You're telling me Paul believed there was no 'evidence' for the existence of God? That surprises me, a tad... As I said before, it all depends on what one is prepared to admit as 'evidence'.
> I think that Faith definitely has relevance in
> Glorantha given that it can be boiled down to good
> faith in the honesty of your friends and superiours
> (and their faith in yours). Faith in God(s) is an
> extension of your faith in yourself through your
> culture. Much of the Gloranthan Hero Plane is a
> 'material'-isation of this kind of Faith.
Right; one definition of a religion is it's a sort of spiritual fire-axe: "In case of supernatural experience, break glass". Only partly accurate, since of course many/most religions do want to actually _lead_ you to a religious experience, but also important is ensuring that if one does occur, you know how to interpret it.
> Revelation is actually a LOT more difficult to handle.
> You KNOW that something is True because it has been
> personally Revealed to YOU, but none of your friends
> or superiours have this privileged information. And
> unless you can teach them how to HeroQuest for it, or
> can "convince the examiners" or whatever, this Truth
> will be rejected; and where's that gonna leave your
> faith in your culture?
This is what Greg would doubtless call 'the Return', in the Campbellian sense. If you 'succeed' in drinking the elixier, but not in re-integrating yourself into your society, then you've failed in the strict sense of a heroquest. That is, Harrek is a 'failed heroquester', in roughly the same sense that Sheng Seleris is a 'failed mystic'.
Cheers,
Alex.
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