Things TLs 7-9 would be interesting to see WITHOUT

[daryen]

Originally Posted by NorphTehDwarf

Monothiesm.

Religion is fertile ground for wild permutations.

Rather than just eliminating Monotheism, go whole hog and and eliminate gods (particularly anthropomorphic gods). Religion never got past generalized "spirit" type of religions.

Or, go entirely opposite. One major trend of advancing technology (not just the use, but the process of developing it) is secularization. Assume (for whatever reason) that secularization does not happen. The "sacred" remains extremely powerful. They know God is there and still influences the world, even with modern technology.

Push it, even, and have God directly interact with the world such that it is obvious. There are no unbelievers, as the evidence is unassailable. (Whether God is really God, or whether God is a sham, or whether God is a time traveller/space alien/transendental/whatever is completely left up to the setting creator.)

Or, completely eliminate religion. For whatever reason, during the development of the species, religion never occurred. If it is here, it exists. If it isn't, it doesn't exist. Maybe in primitive times they had no need to explain the unexplainable. They didn't know why the seasons changed; they just knew they did. Later they figured out why, but it didn't cause problems because they had no wrong explanations as tradition that competed for belief. They don't worry about what happens after death; they only focus on their life while they have it.