I was wondering which religion was the best ingame, I know that they all have buffs (+10 critical thinking for atheism, access to the “heaven” special area at the end of the game for other, etc…) and debuffs (impossibility to change gender in the customisation system, inability to use the consumables “alcohol” and “pork”, potentially being locked in the “hell” area at the end of the game…), and the “parents” players told me that the best faction was the Atheist one. Thoughts?
That’s one of the more interesting things about Outside imo, that the dev(s) are anonymous, and if you choose to take a stand about who/what they are, how many there are, and what they’re like, it affects your in-game experience and a lot of your play style. It’s really an interesting mechanic I’ve never seen in any other game
That is interesting. I wonder why they did that?
It just drives the action. There may not actually even be any devs.
You think so? How did we get the idea that there were devs, though?
Early attempts by the player base to explain game physics and quirks.
But the game design is amazing. I just can't believe there are no devs, right?
Even a seemingly empty game engine might start to spontaneously develop a game over the course of hundreds of trillions of years. IDK exactly how it would all work.
How though. Idk. I think there's a dev, but yeah.
Many players that fall into this line of questioning end up wondering if the hypothetical dev is intrinsic to the servers or even the players themselves. Others question where the dev could have come from or if the dev is a player in their own version of Outside.
The dev would have to be a player to some extent, right?
Arguments can be made for both sides:
For instance, a random code variation will eventually create a system, without a dev's input, due to the law of great numbers. Now, this is one of the few cases where the law of great numbers actually does apply, because we're looking at a theoretically infinite number, or at the very least one so large that it might as well be infinite (and/or maybe expanding at the speed of light which is once again basically just infinite).
Across such a high number of instances, every possible result will have a tendency to happen more or less the amount of times dictated by its likelihood: if a system has a chance to naturally develop on a planet of 1/100k, but there's infinite planets, about 1/100k of them will have a system on them.
There's also a theory, supported by historical evidence, that most of these developer theories have been chosen by the ruling players of different areas in order to gain something, rather than due to their authenticity:
Any faction who had a power structure had a theory that mimicked it, with developers who created laws that aligned with the faction's.
Furthermore, the monodeveloper theories tended to spread in factions with only one leader, while the polideveloper ones were more common in factions with a more decentralised power structure. In all cases, the authorities tended to dictate what religion should be followed in their territory.
This is all evidence that theories either exist as a way to control lower level players, or they've been used and manipulated that way for so long that they've lost all or most of the value they originally possessed.
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Another thesis is that there are developers, but that does raise the question of "why are they actively developing here, our system, all for us, when there's an infinite universe they could be developing?"
Which in my opinion could be an indication that rather than one developer for the entire game, you have several smaller/"local" developers, each looking after a smaller area (this was also how the older theories worked for the most part, with areas being restricted to the territory controlled by one or a handful of factions, rather than the entire map).
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Ultimately, there is no real way to know for sure.
However, having seen firsthand what most organised developer theories tend to behave, I think you should explore them on your own without joining any guild:
Guilds, while some can be helpful, are for the most part a very toxic environment, almost all of them give some minor debuffs, while most will give major debuffs and will come with some players who will honestly spoil all the fun of playing.
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I'd add: the whole heaven and hell thing is supposedly going to either exist or not exist regardless of guild membership.
There's no evidence for it and even the more dogmatic guilds change their mind based on single players' theories: The Catholic guild, and many of its offshoots, changed dogma when the player Dante Alighieri wrote the Divina Commedia fanfiction, in which he invented a third afterlife option of Purgatory, which was later integrated into official canon with no real evidence prior to the book.
You say The Dev ideas have been made up by server mods, then why were early believers in year::approx:>100 getting the [persecution] debuff from the server mods in >Ancient Rome<?
Maybe other Guilds have been created by server mods, but not sure about that one.
The group you mentioned was probably prosecuted for the same reasons they would then go on to prosecute millions of others for in the centuries that have followed (norse, native north and south americans, buddhists, etc.). Persecution isn't a great factor in determining legitimacy and when you take a step back, the guild you talk about is not much different from the others. The same love and energy you feel for what or whoever you worship, someone else feels for something completely different, and that's fine.
OP also has to consider the support systems that each faction or sub faction has.
And critical thinking is more of an individual trait rather than something you gain or lose from associating with a faction. In the end, that comes from how informed and aware they are about their worldview no matter the faction.
Yes, athiest players are not better at critical thinking than a religious-faction player just because of their faction.
Many of the games most innovative players who invented many new mechanics and items were very religious. It is hardly to do with critical thinking stats.
The fact that "devs" is Latin for god makes this much more interesting
Yeah I've seen a similar quirk in Kenshi
Given the widespread disagreement, among players, which faction has the best end game; I recommend focusing on what type of early and mid game play-style you want. Find a faction that you like the other players in, so you can get a high [[Community]] buff and maintain a positive [[Karma]] meter.
That's my approach too. I think there's a background perk called 'Saintly' linked to your Karma meter that you can up with charity side quests and paragon conversation choices.
Just be careful to avoid the 'preachy' or 'pushy' traits because they can combine very badly with Saintly.
It really depends on what you want for the NG+.
No player has yet to confirm the existence of NG+
That's why it relies on faith mechanic.
Other factions say your faction's claim on NG+ is wrong, and if you don't join their faction, you actually end up with an NG- experience.
My faction says let other factions believe what they want.
While several players have gone to great lengths theory-crafting about it, believe it or not [[Karma]] is not a real stat.
Depends on rest of your build. Like if you are going for a monk build you can try buddhist for a +5% dodge. It will help you save hp which is important for monk builds with no armor
Modern psychology has been growing in such a way that best practices increasingly overlap with the Buddhism skill tree, so if you’re interested in lessening your grind time of runs through the therapy mini game it makes for a great double-dip
For me, the [agnostic] faction was the most convincing. We believe all other factions are unable to demonstrate their claims to be correct, and that it doesn't make sense to pick a correct one. To illustrate, I've never met anyone who's been to [heaven] or [hell], and I've met plenty of members of the [atheism] clan with negative intelligence. But, that's also no evidence their faction lore is incorrect, maybe there is a <<mythological>> being punishing whoever they consider sinners. So I've decided to be a good being according to my own standards, and I hope those are amenable to whatever [deities] do exist
Is it really a faction though? I can find worship halls for basically every other religion, including [Atheist] and [Pagan], but not [Agnostic]. Where you do find faction-mates?
Most of us just hang out in our POH on holy days. We don’t require guild halls or anything, not really our vibe.
It’s a faction but not one with notable PoIs on the map.
The other faction halls are for coordinating events and function as a party finder system. We don’t really do that so we have no need.
Disbanding from my childhood religious faction spawned immediate debuffs, especially with family reputation, but over the long run it’s opened up many new buffs, zones, lore, and achievement diaries that I didn’t even know existed in game
Love this so much
Same! My favorite part was when it unlocked a new romance option a little bit later in the game that countered most of those debuffs. Like I’m not saying I have no debuffs anymore, but if I knew there was a definite New Game+ mode, I’d definitely choose the same path again.
Beautiful.
Something that's worth mentioning is that there's a ton of sub-factions within the larger factions also; ultimately you should choose one that you feel good about, be critical towards it no matter which one you chose, and aim to be the best possible person you can.
That may or may not include opting out of some of your factions social/religious/political views, which is hard but often worth doing.
atheism doesn't inherently make you smarter, nor does being theist make you inherently dumber. i've witnessed quite a few atheists who are dumb as rocks, and seen some very intelligent theists. i'm agnostic myself, and i didn't really critically think to reach that point since i wasn't raised religious.
the *real* buffs of atheism/agnosticism is having more personal freedoms through not receiving the [Religious Shame] and [Religious Hatred] debuffs (shame and hatred of the self, and of others)
[Religious Shame] debuff sucks. If you’re getting it constantly, it may be a bad faction.
I'm a part of the atheist faction but somehow still get the religious hatred debuff and I've seen other atheists get it too. What's up with that? I want my debuff immunity!
It's not an intelligence boost. It's actually a boost against illusion and deception skills.
A lot of atheists are making their own illusion and deception checks then acting like they passed anything to inflate the stats. Agnostics have the most meta build for those imo by bypassing both.
Really anything but scientology
Just be careful that each faction has two branches, [agnostic] and [gnostic] and these have different buffs and debuffs respectively (first gives critical thinking, second gives certainty).
I'm a fan of the [kemetic] faction myself. I love it, even it it's really small. It's one of the factions that bands together under the [pagan] faction. There are a ton of little factions like that that are really interesting.
If you'd rather join a bigger faction, [buddhism] has a lot to offer and plays well with other factions. [Hinduism] is also really neat and offers a nice level of nuance to your gameplay, as well. Or you can just stay where you're at. It's worth exploring your options, just be careful that you don't end up in a [cult] faction. Those always make big promises while taking away most of your freedoms.
Although be warned some major factions if you fall into the wrong groups can become [cult] factions
Oh, absolutely! Any religious faction can have the [cult] status.
That's a good question. While I have my preferred one. I think its a very personal choice and warrants taking some time to get familiar with the ones that interest you. I will tell you this though, learn about them from them, not their critics. Its easy to criticize what you dont truly understand or mix half-truths with misinformation to seem like they understand. The thing about religious factions is they require the faith mechanic which requires various debuffs but also grants buffs to things like overall happiness, community, fulfillment which can be hard to grind without. I also find its a good place to find a lasting romantic partner because you are likely to meet other player with similar mission goals.
The space Mormons have a lot of high ranking players on their side , like Tom Cruise.
I personally picked the atheist faction, for my character believes that no loving dev would create the horse mob. Their programming is so, so screwy!
Certain sub-factions of [Quaker] are much more flexible than other religious factions. Some will even allow you to join the [Quaker] faction and another religious faction at the same time.
It's not really an official "buff," but there's some significant advantages and disadvantages to picking whichever faction is majority in your home location. If you pick a faction that a lot of nearby players are already in, you'll basically never run out of the related buffs, sidequests, etc. But if you pick a rarer one, those benefits might be more difficult to come by. The buffs and debuffs at the core of each faction should still be your focus, but if you're really in need of, say, a massive [community] buff, a majority faction would boost you more than a minority faction. Not to mention that some minority factions can get hit with the [discrimination] debuff, and that can sometimes pose an extra danger, especially if stacked with [discrimination] debuffs from other factions/character traits. Of course, the safest option is always to keep your faction membership to yourself if you're not 100% sure it's safe to disclose; that's something to think about if you're interested in a religious faction that requires visible accessories.
But with that said, I picked a faction that almost no other players are actually a part of, but the huge buffs it gives me make it so worth it.
I’m a sucker for the underdogs and dark horses. It’s not as popular in the current meta as others but the resurrected Neopagan faction is really refreshing actually. Especially their ecologically friendly rebranding of the reverence for the world map.
I had the dev keep me from quitting the game through the Christianity tree.
Joining the [Judaism] faction can turn some other players hostile and sticks you with the [lactose intolerant] debuff, but I'm told you get to put a lot of points into your comedy skill.
lol honestly go with whichever faction vibes with u most, game’s kinda about playing your own style. atheist sounds chill if u wanna avoid restrictions but sometimes rules make it more fun if u ask me. monk + buddhism dodge boost sounds dope tho, might try that next run. Buffs/debuffs aren’t everything, just do u and enjoy the grind!
The advantage of the pork denying religions is being able to marry multiple player and other perks taht some may consider griefing.
Its a hard choice between those factions and the kosher required faction. The latter gives you great buffs with currency and you unlock access to higher level loans.
I would look into Christianity. It makes sense to a lot of people (including me) and comes with a good team you can play with. :)
as a player who almost joined the atheist faction while playing as an agnostic; i'm very happy today to have joined the Christian faction. it's brought a lot of buffs and improved my character build
🫡 Greetings fellow clan member. :)
Go atheism, the int buff is very useful, and you can always chose a different one later
Int buff is a lie. Join one that respects you and lets you think.
None of them do, though. All of the theistic factions insist on low [critical thinking] stats
No they dont, actually. This is a common misconception among many players for some reason. In reality, many of the games smartest players who discovered many mechanics of the game were all in theistic factions.
And like, even then it goes incredibly understated. Players don't realize just how monumental of a part it played to give a permanent global Int buff for much faster XP leveling.
Some of them don't allow you to join if you were previously part of the Aetheist faction. Even if you do, you'll still get the "Outsider" debuff, which is very difficult to remove barring certain questlines.
But for the hippie carpenter one, you could leverage the prodigal status for massive points
But those are only the ones with the "extreme ideology" trait, and you have to be careful with them.
Any player trying to give you advice will be biased and try to get you to join their faction, it’s best to do your own research into what you believe the best faction is.
[agnostic] now but the [hindu] faction was pretty appealing when I was lower leveled because of the free respawn. Mind you, it is based on your karma levels, so make sure those are in a good place before you go doing something dangerous
Tried choosing Catholicism today for the confession cleanse exploit but they didn’t seem very welcoming
I think you should actually read some more documentation about those religion type factions. You seem to be knowing mostly the stereotypical things people inside in-lore online forums spread about them and the way they might be played out on the somewhat weird USA server.
However there are actually large portions of the Outside world and many religious micro-clans where
Also the "atheism" faction is actually not one of the religious factions but one that is very concerned about not joining any of them at all. Which has its place in the Outside lore but kind of comes with some debuffs itself, for example often a much stronger mourning debuff when losing a dear fellow player, as no belief in the afterlife servers exists.
You should also know that especially the major factions Christianity and Islam have gained a bad reputation – and partially rightfully so – for being abused by warmongers of all eras and types as a fake reason for killing lots of other players, even though the core of their belief readme files should actually prevent them from doing exactly that.
All in all it’s a mixed bag with loads of potential fun or even sometimes really bad hidden side quests as well as possible main storylines for your char either way. Choosing one of the factions – or none of them – will affect your playthrough as much as you choose to get involved with the topic. Especially on servers with the 'liberal democracy' super-perk you can thankfully choose for yourself entirely.
As a member of the Atheist faction, it's a neutral faction. The faction provides no buffs, no debuffs, no faction specific rules you need to follow, which is why I chose this faction. But it also comes with its own challenges. Other factions seem to hate us and sometimes group up against us. But other than that, it's great So choose carefully.
Imo, Agnostic is pretty underrated. You get the bonuses of having a religion and not having one. Although the stat bonuses are halved. But it let's you use the ability pray while also not having to trigger the event, Holy Mass.
The Christian faction is peak. Basically, if you follow the server rules for the whole game you get to meet the developer of the game itself and unlock the "infinite" mode, where you are in the same lobby as Him and don't have ANY debuffs or general nerfs. Keep in mind that you can always ask the developer to make new updates. The only catch is that you don't get to meet the players who chose other factions, as they get locked in another lobby where they can't level up anymore and the "suffering" effect is applied at all times
It is important to note that none of this has been, not ever will be, confirmed by the devs, and it's 100% player created
However the developer has used his admin powers many times throughout history to reward those who follow the faction well. Even the games most high-intelligence stat players agreed that the events could not occur with regular game mechanics. For example, a religious host item’s material was switched from bread to tissue from a player character heart organ. The best players in the science guild studied it and concluded that the transformation was genuine and that it could not be done in any explainable way.
Saying it is 100% player created too is false when there was once a player whom many believe to be the developer’s account himself. This player was known to use admin powers to do things such as turn water to wine. Some people claim this player never existed, maybe because they they think they are too good to believe in the very logical possibility of there being a developer, but regardless, the Roman faction has well documented player logs of this player existing.
The "game's most high-intelligence stat players" absolutely did not agree on that. Confirmation bias and circular reasoning are extremely common amongst most of the factions based around the [Religion] tree, and this is a perfect example of that.
The games high intelligence players DO agree upon the existence of whom many believe to be the dev’s account. If you are arguing otherwise, I find this discussion pointless to continue.
If you are willing to accept facts widely understood to be true, then I will continue. In question whether or not the games high intelligence players agree on whether or not the eucharistic phenomena are explainable with current science.
The current research into the events has failed to produce a hypothesis for the mechanism of the transformation. It is well understood and agreed upon that there currently is no such well-founded hypothesis. Scientists arent afraid to admit this. They arent like you, where you are scared of religon and think that by admitting this it means it is all real. No, scientists understand that by admitting they dont know something, they arent vying for the validity of religion.
There are 5 well known “eucharistic miracles.” 3 happened in buenos aires, one in tixtla mexico, and one in sokólka poland. These span from 1992 to 2008. There are claims of such miracles prior, however the technology to study them was not as prevalent / didnt even exist at all (as soon as half a century ago), so these claims are not as well supported. Of the 5 most well known ones, they are all sent to different laboratories to undergo investigation. Unlike you may assume, the church does not get all giddy when it hears about a miracle and scrambles to proclaim its validity. No, it gets extremely skeptical and requires extensive investigation to even consider it as a miracle.
The results from the lab investigations are extremely hard to explain scientifically. The blood type was the same across all three places. Human heart tissue was found in each sample, and it was found fused to the host in a manner that could not be replicated artificially. White blood cells were found, intact, which would not be possible if the heart tissue was embedded artificially. The investigations were carried out by different scientists, in different labs, in locations miles apart, across almost 2 decades, giving a high degree of credence to the results.
This is just one example of “miracles” which have yet to be explained by scientists. In this case, the scientists do agree that there is no explanation using our current understanding of science which can explain these events. That doesnt mean there can never be, but currently there isnt. I could also talk about the several instances of “miraculous imagery” such as the tilma displaying the lady of Guadalupe. Whether or not you choose to believe the science is up to you. And further, if you decide to believe the science showing that there is no explanation so far, then what you conclude from that is also up to you.
You do, of course, have a citation for these claims, from a peer reviewed, reputable scientific journal, right? Few people actually debate that there was a player named "Jesus" at that time. That he was, in fact, the embodiment of the developer, has never been more than speculation put forth by the members of the faction that built up around him.
But one question, which path do I choose though?
Anything but Islam
-Oh. Can I use any save managers to change mine hypothetically?
Classic reddit thinking athiesm correlates with increase in critical thinking skills lol
There is no rational basis for religion, that's why it's called having faith.
There is plenty of basis, especially the historically verified existence of Jesus (for christianity) and the many still unexplained miracles. Whether or not you choose to believe in the validity of these is up to you. Its all your critical thinking skills. Someone with better critical thinking might look at the hundreds of miracles and see all the effort put in to explaining them - without avail - and realize that maybe there is some truth to it. Someone without critical thinking will blindly shrug them off and say “well there must be a scientific explanation,” thereby assuming science has an explanation for everything, which is putting their faith in that. (Provably false, science/mathematics cannot explain the entirety of the universe because of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems - a system cannot prove itself, and it is impossible to construct a system that can capture all universal truths while also proving all of them)
The miracles never happened, historically the evidence suggests Jesus was just your standard schizophrenic preacher.
Science doesn't require faith, it requires evidence. You trying to equate it with faith just shows you don't know what you're talking about. Just because some things are inherently unknowable doesn't mean you can never truly know anything. In fact, the only way you can ever possibly know if something is true is either with pure reason, or science. Any argument for God being real works just as well for a magic fridge orbiting Venus.
Just admit religion is fundamentally irrational. I'd have more respect for you.
Don't have anything to say now? Hope you learned something.
I like the Chaos Magic one, it's basically a customizable option, I'd say it's buff is it lets you use limited versions of the buffs of other belief systems, though it takes a bit to wrap your head around the mechanics. If you're into the high floor/high ceiling play style I recommend.
2nd the Chaos Magic for the DIY build, but it's more of a solo thing for most players though. You end up being more of a sub-spec in the larger Magic Factions umbrella for quests requiring a party of players.
Any choice- apart from atheist - will really boost your influence score, so you can manipulate others of that faction if you choose. Downside is that all other factions will have increased aggro against you
If you're willing to put in the work you can create a custom religion. If successful, there are a few perks, but many of those perks could get you booted from the server or put into a penalty box
Bruh, honestly atheist faction probs strongest just ‘cause no restrictions holding u back. Like, the buffs on critical thinking legit help with strategy and logic, plus no weird gender lock or consumable bans. The debuffs on “hell” and “parents” for others suck hard. Best playstyle = free and flexible. Parents & hell zones are just extra grind and toxic debuffs. If u want max fun + no annoying rules, atheist’s the move. Trust me, tried em all.
As far as we know, there is no buff conferred by picking a faction, but each comes with specific restrictions. It’s therefore probably optimal to just not engage with that content.
Personally I think it’s best to just pick the one your character defaulted to and then if you’re noticing a lot of debuffs you can shop around
Whatever you do, don't fall for Pascal's noob trap
Personally I'm a fan of the player-made "cult" factions. They usually fit better in meme builds though, so if you're a more serious player, I'd stay away. They can end runs early if you're not careful, because some players start them to troll newbies.
Personally I say go with the Christian faction. I mean the real Christian faction NOT those Bible thumping holier than thou your gonna burn in hell fake Christian faction
RGA
That ain’t a religion DoR bro
Cult of personality around tuesday trust
In my opinion, Atheist and Agnostic are the strongest factions because they don't have any playstyle restrictions whatsoever, besides the ones you impose on yourself (and your server's TOS, of course).
That said, be prepared to face some toxicity from members of the other factions, especially those who believe the game was created in one week-long sprint instead of being the product of an eons-long physics/chemistry simulation.
Both "heaven" and "hell" are fake; nobody's ever been to these supposed endgame areas and reported back to the main game.
I'd recommend steering clear of any religious faction, they all come with obligations that are designed to benefit that faction, not those within it. If you are able to advance in the hierarchy of a religious faction, you might end up with some level of prestige or power that makes it a worthwhile trade-off, but there are honestly plenty of easier ways to get prestige and power.
Many players think this, but ultimately whether heaven and hell exist is unprovable, either way. So you saying they are fake is also not verified. It is equally as likely that they do exist. Nobody in these servers knows for sure. Of course nobody has been there and come back, since you aren’t able to come back afterwards.
Nope, if you're going to assert the existence of something, it's up to you to provide evidence to support that. Otherwise, you're just a bullshit artist.
Other factions are based on some supposed reward later yet our game has no proof of such a reward system. Atheism let's you enjoy now instead of maybe later.
If you’re in a faction that is constantly giving you negative statuses then it isn’t a good faction. The goal is to join one to farm your joy points now and get even more joy points later.
Eh. Religious factions can provide bonuses to your social stats, but it also provides a debuff by means of arbitrary rules (some are legitimate, but a religious faction shouldn't be necessary to follow the rules that are along the lines of "don't kill anyone").
I'm the end, I think it also provides a debuff to honesty (as does the "atheism" belief) since no one really knows. I'm the end, I think the "agnostic" belief is the one that allows for the most buffs, such as "open mindedness."
What are the arbitrary rules that arent necessary, in your opinion?
Most are broken these days anyways. But players in certain guilds are banned from premarital sex, eating certain foods, having to get pieces of themselves removed...hell, one even says you can't wear mixed fabrics! It's quite antiquated.
For one, I would look at the faction slogans. Some claim to be "the truth", others are "the way". Only one faction is "the way, the truth and the life" though. There's nothing wrong with being a winning team joiner if you choose the latter.
The most convincing argument for this faction, however, is that other factions constantly try to debuff it. However, those with the [Historian] skilltree have proven that the faction owner was in fact buried in a tomb and that the tomb was found empty. All that is needed to join is to use the [Believe] Skill on the faction owners [Resurrection] Status Effect and that he diminishes the malusses of your [Sin]-debuffs
Yes, i suspect people will even come here and try to debuff the faction. However this faction has the most verified claims of the developer using admin powers to do things such as change bread into heart tissue or create images in a way not possible with past or present in game technology / mechanics.
The fact that you're trying to pick and choose a belief system indicates you already understand that none of them make sense.
Also, the Christian leader said that atheists would get into heaven if it was real anyway. So there's no reason to join just for the promise of an afterlife.
Personally I don't believe in the religious factions. Not interested in joining their discords or winning their post-game prizes. I'm here to play Outside. I'm not gonna throw away a good run just for the sake of some dubious third-party chat server.
For some reason many players think joining a religious faction means you ruin your run, when in reality it actually provides almost free happiness and mental stability buffs and can also improve your character’s morals and therefore respect among others. Plenty of people in religious factions have wonderful playthroughs and many people’s playthroughs have been saved by religious factions, where they would have otherwise quit the game. The subset of players who joined a religious faction and had a worse run is incredibly small in comparison.
I got spawn-camped by griefers on my run who kept lying to me telling me there were all these official rules for Outside and the fact is there just aren't. I can play how I want. But I wasted a lot of time getting strung along by these clowns.
What are some rules they were talking about? A lot of religious players are misinformed and have false conceptions of rules that arent actual rules. This contributes to the narrative that religion is a bunch of rules to follow. Its likely those people were stupid and fell for false rules themselves.
Join the Wicca faction! We get access to spells!
According to one of the in game guides (the bonobo and the atheist by Frans de Waal iirc), the main buffs gained from a religious faction during the playthrough are very similar to/the same as the ones gained from getting a good amount of social interaction or being part of a tight nit player group. So you don't necessarily need to join a religious faction for the buffs associated with joining one of those.
There's also the fact that many of the factions have many subfactions with rules and debuffs that might be completely different from the ones gained from the main faction (and even within those subfactions it can be very different depending on which worship hall you go to).
So there are some ways to get the religious faction buffs without joining one of those and if you're set on joining one of them you can probably find one with little to no difference in values compared to you.
I've been happy with the Unitarian Universalist faction for the last several years. I can spec myself pretty much how I want, change my class, whatever and it's all cool with them. I'm also a member of the Rainbow faction and been accepted and next expected to leave that faction.
Choose Christianity, it has huge late game buffs
Christianity
I chose the panpsychism faction. It's very fringe and most people have no idea what I'm talking about but I think "the universe is god" is a pretty good take.
Judaism would be the best faction but it also doubles as a race when needed so if it wasn't your starting faction then the only way you can join is by leveling into the billionaire or politician skill tree.
I've been investigating the [non-duality] faction and I have to say it has been incredibly rewarding. Huge awareness buff. I would start by listening to one of the faction leaders, Rupert Spira. For a more accessible entry point, the [comedian] guild member, Pete Holmes, is also a [non-duality] faction member and talks profoundly and humorously about it.
Interesting question, I was playing the side game Pascal's Wager, where you bet on believing to get into "Heaven" zone, but tbh I probably failed that quest. So I'm instead trying to level up "Saintly/Good" background stat, because that gives some passive benefits in game and might work? Depends which player faction you ask.
Pick the one with origins closest to your hub world, that’s standard meta
Unpopular opinion but imo the [Islam] faction is probably the best, unfortunately there are many misconceptions about it, e.g it doesn't give you a [Violence] modifier nor [Hatred]