Parallel to our reality is an alternate universe called the empyrean in which spiritual entities reside. These entities are regarded as creators of the human race and are worshipped as divine beings, which make up a pantheon of Gods in our world. The priesthood are the interlopers between man and gods, and use the blessings gained from this relationship to perform miracles of power. As such, their influence is intertwined within public and private life. Although a state government rules over the nation with complete political power, they depend on religious authorities to retain their legitimacy in the eyes of the public. However, the state finds this suffocating and seeks to free itself from the shackles of foolish traditions and outdated beliefs of worship in order to achieve more power for itself. A secret organization has discovered a way to utilize divine energy by summoning entities from the empyrean and binding them to machines to imprison them. By capturing and enslaving gods, they can use their energy to power technological feats, which holds the promise of leading to new advances in society. The state intends to incorporate this organization into its own bureaucracy to put forth a new philosophy. Worshipping and venerating gods restricts humanity's true potential as a species. Rather, it is Humanity's destiny to surpass and subjugate its creators, venerating our own achievements as our own instead of attributing them to otherworldly powers. By enslaving and humbling God, we free ourselves from the restrictions of our makers and rise above them to realize our true capabilities, leading to constant improvement and eventual perfection.
With the rest of society embracing this philosophical mentality, the state will no longer have to share power with insufferable old fools consumed with traditional dogma, and will be free to persecute these sects and institutions with impunity. Veneration of the priesthood will be forgotten, replaced with intellectuals and elites who will lead society through logic and pragmatism, using reason and logic to address society's ills. Insidious laughter will then ensue. However, faith and religion have always been tied to this society, suggesting that man has an inborn desire to worship something higher than itself. The communist nations who tried to eliminate religion from the state devolved into a cult of personality, and suffered an inevitable decline with the passing of their founder. The closest example in history is the Cult of Reason, France's state sponsored atheistic religion during the French Revolution in the 1800s. This cult was meant to replace the Roman Catholic Church, which many saw as a corrupt institution of the elite. It led to the dechristianization of France, through confiscation of church land and property, subjugation of the clergy to the state, and persecution of non-compliant sects. This would ultimately fail, as the cult despised by most people for their secularist ideology and considered them to be heretical, including the revolutionaries who hated the church.
The government needs to remove the priesthood and their belief system within daily life in order to replace them with the state-sanctioned atheistic philosophy: the creed that gods exist but are meant to be subjugated and enslaved by mortals for the continual advancement of society. Simply discretizing them as a corrupt organization wouldn't be enough to turn people against their gods, and using force would create a civil war, as the religious sects are as powerful as the state in many ways. How can the state discredit religious authorities when gods are real and can be proven to exist?
With the rest of society embracing this philosophical mentality, the state will no longer have to share power with insufferable old fools consumed with traditional dogma, and will be free to persecute these sects and institutions with impunity. Veneration of the priesthood will be forgotten, replaced with intellectuals and elites who will lead society through logic and pragmatism, using reason and logic to address society's ills. Insidious laughter will then ensue. However, faith and religion have always been tied to this society, suggesting that man has an inborn desire to worship something higher than itself. The communist nations who tried to eliminate religion from the state devolved into a cult of personality, and suffered an inevitable decline with the passing of their founder. The closest example in history is the Cult of Reason, France's state sponsored atheistic religion during the French Revolution in the 1800s. This cult was meant to replace the Roman Catholic Church, which many saw as a corrupt institution of the elite. It led to the dechristianization of France, through confiscation of church land and property, subjugation of the clergy to the state, and persecution of non-compliant sects. This would ultimately fail, as the cult despised by most people for their secularist ideology and considered them to be heretical, including the revolutionaries who hated the church.
The government needs to remove the priesthood and their belief system within daily life in order to replace them with the state-sanctioned atheistic philosophy: the creed that gods exist but are meant to be subjugated and enslaved by mortals for the continual advancement of society. Simply discretizing them as a corrupt organization wouldn't be enough to turn people against their gods, and using force would create a civil war, as the religious sects are as powerful as the state in many ways. How can the state discredit religious authorities when gods are real and can be proven to exist?