Why Worship Gods?

[Driddle]

The biggest flaw is that most folk (even in D&D worlds) are not presented with events quite as remarkable and unexplainable as unconsumed yet burning bushes that speak and transform sticks to snakes. His argument holds pretty well for Moses - his is not merely a case of confirmation bias, but holds poorly for anyone but Moses. His point simply doesn't scale to the world at large.

The fault isn't that he presents a "cogent" structure, but rather that his primary source is a book of myth that, by its nature, is based on faith and promotes faith. It's a circular reference.

 

[hexgrid]

bible

Time to close the thread!

It was nice while it lasted.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

The fault isn't that he presents a "cogent" structure, but rather that his primary source is a book of myth that, by its nature, is based on faith and promotes faith. It's a circular reference.

In other words, you have no real objections.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Alrighty then. Let's take it from the top.

Assuming that most people in the D&D world know that there are gods (regardless of what happens in real life), why worship them? I am certainly approaching this question from that assumption. I.e., the question is not, "Are there gods in this (D&D) world?" so much as "Sure, there are gods, but why should I care?"

I realize that we can't talk about fantasy religion without some inclusion (at least tangentially) or RL religion, but that isn't really the gist of what I'm looking for. PCs are notoriously more pragmatic than people in RL.

Again, there have been some pretty good answers that I will probably mine ideas from mercilessly.

 

[Driddle]

It's in the gawd contract, Rave. No holy favors unless you get praise, prayers, sacrifices, etc.

Or a more generous interpretation would be that the puny mortals are showing their thanks for all teh k001 stuff that gawds provide.

Worship --> gawd acts
OR
gawd acts --> worship

Either way, you've got enough of a reason.

 

[Voadam]

Quite the opposite I think. By dismissing the argument based upon it source, rather than on its content, you're revealing that discussing the matter with you would be difficult. There's flaws in the argument, but it is basically cogent.

The biggest flaw is that most folk (even in D&D worlds) are not presented with events quite as remarkable and unexplainable as unconsumed yet burning bushes that speak and transform sticks to snakes. His argument holds pretty well for Moses - his is not merely a case of confirmation bias, but holds poorly for anyone but Moses. His point simply doesn't scale to the world at large.

Sticks to snakes is not that convincing even for moses.

When he goes to pharoah and turns his stick into a snake Pharoah doesn't bat an eye, he's got two magicians with him who can do the same thing. The only difference is that Moses' snake eats theirs. The stick to snake thing is not a god only power in that biblical story.

So Moses knows something magical is going on and can take that as some evidence it might be god, but it can not be conclusive proof for Moses that it must be god he is talking to.

In other words even taking all moses' reported observations as true accounts of his observations it is not logically impossible that there is a magician doing these things.

 

[Voadam]

Alrighty then. Let's take it from the top.

Assuming that most people in the D&D world know that there are gods (regardless of what happens in real life), why worship them? I am certainly approaching this question from that assumption. I.e., the question is not, "Are there gods in this (D&D) world?" so much as "Sure, there are gods, but why should I care?"

I realize that we can't talk about fantasy religion without some inclusion (at least tangentially) or RL religion, but that isn't really the gist of what I'm looking for. PCs are notoriously more pragmatic than people in RL.

Again, there have been some pretty good answers that I will probably mine ideas from mercilessly.

I go with the ideas that the church says to worship gods (and incidentally attend and support the church dedicated to the god being worshipped), the culture generally encourages people to worship the gods, and maybe even the gods themselves sometimes say "you should worship me".

I would expect pragmatic PCs to be like vikings, offering worship if they expect something in return. So if they are getting power from the god, i.e. a cleric or paladin who gets their power from a god.

 

[Voadam]

Actually, a strong reason for it is that faith in a deity or spirits means that one can believe they will live on even after death..... People are afraid of death and disappearing utterly forever, and a godless cleric who gets their power from philosophy or something generally can't give you any reason to hope or believe that you'll still exist after death. People want to believe they'll go on. Faith in a deity gives hope for that, whereas godless clerics can't give people anything to hope for beyond the life they're currently living. If nothing else, being told by one cleric that you'll be reincarnated after death, or pass on to an otherworld, or be joined with the greater omniscient essence of the divine, or something, is infinitely better to most folks than hearing from some philosopher that "oh, dead is dead, you don't go anywhere."

Deities are not necessary for an afterlife. Nirvana, reinacarnation, etc. can work fine without a deity or deities to run them. Even the default D&D setup of souls going to aligned outer planes does not require gods. Godless clerics don't need to believe there is no afterlife.

 

[fusangite]

Because in my campaign there is no "godless cleric" nonsense. Divine casters worship a divine power. Worshipping an ethos doesn't cut it.

I wish I'd said that. I could not agree more.

 

[fusangite]

Assuming that most people in the D&D world know that there are gods (regardless of what happens in real life), why worship them? I am certainly approaching this question from that assumption. I.e., the question is not, "Are there gods in this (D&D) world?" so much as "Sure, there are gods, but why should I care?"

In polytheistic cultures, worshipping the gods is a matter of civic duty. Gods, demons and angels cause droughts, epidemics, earthquakes, floods, good harvests, bad harvests, victory in battle, etc. Religion is not just a matter of personal devotion, it is a metter of public responsibility.

A town is required to all come together in the annual Feast, Lottery, Stoning and Jamboree for the Great Earth God Hrunoth because it is misanthropic not to join your fellow citizens in working to ensure that the harvests are good next year and the volcano stays dormant. Next week, you'll all be out again to for the quarterly Baptism and Clambake for Ulhonnaia, Goddess of the Broad River.

I live in a country with socialized medicine, as I believe the original poster does. Even those states with purely private healthcare have things like the Center for Disease Control to deal with epidemics and other major matters of public health. Viruses, like gods, are invisible, hard to understand, seemingly fickle and arbitrary and potentially lethal.

One of the mistakes people make by seeing pre-Christian polytheistic divinities through the lens of modern Christian belief is assuming that worshipping a god is the same as loving the god or believing him to be perfect.