Religion

[TetNak]

Here's what we know

- May be various religious beliefs.

- Idea One:

-- Evil deity created the world to include suffering, etc.
-- Good deity is there to save people from evil deity

[TetNak]

- Idea Two

-- Human sacrifice imbues 'leader' with magic powers.

[Zorbeltuss]

Well, the idea popping into my head now (swirling back and forth) is that all magic requires you to beseech some sort of higher power. And that religious ceremonies, sacrifices or what have you is not fundamentally different from other magic rituals, but typically tend to require multiple participants that needs to take part in the chanting (but do not necessarily need to know what the words mean).

Which may lead learned people to suspect that the main difference is that the religious types view the power they beseech as their God, while mages typically just see them as a source of power.

[Muskrat]

I think I'd prefer to have multiple forms of magic--not to mention multiple forms of religion. Not all religion is necessarily about supplicating a higher power. I'm a devout Zen Buddhist and, while I certainly believe there are probably higher order beings out there, supplicating them is not part of my religious practice. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, philosophies like Stoicism played the role we think of religion as playing in people's lives--giving them ethical guidelines, giving their life meaning--but supplicating the gods were not central to these belief systems. Worship of the gods was often more of a political things (priest was a public office). So we can have the religion Tet suggested, but we can have others inspired by things like Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Soticism, etc. where there is no higher power, but a focus on humans achieving a higher state of being.

[TetNak]

Of course. There would be tons of different religions based on various things, just like RL. This was just one that I had in mind with a concept I found interesting.

[Muskrat]

Sorry if I went a bit overboard, but there is a common misconception among people who aren't familiar with world religions that they're all very similar, involving the worship of a singular deity. I've heard more than one interfaith prayer start with a reference to "the God who we all worship." In truth, sociologists and anthropologists have found those things we would want to classify religion are so broad that it's impossible to define religion in a way that properly encompasses them all--that is, without making the definition so broad it includes things that are not religions, but political ideologies like Marxism or liberalism.

[Zorbeltuss]

It may be prudent to not have too many ingredients in any one local mix. If you look at medieval times, we are typically looking at relatively distinct dominant religions, broadish strokes, I know, but it's a fantasy world, broadish strokes is what is needed.

You're not likely going to find a strong monotheistic religion side by side with a flourishing animism cult, for example.

[TetNak]

I agree. That's because one will dominate the other and persecute them. That's what religion does, right? I think you might have areas where more than one religion is worshiped, but those would be a hotbed of strife, as you might imagine. That also makes good and interesting places to RP.

[Zorbeltuss]

Well, there was the Roman Empire that tolerated other religions (as long as they would venerate the emperor also), even adopted Gods from conquered territories into their pantheon.

Until the emperors needed something to unify the crumbling realm and picked Christianity...

[Muskrat]

I agree. That's because one will dominate the other and persecute them. That's what religion does, right? I think you might have areas where more than one religion is worshiped, but those would be a hotbed of strife, as you might imagine. That also makes good and interesting places to RP.

It depends. In China, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism and folk religious practices all generally flourished alongside each other, though there were some periods where Buddhism suffered persecution as a foreign religion. Most people actually practiced elements of all four religions and it was only religious specialists (Buddhist and Daoist monks and priests, Confucian scholars, folk shamans, etc.) who were really devoted only to one religion in most cases.

Which is not to say that these religions are innately tolerant. In contemporary Sri Lanka, the Buddhist monastic order supports the persecution of the Hindu minority.

But the point is religions don't have to be at each others' throats. It depends on the way the religion is interpreted and the larger culture's norms around religious tolerance/ pluralism, etc.

The dualistic religion you're suggesting, Tet, would likely only be practiced by the members of the upper castes. If the oppression of the lower castes is justified on the grounds that they have no souls and no chance for redemption, they're not likely to follow that religion. Most likely the lower caste will have a religion or religions of their own. And, as long as these religion don't spur on rebellions, the upper caste is unlikely to care what they believe, if they truly view them as subhuman and soulless.

I could actually see some members of the lower castes actually embracing the worship of the "evil" god as a relatively safe act of rebellion. It wouldn't even need to be an evil religion, at least as we would conceive of evil (as opposed to the upper castes). It could easily be more Dionysian, emphasizing enjoying the physical pleasures of life as a gift from the creator of the world, while seeing the ascetic ruling castes as unable to see what really matters in life.

So the upper castes would probably consist of priests, scholars, administrators, and warriors, all of whom live a spartan lifestyle--at least in principle; in practice, many of them may "sin" and indulge their desires of the physical pleasures of life. It could be like India, where there is also a group who has withdrawn from social life to devote their life to asceticism. While the priests practice the rituals of the good god and maintain his teachings, the ascetics are the ones who actually devote themselves to escaping the trap of the material world. Many people from the upper castes may join ascetic orders later in life, after they have made their mark as priests, warriors, administrators, etc. If they don't, that's fine too, because they may do so in a future life.