The Pros of the Yevon Religion

Maechen
Rumors flew in Bevelle about Sin's sudden appearance. They said that the people of Zanarkand became the fayth, that they had called Sin. And that the man responsible...was none other than the summoner Yevon, ruler of Zanarkand! Yes, the lord father of Lady Yunalesca. On the eve of Zanarkand's destruction, Lady Yunalesca... had fled to safety with her husband, Zaon. Later, the two used the Final Summoning to defeat Sin. Yet the people of Bevelle still feared Yu Yevon. It was to quell his wrath that they revered him, and first spread his teachings. And so were born the temples of Yevon.
I suppose it's possible Yunalesca had planned it that way from the start! A fair trade, she defeats Sin in exchange for her lord father's honor."

Now most people see the negatives of the Yevon faith: lies, deceit, corruption.
Those are all certainly undeniable and ugly blotches on the face of the religion but it was not all bad.

FFX-2 really helps to show the positives of Spira’s fundamentalist reign.

For a millennium Yevon ran Spira and for a millennium Sin ravaged the world. People lived in fear of Sin and to help conquer that fear, and to find hope, they believed in Yevon. Yevon rewarded the people with peace of mind and general order in their everyday lives.

It wasn’t that they deliberately lied about Sin being permanently gone eventually - they sincerely believed the Final Summoning was the only method to defeat Sin. Everyone from Mika to Seymour to Yunalesca echo that the Final Summoning was the only way to defeat Sin and that it being gone would result in the destruction of everything.

Mika himself says:
Mika
"Spira has lost its only hope. Destruction is inevitable.
Yu Yevon's spiral of death will consume us all.
I have no desire to watch Spira die."

At which point he apparently jus tgives up on life and fades off to the Farplane (he’s in the Via Infinito but that whole thing was a plothole).

It’s clear to me that Yevon did not do what it did out of malicious intent but out of being wrong int their beliefs.

Now moving on, the Yevon religion was supposedly first founded by the leaders of Bevelle to spread Yevon’s teachings in hopes of quelling his wrath (Sin). These teachings kept the peace for a millennium, keeping everyone (‘cept the minority Al Bhed) united and at peace.
Another good result of this was respect and reverance for people who deserve it, something very much lacking in the post-Yevon world.

Looking at X-2, we see what happens when Yevon collapsed. Two factions break out on the edge of civil war, there are criminals and bandits running all over Spira and holy place sand people are totally desecrated.
The sheer lack of respect for the Calm Lands and Zanarkand, two locations where scores of the bravest heroes ever on this planet were killed and look what they turn it into: amusement parks and tourist traps.

Really though, I’m losing my flare and I can’t make a thought or write after it goes out so I’m finished for now.

Thoughts?

Yevon was a theocracy, and while it was corrupt and blind to the malicious intent of Seymour, it gave the people of Spira hope.

When Zanarkand was about to fall and Yevon made sin, he programmed it to protect dream Zanarkand, and the first target being the real Zanarkand. Yunalesca then created the final summoning, and by defeating Sin, the people of Bevelle beleave that the only way to defeat Sin was to use the final Summoning. The only person in Spira to see that the final summoning did not work was Yunalesca herself, as she is the only person to remember more than 1 calm. (Maechen does not count:p)

The entire religion was created out of fear of Sin, and seeing Yunalesca defeat Sin gave the people of Spira hope. The maesters of Yevon then hid away the machina of old Bevelle, and slowly changed history's retelling from a creation of War to punishment for sins.

Pros:
Worldwide unity
Modest sense of hope
Only a limited amount of actual deception (they knew Sin would always come back, but then the people knew that too. Same goes for the death of successful summoners)

Nice topic, by the way. These days it's far too common for angry kids to lash out at all religion, dismissing it as manipulative, evil deception that does not - and cannot - do anything good for anyone. Usually these arguments rely on gross ignorance, or extremely one-sided understanding of history, unfortunately.

Well, a benevolent tyranny is always tempting. Problem is that by being a tyranny you can not prevent it from becoming evil. Human nature pretty much guarantees that what started with good intentions will end up in a way to exploit and subjugate others.

Corruption and greed were already fouling up Yevon's religion, as we saw with Seymour and Kinoc. There wouldn't be anyone to stop it, since the entire population was kept in the dark.

Good topic, but I think I'm going with Renmiri in saying that Yevon was unavoidably corrupt. The problem was that the religion itself actually perpetuated the destruction because the Final Aeon actually became Sin (and each Final Aeon was stronger than the last).

Also, along with some other religions I won't mention for fear of offence, Yevon retarded progress and promoted an unquestioning attitude which made it difficult for anyone to come up with new ideas to defeat Sin (not surprisingly it took help from the heathen Al Bhed to finally beat it).

But if I was pushed to think of something good: I guess Yevon did begin the Guardian/Summoner system which trained Yuna and company to be powerful enough to defeat Yu Yevon

:choc::choc::choc:

The real advantage to the Yu Yevon religion is of; the bake sales. I mean when the priest of Bevelle start making their Bahamut brownies my mouth is just watering.

This is a really interesting topic, and I am glad to see that I am not the only one that sees something positive in the Yevon faith.

Like other people have mentioned, Yevon gave them hope. Now, they Yevon Maesters lied to the people about Sin disappearing when people have atoned. I am not sure if every temple and priest knew this, though, so that was the lie of a few leading men - not the entire religion. Apart from that, the pilgrimage did - when it was successful - make Sin disapppear for a while. So the part about summoners, pilgrimages and the Final Aeon were true inthemselves.

I have to say, I also slightly agree with Yevon's attitude towards machina. Again, the negative thing here was their double standards, but both in Spira and in our world we see what happens when technology mixed with people's lust for power go too far.

And Yunalesca had a good point - even if the part about Sin vanishing when the Spirans had atoned had been true, could human beings ever be able to atone that much? To be that good?

What we see in X-2 was that people were happy and free because Sin was finally gone, once and for all. But the fall of Yevon led to more conflicts, dividing Spira to the brink of a civil war.

So, my point is: The Yevon Maesters had their obvious huge flaws: their lust for power, their double standards and the lie of atonement. Apart from that, I think the Yevon faith was an interesting and rather good religion.

You make some great points there... FFX-2 proved that, even in times of peace, Spira would quickly spiral down toward more violence. The factional warfare is proof enough. The dimwit Al-Bhed inventors at Djose Temple were hard at work trying to create the most powerful weapon ever... for no reason at all, except that they could. I'd be inclined to agree with Yunalesca and Yu Yevon - Spira's people would have a tough time to truly 'atone' and stop abusing Machina for destructive purposes...

Religion is supposed to comfort people, and in a sense, Yevon fulfilled this by concealing the truth and meaning behind Sin's existence. The people were sheltered under a veil of false hope. But while they prayed at their temples and followed the teachings, many were dying. Spira's population was greatly devastated by Sin's destruction. Yevon added to the spiral of death as described by Auron:

"Summoners challenge the bringer of death, Sin, and die doing so. Guardians give their lives to protect their summoner. The fayth are the souls of the dead. Even the maesters of Yevon are unsent. Spira is full of death... Only Sin is reborn, and then only to bring more death. It is a cycle of death, spiraling endlessly."

Let us not forget the real reason why the pilgrimages exist in the first place. People were frightened to sleep in their beds at night. Many families suffered due to Sin's attacks. Entire lives were destroyed within mere seconds as demonstrated during Sin's collision with Kilika. Yuna, as well as her father Braska before her, chose to become a summoner in order to "make people's sorrow go away, not cover it up with lies."

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to live in a world where I'd be constantly fearing for my life, never knowing if the friends and family I was talking to today would still be around tomorrow after a bout with a gigantic turtle-like, gravity-manipulating monster. The fact that Yevon forbids questioning the "teachings" limits the ideas and creativity of people. In order to remain in power, the will of the ones in charge (i.e. the Maesters of Yevon in this case) must be absolute. By living free of independent thinking for a millennium, Sin was allowed to ravage Spira mercilessly, only taking a break to regenerate during the Calm.

Yevon offered stability in times of the Sin crisis. It provided a focus point for hope. It started out as an honest religion seeking atonement from Sin and appeasement for Yu Yevon, but it only offered temporary solutions for the major problem plaguing the lives of all Spirians. The pilgrimages added to the death tolls.

Now as for Yevon's take on machina... Well, I like modern conveniences. One look at Besaid and you know Yevon didn't only ban guns and cannons. I think they took the ban a little too far. Then again, that could possibly be due to frequent Sin attacks. I suppose having communication satellites and the like all around the island wouldn't be too grand an idea with the possibility of destruction very high.

Yeah, it was mainly due to frequent Sin attacks. Why spend a lot of time and resources on technology when Sin will obliviate it anyway?

Of course, it would be better Yevon, the Spirans and Al Bhed worked together to try and find a way to get rid of Sin forever. Having that said, I fully understand Yevon's distrust for machina and technology, as I share quite a bit of the sentiments.

I am not defending every decision made by the Yevon Maesters, not at all. But I do see several positive aspects with the Yevon faith, and several negative aspects with the Al Bhed-way of life.

I think that one thing people have trouble accepting is that good can come out of evil and vice-versa. Technology isn't always good and conflict isn't always bad. Tech can advance medicine or ways of killing. War is destructive, but also sometimes leads to progress.

Eg The conflict between New Yevon and the Youth Lge in X2 could be seen as negative, but also a positive debate about where Spira was heading after 1000 years of stagnation. The Machine Society also produced good machina like the high road transports.

:choc::choc::choc:

Yeah, not all machina are bad - and that was never what Yevon meant either. (Luca Stadium is one example of legal machina). But human's craving for power lead to powerful weapon and destructive technology.

Having that said, it's the human lust for power which really is the power, not the machina itself. Technology is neutral, just like religion.

the way i see it...the yevon religion was probably,like most of our religions well meaning to start with but its us people that made it corrupt

that is if the yevon religion wasnt totaly corrupt to start with cause of like who the deity actualy is
im not so sure about that

I dun know man. To a certain extent, religions are built upon at least some lies because that comfort the people. Most normal folks just can't handle the truth especially when it sux.