Your Own Personal Pelor?

[Torm]

Ladies and Gentlemen, let's steer clear of validities of real-world religions, please.

I, for one, am not bothered. Someone else's opinion does not effect my faith one way or another, unless they accompany it by what seems to me to be a logical argument that sways my feeling on the matter. But you're right about staying on topic. Absolutely.

Such structure can take the form of a "Cult," which (do not forgive me if I offend you, I do not care) is another word for religion, even christianity.

I forgive you anyway, so too bloody bad.

That's an interesting take on "Do As Thou Wilt." It doesn't jive with my previous understanding that, in those belief systems, the animal, material aspect of our beings is given dominance - but it DOES give me something to think about. Thanks.

But I will point out that, from certain perspectives, "cult" is NOT just what one religion's people calls the people of another - there are other uses in this context, as well. Example: The government, particularly the ATF, has a secular definition for cult that guides what organizations they feel the need to investigate. I believe it has something to do with whether the organization exists to serve its members or if it exists to serve a particular person or persons, from an objective point of view. Which goes back to my point - the organization Stormborn is trying to create for his game, to be believable, either needs to have one (or a very few) being catered to by a larger number because of some sort of special status they have convinced them they have, or they would be too egalitarian to be cohesive - unless, of course, they were ALL evil, but in that case, I'm not sure you would count them as followers for the purposes of determining their "godhood" and cleric-empowering abilities.

Hmmm - how about a group that for one reason or another believes they are ALL divine, like a group of Tieflings. And as they increase their numbers, their shared belief in their divinity begins empowering all of them - somehow, they ALL count as each others' followers, because they believe in each other?

Its reminding me of Slivers, for some reason.

 

[darklight]

Very interesting thread...
I don't really have anything constructive to add, but I find the concept of strictly faith-based 'divine' powers fascinating, which is one of the reasons I like Eberron, I guess...

Disclaimer: the following may be a little far fetched, and maybe only tangentially on topic...and it is fairly rambly

People IRL who supposedly have 'psychic powers' could be seen as people who merely truly believe that the can accomplish 'impossiple' things. Isn't that an often used notion in movies/books that deal with those subjects?

Also, there have been numerous accounts of people doing 'impossible' things, when they really, really had to, like a mother lifting a car to get her child out from underneath it. You could say that was possible because the 'judgemental' (Super Ego??) part of the brain was temporarily shut off, i.e. it didn't tell the rest of the brain/body that it would be impossible. On a small level I'm fairly sure that most people are capable of more than they think, if they stop telling them selves that they can't do so and so.

In a fantasy world it would seem reasonable that it could lead to more fantastic powers, and that insane people would logically be much more likely to have such powers, because they have a much easier time 'switching off' the 'Judge' part of their brain (as previously mentioned in the thread).


Oh, isn't it basically the American Dream, that if you really believe you can succeed, and work hard at it, you will succeed? (I know, I know...not quite the same )

darklight

Edit: spelling