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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6901554" data-attributes="member: 6787650">There's a third option: real-life religious faith that makes offensive the idea of children of God worshipping things that don't exist or have no power to save/exalt. You see this attitude throughout the whole Old Testament: Elijah mocking the priests of Baal; Jeremiah virtually tearing his hair out over the Israelites bowing down before treestumps and rocks that cannot save them.It's not even clear to me what D&amp;D &quot;worship&quot; is supposed to entail. Real-life worship* is veneration and faithful emulation of someone you respect and admire. &quot;Worship&quot; as discussed in WotC products and D&amp;D forums doesn't seem to have anything to do with that; there's barely any effort at all to make the gods worthy of admiration in the first place, and even less emphasis on emulation; and the fact that the gods are neither omniscient nor omnipotent makes them in fact unable to keep their promises and unworthy of true worship. To the extent that &quot;worship&quot; in D&amp;D exists in forum talk/WotC forums, it seems more like a political campaign (&quot;Vote Mystra now!&quot;) than anything I recognize as worship.* As the term is used in my personal experience, religious and non-religious (&quot;he practically worships his wife&quot;). I'm aware that throughout human history and across the globe, worship has taken on other forms, some purely materialistic (&quot;give money to the priests&quot;) and some purely impersonal.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6901554, member: 6787650"] There's a third option: real-life religious faith that makes offensive the idea of children of God worshipping things that don't exist or have no power to save/exalt. You see this attitude throughout the whole Old Testament: Elijah mocking the priests of Baal; Jeremiah virtually tearing his hair out over the Israelites bowing down before treestumps and rocks that cannot save them. It's not even clear to me what D&D "worship" is supposed to entail. Real-life worship* is veneration and faithful emulation of someone you respect and admire. "Worship" as discussed in WotC products and D&D forums doesn't seem to have anything to do with that; there's barely any effort at all to make the gods worthy of admiration in the first place, and even less emphasis on emulation; and the fact that the gods are neither omniscient nor omnipotent makes them in fact unable to keep their promises and unworthy of true worship. To the extent that "worship" in D&D exists in forum talk/WotC forums, it seems more like a political campaign ("Vote Mystra now!") than anything I recognize as worship. * As the term is used in my personal experience, religious and non-religious ("he practically worships his wife"). I'm aware that throughout human history and across the globe, worship has taken on other forms, some purely materialistic ("give money to the priests") and some purely impersonal. [/QUOTE]

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