An idea occured to me reading a prior thread. A lot has bee written about the in-game subject of Uplift Rights, which makes a lot of sense. However, an interesting thought occured to me: What about Uplift religion? It's not unlikely for some of the groups involved in creating Uplifts to give them reasons to believe that the Uplifts owe Humanity for the gift of sentience. Religion is a brillient control mechenism (Just ask Marx, Bin Ladin and the Roman Catholic Church), and it's that some unscrupulous souls pre-fall may have programmed their charges with such beliefs, ala Isle of Dr. Moreau. A similar tack could have been taken with AIs (toaster in heaven jokes aside). Now, given such was done, the religion has some unique factors that human religions didn't (well, as far as we're aware at least). For starters, the Uplift's 'god' is tangible, a real individual that they can converse with as opposed to an ineffible ideal. Secondly, it's an individual that they can potentially reach or exceed the capabilities of (although they may not be aware of such). Another factor that differentiates it from many of the more modern monotheistic religions is that their creator is inherently imperfect (Polytheistic gods however, are often flawed in all manner of fun ways, just look at the Greek ones for starters). All this can have some very fundimental effects on how such a religion could develop. It would effect the downfall of such religions as well, as I'm sure suddenly discovering that your 'God' simply is a shmuck who wanted a legion of fanatical apemen (or birdmen/octomen, as you prefer) under his sway is rarely going to go down well. Also, how would other Uplifts see followers of such a cult? Pity? Scorn? Traitors against their species? How would non-uplifts see them/interact with them? I could imagine Scum and other anarchic souls taking animal liberation to new hieghts, Argonauts funding rehabilitation clinics for them, and so on (which also begs the question, should the 'deluded' Uplift be rehabilitated against their will, but the ethics involved is a thread topic all of it's own). As a whole, I could see such groups being fringe-dwellers for the most part. The more Anarchic factions would probably find them straight-laced and conservative (in a warped fashion) and the Corps would probably use and abuse them without pity. Ironically, I'd see it as one of the few ways that an Uplift could fit in within Jovian society (Damn critters know their place). In any case, I think I've found yet another interesting dynamic in a setting full of interesting dynamics.