Re: Atheists in Fantasy Settings

Simon Smith posts, in part:

  Yes, have to agree with Will here. I like to think that
  the following definition of 'soul' works well, and is
  useful even for non-believers:

  Soul is a measure of a creature's capacity to feel love,
  hatred, fear, pain, wonder, joy, jealousy, empathy and
  all other such emotions.

Will was talking about spirit, and I think his statement might have
some validity for the common use of the word "spiritual".  Personally,
I think of "spiritual" as being more about things like aesthetics, a
sense of wonder, and the meaning of life - and about thought as
opposed to action - than about emotion, but my take may be
idiosyncratic.

In any case, spirit and soul aren't the same word.  Particularly when
discussing religion, the term 'soul' often has a very specific
meaning.  I don't think an "immortal soul" makes much sense for those
who believe that consciousness ceases at death, and who may even
believe that time has a beginning and an end.

I also think that valuing creatures by emotional capacity, as you
suggest, leads to some questionable conclusions.  For example, it
would place a creature driven by lust and hatred more highly on the
moral scale than one driven by intellect.  I don't think a society
based on that philosophy would survive long in a self consistent
world, though game worlds of course needn't be self consistent.

Warren J. Dew