<< But let me ask this then; working from the assumption that 99% of people start with the religion of their parents (and then either accept or reject it from that basis), can we presume that the civilised "West" - barring the occasional oddball immigrant family, exclusionist community (notably Arolanit), barbarians, non-humans, etc. - starts as essentially 100% Malkioni of one water or another? >>
One would certainly assume so.
<>
The existence of colleges of sorcery in the West, which AFAIK are public, would suggest that this isn't the case. I did raise this point briefly with Greg once, and he seemed not to be very clear about what the term 'atheist' actually meant, and hinted that most sorcerers might not actually be atheists in the sense of 'people who don't believe in God'. If so, they don't necessarily have to be apostates from the Malkioni faith (although some might be), which may explain their public acceptance. Their magic doesn't come from God but (aside, perhaps, from the Brithini or other such 'outsider' groups) that doesn't necessarily mean they deny His existence.
For many of them at least, 'deism' may more accurately describe their religious beliefs ('God does exist but He doesn't care about us, so prayer and the like are pointless'). Actually given Alex's comments about Greg wanting every real world religious tradition stuffed into Glorantha somewhere, it would be fairly surprising - at least to me - if there aren't any deists in it anywhere. As a philosophy, it goes back to ancient Greece, after all...
Phillip Hibbs:
<<Is the modern concept of faith applicable in a Gloranthan sense? Nowadays,
it
means "There's no evidence, but I believe it anyway", and the atheist (e.g.
me, I swing between atheist and agnostic these days) would say that faith is
an invention to keep people loyal to a non-existent fantasy. In Glorantha,
however, this kind of faith is unnecessary.>>
Certainly it appears unnecessary for groups such as the Orlanthi, Praxians, etc. Who needs faith when you're transported to the God Plane every holy day? It might, however, be of more significance to the Malkioni (or most of them, anyway) since, according to RQ, they gain no benefit from their worship ceremonies.
And one can still have faith that one's own god is a Good Guy and the foreign sort are Complete Bastards, and that sort of thing. 'I put my faith in Humakt, because I know that, so long as I keep my vows, he will not desert me' is, for instance, not an unreasonable thing for a Gloranthan to say, IMO.
Forward the glorious Red Army!
Trotsky
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