Atheism?

[Leech]

"A moment of philosophy may turn a man to atheism, but true depth of
insight shall bring him to the Lord of the Springs."

-- St. Aelwyn Falsteph, Inquisitor of the Holy Order

....

Huh? Who would be an atheist in this theme? Our saint was tokin', guys.

[Inertia]

Not to encourage weaker belief in established Urthly religion(s) or anything, but...

A couple of ideas. First, the Order as we know and love it today used to be a militant, mage-hating sect of a larger, peace promoting religion - but that wasn't the only religion around. If we assume some of the other remaining religions were also kicking about pre-Consolidation (and I don't have their help files available at the moment as the game is down), I don't have trouble assuming there was some small percentage of people who practiced non-belief, if for no reason other than feeling the established religions conflicted too much with one another to prove evidence of actual divinity. For example, I could be working off old memories but I think the Path of Fire believes in an afterlife but makes no mention of an actual god.

Second, I can see the time of the Consolidation actually turning people away from god(s). If the Holy Church was a major religion overwhelmed (with Dav's help) by its militant sect, the old argument of "if God exists, why does he let X happen" becomes all the more persuasive when magic is seen as evil.

Third, spreading into modern day Lithmore, the Lord of the Springs is not a demonstrative deity. While bad things in life are attributed to pesky witches (mutated creatures, bad harvests, natural disasters etc), we don't have miracles or really a culture that promotes giving credit to the deity for good things and that's enough proof for some that there is no god or gods. God didn't do this, I did it myself, I'm the one with the aching back, that sort of thing, versus I've done this through divine inspiration.

So a bunch of the common arguments for atheism exist still in Urthy culture. Is it popular? I sure hope not. But I'd say the quote borrowed from RL fits the game well if one considers the time when Aelwyn lived - a time of violent change which could easily leave disenchanted individuals questioning established cultural truths.

[Delilah]

I have never seen that quote, Leech! Thanks for sharing it. :)

I believe that characters often have things happen to them personally that they interpret as miracles without it needing to be a widespread 'Oh my! The Lord of the Springs healed the entire city of corpse rot!'... Though I imagine we'd all be quite happy to be rid of those pesky oozing sores if it were ever a problem.

I once played a character who tried to calm other mages by telling them that the Lord did love them, they were special and that is why he had blessed them with such an important gift.

[Dice]

Though I generally play devout Davites, I have played an atheist PC on TI.

A mage who rejected all of Davism thanks to rejecting the central idea that magery was bad - but, having been raised in Davism, the other religions were approached with a naturally skeptical view and just ultimately didn't fit.

What was left? Someone who essentially said "Wait a minute. If none of these are real, why does there have to be a god at all? What reason do I have to believe in one? Every religion I see is flawed and foolish. What if there really isn't anything?"

I suppose you might say more agnostic than atheist, since there's a lack of CERTAINTY there, but the general thought process could quite realistically lead to atheism, I think.

[Leech]

To me, religion is about faith in an afterlife and a higher power.

When you've got demons and magic, I'd say those would be the higher powers. Why not go demon-worship?

[wimple]

Magic is a natural process and demons are just another type of animal that's out there. They don't mean there is evidence of any higher power unless you ascribe a higher power to them.

[Dice]

You'd have to be one reeeeally evil person to worship demons. Even most mages reject them as foul and tainted.