I don't know. I've always found the "incontrovertible" presence of the gods to be a gold mine when I've run D&D. Sure, if your world has a single set of gods set in a single system of belief, and those gods regularly pop down to the world to throw their weight around (or, conversely, never leave Heaven, Olympus, Yu-Shan, whatever, but leave their mark through other means), it can get pretty boring. But that's also incredibly unrealistic. Fantasy settings are generally more cosmopolitan than mundane settings (no elves in the real world), so there's no reason their systems of faith shouldn't be. There should be multiple religions even within the elven community, for example.
And while systems of belief that include multiple deities seem more likely (historically) to accept or integrate other faiths into their own paradigm, I'm not sure that remains true when priests of these various religions have magical powers that they supposedly got from their gods. I've always included such tensions in D&D games I've run. When you know that your god has given you magic powers, you know that other faiths are false and other so-called priests wield witchcraft, not faith. You ask "who keeps track of that", and while the above poster's response is facetious, it's also a pretty accurate answer. The people who keep track of that are self-appointed (or religion-appointed) representatives of the gods. Or, in the context of the game, protagonists and antagonists.
Furthermore, even the provable existence of gods who like to come down from wherever they stay to blow up armies, take the form of an animal to sleep with women, or whatever, does not have to take the mystery out of religion. The existence of gods provokes questions like "what are the gods and how did they come to be?" and "what do they want from us?" Sure, they may have told us that they sprang fully formed from the stones, oceans and forests when the world was young and that they want us to use our powers to spread righteous justice through the world, but believing them, deciding that they're not lying, that their teachings are valuable and should be upheld? That's still faith.
Which is a long way of saying that the existence of magical powers wielded by people who claim and/or believe that they come from a patron god or gods does not prove the existence of those gods, and may, in fact, engender more conflict than they end. Cruac and Theban Sorcery come to mind.
you know that other faiths are false and other so-called priests wield witchcraft,
Well, that depends on your attitude. Only if you're a strict monotheist will you assume that other 'divine' powers must come from demons. And with so much evidence that they in fact come from equally 'good' beings (healing powers being one exapmle), why would you cleave to the idea that the god who happens to favour you is the only god?
Cruac and Theban Sorcery are good examples. And look at the work I did on Vampire -- the setting expressly doesn't explain an origin story, and leaves a lot of that open to the interpretation and storytelling of the troupe.
And while systems of belief that include multiple deities seem more likely (historically) to accept or integrate other faiths into their own paradigm, I'm not sure that remains true when priests of these various religions have magical powers that they supposedly got from their gods. I've always included such tensions in D&D games I've run. When you know that your god has given you magic powers, you know that other faiths are false and other so-called priests wield witchcraft, not faith. You ask "who keeps track of that", and while the above poster's response is facetious, it's also a pretty accurate answer. The people who keep track of that are self-appointed (or religion-appointed) representatives of the gods. Or, in the context of the game, protagonists and antagonists.
Furthermore, even the provable existence of gods who like to come down from wherever they stay to blow up armies, take the form of an animal to sleep with women, or whatever, does not have to take the mystery out of religion. The existence of gods provokes questions like "what are the gods and how did they come to be?" and "what do they want from us?" Sure, they may have told us that they sprang fully formed from the stones, oceans and forests when the world was young and that they want us to use our powers to spread righteous justice through the world, but believing them, deciding that they're not lying, that their teachings are valuable and should be upheld? That's still faith.
Which is a long way of saying that the existence of magical powers wielded by people who claim and/or believe that they come from a patron god or gods does not prove the existence of those gods, and may, in fact, engender more conflict than they end. Cruac and Theban Sorcery come to mind.
PAS
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Well, that depends on your attitude. Only if you're a strict monotheist will you assume that other 'divine' powers must come from demons. And with so much evidence that they in fact come from equally 'good' beings (healing powers being one exapmle), why would you cleave to the idea that the god who happens to favour you is the only god?
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