>>The Galactic Church of Man aren't exactly Christians, and they're a
>>bit beyond fundamentalist. :)
>
>"Galactic Church of Man?" So they're misogynists, speciesist, or
>both?

They divide lifeforms into three basic groups:

- human;
- not quite human, but tolerable; and
- animals.

"Humans" encompasses much more than just Earthpeople. In the UF universe, there are quite a few different worlds which seem to have arrived at Homo sapiens independently. People from those worlds are, for the most part, medically compatible (blood types, anatomy and so forth), though it can usually be told by a genetic scan which group they're part of. Sometimes they can be told apart by visual inspection, but the differents are cosmetic. Examples: Earthpeople, Corellians, Jyuraians, Zardons, Gamilons, Bajorans, the Cyberrace of Mondas (before modification). Human species are embraced as brethren by the Church of Man.

"Not quite human" is a slightly broader category, and basically encompasses humanoid creatures (basically, anything that could be played by a human actor without really heavy makeup - Klingon yes, pak'ma'ra no) who have some fundamental biochemical or anatomical difference which makes them medically incompatible with humans. In many cases, members of these races can interbreed with humans without medical intervention, but not always. Examples: Klingons, Vulcans/Romulans, Salusians, Minbari, Narns, Centauri. These creatures are considered unfortunate, but accepted as fellow sentients. The Church would prefer it if they kept their paws off our women, though.

Everything else that walks, flops, slithers, rolls or oozes and calls itself a lifeform gets lumped into the "animals" category by the Church of Man. They aren't necessarily anti- any of this, but they think it's kind of a sad joke that so many of their fellow sentients have the sad delusion that any of these things are true sentient lifeforms. The Church generally doesn't attack these - they just ignore them.

Machines don't fit into any of those categories, and the Church sees machines that try to be like men - both computer-based AI systems and humanoid robots like Dorothy - as abominations, insults flung in the face of God. How they react depends on the bent of the subsect any given individual is part of. Some, like Professor Harris, abide by the laws of the world in which they live, but make it plain that they don't like it, and don't accord cybernetic citizens anything but the bare legal minimum of civility and privilege. Others are more militant about it and push for, or even attempt themselves, the destruction of such beings.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/