A Caprican Theocracy?

(Note: While I won't directly be discussing particular episodes or plot points this post might contain inadvertent spoilers since I will be talking in detail about themes from both Caprica and Battlestar Galactica (BSG). You've been warned.)

Over the weekend I finally caught up on the SyFy show Caprica. Caprica, for those not in the know, is the latest scifi effort by Ron Moore the creator (and general geek idol) behind Battlestar Galactica, the recent re-imagined version. Caprica is essentially a prequel series to Battlestar Galactica that focuses on a civilization of humans and the cultural, religious, and political perfect storm that results in the creation of the Cylons (artificially intelligent robots) and as a result said civilization's downfall.

What has fascinated me about the show is the richness of the universe that's been created, I always go nuts for scifi were a real and rich universe is created ala Star Wars, etc. The fact that I can sit back and day dream about what it must be like for an average shopkeeper trying to scratch out an existence on Caprica in Caprica City to me just underscores how much has gone into creating an entire civilization with its own culture, political structures, people, laws, art, conflicts and everything that comes along with all that.

One of the things I've been thinking about quite a bit, and this is an open question to Caprica/BSG fans is the idea of whether or not religious freedom as we know it exists in the Caprica universe? Do they have right to practice any religion they choose?

There is a great deal of focus on the idea that in Caprica and the Twelve Colonies the mainstream religious belief is that of polytheism, worshiping many gods, and that monotheistic, worshiping one god, belief systems are considered radical and fringe in both the Caprica time period as well as later in BSG. Looking at just Caprica for a minute it occurred to me that there is a decent case to be made that at least on Caprica the government is at least a partial theocracy.

It seems as though the gods are woven into every aspect of Caprican/colonial life including the government. Caprican authorities are quick to label the STO (the primary monotheistic movement) a terrorist organization and begin a manhunt for any STO believers. The STO as it has been portrayed in Caprica thus far very clearly has terrorist elements associated with it who have conducted suicide bombings, etc.  From that perspective the government isn't necessarily unjustified. However there seems to be an overall mainstream lack of tolerance for belief systems that don't involve worshiping the gods, plural.

This got me thinking, assuming I weren't blowing up and holo-cafes and just made the choice not to believe in the gods would the GDD still be banging down my door? Are there Atheists in Caprican society? 

I did some research which confirmed the vibe I was getting and learned that in the time period of Caprica the Twelve colonies are all completely sovereign each with their own independent planetary governments. A centralized government for all Twelve-Colonies isn't established until after the beginning of the Cylon war that the colonies decide to sign the Articles of Colonization which from what we see in BSG contains some rights similar to our own Constitution and others that differ. It's also been speculated that it is more of a Bill of Rights or UN Charter on Human Rights than a constitution per-say although in BSG Laura Roslin does assume the position of the President of the Colonies under the rules of the Articles of Colonization so presumably there are some political structures described in the document.

Obviously we don't have the documents to examine but by my memory I don't recall any citizens actually citing their right to freedom of religion in either Caprica or BSG. However I think it is generally fair to say that in BSG we see that not everyone is a true believer. Admiral Adama for example kind of goes through the motions but doesn't necessarily buy everything 100%. Seems like that skepticism is better tolerated by the colonial society of BSG than Caprica.  There aren't any references to a right to religious freedom in the Battlestar Galactica Wiki article on colonial law either.  An interesting tidbit from the Wikipedia entry on the Twelve Colonies notes this: "In his blog, Battlestar Galactica's producer Ronald D. Moore indicated that the Colonial government presumably included a larger, still unnamed representative body (most likely the People's Council mentioned in Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II) and an independent judiciary system, as well as another (also unnamed) religious body with an advisory function.[5]"  Dictionary.com defines a theocracy as "a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, the God's or deity's laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities." I can't imagine what a "religious body with an advisory function" is doing if not exactly that.

So what do we think? It seems like Caprican society is essentially a theocracy with the polytheistic belief being an organized state supported (at least on some level) religion and that religion having some level of influence on the goings on of the state. Which of course brings with it many potential issues, ideas and concepts to explore. Certainly for example the GDD, or at least some of its officers, seem to act at times like the storm-troopers for the established state religion.  I hope we will learn in future episodes whether its the personal belief of those agents or government sanctioned oppression of any religion which isn't that of the state.

I'll be watching to find out and to continue the exploration of this rich and vast universe afterall we've so far only ever seen one of the Twelve Colonies for example.  When I first heard about Caprica I was kind of hoping for a bit of a merging of scifi and West Wing and we seem to be getting bits of that which of course for me is basically the dream show.

All of this is to say nothing of the fictional sport Pyramid and the C-Bucs (GO BUCS!) but the goings on of the Bucs and their arguably less than stellar season is a post for another day.