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Supposing you picked up a book (secondary world fantasy, FWIW) and from beginning to end, it didn't have a single mention of religion in it. What would you think? I mean, none of the characters, major or minor, are religious, no places of worship, no names of gods, no forces beyond mortal ken, no epithets or swears or the like. How hard would you roll your eyes?
When I look at all the things I want to add to my story's worldbuilding, religion isn't one of them. Right now the world is very frail and basic, I have to add a lot regarding language, currency, economy, border politics and documentation, even technology. I also want to expand a few things I did address, like food and clothing, arts, and class differences.
Ostensibly religion is too big and too important a part of people's lives, even (sometimes especially) if they are not adherents themselves. Certainly I doubt I'd ever write a contemporary or historical story without addressing religion at least a little. However, building a whole set of religions suitable to four POV characters of four different species frankly sounds like more trouble than it's worth.
I don't really like religion, and don't find it fascinating enough. Then again, I don't find economics very interesting either, but I look at my story and see that it's necessary to address things like trade and craft, currency exchange and the value of certain goods, in order to accomplish the story I'm setting out to tell.
Can I accomplish my story in a world with no religion, or is that just too implausible?
When I look at all the things I want to add to my story's worldbuilding, religion isn't one of them. Right now the world is very frail and basic, I have to add a lot regarding language, currency, economy, border politics and documentation, even technology. I also want to expand a few things I did address, like food and clothing, arts, and class differences.
Ostensibly religion is too big and too important a part of people's lives, even (sometimes especially) if they are not adherents themselves. Certainly I doubt I'd ever write a contemporary or historical story without addressing religion at least a little. However, building a whole set of religions suitable to four POV characters of four different species frankly sounds like more trouble than it's worth.
I don't really like religion, and don't find it fascinating enough. Then again, I don't find economics very interesting either, but I look at my story and see that it's necessary to address things like trade and craft, currency exchange and the value of certain goods, in order to accomplish the story I'm setting out to tell.
Can I accomplish my story in a world with no religion, or is that just too implausible?
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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.