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<blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 6449563" data-attributes="member: 92511">Well, this depends on the game world. In the ones with Odin actually walking around, there's not a lot you can do to justify atheism other than the aforementioned &quot;they exist but aren't gods&quot; attitude.In other more...subtle [?] worlds where the gods exist, their clerics receive magic from them, etc etc...but the gods, themselves, are not physically manifesting in all their godly glory in front of mortals, atheism is/would be a matter of faith -or lack thereof.To the atheist, the clerics and those faithful to the gods are deluded, if not demented. They have magic. Sure. So does his pal the mage..and [in 5e] the bard, the paladin, the ranger, the warlock, practically every friggin body on the planet can &quot;do magic!&quot; Big whoop. That doesn't &quot;prove&quot; anything about the so-called &quot;gods' existence.&quot;To the clerics, the atheist is [well, literally] apostate and to be viewed with anything from pitiable to heretical to, well, a madman or moron in the face of what the faithful consider &quot;overwhelming evidence&quot; of their magical power.&nbsp; So, in those worlds, being an atheist is really not difficult at all. Deity visit you in a dream? You ate some bad cheese. Think you see an angel when you are getting healed -by the charitable good-natured cleric in the group- from a serious wound? Just as convincing as a dream. Or, sure angels are real! They're just some extradimensional creature, same as any other. Nothing &quot;divine&quot;/metaphysical/religious about them. Temples and religions abound throughout the world, everywhere you go? So what, the druids aren't worshipping gods and they have magical powers. The mages. Even the lowly goblinoids and base savages have shamans and witchdoctors casting magic they claim comes from some dark spirits or demons. Size of a temple doesn't matter. A temple's just a building. A religion is a social construct. There is nothing you have experienced that has given you the faith that the gods exist. You want to be an atheist in a &quot;normal D&amp;D world&quot;, be an atheist...and the faithful of the world will treat you accordingly.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 6449563, member: 92511"] Well, this depends on the game world. In the ones with Odin actually walking around, there's not a lot you can do to justify atheism other than the aforementioned "they exist but aren't gods" attitude. In other more...subtle [?] worlds where the gods exist, their clerics receive magic from them, etc etc...but the gods, themselves, are not physically manifesting in all their godly glory in front of mortals, atheism is/would be a matter of faith -or lack thereof. To the atheist, the clerics and those faithful to the gods are deluded, if not demented. They have magic. Sure. So does his pal the mage..and [in 5e] the bard, the paladin, the ranger, the warlock, practically every friggin body on the planet can "do magic!" Big whoop. That doesn't "prove" anything about the so-called "gods' existence." To the clerics, the atheist is [well, literally] apostate and to be viewed with anything from pitiable to heretical to, well, a madman or moron in the face of what the faithful consider "overwhelming evidence" of their magical power. So, in those worlds, being an atheist is really not difficult at all. Deity visit you in a dream? You ate some bad cheese. Think you see an angel when you are getting healed -by the charitable good-natured cleric in the group- from a serious wound? Just as convincing as a dream. Or, sure angels are real! They're just some extradimensional creature, same as any other. Nothing "divine"/metaphysical/religious about them. Temples and religions abound throughout the world, everywhere you go? So what, the druids aren't worshipping gods and they have magical powers. The mages. Even the lowly goblinoids and base savages have shamans and witchdoctors casting magic they claim comes from some dark spirits or demons. Size of a temple doesn't matter. A temple's just a building. A religion is a social construct. There is nothing you have experienced that has given you the faith that the gods exist. You want to be an atheist in a "normal D&D world", be an atheist...and the faithful of the world will treat you accordingly. [/QUOTE]

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