Re: Athiests in Fantasy Settings ( Was: some help please (druid))

Eric P. wrote:
> In article <12sjk47pikh772@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>  Arthur Boff <arthur.boff@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> I like it! I've seen people do similar things before - I think it works

>> well in fantasy games because all too often, the gods just boil down to

>> Big Dudes with Loads of Magic and the priests are just spellcasters in 
>> cassocks. It's rare to find a religious system devised for RPGs which 
>> feels like an actual religion which could satisfy the spiritual and 
>> emotional needs of its adherents - Glorantha being one of the few 
>> exceptions.
> 
> A different mechanic could be used for divine power than for arcane 
> magical power, to more clearly differentiate the two. Also, there's 
> nothing particularly wrong with having divine beings in a game setting 
> who are capable of granting "miracles" to their faithful 
> followers/sup****ters.

True, but in our world religions manage to get plenty of adherents 
despite the fact that only a tiny, tiny minority of them will ever 
witness a miracle.

> If you have a setting where no gods exist, there's 
> no sense in having any religions/faiths in that setting, either.

There's no cast-iron evidence that gods exist in our world - certainly, 
we don't have priests casting Cure Light Wounds by the bucketload - and 
yet we have religions by the plenty. Religion fills an im****tant niche, 
a niche which doesn't necessarily disappear if you say "gods don't exist 
in this world".