I think the game is more focused on survival as opposed to the villagers' personal spirituality. People adapt with their environment and situations and through their more spiritual actions they're adapting to their new home. One of the key survival tactics is to explore the area and learn as much as you can so you can to do this adaptation.

I live in a Christian community although I am not Christian but sometimes I find myself having to partake in the activities anyway in respect of my friends and community. This is different for everyone of course, just a little example

We, as the guiding hands of our villagers, are helping them survive and satisfy their curiosity of their new home. They are given the tools of the villagers of the past to survive and our villagers choose to honor their hard work and livelihood. Perhaps this island needs that level of spirituality for the villagers to survive, although the puzzles hint that it's just a part of discovering the island's history.

I respect everyone's belief systems and traditions and even partake in them without being part of that religion myself, this is what I see in our little villagers. The island was once someone else's home and I would restore it and respect the area as I would my own home. This is where the clever use of the word "honor" appears instead of "worship".

I would find it disrespectful if our villagers removed the ruins and built different things to make it more religion-specific. Just imagine if that rock was carved into a specific religious figure I would've had an issue with the game if that happened!

Well, I must add that I was only talking on the idea of the programming of the game - most on the looks than on the religious meaning of that.

Like Rock said, you'll have lots of "religious", or rather historical, inferences on the game - I got that as more of a recollection of rituals than anything else.

I see them as a new civilization establishing their own religious rites, and we might not forget that it's only a game.

So I think that calling that one religion or other is irrelevant - they have their own religion and that's all.

I was actually amazed by the proportion this topic got as we were only discussing if the flowers were supposed to stay there a while or not.

OH, and I must agree with Lyss - if the idol really had some specific religious meaning I'd have issues with the game to - and so would lots of people, I think.

The post that got this discussion rolling was:



I did mention that the villagers are free to have their own ideals as all of us have in real life! The key point is that the game was not designed with any religious specifics so the discussion probably did go too far >_<

As for the idol, I personally think it would be nice for the flowers to last a little longer than they do currently. I'm not sure if the programming would be too complicated to add in a little timer as opposed to instant evaporation It would be nice to open the game to see the flowers as a little surprise.

Ok, this thread has grown beyond the bounds of being helpful, or answering a question. It is rapidly deteriorating into a philosophical discussion.

Sorry, but I'm going to exercise my moderators rights and lock it. Feel free to appeal to the administrators (LadyCFII or Xay) if you feel I am out of bounds. They do have the power to over ride my decision.