques, to ensure that future generations would only worship the dear leader and his revolutionary ideals. It may [[GoneHorriblyRight have worked too well]]: China today is a materialistic society where the only genuine concern is making money, with a generally oppressive political structure devoid of empathy or value system. While there is a growing Christian scene in China, it is heavily scrutinized by the government, which either closes churches or forces them to cooperate with the party line.
** Enver Hoxha's UsefulNotes/{{Albania}} implemented a ruthless form of state atheism, with Islamic observance put under strict scrutiny and mosques, and even Catholic and Orthodox churches, being demolished. Even after the fall of communism, Albania has remained a fairly secular country.
* Many Islamic states have attempted to modernize their societies, replacing Islamic culture with a secular and Western way of life. But in many cases, such as Iran, these regimes were often corrupt, triggering a reactionary backlash that led to the rise of even worse fundamentalist regimes.
* Historically, many religions have died out, but what happens is new faiths have taken their place.
** The decline of Greco-Roman polytheism and the rise of Christianity in the late Roman Empire was driven by the increasing corruption of the Roman elites. Simply put, many people found the Christian message of a loving God and equality to be comforting as Rome stumbled from one crisis to another.
** While the decline of Aztec religion is (somewhat truthfully) depicted as cultural genocide on the part of the Spanish, many Aztecs genuinely liked the Christian faith, since the Christian god didn't ask his followers for blood sacrifices. In fact, the Aztec's brutal ritual killings drove many tribes to the side of Cortez.
** In recent decades, Catholicism's once unshakeable grip on Latin America has faltered due to the corruption and scandals at the Vatican. But Catholicism has been replaced by other sects of Christianity, like Pentecostalism in Brazil. It has also been replaced by atheism or even Islam.

** The Doctor shows particular respect to Buddhism in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E2TheAbominableSnowmen The Abominable Snowmen]]"; he bows to the wisdom of a Buddhist priest, returns to them a sacred item, and uses Buddhist prayer to help Victoria resist the Great Intelligence. The ExpandedUniverse book ''Eye of Heaven'' has the Fourth Doctor recount the unshown adventure leading up to "The Abominable Snowman", claiming that his life had been saved by Buddhist faith healing performed on him by the priest, and using "Buddhist wisdom" to put himself into a "healing coma" that allowed him to recover from being shot through the heart.

** This was {{enforced|Trope}} in the first four seasons of the reboot series, which had little to no mention of magic or religion. Showrunner Creator/RussellTDavies was a staunch atheist, found it utterly implausible for the Doctor or any of his advanced alien cohorts to be religious, and declared, "[[AuthorTract That's what I believe, so that's what you're going to get]]. Tough, really. To get rid of those so-called agendas, you've got to get rid of me" (The heartbreakingly beautiful rendition of the hymn "The Old Rugged Cross" in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E3Gridlock Gridlock]]" notwithstanding, apparently).
** Davies was followed by Creator/StevenMoffat, who threw both sides of religion back into the mix. The {{Big Bad}}s of series 5 and 6 were an intergalactic religious order who manipulate people through post-hypnotic commands, and religion and the military became [[ChurchMilitant practically the same thing]] in the future. Series 7 reveals that the previous {{Big Bad}}s, though, were a splinter faction from what's essentially Space Catholicism; while he may not agree with her order's tenets, the Doctor is good friends with Tasha Lem, Mother Superious of the Church of the Papal Mainframe.

* ''Literature/{{Semiosis}}'': {{Invoked|Trope}} by the humans who first colonize the planet Pax; they consider religion an "Earthly irrationality" and deliberately avoid teaching their descendants about it.

* ''Series/TheOrville'': Creator/SethMacFarlane has never made it a secret about how he views religion (see ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' below). Add the show's Franchise/StarTrek flavor of humanism, and it's no shock that this trope is heavily in play.
** {{Discussed|Trope}} in regard to the Krill, as unlike most advanced civilizations, they have ''increased'' in religiosity rather than decreasing. Their religion teaches that other species are soulless abominations lacking in true intelligence and sentience, more akin to animals than people, going so far as to use captive humans as sacrifices. Later they explain that species have been observed as having two reactions to finding other life and going into space. One is becoming humble, and no longer thinking they were the center of the universe. The other is doubling down, becoming very xenophobic. Obviously, the Krill did that. Ed mentions before they were more peaceful, and it's possible also had a more passive interpretation of their religion.
** Seems to be the way for society in general as by the 29th century, where "You can go to hell" is a complete ''non sequitur''.

** The society influenced by Kelly during its Bronze Age eventually grows out of religious fundamentalism and embraces reason. Not only that but, [[spoiler:eventually, they achieve TheSingularity and become akin to gods themselves: immortal and able to manipulate reality]].
** Humans appear to no longer have believers in astrology, as when dealing with the Regorians (with a belief system that's entirely based on it) some must have the basic ''concept'' explained. They also hope that, due to their efforts, the Regorians will outgrow their belief too (which is basically the religion there).

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E65TheObsoleteMan The Obsolete Man]]" was set in a future society where religion had been outlawed. Only one man still believed in God, and he was sentenced to death for being obsolete. He was allowed to choose how he died; he chose to be bombed on live television. The high official who sentenced him to death came to his cell to speak with him, only for [[LockedInAFreezer the door to lock behind him.]] He [[spoiler:panicked and shouted, "In the name of God, let me out!" The condemned man did -- in the name of God. In the final scene, the official is sentenced to death for being obsolete.]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* ''Fanfic/{{Eugenesis}}'': The people of Cybertron have taken on this attitude after the first time [[PlanetEater Unicron]] showed up to eat everyone, with "theo-scientists" pouring out of the woodwork to calmly disseminate every aspect of Cybertron's religious texts. Of course, even they haven't figured out how the Matrix functions. And they become oddly quiet when the subject of the built-in kill-switch every Cybertronian has comes up.

* Zigzagged in ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. Chakotay follows the spiritual beliefs of his Lakota ancestors, which is regarded as a [[LibertariansInSpace Belter eccentricity]] by Captain Janeway who has little regard for these wacky religious cults because she was raised as a Scientologist like most people on Earth. Agritech Keshari on the other hand wears a turban and believes in reincarnation, implying that she's a Sikh. The Catholic church is also making an aggressive push to gain new converts among extraterran races. HalfHumanHybrid B'Elanna Torres was raised in a Catholic convent on Venus, though she quickly hides her rosary when Chakotay comes to see her.

-->'''Shepard:''' Everyone has the right to believe what they want. Says so on the Alliance charter... only in fancier words.

** The Immortal GodEmperor of Mankind ''tried'' to invoke this, creating a society of {{Flat Earth Atheist}}s because he thought it would [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly starve the Chaos gods]] (which was not only unlikely to work, [[TheHeartless as the Chaos Gods don't need worship]], but [[NiceJobBreakingItHero backfired]] because while people were channeling their emotions to those religions, they were denying them to the Chaos Gods). [[CrapsackWorld Being 40K]], it failed miserably and made everything worse. Ironically, he himself ended up being worshiped by the humans of the Imperium.

* In ''TabletopGame/CthulhuTech'', Christianity and Islam are gone; it's not really expounded upon, they're just gone. Presumably, the very real and somewhat provable existence of the old ones made everyone less interested in religions that have a very specific worldview that excludes them.

* In ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', background material mentions that upon taking control of Earth, the United Powers League (later the United Earth Directorate) promoted state atheism, banning or co-opting all religions and exiling or killing those who didn't adhere (alongside political prisoners, cyber-deviants and other undesirables) in an effort to stamp out the things that have divided the human society. As a result, the territories of the UPL/UED are non-religious, while the Koprulu Sector is teeming with religious groups, ranging from mainstream Christianity to CrystalDragonJesus and to even stranger {{Cult}}s and movements.

** Earthborn humans tend to be atheist and at least one character remarks that "we don't believe in God on Earth in the 25th century". To which a Denali responds, [[RussianReversal "That's okay, He believes in you."]] In this vein, humans from worlds other than Earth tend to be more commonly religiously inclined, and it's noted that the Bajorans, who are members of the Federation but tend to dislike Earth specifically, feel some kinship to them for this: in "Fanfic/SoundTheAlarm", Kanril Eleya is particularly infuriated to see Orion slave raiders have murdered an Episcopal priestess and burned her church. Moab III in particular has a large Orthodox Jewish population, having been settled originally by (among other things) Israelis who were displaced by the destruction of Israel in WorldWarIII, and Elizabeth Tran at one point criticizes what she sees as the conversion of the Holy Land to something resembling a theme park of "what we ''used'' to believe".

** During one of the {{Courtroom Episode}}s on Bajor in ''Fanfic/CreateYourOwnFate'', Eleya mentions watching the face of the Federation's lawyer to see what he thinks of the court session opening with a public prayer, narrating that "separation of church and state is a hazy thing for us". (This is something that would never happen in a real-life US court, never mind a Federation court.)

** {{Downplayed|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheLostFleet'', in which most religious beliefs have been supplanted by ancestor worship. In fact, every warship has a chapel located deep inside it, in the most protected part of the ship. Geary ends every message with, "To the honor of our ancestors," which is apparently some sort of traditional formality that is rarely observed in modern times. [[OneNationUnderCopyRight The Syndicate Worlds]] play the trope a bit straighter; it's mentioned in passing in the first of ''Literature/TheLostStars'' spinoff series that observance of the same ancestor-worship practices seen in the Alliance are officially frowned upon (probably because nobody could figure out how to exploit them for money or power) but not actually outlawed.

** ''Literature/TowerAndTheHive'' plays this mostly straight. Those few protagonists who espouse a belief in a higher power are, at most, vaguely Deist. Those who are openly devout are almost always portrayed as mentally unstable troublemakers. Organized religious populations are shunted to backwater worlds where "the harm they can do is minimized."

* In ''Literature/SpaceViking'' by Creator/HBeamPiper, religion as such isn't used by many of the space-faring human societies, and those that do, such as the [[SpaceJews Gilgameshers]], are considered rather odd. The current stellar calendar dates from the beginning of the "Atomic Era", mid-twentieth century. (Whether they date from the first atomic explosion at Alamogordo or the bomb dropped on Hiroshima isn't specified.) On Gram, New Year's is specified as a day when gifts are given and received, apparently having taken up Christmas' role.

** While this appears to some extent in [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration the sequel series]], due to series creator Creator/GeneRoddenberry being a proponent of the idea, [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the Original Series]] directly [[AvertedTrope averted this trope]] at its inception, due to a strong focus on multiculturalism. In fact, Kirk's ''Enterprise'' canonically has an interfaith chapel: It appears in the wedding ceremony (which Kirk, like a 20th Century naval captain, gets to officiate) in "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror Balance of Terror]]". It is also mentioned on the list of sets in the Original Series's 1960s [[UniverseBible writer's guide]], and is shown in [[http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/star-trek-blueprints.php the official Blueprints of the U.S.S. Enterprise]].[[note]][[http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/star-trek-blueprints-sheet-8.jpg See Here: the room marked CP for "chapel"]][[/note]] The wedding ceremony includes the phrase, "in accordance with our laws and many beliefs."
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E2WhoMournsForAdonais Who Mourns for Adonais?]]", Kirk tells Apollo (or at least a being who claims to be Apollo) the following: "Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate."[[note]]He said that because NBC's Standards and Practices department required it, but onward.[[/note]] Kirk also reveals a more spiritual side at the end of the episode when he tells Bones, "They gave us so much... would it have hurt us to gather just a ''few'' laurel leaves?"
*** The PlanetOfHats that Kirk et. al. visit in "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E25BreadAndCircuses Bread and Circuses]]" is a rather Roman Empire-based one, where [[spoiler:a former Starfleet captain]] acts as the [[JustTheFirstCitizen First Citizen]]. They also met a small group of people that were a mix of LaResistance and worshipers of "the Sun". After the fact, Uhura reveals she'd monitored their radio broadcasts and discovered they were talking not of the Sun in the sky, but the [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} Son of God]]. Also of note is that earlier in the episode, when asked by a local about the crew's religion, [=McCoy=] says they "represent many beliefs."
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer The Ultimate Computer]]", the fact that Federation computer expert Dr. Daystrom -- and, [[ReligiousRobot consequently, the sentient computer he has built]] -- believes in God[[note]]The machine says "Murder is contrary to the laws of man and God."[[/note]] becomes a plot point. Kirk makes the computer realize that [[spoiler:in committing murder, it has committed a terrible sin. Out of remorse, it self-destructs]].
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E7DayOfTheDove Day of the Dove]]", Kirk tells Kang, "Go to the Devil!" Kang replies, "We [Klingons] have no Devil... but we are very familiar with the habits of yours." Cue use of torture. Years later, ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'' then introduced a figure in Klingon religion named Fek'lhr in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E13DevilsDue Devil's Due]]", who is described as their "Devil". However, he's really more akin to Cerberus from Myth/ClassicalMythology, being a warden of their Hell.

*** The most {{Anvilicious}}ly atheistic ''Star Trek'' ever got was in the third season ''TNG'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E4WhoWatchesTheWatchers Who Watches the Watchers]]". A group of Federation scientists are using holographic technology to watch a primitive Vulcanoid culture that has apparently abandoned religion. The Federation equipment breaks down, revealing their existence and "magical powers" to the locals, one of whom declares they must be gods and tries to restart the Old Time Religions. Picard takes the leader up and explains to her that the Federation are merely {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s, not gods. The episode then goes into AuthorFilibuster mode, referring to humanity's religious era as "the dark ages of superstition and ignorance and fear." Afterwards, an away team goes down to the planet to explain how irrational it is to believe in gods, saying that they never show up or tell believers what they want and that believers are left putting their faith in what other mortals tell them. This episode is particularly ironic given that the episode directly prior literally dealt with a godlike being showing up and causing interstellar destruction.

*** In "The Omega Directive," from what Seven of Nine says, the Borg appear to have something close to a religion regarding their attitude toward the Omega Particle. She compares it to Chakotay's belief in the Great Spirit, and Janeway interprets Seven's reaction to seeing the particle as a spiritual experience.

** This was {{enforced|Trope}} in the first four seasons of the reboot series, which had little to no mention of magic or religion. Showrunner Creator/RussellTDavies was a staunch atheist, found it utterly implausible for the Doctor or any of his advanced alien cohorts to be religious, and declared, "[[AuthorTract That's what I believe, so that's what you're going to get]]. Tough, really. To get rid of those so-called agendas, you've got to get rid of me." (The heartbreakingly beautiful rendition of the hymn "The Old Rugged Cross" in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E3Gridlock Gridlock]]" notwithstanding, apparently.)

** The Thirteenth Doctor is shown to be very respectful of religions, even participating in a few minor but important prayers. The Doctor is mentioned in something called "the Book of Celebrants," and she apologizes for her ignorance when she mistook some time-traveling priests for murderers (they show up whenever someone dies alone to pray with them).
** As a side note, Time Lord society has always incorporated a lot of vaguely ecclesiastical imagery — e.g., the robes and skullcaps, the rank of "cardinal," and the TARDIS alarm being called the Cloister Bell.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Blake has to explain to Gan what a church is as "The Federation had them all destroyed at the [[YearZero beginning of the New Calendar]]." Various fictional religions are shown however, so it's not as if humanity has outgrown the need; on the prison planet Cygnus Alpha the rulers have created a religion specifically to prevent discord among the inhabitants, and the Clonemasters are a SinglePreceptReligion created by the Terran Federation to black box cloning technology. Other than these examples however the trope is played straight, as we don't see anyone turning to religious belief to cope with their existence in a CrapsackWorld. Neither does the Federation use a state religion as a tool of power, which they'd certainly do if religious beliefs had any currency among the population.

* [[AvertedTrope Actively averted]] in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech''. All five Successor States have active and vibrant religions and religious traditions. Alongside Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and the other mainstream real-life faiths, many, many new in-universe faiths have cropped up from the benign[[note]]such as the Unfinished Book Movement in the Federated Suns, which aims to compile all the Inner Sphere's holy texts into a massive sacred encyclopedia[[/note]] to the esoteric [[note]]the technophobic Exituri of Shiloh[[/note]]. Notable amongst the religions in the setting is [=ComStar=] which was a constructed religion intent originally on preserving the technological knowledge of the Inner Sphere from the coming Succession Wars. Unfortunately, the faith's founders realized and feared, but were powerless to stop the eventual corruption of that ideal into the Word of Blake. All in all, religion is presented fairly even-handedly for a science fiction setting [[note]]YMMV, though, on the ''accuracy'' of what's presented, with writers occasionally making well-intentioned mistakes such as having a Catholic priest say "By the power vested in me by the Curia and His Holiness, I excommunicate you and condemn you to eternal Purgatory."[[/note]].

** The Grineer spit upon all other religions and traditions as primitive, but they worship the "Twin Queens," a pair of sisters who receive the unconditional love and devotion of all Grineer. For quite a while it's unclear if the Twin Queens are still alive, but it turns out that they are, making them {{God Empress}}es.

** Similarly, in the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Of Ice And Men" set in 2045, with the present referred to as "when people still believed in Literature/TheBible."

* Religion is rarely mentioned in the classic Universal Century timeline of ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''. In fact, the UC calendar was originally established in order to invoke this trope and usher in an [[{{Irony}} utopian age]] [[CrapsackWorld for mankind]]. There is still room for any number of fringe cults, but these mostly have political ulterior motives, such as the Zanscare Empire in ''Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam'' or the myriad manifestations of Zeon ideology.

* A sketch on ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall'' featured a futuristic society that celebrated [[YouMeanXmas Bellini Day]], in which the characters referred to a time period where mankind was so stupid they actually believed in someone named God.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' it generally depends on an empire's chosen ethos on the Materialist-Spiritualist axis, and the strength of those two factions within the empire [[note]]a materialist empire can still end up with a strong spiritualist faction, and vice versa[[/note]]. How exactly the Materialsts view [[EldritchLocation the Shroud]], the [[EldritchAbomination various Extradimensional Beings]], the [[DealWithTheDevil Covenants]] and the [[PsychicPowers Psionic techs]] is uncertain. As of Apocalypse, there's also [[GalacticConqueror the Great Khan]], who, when asked why they don't speak of their people's former religious beliefs, pretty much replies with this (though he promises not to enforce state atheism upon his satraps).

*** In "The Omega Directive," from what Seven says, the ''Borg'' appear to have something close to a religion regarding their attitude toward the Omega Particle. She compares it to Chakotay's belief in the Great Spirit, and Janeway describes Seven's reaction to seeing the particle as a spiritual experience.

* The alien Nemesites in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' appear to have some kind of religion involving a figure named Gaxnarp, complete with holidays, but we are not given any details about it (earlier strips have them sometimes exclaim "Sweet Film/{{Mothra}}!" (they're a race of butterfly people, after all), but it's treated as a joke).
** Bob has ended up having conversations about religion and spiritual meaning with both artificial being [[http://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/269 Galatea]] and later with her [[MechanicalAbomination "son,"]] [[http://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/914/ Gosh the Butterfly of Iron.]]

** Creator J. Michael Straczynski, an atheist himself, deliberately avoided this trope in the series (in contrast with ''Franchise/StarTrek''), with all the major species having beliefs of various kinds and strengths, and a mix of believers and non-believers. The straightest example is probably [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Lorien]], who says his people have lived so long they simply had no more use for such things. In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveTheLostTales01 The Lost Tales]]", mention is made of how religion has been declining since humanity went to space and made contact with other races, but it still has a considerable presence in Earth-influenced space and among the alien races. The Catholic Church is alive and well; over the course of the series, Babylon 5 becomes home to a small but thriving Dominican community who mostly concern themselves with comparative religious studies. Babylon 5 is also chosen to host an ecumenical conference at one point (involving Catholics, a Baptist church complete with gospel choir and a delegation from the Church of Elvis). [[spoiler:In the BadFuture shown in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS04E22TheDeconstructionOfFallingStars The Deconstruction of Falling Stars]]", orders of monks also preserve humans' knowledge after nuclear war wipes out civilization, much like monasteries did during the Dark Ages.]] Humanity's main distinction is just ''how many'' extant religions there are; in an event in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E05TheParliamentOfDreams The Parliment of Dreams]]" where all the ambassadors were displaying their cultures' dominant faiths, the Human exhibition was just a long line of people who all had different beliefs.

* ''VideoGame/PandoraFirstContact'', the other SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'':