First off, I'm referring to the new 4X game Humankind by Amplitude Studios, not to our species, though we certainly have problems related to religion.
Second, I think Humankind is better than Civ 6, and I really like Civ 6, so I will not accept any accusations of partisanship on behalf of Mr. Meier.
Third, this post is substantially different from my video discussing the mechanical improvements I would like to see in Humankind's religion system, so if you have seen that video I promise you this is not rehash. If you haven't seen it, well, let me just put this here for you:
This post is not about game mechanics, but about a suspicion I have regarding the reason why Humankind's religion system feels, as so many commentators have said already, "tacked on." I do not think this suspicion alone is a sufficient explanation - I admit could be completely wrong - but I think it may be a significant factor. I think that religion feels "tacked on" in the game because that's how many, if not most, of the game's developers think about religion in the real world. Let me explain.
When you start a game of Humankind, the opening cinematic talks about stories in our universe. It indicates that most of the universe is quite boring, given that the stories are about rocks and dust, but that the story of our species, which takes place on a particularly "wet rock," is actually interesting. You then hear talk of amino acids self-organizing into life, life growing more complex, and life leaving the water to eventually yield some hominids with enough brains to cooperate and make some really sharp rocks. Humanity's rise ensues. It is as scientific, and dare I say technocratic, an account of the emergence of life on Earth as you please. Not a whiff of the supernatural is there to bother your materialist nose.
This cinematic gives the game away. From the outset, it is understood that a materialist conception of reality is the truth, and religion is something humans mistakenly "tacked on" to their lives. The game is not too blatant at first. Perhaps there is an event that emphasizes how "mere prayers" cannot protect against disease. You may wonder why you gain no fame for acquiring the fourth and final tenet for your religion, or for converting the entire world to your faith. By later turns things become clear: the final civic in the religion tree is a choice about abandoning faith, which, granted, you do not have to purchase, but the game makes it seem like your people are abandoning your holy sites when your faith score has never been stronger and your follower count has never been higher. Abandoning religion seems like the natural way things go. After all, it was only ever "tacked on" to begin with and never had any real explanatory power or supernatural efficacy. Now we have science and culture and... things! Who needs religion? Even the faith score itself does nothing except gain you more followers, a purely psycho/social phenomenon. No gods or devils to trouble you here!
The Amplitude team has indicated the religion is one of the systems that will be reviewed, along with pollution* (what does that pairing tell you?), and updates will be made in future patches. Good. But why did religion get this treatment in the first place? Well, if religion is not something central or significantly meaningful to the game developers, then it makes sense that it is not central to the game. I do not merely mean that most Amplitude developers do not rigorously practice a traditional religion, though I would bet that is the case. That in itself would mean they would not be experiencing religion "on the inside" so to speak, which would limit their understanding and sympathy. But what I really think is going on is that their philosophical commitments preclude any possibility that religion might contain some metaphysical truth. Why do I suggest this?
Well, it is because they're French.
I mean no disrespect to France or her people. My father's ancestry winds back through Canada to France. What I am saying is that modern France is very secular, and the way France has understood religion since the revolution has been with what Americans may think of as a more extreme form of as separation of Church and State. Laicite is not equivalent to the American constitution's establishment and free exercise clauses. Americans enjoy freedom of religion, which indicates that religion has a public role to play in society. Laicite is more like the "freedom of worship" some progressives wish freedom of religion would become: religion that is purely private. A citizen's public face should have no trace of religion on it. Public policy should have no residue of the sacred on it. The state is wholly divorced from religion; France achieved this divorce with the guillotine.
And many people think it a good thing! I am not here to argue that point; I just wish to point out that France's urban professionals are much more likely to agree with the idea that religion is just something that is "tacked on," something that is not essential, than their counterparts in the United States. Not that urban professionals tend to be terribly religious in the West. But when only about 5% of the French population attends Church regularly, it is reasonable to think that Amplitude Studios may have vanishingly few developers who are traditionally religious, if it has any at all.
As I wrote above, I could be wrong. I would be happy to find out I am wrong! But I think I am least partly right. Perhaps someone from Amplitude will read this post and offer context, or even a direct correction. Perhaps it is just the nature of development schedules that something had to be less polished (why did it have to be religion?). Perhaps there are big plans for Faith in a coming patch or expansion (I have a good idea in my video above!). But perhaps I am hitting close to the mark. Video games that include major religious elements will be better if actual religious people are involved in their development. There are still many, many gamers who take religion very seriously, if not in France, then at least where I live. Humankind is not the first game to stumble in this regard, and it will not be the last. But it is not hard to prevent such missteps. All developers have to do is acknowledge that people who do not share their worldviews may still have something vitally important to contribute. Isn't that part of authentic diversity, and isn't authentically representing the diversity of humankind one of the central goals of Humankind?
Unless of course some elements of diversity are only important enough to be tacked on.
*I finished this post before the most recent patch beta was made available. I understand that pollution has gotten some significant changes, while religion has received... one. Tacked on indeed.