Friday, September 13, 2024

The Religion Of Unitology

On an epistemological level, all scientific paradigms and laws are absolutely unverifiable beyond the probabilistic evidence of subjective perceptions, and all religious metaphysics that are not true by logical necessity (such as the existence of a basic uncaused cause, as simple theism is true independent of any religion) are likewise unverifiable beyond probabilistic evidence for ideas like the resurrection of Christ [1].  Jesus was probably resurrected, just like the world probably has the laws of gravitation or entropy that it appears to possess, but none of these things are logically provable.  As long as two things are logically consistent with each other, though, they can both be true even if one or both are unverifiable for humans.

The religion of Unitology in the Dead Space franchise does not contradict scientific paradigms/laws.  It is in some ways a religion with very scientifically explicit philosophical doctrines.  This is not particularly emphasized by words this directly in the first game, but it is true by necessity given the details that are provided about this philosophy that spans religion and biology.  Unitology is an example of a hypothetical religion that is very thoroughly about science, particularly biological life and death as a means of becoming united with God.  As long as the events shown in the game are not some sort of sensory illusion altogether, Unitology would be partially accurate in that its tenets match the basic pseudo-eternal life that zombified creatures called Necromorphs receive as long as their Marker, either an alien artifact shaped like a double helix or an artificial recreation of one, is active.  These objects could perhaps last as long as the universe does.


Yes, Unitology has a very atypical set of tenets regarding God, resurrection, and the afterlife.  Yes, many variations of religious or even non-religious theistic philosophies one might hear of touch upon death and some kind of afterlife.  The Bible teaches a state of soul sleep until bodily resurrection [2] (Daniel 12:2), but at the resurrection, there is an afterlife--for some, temporary, and for some, eternal (John 3:16, Romans 6:23, Matthew 10:28).  The Quran teaches that there is the Garden for Muslims and the Fire for the wicked after death (Surah 2:24-25), with both sets of inhabitants having eternal life unlike what Christianity holds to (compare Surah 2:81-82 with 2 Peter 2:6).  Unlike the Bible, the Quran is less repeatedly plain about its stance on the issue of soul sleep or an intermediate afterlife before the Day of Resurrection (Surah 7:13-15).


However, in the religion of Unitology, promoted by a church of people who help unleash the Necromorphs upon the USG Ishimura, death and subsequent bodily transformation of an alternate kind are the supposed pathways to God.  The resurrection of Unitology is not of the eschatological future after collective humanity is brought back to bodily life and conscious experience, whether in stages or in a single event, as orchestrated by an uncaused cause.  Tied to a pathogen and a Marker, the Necromorphs are reanimated, hostile creatures related to the religion.  These zombified organisms are assumed by Unitologists to be integral to the afterlife of sorts, created first by a signal from a Marker to dead tissue and then spread to additional corpses from the pathogen carried by Necromorphs themselves.  United by a hive mind, the Necromorphs embody the alleged wholeness that awaits humanity after death.

As long as a religion is consistent with logical axioms and all other necessary truths, it is possible, meaning that even if it is not true, it could have been since it has no inherent contradiction with axioms, another strictly logical truth, or itself.  There are many types of potential religions even if only some are logically possible (which would not necessitate that they are true, only that they could be or could have been).  A religion might feature a deity that both exists and does not exist at the same time, making it a false religion due to its contradiction but still a religious ideology that could be irrationalistically but sincerely embraced by someone.  A religion could feature dozens and dozens of uncaused causes rather than one, as with Islam.

Unitology falls into this category of somewhat unconventional religions.  Now, any truly divine involvement in the phenomena of the Markers and Necromorphs is logically possible but unverifiable, not following by logical necessity from the observed events, and it would be unclear if the Necromorphs even have their own genuine consciousness at all or just appear to have it--something epistemologically true of all other people and animals [3], not just zombies in a fictional story.  Still, Unitology is a religion, having very loose similarities with the established religions of Earth players might be familiar with.  Religion, in the sense of what a religious philosophy could be no matter if a given example is logically impossible in itself, is far broader than what some people might think of when they reflect on the word.



[2].

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