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Many people I know play Dungeons and Dragons as a hobby. I really started to think about it the other day and I realized that It played an integral role in shaping my mind to think more rationally, even though it deals with mostly fantasy aspects of fiction.
I started playing when invited and enjoyed making characters and trying out new voices and pretending to have the different attitudes of the characters I was portraying (not as serious as it sounds, just a bunch of guys sitting in a basement talking with each other drinking mountain dew all night). I actually enjoyed making new characters more than I liked playing.
But on to the main point: Deities in Dungeons and Dragons give you certain bonuses and abilities based on what class you are. If you a Paladin, Cleric or Druid for example a God is considered to give your fictional character magical power.
This changed my view of God in 2 ways. First because the Deities actually did physical things to the character in the game. There was a real benefit to having a God. Not just an emotional solace driven reason. Secondly I began to really look at the ways that my god was perceived by me as "helping me" in my daily life.
As an experiment I stopped praying and didn't tell anyone. I also stopped paying tithing and stopped going to church for a while. I found that not only had nothing changed but my fellow church members actually saw no change in my character or in me whatsoever. I did not become poor.
As a further part of my experiment (This is when I actually started being an atheist) I told specific church-going people that I was an atheist. There was a major change in how they treated me. They were colder and treated me like I was retarded. Soon they broke off all ties completely. I then told my parents and they also treated me differently in that they thought I was a terrible person who only wanted to sin.
Comment
Comment by Jedi Wanderer on April 25, 2012 at 8:22pm "I began to really look at the ways that my god was perceived by me as "helping me" in my daily life. "
This made me think of daimonism. I heard it said recently, can't remember where, that all religion is is daimonism. I'll try to explain. In ancient Greece, as just one example, there was the idea of a "daimon", otherwise known as a familiar, a divine being of sorts that followed you around and gave you advice and stuff. Basically it was one's conscience. Socrates was supposed to have said that he had a daimon that would warn him from doing things he would be ashamed of later, or something like that. So basically religion is just people thinking that god is talking to them when they are really just listening to their consciences. This is how the idea of god "helps" people, or at least if it is done right. You listen to your inner voice more, pay more attention to it, and you may find this helpful. There was a time (right after reading this bit about Socrates I think) where I started trying to come up with my own daimons, beings that I would listen to because I sure wasn't listening well to my own conscience, sad to say. I wasn't able to keep it up, I would forget by the morning all about it. But it was fun coming up with characters, as you say, and endowing them with powers and whatnot. I think I ought to give Odysseus a shot as my daimon, having just read the Odyssey and identifying with him and all. Nice post!
Comment by Steph S. on April 25, 2012 at 11:06am That's a cool game.
Yes, people do treat Atheists differently. I understand that.
Comment by ChrisC on April 25, 2012 at 5:51am Interesting angle. I've dabbled my toe in the D&D genre, ("live" and also D&D based computer games) as well as certain other RPGs which have similar themes and mechanics, but I never gave the choice of "gods" or "star signs" any thought beyond attributes they bestowed on my character. The connection with the gods of the religious world never formed in my mind, but now you mention it alongside your demormonisation experience (new word of the day :-D), it seems quite a provocative contrast.
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