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

Arthur Boff posts regarding the needs that religions fill:

  I'd be interested to see Mary's answer as well, but here's
  what I was thinking of in my previous post on the subject:

What particularly made me wonder was Mary's mention of Buddhism and
Taoism, which I tend to think of as religions, and the lack of mention
of Con****ianism, which I see as a nonreligious philosophy.

  - Spiritual reassurance. The idea that human beings
  are meaningless insects grubbing about on the
  surface of a ball of dirt in cold empty space isn't
  particularly comforting. A religion needs to say
  people "the world makes sense, there is a greater
  meaning behind apparent chaos, and even if you
  are suffering now, there is hope for you if you have
  faith."

This is something that Con****ianism doesn't offer, and that Buddhism
and perhaps Taoism do; it may be related to why I consider the latter
two religions and the former not.

  - Social glue. A coherent moral philosophy, some basic
  laws, perhaps even backing the political status quo (or,
  in the case of Judaism or Christianity during the times
  when those faiths were persecuted, keeping a
  community together through a common faith when
  everything else had been taken away from them).

Con****ianism does provide this part, and from my perhaps biased
viewpoint, Buddhism and Taoism don't particularly.  Perhaps the key
here - at least for the nonminority philosophies - is the underlying
moral philosophy, which can be provided by nonreligious philosophies
as easily as they can be by religions.  I'm curious as to how you see
the moral philosophy and legal framework as relating to what keeps
minority communities together, though.

  - A focus for the community.

I guess I don't see this as an issue of either religion or
philosophy.  I agree that churches can fulfill this role, but it seems
to me that the keep or manor house may do so equally well.

Does that seem a reasonable analysis of the difference of your three
items?

Warren J. Dew