[text; wee hours of the morning]

[medalsome]

Do you believe in God? Gods? Do they exist where you're from? What about angels or demons or anything like that?

Where I'm from the existence of gods is hard to deny. People are pretty devote and religious. Church is an intrinsic part of our culture. It takes someone pretty hardheaded or self-centered to deny the existence of higher powers, but here there's not much emphasis on religion. Guess I'm just kinda curious now. Is it more like my home in your worlds, or more like this one?

[Joaquin may be slightly drunk, or perhaps he's just tired.]

Comments

[medalsome]

[Whoops.]

Different gods, I mean. At least, from what I've experienced back home, they seem to require a person's willingness before they can affect them in a way similar to how yours affected you.

So you have some gods that will do whatever they want? Could they force someone to take something from them, like a cursed or blessed item, or would they have to trick someone into bargaining for it?

[thegriffinofdeath]

Honestly? I'm not sure. There are objects like that back home, but only a few of them were created by the gods. Most are relics of other powerful beings. Demons, angels.

Now those? They'll force a person to do something, no hesitation. No remorse. Especially angels.

[medalsome]

Huh. Interesting.

Angels are generally considered benevolent where I'm from. And I know of some stories where magical items are gifted to humans, but they tend to have a price and the human must accept it along with whatever consequences might unfold.

My world must be lucky that we don't have gods that can do just anything they want.

[thegriffinofdeath]

They seem to be seen that way here, as well. On Ashan, most people see angels as something divine. They're the speakers for the Dragon God of Light, so...they're not wrong.

I've just had a closer look.

Your world. Is it more like this one? Distant, unseen gods?

[medalsome]

"Light" always sounds promising. "Dragon" not so much.

Somewhere in-between this and yours, I guess? The gods are there, they sometimes show themselves, but it's not a common occurrence.

[thegriffinofdeath]

Oh, the dragon part is normal? At least at home. All our gods are dragons.

I can understand that, at least. The religions here are baffling to me.

[medalsome]

Well, we don't have dragons as such back home, but they're not generally depicted as magnanimous creatures.

So all your gods are dragons? That's gotta be kinda scary.

It must seem pretty different. From what I can tell, religion isn't as widely accepted here as it was in my world. In my Mexico religion was basically a way of life. But so many day to day people here either don't care or just go to church in passing.

[thegriffinofdeath]

It is vastly different. I mean, I understand, in a sense, in this belief that faith requires an absence...otherwise it's not faith. But...

This idea of just trusting that the 'god' is there, without knowing, without feeling it...

I don't know if I could do that. And clearly mots people here can't.

[medalsome]

Yeah, faith is tough. I have stronger belief in gods because I've seen some back home, but before I did I don't know if I'd say I had great faith in their existence.

Understandable. Some people here want solid proof before they'll believe in God. I don't think that's wrong of them.

[thegriffinofdeath]

It's never been an issue for me before, really. I've known one god or another all my life.

Science is...well. It's important enough here that I can see why it has outweighed things like faith. When you can do the things they can do, a God that never appears can seem almost unnecessary.

[medalsome]

I think you hit the nail on the head there. The people in this world, the natives, they don't generally feel a need for faith because of science and the lack of God. Really, now that I think about it, I wonder why the porter itself isn't seen to be a deity.

I mean, I know there's been talk about Lachesis and stuff, but I don't know much about how that deity relates to the porter. But they are connected somehow?

This might be something to look into.

[thegriffinofdeath]

They know it's a machine. A machine they don't understand, yes, but still. A machine. Given the way they lean into science.

Hm.

I wonder if you could consider science the god of most of these people...

[medalsome]

Science? A god?

... I'll ask Newton next time I see him.

[driftsintobuffetline]

Save you the trouble, dude: science is not a god.

[medalsome]

Oh. Okay.

[Embarrass him why don't you]

[driftsintobuffetline]

The thing is, people, when they don't understand shit, like to assign it "god status"--so yeah, people could be worshiping the Porter. People worshiped the Kaiju. I mean, people worship the sea, or the sky, or the wind, or other things that they interact with that they do not understand but that they either want help from or want to appease.

[medalsome]

But how do you know they aren't wrong for thinking that way? I know in your world there are ways to understand how things work and it's easy to say there's no god

But I've seen them Newt. I know they're real, even if maybe not in the way I original thought. Hell, I mostly only ever thought of the Christian God before but I know there's more of them out there back home. They just aren't what I expected.