religion

[P8]

is there any kind of religion in FF VIII? just wondering :D

[Rusty]

Well if there is we didnt see any in the game.

[P8]

i think hindoism would be a nice religion if there should be one. Squall+Rinoa shouldnt be together that way. And Rinoa would be using the lowest form of life as her buddy.
yup indeed

[soulICE]

isnt there a mention of Hyne in the tutorial/information menu? hes probably the closest thing to a higher power/being in this game. wasnt his powers divided and given to sorcoresses because he was too powerful? its been awhile, but i think thats the basic gist. also, that before a sorcoress dies, it has to transfer her power to someone else that is compatible. i dont know if the history of Hyne and the sorcoresses are a basis for a religion, since the game didnt seem to view it that way.

[Big D]

Onboard the White SeeD ship, one of the senior students is telling the kids a creation myth, the one about Hyne. Their myth says that the Great Hyne created the world, and then got lazy and created self-sufficient, self-replicating tools to run the place. People, in other words. But then people became too numerous and too smart, so Hyne started slaughtering them with magic. The people fought back. Eventually, they agreed to a truce, of sorts: Hyne gets to depart and live, leaving behind half his powers for the people. Hyne divested himself of half his powers; his skinless spirit fled the world. Those powers are the abilities that sorceresses carry, hence why sorceresses are called "Hyne's Descendent" as a mark of respect. It could be part of the reason why sorceresses are so feared, too. I agree with soulICE, though. This myth isn't really treated like religion, more like a story from the old days, a classic creation myth. It lead to some traditions - "Hyne's Descendent", for instance - but nothing suggests it's widely believed or followed. However, it does tie quite nicely with some other events in the game - monsters, for instance. Sorceresses and monsters both have the ability to use magic, whereas normal humans have to get magic artificially, like SeeD para-magic or Galbadian soldiers' magic. This kind of suggests that sorceress powers and monster powers are linked somehow. Also, monsters come from the moon. We know that Hyne's spirit fled the world, perhaps he ended up stranded on the moon, constructing monsters as a way to punish the impudent humans? It provides a little more explanation for things like the Crystal Pillar and Lunar Cry, too.
However, that's purely speculatory; it's possible that the Lunar Cry was one of the things that inspired the myth about Hyne in the first place. Happens in our culture, too - a set of unusual circumstances inspire an odd story to help explain them.

However, several characters in FFVIII say things like "damn it", "what the hell", and "oh my God". All of those are religiously inspired utterances; perhaps the FFVIII world had some kind of old 'conventional' religion, with Heaven, Hell and God?

Well, whatever the case, there don't seem to be a whole lot of devout people in FFVIII.

Except for Kiros, whose victory pose is the same as the Prayer of Yevon, or the old Zanarkand blitzball victory sign.

[Polaris]

Budism would be great! Fighting with the statue of Buddah there!

[TasteyPies]

Big D that was also mentioned by the old man to the child in the first house in Balamb if memory serves me well. Maybe you have to be there at the right time, like before the seed test stuff.