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Cleric shenanigans (metaphysical, no right answers)
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7600161" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Don't get me started on how ridiculous most religion is in most published settings. Most of it tends to be polytheism, but polytheism as imagined by someone with absolutely no knowledge of actual polytheism in practice, and so polytheism as imagined through the lens of someone who has a vague Judeo-Christian derived view of what religion is like and so assumes all religion is basically like that.</p><p></p><p>It's hard to say whether the default religious observance of characters in D&D fantasy worlds is more like monolatry or more like henotheism, simply because most authors don't even seem to realize that there is any distinction to be made. Generally, it seems characters are expected to choose a patron associated with their profession which not coincidentally is much more like Catholocism with its patron saints than it is anything like polytheism. I tend to describe this as universal henotheism.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, the point I'm trying to make, aside from the comment that most people who actually say that they have "Faith" aren't asserting what the dictionary.com definition would lead you to believe, is that most D&D religions are poorly thought out and as shallow as a puddle - so much so that I find it hard to believe anyone in most published settings has any real attachment to the described deities at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7600161, member: 4937"] Don't get me started on how ridiculous most religion is in most published settings. Most of it tends to be polytheism, but polytheism as imagined by someone with absolutely no knowledge of actual polytheism in practice, and so polytheism as imagined through the lens of someone who has a vague Judeo-Christian derived view of what religion is like and so assumes all religion is basically like that. It's hard to say whether the default religious observance of characters in D&D fantasy worlds is more like monolatry or more like henotheism, simply because most authors don't even seem to realize that there is any distinction to be made. Generally, it seems characters are expected to choose a patron associated with their profession which not coincidentally is much more like Catholocism with its patron saints than it is anything like polytheism. I tend to describe this as universal henotheism. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make, aside from the comment that most people who actually say that they have "Faith" aren't asserting what the dictionary.com definition would lead you to believe, is that most D&D religions are poorly thought out and as shallow as a puddle - so much so that I find it hard to believe anyone in most published settings has any real attachment to the described deities at all. [/QUOTE]
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