From: cpearce%nemesis@nemesis.acs.unt.edu (Chris Pearce)
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg
Subject: Gods (he says, as he steps into the fray)
Date: 8 Sep 92 21:05:02 GMT
Organization: University of North Texas
X-Gated-By: The Black Marble Wombat@morticia.cnns.unt.edu
X-Gated-From: torg mailing list
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I've been loosely following the gods thread. Here's my theology.

The gods do not exist, at least not as physical entities. Rather, gods are
the embodiment of a spiritual community's belief in a concept.

Miracles are powered by a community's faith in the embodiment of a concept.
As the number of followers of a god grows, the minute amounts of Possibility
Energy donated by believers (who in their devotion to their god transfer
possibility energy from themselves into the spiritual receptacle they
have created by their belief) adds up until it reaches a vast sum.

In turn, those who the populace believes are authorized to act on behalf
of the god may draw upon this spiritual font and use the power in
ways prescribed by the followers. Unlike pure possibility energy, which
may be used in any endeavor and by any means, spiritual possibility
energy may only be used as and how the spiritual community dictates.

So why doesn't a god intervene and stomp a high lord? Because in this model,
the gods are purely passive entities -- receptacles for spiritual possibility
energy. As a result, gods are capable only of acting in response to the
beliefs of the spiritual community. Gods only act because the spiritual
community believes they have acted.

That last point needs clarification. Let us say that the Greek community
believes that Mars lusts for Venus and that Vulcan outsmarts the other gods
by capturing them in a golden net. In Torg theology, then, those gods
have in fact behaved as the community believes. But those gods have acted only
as the spiritual community believes AFTER the spritual community believes it.
Before the spiritual community believed in the tryst, the gods themselves
had not participated in it. After the community believed in the tryst,
the gods HAD participated in it. Confusing? You betcha.

Since the gods are passive, they respond ONLY as the spiritual community
believes. They do not act, unless the spiritual community believes they have
acted. Individual members of the community, if they have the authority,
may INVOKE their god, but what they invoke is simply a manifestation of the
spiritual possibility energy. The actions the invoked entity performs are
thus simply the result of a spiritual authority believing the god has
acted.

So what if a community believes their god constantly intervenes in human
affairs, vigorously and on a physical level. Such a belief might imply that
avatars of the god (or the god itself) might then intervene DIRECTLY by
stomping high lords. However, my hypothesis requires either a consensus
among the spiritual community or an action by a spiritual authority, and
the belief held must be specific and concrete.

It is not enough for a community to believe that Dunad will come slay the
evil High Lord, for individual members of the community will have diverging
ideas on how the god will accomplish this task. Rather, for the spiritual
reservoir of energy to be invoked, the community must believe that Dunad
will come slay the Evil High Lord by cleaving the High Lord's head from his
shoulders in the nave of Dunad's cathedral on a night when the moon shines
red and the stars fall to earth. Such a focused belief would allow the god
to intervene.

To sum up, gods only intervene when the spiritual community believes in
a specific act by the god or when one powerful spiritual authority directly
invokes the god.

-- 
Chris Pearce -- cpearce@nemesis.acs.unt.edu