Do you think the people of Pioneer 2/Coral have any particular widespread spiritual or religious beliefs? There are things like the text that appears around a photon blast ring, the appeal to the entities summoned by the photon blast, for example.

I think they're all atheists dude (just without the label as there is no need for contrast), even looking at the old ancient ruins/ship and tombs it seems there is zero religious undertones. Not played in ages but i can't think of any real references about Faltz being a god (only a force or energy of sorts). Struggling to find something linking religion to anything in-game, even the violence in the game is at a bare minimum, i can't think of any instance of worship either. As for the mag, all i really know about it is that it stores some kind of unused energy in techniques and is machinery that can grow like a cast and evolve, i always thought the summons were just releasing the energy (in some shapely form) it stored, cos all the summons seem to look like they are made from the same material. No idea about the writing on the blast radius, maybe it's a simple communication to the other nearby hunters? It all seems based on technology and energies, even the magic is called techniques (there are magic references to weapons though), not that the presence of magic automatically means it's about religion but it just looks like they base their living around technology and energies, and have good morals without the need for a kind of religion or worship. Seems all about the sciences with stuff like mags also named after constellations, i don't know anywhere near as much about this game as other folk, especially not off the top of my head.

Only reference i can think of is the weapon the sigh of a god, it also mentions hell (which is a religious concept).

But aren't the Great Light and Profound Darkness spiritual entities if not religious ones? Surely they show that there is some element of spirituality there? Perhaps not in the belief system of the public but elsewhere?

GL and PD were formed from either the souls of many people or from the splitting of another figure depending on which language you're playing the games in.

One of the reasons I think PSO is such a great game is that there isn't any religious junk in it. I am an atheist and I can't stand even listening to a song that mention god or a god. I find the whole idea of mythical or all powerful beings to be absurd and insulting to intelligent thought. I have very good reasons for my high level of distaste for religion and PSO doesn't have anything in it about that. It concentrates on explaining things as science. Sure the whole Falz and Flow parts do represent evils, but as in Flow's case it was described more as a parasite infection then mystical possession.

It would be foolish to think that life can only exist in a carbon based existence. There is a strong possibility that life can exist as pure energy. Star Trek as an example, the Silicon based life forms, may not be energy but life that isn't comprised of carbon.

My two cents.

While I will agree on the lack of spirituality IRL, I don't think it's a sin to allude to or outright show a god(dess) or several of them in a work of fiction, and I certainly would not cast aside PSO if it did. It can give the setting a fantastical air, which in a way mirrors the comfort people have in subscribing to a particular faith. The idea that there is something out there "bigger than us". That and the ever-dreaded zeerust is a common issue with works that attempt to be both scientific and futuristic.

Just had a smoke so i will talk more shite. I think the only difference is outlook, religion is like what folk had for the answer to life before they started to master the sciences (a poor man's answer), give people purpose without needing to have knowledge about gravity, the sun and shit. It just seems to me on PSO they have knowledge about those forces already (or are on the right track). Or something.