That’s nice of him. Part of me wishes that they made him a little more like the Mormons of the 19th century. He’s not nearly bigoted enough. I feel as though the NV devs may have unfortunately improved the reputation of Mormonism by making a Mormon the single coolest npc in the game.
you’re right. the fact that you’re able to talk him down and reshape his journey within mormonism is pretty wild. but you know, it’s also a fantasy in addition to being social commentary. I think on some level the Obsidian guys believe in the goodness of humanity even with religion involved. all of the atheistic plotlines they’ve written over the years seem to indicate so anyway
To be fair, nobody in FNV, Followers included, seems to have an understanding of Mormonism that has much to do with the actual LDS church. I might be giving Obsidian too much credit, but I took this as a subtle skewering of Mormonism, portraying it as a ghost religion that thumps its chest about having been able to survive the apocalypse when in reality it follows the baseline protestant Christianity that it began by rejecting. The specific teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young really seem to have been obliterated from history, and even Joshua Graham seems to identify Mormonism more as a tribal identity than as a theology (which is a contemporary criticism of the LDS church). To me, it’s notable that no in-game Mormons possess an actual Book of Mormon: some New Canaanites can be seen reading Scripture, but it’s always the King James Version Bible.
That’s true. I suppose that without the rigid command structure of the irl church, they’re not all that different from other Christians. That could also be because Obsidian didn’t do quite enough research, and merely assumed that Mormons would be close enough to mainline protestant Christians. I do find it strange that none of them are reading the Book of Mormon, since that’s normally seen as their main distinguishing trait by outsiders, and they certainly wouldn’t have much difficulty finding copies of it. Although it looks like they’ve lost most of their distinguishing beliefs over time, the fact that they’ve kept as much as they have is still interesting, since I can’t remember many Christians in any of the games I’ve played. Fallout 4 has the church, but it doesn’t seem to have many actual beliefs. I can’t remember anybody identifying themselves as a Protestant or a Catholic. I’m no expert on the Fallout games, so I could certainly be wrong.
It’s worth pointing out that Mormonism isn’t Christianity in any meaningful sense except for deliberate brand association. And that’s not just vaporing over the Nicene Creed, Mormonism is properly Looney Tunes and is closer to Scientology than anything else. It is actually an apotheosis cult which contends that followers will become the God of their own planet in the afterlife, and that this is exactly what God did, having originally been some dude from the planet Kolob with a God of his own. It’s for this reason specifically that I thought Obsidian was skewering Mormonism by depicting it as being debased into nothing but a name with the entire concept of exaltation and even the book of Mormon itself obliterated never to return. As far as other Christians go, I remember there being church services onboard Rivet City, but you can imagine how much work Bethsoft put into that.
he loves you and believes you are your best self
That’s nice of him. Part of me wishes that they made him a little more like the Mormons of the 19th century. He’s not nearly bigoted enough. I feel as though the NV devs may have unfortunately improved the reputation of Mormonism by making a Mormon the single coolest npc in the game.
you’re right. the fact that you’re able to talk him down and reshape his journey within mormonism is pretty wild. but you know, it’s also a fantasy in addition to being social commentary. I think on some level the Obsidian guys believe in the goodness of humanity even with religion involved. all of the atheistic plotlines they’ve written over the years seem to indicate so anyway
To be fair, nobody in FNV, Followers included, seems to have an understanding of Mormonism that has much to do with the actual LDS church. I might be giving Obsidian too much credit, but I took this as a subtle skewering of Mormonism, portraying it as a ghost religion that thumps its chest about having been able to survive the apocalypse when in reality it follows the baseline protestant Christianity that it began by rejecting. The specific teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young really seem to have been obliterated from history, and even Joshua Graham seems to identify Mormonism more as a tribal identity than as a theology (which is a contemporary criticism of the LDS church). To me, it’s notable that no in-game Mormons possess an actual Book of Mormon: some New Canaanites can be seen reading Scripture, but it’s always the King James Version Bible.
That’s true. I suppose that without the rigid command structure of the irl church, they’re not all that different from other Christians. That could also be because Obsidian didn’t do quite enough research, and merely assumed that Mormons would be close enough to mainline protestant Christians. I do find it strange that none of them are reading the Book of Mormon, since that’s normally seen as their main distinguishing trait by outsiders, and they certainly wouldn’t have much difficulty finding copies of it. Although it looks like they’ve lost most of their distinguishing beliefs over time, the fact that they’ve kept as much as they have is still interesting, since I can’t remember many Christians in any of the games I’ve played. Fallout 4 has the church, but it doesn’t seem to have many actual beliefs. I can’t remember anybody identifying themselves as a Protestant or a Catholic. I’m no expert on the Fallout games, so I could certainly be wrong.
It’s worth pointing out that Mormonism isn’t Christianity in any meaningful sense except for deliberate brand association. And that’s not just vaporing over the Nicene Creed, Mormonism is properly Looney Tunes and is closer to Scientology than anything else. It is actually an apotheosis cult which contends that followers will become the God of their own planet in the afterlife, and that this is exactly what God did, having originally been some dude from the planet Kolob with a God of his own. It’s for this reason specifically that I thought Obsidian was skewering Mormonism by depicting it as being debased into nothing but a name with the entire concept of exaltation and even the book of Mormon itself obliterated never to return. As far as other Christians go, I remember there being church services onboard Rivet City, but you can imagine how much work Bethsoft put into that.