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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nonlethal Force" data-source="post: 3276084" data-attributes="member: 35788">In a monotheistic understanding, yes.  If your pantheon consists of one god with all power, yes.  But then it isn't much of a pantheon.In a polytheistic world, we have to give up the idea of gods weilding absolute power.  Otherwise we have to explain paradoxes all over the place.  What happens if Hextor snaps his fingers and Alahandra dies, but Hieroneous decides that Alahandra should live and doesn't want her dead?  Is Hextor more powerful than Heironeous?  Does Alahandra bounce back and forth between life and death so that at any given moment she is more like Schrödinger's cat? [See wiki if you don't get the reference]The point is that in a pantheon, deities only have as much power in so far as the power does not infringe upon the power of another deity.  Thus, in order for a diety to snap a finger and cause a character to die, all the other deities must have abdicated the power to keep that person alive.  Or, to put it in a more positive spin ... in order for a character to be blessed by a diety, all other deities must have abdicated their power to curse the person.This is one of the reasons that pantheons break down in RL.  You cannot possibly have multiple gods who are omniscient and omnipotent.  Two (or more) omnipotent beings creates many paradoxes along the way.  You can have pantheons with a rich abundance so long as none of the dieties are truly omnipotent.  [The Greek pantheon is a good example.  There the dieties had better than human powers, but none were omnipotent.]</blockquote>

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