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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6449086" data-attributes="member: 177">Well, there are a few lines one could take.&nbsp; They largely boil down to not questioning that power exists, but questioning where it comes from, or questioning the nature of the entities that provide power.If the gods don't physically manifest, and people don't come back from the dead with clear and consistent memory of the afterlife, then an atheist could suppose that power comes from within the cleric, from focused faith, not from gods.&nbsp; This is supported in some editions by it being entirely legal for a cleric or other divine spellcaster to *not* follow a god.&nbsp; If someone can be a cleric, and do all things a cleric does, *without* a god, maybe the gods are all just stories.Another form of atheism is to recognize that there are powerful entities that provide power for your devotion, but they aren't &quot;gods&quot;.&nbsp; Just as there are peasants and commoners, and there are archmages, there are these other entities up the scale of power - but those entities didn't *make* the universe, or create living beings or the like, and have no more connection to morality and behavior than we give them.&nbsp; We wanted to believe in something, they saw that, and stepped in.&nbsp; For the Forgotten Realms, for example, this second form is not far off the mark - there are gods, but there is Ao over the gods, and Ao has another master over him.&nbsp; And many of the races of Aber-Toril come from other worlds and planes, and were not created by any native gods.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6449086, member: 177"] Well, there are a few lines one could take. They largely boil down to not questioning that power exists, but questioning where it comes from, or questioning the nature of the entities that provide power. If the gods don't physically manifest, and people don't come back from the dead with clear and consistent memory of the afterlife, then an atheist could suppose that power comes from within the cleric, from focused faith, not from gods. This is supported in some editions by it being entirely legal for a cleric or other divine spellcaster to *not* follow a god. If someone can be a cleric, and do all things a cleric does, *without* a god, maybe the gods are all just stories. Another form of atheism is to recognize that there are powerful entities that provide power for your devotion, but they aren't "gods". Just as there are peasants and commoners, and there are archmages, there are these other entities up the scale of power - but those entities didn't *make* the universe, or create living beings or the like, and have no more connection to morality and behavior than we give them. We wanted to believe in something, they saw that, and stepped in. For the Forgotten Realms, for example, this second form is not far off the mark - there are gods, but there is Ao over the gods, and Ao has another master over him. And many of the races of Aber-Toril come from other worlds and planes, and were not created by any native gods. [/QUOTE]

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