
[2374-2470  Resurgence of Religion]

With the interstellar exploration and colonization well underway,
the popular media began anticipating the contact of intelligent
alien life forms while prominent scientists began staking their
reputations on the prospect of first contact being just around
the corner. However, "just around the corner" never came, and as
radio transmitted reports of lifeless planets and primitive
bacterial ecosystems came back to earth, the scientific opinion
began to waver. It seemed as though humankind was very much alone
in the universe. The initial evolutionary steps were simply too
difficult and improbable to support a teeming universe
hypothesis.

   The outlook seemed so bleak that scientists reversed their
stands, now questioning whether there was any intelligent life
other than humankind, and if not, then what fortune led to the
rise of sentience on Earth? This philosophical climate led to a
resurgence of religion, Pope Joseph IX declaring from his lofty
pulpit in 2374 that after hundreds of years of struggling, men of
science had finally arrived to the true knowledge which was
always offered them by God. Each new negative discovery seemed
to confirm this statement, and Catholicism found billions of new
converts who hoped to cash in on the gift of immortality just as
the human race had cashed in on its gift of the Universe.

   However, with the resurgence of religion, so came a new
division among people. While the majority of the world's people
moved toward monotheism, and Catholicism in particular, several
of the eastern nations diverged, holding true to the more ancient
eastern faiths. These deep rooted differences, combined with a
yearning for independence from U.N. dictates, led to open
animosities between the eastern and western nations during the
early 25th century. Unrest continued to ferment until 2443 when
Xao Ti Xang defied United Nations authority by funding human
geneticists from the Humanix Corporation and allowing the
development of super-intelligent humans in China.

   This open schism over the nature and course of human
development generated terrorist actions in China during the
following two decades which were countered by bacteriological
offensives against supporting nations. An estimated twenty
million people died in these reprisals, leading to further
escalation of the crisis when the Catholic Pope declared a holy
war against those who would play God. This militant Catholicism
led to the outbreak of the Yama bug in China in 2467, however
advances in medical science managed to exterminate the dreaded
virus, through only after a death toll of 570 million. Rather
then respond in kind, the Chinese government unveiled the Lu Yueh
virus in 2470, an engineered suborganism capable of mutating
itself beyond even the reach of the broadest antitoxins. The Pope
called for courage, continuing to demand that the heathens leave
the devices of life and death to God alone as the United Nations
Secretary General demanded a reunion of the global alliance at
any and all costs.

