Re: Atheist character

[mikm]

Question is : do religions have to worship gods or maybe they can worship something else.
I've seen religions that don't really name any gods. Even a religion that says "we hate the supernatural"

[Indirik]

Exactly what comprises a religion is a subject of contention. If you're not on Dwilight, then it can be damned near anything. However, the general rule is that your character *must* believe in something. Some higher power or god. There must be some divinity that your character acknowledges.

[Indirik]

Also, your character does not need to be a devout worshiper, or zealot, or anything like that. Nor do you need to be a member of any player-made, game-mechanics religion. You can say "My gods are real, yours are fake", and other such variations. But your character should not be of the opinion that "there are no gods, they're all fake, etc." That kind of attitude simply should not exist.

[Bedwyr]

Question is : do religions have to worship gods or maybe they can worship something else.
I've seen religions that don't really name any gods. Even a religion that says "we hate the supernatural"

Speaking as the founder of the "we hate the supernatural" religion (that's not quite what it believed, but close enough that I won't quibble) members of the religion believed in several gods.  They just thought the gods hated them, and the feeling was mutual.

[De-Legro]

Speaking as the founder of the "we hate the supernatural" religion (that's not quite what it believed, but close enough that I won't quibble) members of the religion believed in several gods.  They just thought the gods hated them, and the feeling was mutual.

Very true, the gods were real, we just weren't all that sure they liked us/cared about us or that there was anything gained from Worshipping them. There was even a secret sect that was attempting to create a human god to protect them from the whims of the others.

[Norrel]

Very true, the gods were real, we just weren't all that sure they liked us/cared about us or that there was anything gained from Worshipping them. There was even a secret sect that was attempting to create a human god to protect them from the whims of the others.

what

[De-Legro]

what

what part confuses you?

[Marlboro]

Maltheism! Eff yes!

[Indirik]

FWIW: I never could see the validity of a religion that hated their gods, and institutionalized the "not worshiping" of them. I can see fearing, and maybe even hating them. But if you're a religion, then you should be worshiping them. I mean, you're building these temples and holding services telling people that they should *not* worship the gods? And getting them to donate their money so that you can build even bigger temples so you can not worship them better? Sorry, but that whole concept simply doesn't work for me. The whole purpose of a religion is to worship the god/s or supernatural powers to whom the religion is dedicated.

[vonGenf]

Gnosticism did something like that: they believed in a Demiurge and other supernatural entities, but considered them evil, and considered that shunning them and their creation in favor of human knowledge was the path to salvation.

In broad strokes of course, I'm not claiming I'm an expert in gnosticism.

[Indirik]

My brief reading of wikipedia (for whatever that is worth) indicates that the gnostics still believed in god, or a supreme being or source of divinity. The demiurge was an emanation who enacted creation, and was a "lesser" or "false" god.

[Bedwyr]

FWIW: I never could see the validity of a religion that hated their gods, and institutionalized the "not worshiping" of them. I can see fearing, and maybe even hating them. But if you're a religion, then you should be worshiping them. I mean, you're building these temples and holding services telling people that they should *not* worship the gods? And getting them to donate their money so that you can build even bigger temples so you can not worship them better? Sorry, but that whole concept simply doesn't work for me. The whole purpose of a religion is to worship the god/s or supernatural powers to whom the religion is dedicated.

There was a very specific purpose to the temples and shrines.  It was a (so far as I know) more or less unique take on ancestor worship.  The Daimons and the Light used human souls up as sources of power for their offensive weapons, and the Manifest Path temples and shrines supposedly housed them as defensive measures.  The idea was that they would literally be sanctuaries against evil forces.

[vonGenf]

My brief reading of wikipedia (for whatever that is worth) indicates that the gnostics still believed in god, or a supreme being or source of divinity. The demiurge was an emanation who enacted creation, and was a "lesser" or "false" god.

That was mostly (as far as I understand it) Deism, and I don't think pure Deism fits the atmosphere of BM. But Gnosticism was Deism with extra evil supernatural beings; you could argue that the only personal Gods they believed in, they thought were evil.

[Anaris]

That was mostly (as far as I understand it) Deism, and I don't think pure Deism fits the atmosphere of BM. But Gnosticism was Deism with extra evil supernatural beings; you could argue that the only personal Gods they believed in, they thought were evil.

No...Deism was the belief in the "watchmaker God", who created everything, then sat back and just let it go.

[Antonine]

No...Deism was the belief in the "watchmaker God", who created everything, then sat back and just let it go.

Correction: is.

Source: I'm BM's resident deist :)