What the Constitution says about religion.

The Miradi religion.

The Shufrantei  religion.

The Hiestat religion.

Krathnami and the other Prophets of Bergonia.

The Ancient Gods

Miracles in Bergonian religion.

Cosmology of the ancient Bergonians.

Religion and Socialism, why the two need not be opposed.

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to A. von Humboldt, 6 Dec 1813

Miradi, the native faith, the majority religion, founded rather unintentionally by Prophet Ierecina who died a plain, un-miraculous death in 999 AD (except for all the butterflies).  This faith has minimal dogma, but full of practical disciplines.  It is a "psychological" religion, like Buddhism, holding that human psychology is defective, easily warped and weakened through bad living, and that humans can achieve real vision through good living, prayer and devotion.  Real vision results in awareness of the holiness and universality of all things.  This religion has no dogma about any afterlife. 

Religion in
Pre-Columbian Bergonia:

Over the course of the centuries, long before the White Man came, Bergonians developed complex religions, rites and theology.  In ancient Bergonia, the dominant (though hardly the only) religion was called Shufrantei, founded by the prophet Ierecina, who died in 202 BC.  Shufrantei dominated nearly all Bergonia.  

Over the course of a thousand years Shufrantei splintered into sects and suffered challenges from the upstart Hiestat and other sects. People grew cynical.  Into the spiritual vacuum stepped a new prophet.  His name was Krathnami and he founded Miradi, the religion that thrives today.  In 999 A.D Krathnami died an ordinary death, unadorned by ascension or other miracles.  Miradi is the simplest of religions, eschewing doctrine and ritual in favor of prayer and meditation.  It superceded both Shufrantei and Hiestat.

Shufrantei, the major religion of ancient Bergonia.  Its founder, the Great Prophet Ierecina created a great written body of polytheistic myth and proclaimed a detailed theology and psychology.  He also established a conquering military regime that spread out after his miraculous death in 202 BC and conquered most Bergonia.  Shufrantei believers practiced cleansing rites to wash the soul of spiritual pollution that builds up from sinful acts (not thoughts but acts).  A polluted soul will not survive death and have no afterlife, while a cleansed soul survives the ordeal of dying and crosses over to "the Mansions of the Heavens." 

The Prophets, purveyors of religious faith throughout Berg history, including Ierecina and the Nine Minor Prophets who followed him, and Krathnami.

The Ancient Gods of Shufrantei, led by Arcan and Icotesi, Emperor and Empress of the Universe.  These are the figures in the mythology prescribed by the prophet Ierecina.  

Hiestat, a subversive religion in medieval times, opposed to and persecuted by Shufrantei.

Christianity in Bergonia, brought by European conquistadors, missionaries and colonists.  Approximately 29% of Bergonians are Christians or "Neo-Christians."

Miracles in Bergonian religion.

The Cosmology of the ancient Bergonians.

The Books of Dreams

62% of Bergonians, 106 million people, practice Miradi, organized as follows:

Eight main denominations called "Temple Affiliations," each with its own customary "rule and rite," and each with a network of affiliated universities, print, television and internet media, monasteries, charities and art trusts.

There are also five "Night Ways" of magic and traditional healing.  There is nothing exclusive about the affiliations between any of the eight denominations and any of the Night Ways.  Most worshippers actually have nothing to do with the Night Ways.

28% practice Christianity (including "neo-Christianity"), a total of 48 million, of which:

15% are Catholic, 25 million.

6% are Protestant, 10 million, largely consisting of Whites, divided into four groups: (a) French-speaking Calvinist Huguenots, descended from French settlers, (b) English speaking Anglicans, descended from English settlers, (b) a handful of Pentecostals, Quakers, Mennonites, Anabaptists and other dissenters, descended from English settlers (plus a few Germans), and (d) a handful of Pentecostals and evangelicals, of all races, American influenced, 

3% are affiliated with native Christian churches, including the 2 million affiliated with the "Bergonian Catholic Church of Christ," which imitates Catholic ritual and doctrine in Bergonian vernaculars, founded by "Saint Alberto" in 1634 and headed by an Archbishop in Varsca. 

4% are affiliated with native "Neo-Christian" sects.  These small churches accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but reject the Trinity or otherwise deviate fundamentally from the Nicene Creed which has defined Christianity for centuries.  All Christian churches considered these sects heretical. 

900,000 Jews live in Bergonia.  The first Jews arrived in Bergonia in the late 1500s, fleeing persecution in Spain and France.  Because Christians constituted a minority of the population, Jews were freer to construct their own institutions.  The Bergonian Jews avoided all the ethnic conflicts of the 1830's.  When the atrei realized how the Christian Europeans persecuted Jews, they sympathized with the Jews.  Jewish colonists quickly learned to speak the atrei languages.  In time Jewish professionals and educators served as an important link between atrei intellectuals and other Europeans.

This leaves about 9% of the total who disclaim any religious affiliation or practice.

The commonwealth's constitution is much more explicit about the role of religion than the American constitution.  Religious expression and education are explicitly guaranteed.  However, the constitution prescribes how a church may be punished or disbanded when it ceases acting like a church.  

It is, in the Bergonian view, ridiculous for socialists, radicals and other revolutionaries to condemn religion and alienate religious people.  Likewise it is ridiculous for Christians and other religious people to believe that socialism is anything but compatible with their own values.  (See A. Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy.)  Religious and socialist values both include altruism, social interest, compassion and loyalty to the community, and both should properly oppose capitalist greed, pride, materialist fetishism, and excessive individualism.  In general, religion does often serve valid social purposes, and every materialist should admit to its social utility.

In modern capitalist societies religion is irrelevant to dominant marketing priorities, and even inimical to them, and thus corporate-controlled media has virtually banned all mention of God and all religious themes.  It is not surprising that Christian and other religious tendencies have greater visibility in socialist Bergonia's media than in the US.