Breakfast Topic: Are there atheists in Azeroth?
by Chad Abshire 
Aug 30th 2010 at 8:00AM
Atheism is a rejection in the belief of deities. In the real world, that is easy enough to understand. There are many religions practiced on Earth, and most of them (if not all) worship at least one deity. This could be a god or goddess that is associated with a certain characteristic or trait, or it could be a creator, one divine being that shaped everything that is everything from nothing. Whatever your beliefs are, atheism is simply a rejection that any of that happened or exists.
But what happens when we push reality into fiction and bring this thought into the game world that we all log in to? Can atheism really exist in Azeroth? We know that there are gods and goddesses that have roles in WoW. A few of them have even been seen in game, like Hakkar or Yogg-Saron. But there are many that have yet to make an appearance, like Elune or the other Old Gods that we've yet to uncover.
But are they really gods? They might simply be incredibly powerful beings that the mortals of Azeroth have dubbed to be gods and worship as such. It's hard to relate this thought to our reality, because we don't live in a magical world where people can conjure food from thin air or call down a thunderstorm on command every 45 seconds. That's where the suspension of disbelief comes into play.
We might not have visible gods that can be proven in our world, but in Azeroth, there are quite clearly powerful beings that are divine or unholy or whatever. From a roleplaying standpoint, it seems nearly impossible to play a character that doesn't believe in a god. That character doesn't have to worship a god, but to deny that any one exists is ignorance.
There were Titans in Azeroth. They created many things. There is evidence of them. Likewise, there are Old Gods as well. They delight in chaos. We've killed two of them. There are demons, there are angels, and there are many things that you cannot deny exist in Azeroth.
What do you think? Can there be a legitimate form of atheism in WoW?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 12)
Tolkfan Aug 30th 2010 8:06AM
Flamefest incoming :)
Krz Aug 30th 2010 8:52AM
I agree. This was a really bad Breakfast Topic...
Hades Aug 30th 2010 8:59AM
no doubt lol
(cutaia) Aug 30th 2010 10:57AM
You're judging the merit of this article solely on the fact that some people are too immature to discuss the topic reasonably?
SR Aug 30th 2010 11:29AM
I ain't gonna lie, I'm genuinely surprised and very, very proud of the crowd for not having a downranked comment on the first page while staying on topic. (Tolkfan just HAD to do the good'ol' C-C-C-COMBOBREAKER D:< )
I really can't comment any further because... well, everything I was going to say was already said. :P
liambuzz Aug 30th 2010 8:07AM
Angels?
Toothy Aug 30th 2010 8:15AM
From George Carlin:
"What is all this s**t about Angels? Have you heard this? 3 out of 4 people belive in Angels....What about Goblins, huh? Doesn't anybody belive in Goblins? You never hear about this. Except on Halloween and then it's all negative s**t. And what about Zombies? You never hear from Zombies! That's the trouble with Zombies, they're unreliable! I say if you're going to go for the Angel bull***t you might as well go for the Zombie package as well..."
I guess he should've come in game :)
RIP :(
Fedya Aug 30th 2010 8:57AM
@Tothy
You missed out the best part:
"You know what I think it is? I think it's a massive, collective, psychotic chemical flashback for all the drugs smoked, swallowed, shot, and absorbed rectally by all Americans from 1960 to 1990. Thirty years of street drugs will get you some fucking angels, my friend!"
Dressel Aug 30th 2010 8:08AM
One wonders who the goblins worship: I think they might well come closest to atheists. Time is money, friend!
Utakata Aug 30th 2010 12:42PM
Funny you say that, Dressel. Using known personalities...I view Goblins tending to be more Penn & Teller. - that is, magicians, atheist with a crazy-ass'd libertarian bent to them. Where as Gnomes on the other hand, tend to be more Dawkins/PZ Myers - that is, atheist, crazy-ass'd scientists with a more communal bent to things. :)
TwinCitiesKnick Aug 30th 2010 8:10AM
The character this topic reminds me of is Sanya from Butcher's "Dresden Files" series, about a wizard detective in Chicago. It is a fantasy world where there clearly is magic, there are vampires, demons, etc., and Sanya is a Knight of the Cross, a holy knight with a sword embedded with a splinter from the True Cross where Jesus died apparently. Sanya gets his orders/visions from angels or something along those lines. He is an atheist, for the reasons you described - the "angels" and "God" may just be extraordinarily powerful beings, but closer to aliens (or maybe even actually aliens) than to divine powers there at the beginning and the end. I imagine the same is possible in Azeroth.
Dghunter Aug 30th 2010 8:42AM
Didn't he also say that he believed it was possible that he was insane and just imagining everything?
TwinCitiesKnick Aug 30th 2010 8:58AM
You know what? You're right. He was agnostic in that way, not atheist. He admitted the possibility that God exists and he took orders from Him, that he might be insane, that angels might be aliens... he was an agnostic, a skeptic with a very high standard for certainty.
Eddy Aug 30th 2010 11:26AM
This really makes me wonder what the definition of 'God' really is, and where the line is. If all of humanity was created by a huge alien that also terraformed Earth and evolution was just it's ikea plans for creating life forms, then I would probably assign it the title of God- humanity's creator would probably deserve the name, even if it too had a creator or something.
RetPallyJil Aug 30th 2010 8:12AM
I would say that, in a world where you can walk around a corner and be "in the presence of a god," atheism is not possible.
Dameblanche Aug 30th 2010 8:36AM
Believing in gods is something different then acknowledging that gods exist. The sun goes up, but there is no reason to believe in sunrises. I think it is perfectly possible to adopt the views of Esme Weatherwax from the Terry Pratchett novels: I know gods are there, but it would be a funny old world if I started believing in them as well. They might get ideas above their station.
RetPallyJil Aug 30th 2010 9:00AM
That was a hair-split of epic proportions. Keep trying!
Himcules Aug 30th 2010 8:13AM
Something of Azeroth we don't often see, or at least pay attention to, are the lay-folk, the general citizens of the world that aren't adventuring around and slaying gods and demons on a daily to weekly basis. In a world without modern media coverage, can you expect every single one of them to be aware of all the happenings around Azeroth, around their own nation, or even around their own province? For these people that don't witness divine acts and unholy deeds in their day to day lives, I would say atheism is a possibility. If something has no perceived influence on one's life, what's to say it even exists?
I would venture to say every single citizen of Azeroth has been touched by the effects of war, of the struggles of mortals, but I think a very large percentage of that citizenry has never witnessed the wonders and horrors we as adventures now consider commonplace.
Wilsan Aug 30th 2010 8:22AM
Pretty much what I was going to say, an adventuring type that has been involved with the horrors of Icecrown Citadel would probably be unable to deny the existence of gods or higher beings.
A basic farmer in the arathi highlands who has only seen war and death while trying to scrape a living could quite conceivably dismiss the notion as nonsense as they might have not seen much divinity from their supposed gods.
Jack Miles Aug 30th 2010 9:25AM
Well, citizens of stormwind just have to look at the mage district, ogrimmar their king, darkshire just have to look around them, and westfall are about to get a nasty surprise.