I DO know that Anne McCaffrey caught a certain amount of flak for having a series without religion--in her Pern series, she claimed the colonists were atheists and no religion ever developed in the thousands of years of book canon. Now, the characters did have deeply held beliefs, but they were all attached to tradition or a way of life instead of a belief in a higher power.
The implausibility of leaving out religion depends in a great part on the world you're building.
Personally, the way I would deal with it would be to sketch out some kind of belief system for each of your POVs, and then just leave it in the background. Whether or not it's religion is up to you and your characters. As the worldbuilder, YOU have to know it's there and what it does to the world but it doesn't have to play much of a role.
no subject
I DO know that Anne McCaffrey caught a certain amount of flak for having a series without religion--in her Pern series, she claimed the colonists were atheists and no religion ever developed in the thousands of years of book canon. Now, the characters did have deeply held beliefs, but they were all attached to tradition or a way of life instead of a belief in a higher power.
The implausibility of leaving out religion depends in a great part on the world you're building.
Personally, the way I would deal with it would be to sketch out some kind of belief system for each of your POVs, and then just leave it in the background. Whether or not it's religion is up to you and your characters. As the worldbuilder, YOU have to know it's there and what it does to the world but it doesn't have to play much of a role.