[eddiezane]

I've always thought that the Missionaria Protectiva was coolest concept in Dune. The "religious engineering".

The idea that over thousands of years the Bene Gesserit have seeded fake prophecy and religion throughout the universe to "primitive worlds". A Bene Gesserit visiting one of these worlds is trained to fulfill these prophecies and basically weaponize the locals.

I don't know why it blows my mind but it does. Has modern scifi used this idea anywhere?

[jakamau]

Not quite the same, but for a book that shows the power of weaponized empathy, Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon" (the book version specifically) has the envoys as empathic super-soldiers.

When you can easily move a consciousness into different bodies, the most dangerous opponents are those that can empathize with their enemy to such a degree that they can pass as one of them seamlessly and unconsciously predict their motives and reactions.

[bigwavedave]

> I've always thought that the Missionaria Protectiva was coolest concept in Dune. The "religious engineering".

> The idea that over thousands of years the Bene Gesserit have seeded fake prophecy and religion throughout the universe to "primitive worlds". A Bene Gesserit visiting one of these worlds is trained to fulfill these prophecies and basically weaponize the locals.

> I don't know why it blows my mind but it does. Has modern scifi used this idea anywhere?

To anyone interested in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere but hasn't yet read the Mistborn series, be aware please that my answer contains major spoilers for the first couple of books, so stop reading this comment now if that concerns you.

In the Mistborn series, there are two deities for this one specific planet- for reasons I won't go into, they created the planet and its humans together but one deity trapped the other in a metaphysical prison. To escape this prison, this second one uses the tiny amount of influence it still has to pervert the prophecies and teachings of the dominant religion over thousands of years to weaponize the local population, engineer rebellions, and cause a lot of people to believe they're some "chosen hero" who will defeat a fake threat manufactured by this 2nd deity, which all eventually causes the release of the 2nd diety from this metaphysical prison.

Not quite the same I guess, but they share some similar threads.

[JohnKacz]

Great video talking about just that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjC5JLNFczY

[tantalor]

Its ironic because 1, the BG have their own phrophesy (Kwisatz Haderach) they actually believe and 2, on Dune the "fake phrophesy" comes true.

[kybernetikos]

Not exactly the same, but Alastair Reynolds has an idea in some of his books (e.g. Absolution gap) of religions genetically engineering viruses that literally infect people and give them religious experiences that match up to their religion. One of the characters has been infected by one, but remains an atheist despite unwanted visions and occasional religious experiences.

[andreilys]

I know Foundation series also toys with this concept, where “religion” is used as a way to neutralize enemy worlds and rebuild the empire

[disantlor]

same; this is the part I always end up trying to explain to people when talking up Dune. The monolith in 2001 is kind of a similar idea.