Guild Wars 2

One reason I love the charr is the lore behind them. They are the only race that is atheist and I love running around saying, “Charr need no gods”.

However, my charr hasn’t said this in a long time. Not once in 2 weeks or more.

I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing this, or if it was taken out because of complaints?

I’ve only heard that when using battle cry (or whatever that racial is called) on male charr. Was there another time you’d get it before?

They say that when you use Battle Cry.

Also I’m pretty sure they’re not atheist – they aknowledge the existance of gods, they just don’t need ‘em because they’re pretty great by themselves.

Atheists acknowledge gods, just like the charr. They don’t consider them to be gods, and don’t worship them. Everyone is an atheist in some sense of the word, captial ‘a’ atheists just take it one god further.

Since the Charr don’t worship any ‘gods’ in tyria and look at the existing gods as something to conquer kill, they are atheists. Another way to look at it is thus: lots of religions are shamanistic and believe god is a bear, or a lion or an eagle. That doesn’t mean they are and someone who doesn’t believe the metaphysical claims but acknowledge the physical claims are in no way giving ascent to the metaphysical.

Also, early christian apologists recognized the existence of other gods (an early claim against Christians were they were atheists). Justin Martyr argued Janus existed, but he was little more than a demon planted by Satan to dilute the coming of the real son of god. SO, while Martyr accepted the existence of Janus, he did not think Janus was a true god; a being worthy of worship.

Additionally, gods exist historically and as metaphorical narratives. Believing as much doesn’t make you a believer, only aware others hold beliefs and that those beliefs shape history and politics.

LameFox.6349:

I’ve only heard that when using battle cry (or whatever that racial is called) on male charr. Was there another time you’d get it before?

That makes sense. I don’t have battlecry on my engineer. I used it all the time on my necro.

Thanks!

First of all atheists doesn’t acknowledge gods so I think you should read up on what ‘atheist’ means. Second of all charr doesn’t acknowledge gods either.
“They have renounced all gods as false and instead view all of life, from magic to combat, with a hard, cynical eye” – taken from gw2 wiki
Meaning they do not beleive that the gods are truly gods but false godwannabe’s. They may acknowledge these ‘gods’ as powerful creatures, but they don’t acknowledge them as gods.

Eh, sorry to tell you but atheists do, in fact, acknowledge that other people believe in gods. It’s a fact of history that people believe in various deities. The difference being, atheists don’t believe anyone has ever shown evidence to support the claim there is a god, let alone a specific one. Additionally, whether or not gods do exist doesn’t negate the impact those beliefs have on a society.

In the case of the Charr, the humans believe a set of beings are gods because X and Y, the Charr don’t accept X and Y because of Z. That doesn’t mean they don’t believe the humans believe they have gods or that the concept of ‘god’ exists.

Another way to look at it is through the Buddhist tale of the gods coming to the Buddha and receiving the dharma, because like all conscious beings, the gods suffer and turn the karmic wheel. If the gods suffer and need the negation of dharma to achieve peace, what use are they to us? Even if they do exist, they cannot fix anything of import, so they are not worthy of worship (begging favoritism), and hence, cannot be considered gods. (This is dependent on a theistic world view in an omnimax deity).

Um sorry to tell you but atheists doesn’t.

“Atheism, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and other philosophy reference works, is the denial of the existence of God.” -taken from http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism

“Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.” -taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

You’re talking about agnostics. They claim there’s no evidence god exist and no evidence that god doesn’t exist and there for acknowledge the POSSIBLITY that there may be a god.

However, atheist do NOT acknowledge god. Most does in fact laugh at the idea of god being real.

I don’t believe in gods, but if you pointed to some random guy who clearly does exist and told me you believed he was a god, I wouldn’t suddenly think the dude stopped existing. I’d just think you were mad as a hatter.

EDIT: also, atheism and agnosticism isn’t necessarily mutually exclusive. If you believe knowledge of gods is impossible, you lack a belief in gods, which is also atheistic. However, you wouldn’t be a ‘strong atheist’, in the sense that you don’t outright believe gods don’t exist either.

And this thread is a great example of why I have trouble playing Charr.

Too. Kitten. Debate. Generating.

Calle.8746:

First of all atheists doesn’t acknowledge gods so I think you should read up on what ‘atheist’ means. Second of all charr doesn’t acknowledge gods either.
“They have renounced all gods as false and instead view all of life, from magic to combat, with a hard, cynical eye” – taken from gw2 wiki
Meaning they do not beleive that the gods are truly gods but false godwannabe’s. They may acknowledge these ‘gods’ as powerful creatures, but they don’t acknowledge them as gods.

they actualy do acknowlege them, they killed their own gods.

I heard some random npc say something about not needing false gods this morning

i think it was near the junkyard in smokestead

There’s already a nice long thread for this discussion: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/races/charr/Are-Charr-Really-Atheist .

It is mostly people trying to do anything they can to convince everyone else that pixelated beastpeople share whatever their particular flavor of real-life belief/nonbelief is, regardless of what lore supports.

Atheists acknowledge gods, just like the charr. They don’t consider them to be gods, and don’t worship them.

No. The defining characteristic of an atheist is that they do not believe in gods. They do not believe that deities exist, at all.

Oh, wait, someone beat me to this one. But they are slightly off when they bring up agnostics. They’re defining it right – it is rooted in the “we don’t know” factor. (And just to throw another wrench in, there’s “theistic agnostic” – someone who believes there is a god, but that its nature is not or perhaps cannot be known.)

But it doesn’t apply to Charr.

The Charr KNOW that the human gods exist, they accept that the human gods ARE gods, but they do not have gods of their OWN. And they like it that way. The Charr do not NEED gods. Let the humans rely on their mystical crutch. The Charr will go toe to toe with them without anything but their own brains, brawn, and the products of their ingenuity.

You cannot really classify Charr as truly atheist or agnostic…. I suppose the best term we can come up with is that they are “racially atheist”. They have no gods. They need no gods. Everyone else’s beliefs are none of their concern.

Whoa – when looking up the article about the Six, in relation to another thread I’m answering, I did find out an interesting tidbit:

The humans believe that the gods created Tyria, though the charr legends only specify Melandru in this. Despite their legend, the charr view the gods as powerful beings to fight, not worship.

In order to attribute the creation of an entire world, they MUST be able to attribute god-level powers at least to Melandru. And assuming they see the rest as her peer, then yes, I am right in my above statement that they believe the human gods are gods. Just, not to the Charr.