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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5727997" data-attributes="member: 4937">That's a good question.The 'atheists' would answer that obviously, it is because they are an actual threat to the gods.  The heretical position is that for all the factionalism of the gods, it's basically a 'one party system' and the real danger to the gods isn't the other faction (which ultimately differs with them only on minor points like whether to be 'good' or 'evil') which wants to maintain the status quo, but the one that wants to overthrow the status quo.Another cynical position, which might be typical of say the sovereign rulers of the various nation states, basically notes that things typically don't go that well for mortals in absence of divine blessing, to say nothing of divine wrath, and the wise ruler does well to make sure that there is nothing go on which will particularly cheese off one or more dieties.  The old sage in the tower can quitely dabble in Gantroism or Monoism all he likes - especially if he's also a high level wizard; but, if you have someone professing to follow the teachings of Keltern and who is encouraging debauching and murdering the virgins that serve the harvest goddess on her own alter, that's something you want to do something about before things get out of hand.The slightly less cynical position is that the gods have been more or less at truce since the end of the God's War, and as such are no longer directly making war on each others institutions.  One of the many problems with heretics is that if they got to be too successful, they might break the truce and humanity might well not survive the resulting battle.   Or, perhaps even worse, heretics are always looking for ways to actually bring down the gods, which invariably leads to interest in art magic, which in turn risks a second Iconoclasm with the united forces of both evil and good Gods lashing out in retribution.The some what more Orthodox position is simply that the gods are 'good' or at least useful (even the evil ones, depending on your point of view) and so heretical teachings are bad for people.  Without trust in divine ordinances, for example, the souls of mortals become lost on their way to the afterlife and are more likely to become vengeful ghosts.   Without trust in the divine, who are you going to turn to drive out that disease spirit, and without driving out disease spirits aren't you just going to end up with a plague?  Or you might just simply note that even though heretics aren't the only things a given god might dislike, the other sorts of things that gods dislike tend to be liked by other opposing gods, and so heretics - by virtue of not having much in the way of champions - just make easier targets.</blockquote>

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