D&D 5E Atheism in DnD

[Henry]

There are actual terms for this that get glossed over in our real world, but are very relevant to a fantasy polytheistic world:
Alatrism - belief that there are gods, but that worship is either undeserved or goes unheeded. Conan the Barbarian could have been described as Alatristic - he almost never prayed to Crom because he believed Crom existed but never heeded his people's prayers.
Dystheism - the belief that the gods exist, but are either not wholly good or possibly evil.
Maltheism - certainty that the gods are outright evil.

Any of these would be appropriate. Even if the gods existed, if you believed their actions not worthy of worship, you might behave in a manner described as atheistic, even if you had evidence that beings who called themselves deities existed and took action in the world.

 

[Remathilis]

By setting:

Toril, Oerth, and Krynn: kinda hard, as the gods are active on those worlds. Certainly hard to deny, but it might be possible to refuse to worship any. Realms deities have walked the earth, Oerth has a demi-god as a ruler of a nation, and Krynn is famous for its deities being very controlling of divine (and arcane) magic.

Mystara doesn't have gods, they have Immortals, who are power entities, but have a very different relationship with mortals. Some are worshipped like Gods, others aren't. Churches do not necessarily worship immortals, and there is no penalty for worshiping, not worshipping, or even changing religions. In essence, they CAN be worshiped, but they don't need to be.

Athas has no Gods, least none still around.

Eberron deities are remote, and there are a variety of faiths that aren't tied to Gods. In fact, clerics don't lose spell access for misbehaving either.

Ravenloft deities are also remote, if they even exist at all. There are whole domains (Lamordia for example) where the idea of religion is scoffed on.

Planescape has a faction (the Athar) who don't believe the Gods are real Gods; powerful entities sure, but not real gods. Believers of the Source (another faction) believe we can all become Gods one day.

Don't know enough about Birthright. Sorry.

So on a lot of D&D worlds, you can get away with non-belief, if not outright disbelief.

 

[77IM]

I had a player roleplaying an agnostic cleric and it was awesome:

"Behold the awesome power of Moradin! ...or possibly the arcane energies of an uncaring universe, given the form and personality of 'Moradin' as a reflection of demihuman desire for the existence of a higher power. I'm really not sure. Either way, make a DC 13 Dex save against sacred flame, goblin scum!"

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'm working on a pantheon for my new campaign and one of my players asked if a deity is mandatory and could he be atheist. He's Christian IRL so it's an interesting response.

Do you think its possible to be an professed atheist in a setting where there are clerics running around? You don't reject the gods and you're not sitting on the fence - you outright don't believe they exist despite hard evidence to the contrary.

Makes perfect sense to me. As a Christian, it's very easy to take one look at D&D gods, snort skeptically and say, "Those aren't gods. Not even close. Those are just NPCs with lots of magic." Without omnipotence, omniscience, infallibility, and perfect love for every individual, it is impossible for such an NPC to deserve the kind of trust and faith which makes him worthy of actual worship.

Christianity and other Abrahamic faiths have been contemptuously atheistic about pagan religions for thousands of years. Atheism is a natural fit. Just look at Elijah laughing at the priests of Baal in the Old Testament.

"That's not a god."

 

[transtemporal]

TBH you might want to use your Real Life Sense Motive to get a feel if the player has any hang ups about even playing a character that believes in a deity other than his RL one. Or perhaps the player is projecting his own doubts onto his character.

Given his sense of humor, he's probably using this as a way to meet the directives of his RL religion and make an amusing statement about the fantasy one to see what I do, lol. We've had robust and hilarious conversations about it in the past, so its all in good fun.

I think I'll just let him be an atheist, e.g. he doesn't believe the gods exist. All the magic in the world is explainable through mass hysteria, natural phenomena, coincidence or science.

 

[Celtavian]

Sure, people are fully capable of holding beliefs in the face of evidence that conclusively refutes those beliefs.

This happens all the time. Conspiracy theorists, UFO believers, etcetera, etcetera. Believing the world is flat. Believing in the Greek or Norse gods. So yes, your player could be an atheist in world full of empowered clerics.

 

[transtemporal]

Just look at Elijah laughing at the priests of Baal in the Old Testament.

"That's not a god."

In my head Crocodile Dundee said that.

Makes sense though. He hasn't specified exactly how he's going to portray it. I half suspect he's gonna drop the "one true god" line at some stage, which would be cool. Might be getting a bit too realsies for the others though.

 

[Dkase]

Don't know enough about Birthright. Sorry.

Birthright has gods, and many of the rulers are infused with the essence of dead gods, so it's also hard to be an atheist there as well.

I do recall that in past editions, clerics could also receive spells by devoting themselves to a particular cause or by possessing an abnormally strong belief in something. In effect, creating their own pseudo religion based on their own beliefs.

 

[Staccat0]

A lot of great responses already in this thread.
Another option that may work in some settings where athiests make less sense might be an anti-thiest. Someone who dislikes gods and religion and thinks that mortals shouldn't be used as pawns in their games. Somebody who isn't evil necessarily, but a revolutionary of sorts, who wants to see the god - all of them - severed from influencing the material plane.

This is not an athiest obviously - but as it might be a fun character.

Weirdly I beleive the 2e players handbook explained athiest clerics could work because the power of clerics is drawn from their faith not the actual being (I was in 4th grade so I am sure I am misremembering) and it could just be someone harnessing their faith in their self.

Related: I had the opportunity to play recently (with Matt Mercer no less /NameDrop) and I made a Paladin who was kind of a Rip Van Winkle and Don Quixote mashup. Part of his deal was that he couldn't remember which god he followed or what his holy quest was. It was a really fun character.

 

[transtemporal]

Sure, people are fully capable of holding beliefs in the face of evidence that conclusively refutes those beliefs.

That is true, in fact denial by itself might be powerful enough.

"You don't see the 10 foot glowing avatar of Mystra in front of you?"
"Nope, what are you talking about?"