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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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 12 of 12)
Heather Aug 31st 2010 12:08AM
I'm an atheist and I don't play my elf as very spiritual. The question of, "How can a character be an atheist when they've met a god, demigod, or evil god, and seen the physical evidence of a god's presence?" reminds me of the comedy fantasy book series "Discworld." I could be wrong, but I believe Terry Pratchett, the author, is an atheist, so in his books a lot of characters are sort of defiant of the gods, kinda like Xena and Hercules (the 90s TV show versions, anyway). There's a witch, Granny Weatherwax, and she admits there are gods but that she doesn't really approve of them. She says she's met them but she's on the fence. There's a Golem that professes to be an atheist, despite the fact he is an artificial intelligence brought to life by magic, and he gets hit by lightning a lot. Sam Vimes doesn't really worship the gods, but he begrudgingly admits they're there. There's a god that for a while was trapped in the body of a small tortoise who leads a young prophet on a quest to fix his religion that went haywire while he was a tortoise.
I see most NPCs are very spiritual, especially the Tauren and Night Elves, and even the Humans and Dwarves, but I can't help but think my Night Elf would be like, "Meh."
Shadda Aug 31st 2010 3:39PM
Well... I had an RP character who was essentially an atheist.
Basically, she believed that "The Light" was just another type of magic, like the Arcane or Fel magic. As for deities, she acknowledged that they existed, but believed them to be powerful beings, not gods in the all-powerful, omnipotent sense.
TonyMcS Aug 31st 2010 2:42AM
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
Yep, I see magic, but I think the jury's still out ;-)
ImDrFreak Aug 31st 2010 2:53AM
Wolfkin: I'm not sure where you came up with your ideas on atheism, but they are completely wrong. Atheism is not a lack of belief. Atheists believe in a lot of things. They believe in love, they believe in happiness, they believe in moral obligation, etc. By definition, belief is a conviction or opinion. It is "confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof." (according to the dictionary) The definition of Atheism is a lack of belief in the existence of deities.
An Atheist can NOT say "god may exist" because if they do, they are no longer an atheist.
I'm confused as to your saying that not believing in a god is a "generalization" when the definition is quite clear, no matter where you look or who you ask. Every single atheist that I've ever met understands that being an Atheist means not believing in deities. And when asked "well, what DO you believe in?" they have many answers.
I'm very curious as to where you came up with your ideas on Atheism being "not believing in belief." and not "not believing an a god" when 100% of the information out there contradicts this. Then again, I'm most likely not coming back to this thread, so I guess I'm not THAT curious. ;)
fernando Aug 31st 2010 5:45AM
atheist in and out of azeroth
Hannuran Aug 31st 2010 7:42AM
Perhaps it is useful to make a subdivision of the concept of 'God'.
The Christian God is the very pinnacle of power in the universe - a conscious being that knows everything and is all-powerful. Does such a God exist in Azeroth? All known 'Gods', from the Titans to Yogg-Saron to Sargeros are not all-powerful. So looking at the extreme God-concept, an Azerothian may be 'pure-God-agnostic'. There MAY be a supreme all-powerful god, but we don't know, and it seems unlikely he/she concerns itself with day-to-day management.
However, you could also see the traditional monotheistic God just as the extreme of a definition of
a) a conscious being
b) who is more powerful than you are
(and, in most religions) c) can be 'bribed' to make your life now or in the hereafter better by worship, prayer, obeying commandments etc.
According to this definition, Gods may be like a sort of unfallible super-parent (the concept of Gods being possibly an extension of the concept of parent).
If we allow that we don't consider mere humans as Gods (though they are conscious, can be more powerful than we are, like employers or parents or presidents or rich people), then anything that is 'more than human' could be considered more or less-Godlike; with demons being a bit godlike (as they seem to live forever when not killed), Yogg-Saron more Godlike, and the Titans even more godlike, though worshipping them is probably a rather fruitless enterprise as they don't seem to concern themselves with the world.
So smaller or bigger Gods - there may be a scale of godliness. But for the pragmatical Azerothian, the question may not so much be which God is most 'godly', but what deity to worship will result in the biggest rewards. After all, to get ahead in life, one can better flatter a vain boss than an uncaring God.
thinkuknowme Aug 31st 2010 10:34AM
Or as in D&D, one can be "unaligned" - that is, taking no stance on the gods/goddesses.
Rikmach Sep 1st 2010 12:32AM
Its not impossible to deny the existence of god or gods in WoW- Its just impossibly to deny the existence of incredibly powerful being that either call themselves gods, or are venerated as such- That's not the same thing.
Realistically speaking, atheism in WoW would not be about denying the existence of such beings, but rather denying the divinity such beings claim or have attributed to them- to use a metaphor, consider an ant compared to us- we can cause colossal, unbelievable changes to an ant's world, doing things it cannot fathom, much less replicate- we can destroy the ant's hive, and the entire area its ever visited in its entire existence- its "World", if you will- and smash the ant itself practically at will, snuffing it out.
This does not make us gods, even if to the ant, we must seems as such. Such would be the "Gods" to an atheist- just another form of life that is to us as we are to ants.
Elicor Aug 31st 2010 5:52PM
"I don't hold with paddlin' with the occult," said Granny firmly. "Once you start paddlin' with the occult you start believing in spirits, and when you start believing in spirits you start believing in demons, and then before you know where you are you're believing in gods. And then you're in trouble."
"But all them things exist," said Nanny Ogg.
"That's no call to go around believing in them. It only encourages 'em."
— Terry Pratchett, Lords And Ladies
Tsaey Aug 31st 2010 6:37PM
huh. Interesting, still I think it's the closest to Atheism that you can get in either settings, both of which have defined "higher beings"