As the youngest major religion in the existence, the Church of the Oracle is the spiritual home to worshipers called the Insightful—so named to distinguish them from the title Inseer, given to citizens of the stellar nation of Insight. Followers of the Church of the Oracle aren’t acknowledged as religious adherents by many stellar nations, and certainly aren’t acknowledged by the other major religions. Nevertheless, more than 500 billion believers call the Insightful faith their own. The religion is a well-known haven for gridpilots and programmers, and some of the best hackers are known to follow the code of the Insightful.

To understand the Insightful’s beliefs, it’s necessary to experience the Grid. The Grid’s ability to allow exchange of thought is the cornerstone of all Insightful beliefs and practices. Insight depends on a perfect melding of technology and mysticism—a melding that has a strong appeal for many of the technically and artistically inclined. The vehicle of the religion is not prayer, or good works, or devotion to scripture. The Insightful believe that divine potential lurks within the Grid

Uncomplicated by the imperfections of language, the Grid—especially as perfected by Insight—permits direct contact with the conscious mind. As such, it grants sentient minds the potential for complete understanding, or complete union, with one another and with the universe. This is a possibility once thought limited to those with mindwalking talents. This union naturally results in complete equality among souls, reflected by the Insightful disregard from ranks and hierarchies. The only hierarchy is the exchange, and its fire of truth. As a believer grows in understanding, she gains access to higher and higher levels of the truth and advances along the path to perfect understanding.

For sentient beings to evolve crude flesh to a free exchange of thought across the Grid, information must be free. For governments and corporations to keep secrets and restrict the free flow of information is a sin. It’s the sacred duty of the Insightful to expose the truth, no matter how painful it may be. The price of free exchange, the price of destiny, is the willingness to learn and embrace both the good and evil sides of sentient nature, and ultimately rise above them both.