Tikälim

Rationalism
Tikälim
Eye of Truth
Classification	Civic Religion / Deism
Scripture	Treatise on Reason, Truth, Evidence, and Progress
Polity	None; absent
Governance	None; absent
Language	Stedorian
Headquarters	Kapojvar
Territory	Stedoria
Founder	WIP
Origin	1793
Members	Approximately 60% of the Stedorian population

Tikälim, meaning Rationalism in Stedorian, is the state-sponsored atheistic-deistic civic religion/philosophy of the Stedorian People's Republic created during the First Stedorian Revolution to act as a new religion in place of Salvian Christianity for the then newly-formed Stedorian Republic. The movement remained popular throughout the Republic's existence, due to harsh repression of Salvian Church by revolutionary and republic authorities, Tikälim's fervent advocation by the aformentioned authorities, and due to genuine interest in Tikälim owing to resenment held towards the Salvian Church due to the Church's importance in the Kingdom of Stedoria.

After the Republic's collapse, Tikälim was outlawed by royal authorities and harshly repressed, with it being used as a scapegoat for political repression. Despite this widespread repression, the movement remained alive in Stedoria, mainly in rural and remote communities of Stedoria, where royal authorities cared and worried little of political revolt by the peasantry, seeing as the first revolution was led largely by urban-dwelling Stedorians. This would remain the case until the monarchy was once again deposed in 1971.

The theory of Gemotamism, developed by Falk Jlüter and Kristof Yebalänan, would come to view Tikälim as an integral part of its movement owing the Gemotamism's promotion of progressive ideals. Jlüter and Yebalänan viewed the Salvian Church as a force which held society back through what they believed to be the Church's "draconian thinking". They believed that for a Renaissance/Rebirth to be carried out within Dolch societies, they first would be required to overcome religion so that they would become more ethnicially conscious and thus work further towards unity.

After the 1971 Stedorian coup d'état, in which Läkhart Viktor Drejlär and the Royal Stedorian Armed Forced seized power and established the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Stedoria, Tikälim was unbanned, and declared Stedoria's official religion once again. Drejlär had secretly been a Tikälimist since childhood owing to his rural origin, only feigning Salvian Catholicism in order to avoid persecution. Due to Gemotamism's promotion of Tikälim, the ideology which the new junta established itself as, the new military government aggressively pursued the notion that the Salvian Church had been instruments of the monarchy, and, by extension, responsible for the suffering of Stedoria's people. Whilst Salvian Catholicism was never outlawed, it was repressed and looked down upon. Aggressive measures were also taken by the military junta to increase Tikälim throughout Stedoria by encouraging citizens to abandon their previous faiths and religions and convert to Tikälim.

After the military junta fell in 1980, the re-established royal government did not officially embark on state-sanctioned repression against Tikälim due to the large amount of followers the religion/philosophy had due to the aggressive promotion of it by the junta. Despite this however, repression de facto existed during the Stedorian Civil War as Stedorian rebel forces were almost exclusively Tikälimist due to the Gemotamist orientation of the rebels. After the rebels' defeat, Tikälim would still remain tolerated, though de facto discrimination persisted.

After the Second Stedorian Revolution, Tikälim was once again re-established as Stedoria's official philosophy; other religions besides Tikälim are still legal however. Government initiatives to promote Tikälim have only occurred in moderate amounts; despite this however, religious freedom watchdogs have accused the Stedorian government of sectarianism and violating religious freedoms, to which the government has responded by claiming that Tikälim is not a religion, but a philosophy.