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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 251783" data-attributes="member: 5435">Commandments vs. SpiritualityInteresting comments here, the Campbell debate nonwithstanding. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />To stay on topic, I think the classic pantheon idea works pretty well.  The key to understanding it is to realize that religion  has more than one function in a society.First of all any god (even a flawed one) who lays down commandments will lay down rules useful to their society of worshipers. Take Odin's Havamal for example, which is essentially oral scripture that teaches someone how to be a "good" person.  It could probably be distilled into a set of commandments with little trouble, e.g. 1) Be loyal to your friends and family, 2) Be merciless with your enemies, 3) Be generous but slightly paranoid among strangers, etc.  This covers the societal aspect--a society evolves with a certain code of behaviour that sustains the society, and the gods will lay down commandments which support this code. Historically, gods that extolled incompatable virtues were simply not adopted by a society unless imposed through a conquering invader.  There are exceptions; again, to take a lesson from the north, many of the agrarian Norse adopted Christianity simply because they thought its code of ethics was better.  And it was--for them (if not for their viking cousins). Ethics is one thing, and spirituality is another.  No religion is complete without a source of spiritual experience, and most pantheistic religions that I am familiar with (e.g. Norse, Greco/Roman, Egyptian, the African Loa) have some equivalent to the Greek mystery cults.  The gods can encourage spiritual experiences in their worshippers any number of ways: trance states, drugs, orgiastic rituals (Dionysus, for example), singing, etc... all these can give an experience of unity with something larger that fulfills a spiritual need.  Each god's worshippers use their preferred method, and evil gods might well encourage unethical practices in their cults. Spiritual experience, however obtained, is quite powerful, and is really what keeps the worshippers coming back for more. In a fantasy setting, I'm sure clerical spellcasting is also a powerful spiritual experience, in addition to providing potent personal abilities.To conclude, a pantheistic fantasy setting is perfectly viable.  You have a society adapted to its environment.  Its "good" gods command people to obey the ethics of that society for the most part, and may have their own little quirky commandments in addition (e.g. horses are sacred).  More elemental gods might not say anything one way or the other about ethics; they're just there to be propitiated so that they won't throw a tornado at your crops.  "Evil" gods will probably discard some or all of the society's ethics, and may find large numbers of worshippers in segments of the society that have been disenfranchised.To encourage this sort of behavior, good gods will offer spiritual rewards to their followers in return for promoting the ethical standards of society, and provide these rewards in fairly wholesome ways.  Evil gods will provide their spiritual rewards to those who violate the ethical standards, and require their followers to work against the societal consensus.--Ben</blockquote>

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