Orange Catholic Bible
The syncretic scripture born from humanity's war against thinking machines.
The Orange Catholic Bible stands as the universal religious text established in the wake of the Butlerian Jihad, serving as a unifying force for humanity across thousands of worlds. Created during the period following the total destruction of thinking machines, this scripture emerged from a semi-religious social upheaval where humans rejected machine control. It represents the spiritual consolidation of a species that had been scattered and dependent on technology for millennia. The text was born out of the need to rebuild society after the century-long crusade against the sentient machines led by Omnius and the Titans.
Quick Facts
- Origin era
- Post-Butlerian Jihad (over 10,000 years before Dune)
Facts from the source article.
Background
According to Frank Herbert's 1981 novel God Emperor of Dune, the creation of the Orange Catholic Bible was a direct result of the Butlerian Jihad. This conflict, occurring over 10,000 years before the events of the first book, saw humanity rise up against the thinking machines that had enslaved them for 900 years. The prohibition "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind" became the central tenet of this new faith. The Bible served as a foundational document for the new feudal pan-galactic empire that lasted over 10,000 years. While Frank Herbert left many details of the Jihad unexplored at his death in 1986, he explicitly noted that the text helped unify a civilization that had previously been divided by machine dominance. The Bible's existence is tied to the rise of secret societies that used eugenics and mental training to replace computer logic.
Did You Know?
- Leto II Atreides described the Jihad as a semi-religious social upheaval initiated by humans repulsed by machine control.
- The creation of even the simplest thinking machines is outlawed and made taboo in the Dune universe.
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