<< > They aren't denying that otherworldly phenomena exist, or that they
> appear to give power to practitioners of bizarre foreign rites. They
> simply treat this as irrelevant to themselves. They worship no gods.
> That makes them atheists.
Then they are agnostic, not atheist. >>
Agnostics claim that knowledge of God is impossible, something that most schools of Zzaburism don't do. Zzabur himself named his creator, so he can hardly have been in much doubt about his existence.
<< An atheist negates that any god/supernatural reality exist (he is a materialist).>>
In the modern sense, yes. In the ancient sense used by Gloranthans, not necessarily. Remember, Christians were for a long time criticised for being "atheists". Nobody was claiming they didn't believe in God - just that they wouldn't worship the proper ones (notably the Roman Emperor)!
The heortlings call the Malkioni atheists (see RQ Gods of Glorantha, for instance) for the same reason. I mean, these Malkioni, they perform no theist rites, or even animist ones! And how many feats or affinities does their god give them, eh? And they say Orlanth was just some ancient chieftain with magical powers - just a *human*! They deny the reality of the true gods - clearly they are atheists!
The modern term for what the Brithini believe is probably "philosophical theism", FWIW, but that's a bit of a mouthful
<< An agnostic ignores the problem. >>
Personal agnostics may, but philosophical or strict agnostics just claim the problem cannot be answered. Some Zzaburi do this, IMO, although its not the mainstream form of Zzaburism.
Trotsky
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