Others have commented very ably and completely on some aspects of your post, but I would like to tackle the philosophical points you have raised.
>The crucial division between religious faith and world-view is that the
first
>is obviously a 'leap of faith' lacking a firm foundation in anything
observed,
>possibly inculcated by cultural stuff, or possibly self-derived...
This is obvously the view of a modern materialist (no insult intended). If you had asked just about anyone previous to a few hundred years ago, they would simply not have understood what you meant. The religious prespective has, for the vast majority of the existence of our species, been the cornerstone of human conceptions of the world. For the inhabitants of the ancient world no 'leap of faith' such as the one you describe was required. Every aspect of their understanding of the world was defined in terms of their religious beliefs. Modern materialist atheism was littleraly inconcievable. It was only with the emergence of the scientific method and rationalist philosophies, which provided an alternate intelectual framework for describing the world, that it became possible.
In our modern society, the rational materialist view is the default amongst many intelectuals, and a 'leap of faith' is required to reconcile that with the religious view. In the ancient world, the religious view was the default, and the rational view did not exist and so was not an option. There were competing philosophies and religions, but the existoence of a divine creator and the imminence of spiritual power in the world was universaly accepted. In those times the term atheist was used to describe someone who's conception of god was incompatible with your own, not for people who denied divinity at all, as there were none.
>
- -....but in
>Glorantha, the initiate has good reason to believe in the god. There is
no
>struggle between common sense and spiritual desires... they are one and
the
>same.
I do not believe that the emotional and psychological effect of religious experience in the Glorantha is so greatly different from that in the real world. Just ask any believer in the charismatic religious movements. They can enter states of mind which have drastic effects on their emotional and physiological state, and can even cause spontaneous physical effects such as the appearance of stigmata, the ability to overcome debilitating medical conditions, etc.
>2) Magic in Glorantha is very available. In a sense, Spirit or Battle
Magic is
>almost a magic of gadgets.
I believe that this impression is derived from the RQ spirit magic game mechanics. The actual experience of spirit magic for the ordinary Gloranthan is only superficialy similar to the game system effects.
Simon Hibbs
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