Are there any good examples of wacky cyberpunk religions? I remember watching Johnny Mnemonic and noticing Dolph Lundgren’s character being a priest in the “Chuch of Transformation” or something like that. I was also reading Count Zero a few months ago and noticed L Ron Hubbard being mentioned in a religious context. Are there any more examples of cyberpunk religions in books, movies, video games, anime, etc?
I know some interesting examples outside cyberpunk that would fit in cyberpunk. First, in the 40k universe, there’s the Adeptus Mechanicus, who basically worship technology, and regard maintaining it with spiritual reverance, “machine spirits” and the like. Second is in Battletech, where the monopolistic communications conglomerate, Comstar, has a religious arm with some of the same beliefs as the Mechanicus, so, corporate religion. So, if I was writing a cyberpunk story, I’d probably have tech cults or corporate religion/theocracy.
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Echopraxia by Peter Watts has a cult that (from what I remember) use some sort of cybernetic implant to coalesce into a sort of hive mind where each person is essentially a neuron in a much larger more powerful brain. They can plug into the hivemind at which point they have access to way more information and are in a sort of religious state of ecstasy that they come back from with some sort of new scientific discovery or revelation.
The episode Brain Scratch from Cowboy Bebop has one:
Faye suddenly turns up on a chat show, singing the praises of a religious cult. The Bebop crew must find the cult’s leader before it’s too late, both for him and his new acolyte Faye Valentine.
Not quite the same, but in the original/first run of Ghost Rider 2099, the whole origin story of Ghost Rider gets remixed Cyberpunk-style. Instead of a deal with the devil for supernatural powers, he makes a deal with AIs living in a secret part of the Internet, and they make him a combat droid body to replace his dead flesh.
Inspired by the Street Preacher from Johnny Mnemonic (and Guts from Berserk), I’ve got a character made for a Cy_Borg campaign that hasn’t started yet, that’s essentially the same sort of character, but instead of just a knife with jesus on it, he’s got a huge mono-blade Zweihander that looks like a giant, life-sized crucified jesus. He believes that machines are pure, and only flesh sins, so the more chromed up you are, the more “pure” and “closer to god” you are.
Do androids dream of electric sheep had a unusual religion. I haven’t read the book in forever but I remember it involving a brain link box and climbing a hill while simulated rocks are thrown at you.
I forget if animal preservation was also part of the religion or just a social parallel.
Since you mentioned *Count Zero*, there’s the AI Voodoo guys. I’m not sure if it quite counts as a religion, maybe just religion-themed names for something else, but… Well, it was definitely neat.
There’s a video game out there that has the premise of “cyberpunk cults” called *Re-Legion*. I haven’t played it, though, so I can’t really comment further.
Does Heaven’s Gate count as a real life example?
this was weird af but is exactly what is advertised on the box: a cyberpunk cult-building RTS game. and surprisingly intuitive and fun mechanics when i played it
https://store.steampowered.com/app/782140/ReLegion/
Sublett from *Virtual Light* grew up in a cult that believed they could find God in movies, so they spent all their time watching old VHS tapes.
the irl televangelism prosperity gospel sounds pretty close to me and gibson has a spacefaring form of rastafari in neuromancer, but i think the idea of a “cyberpunk religion” is a bit of a nebulous concept in the first place. when you look at academic texts on cyberpunk as a genre, one thing that’s stressed over and over is how much the genre isn’t just futurist, it reuses ancient tropes in storytelling and mythology to make a point about the cyclicality of power; in that light, you could make the argument that religion is baked into cyberpunk itself
Not cyberpunk really but I immediately think of Warhammer 40k.
Lots of cults in the year 40,000.
CP2020 had a reference to the “Holy Fathers of the Perpetual Railgun” in the PrayerWare cyberware entry. I am pretty sure it’s in Chrome Book 1, but it might be Chrome Book 2.
Is Dune cyberpunk? If you were to take the planet Giedi Prime, the homeworld of House Harkonnen it’s pretty much like a hive city. Dune has many pretty interesting religions with a ton of fanatical followers. Take for example the Golden Elixir, which is the religion of Paul Muad’Dib, also there are loads of rethinkings of Christianity and Muslim. Dune takes a lot of time diving into religional topics and how it will be an organic part of society in 10000 years just as it is now.
Transmetropolitan has an issue dealing with all the religions in the city, it’s a lot of fun.
They also have the transients and the mists, who are not exactly religions but close enough.
The Monks of Server from “Tales of the Afternow”:
“I am a node of Server.
Born of flesh and blood, but enhanced by the power of it’s web.
I have no use for pain or fear.
My scripts are the focus of my will.
My strength is my knowledge, my weapons are my skills.
Information is the blood of my body.
I am part of the greater network.
I am host to the vast data of server.
My flesh is weak, but my connection is eternal;
And therefore, I am a God.”
Evangelism is the quintessential cyberpunk religion, in both form and substance. This has only become more true since the 80s.