Your religion

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Hey, what religions do people here practice? There seem to be a disproportionate number of Jews, several Mormons, what else? I'm not asking about the nature of your specific practices or beliefs, just religious culture.

I'm terribly curious about what kind of religious nature would bring someone to this kind of game.

Uh, just to start things off, I'm Jewish.

[Brand_Robins]

I'm an LDS son of a Bishop.

[Trevis Martin]

I grew up in small town Utah but was raised a mainline Christian protestant, Baptist then Lutheran. Ten years ago my dad converted to Judaism.

I'm an agnostic and don't practice anything in particular but I spend a lot of time studying Bhuddism, particlarly Zen and Mystical traditions of Judaism and Chrisitanity.

best

Trevis

[lumpley]

I'm an atheist.

-Vincent

[clehrich]

I'm a non-practicing and basically agnostic Jew, but my professional interests lead me to know far more about Catholicism, particuarly Scholastic theology, than about any other religions.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Dogs, and Vincent's background in general, are of particular interest to me, as mine's not that different, just set in Alabama. I'm the son of two Protestants, Southern Baptist for most of my childhood. My parents left the church a few years ago because they thought it didn't focus enough on "the Spirit." Their new church involves laying on of hands, random dancing, and other "Spirit-led" activities. My father often tells me things like "I've been fasting for three days" or "I can see people's spirits easier than their body."

Me, I'm an atheist - usually. You don't spend 18 years in that background without something coming out of it, so I alternate between hard-core reasoned atheism and "spiritual humanism," which I take as "something's out there, and it's out there specifically because we believe in it."

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

This is really, really interesting.

Since others have offered little stories, I'll append mine: I was raised Jewish by a Jewish father and a mother who converted when I was, like, 5 or so. The technicality of my mother's conversion after my birth has given me no end of clashing with Jewish orthodoxy, whom I otherwise consider my siblings in religion. It's given me a profound disrespect for orthodoxy and dogmatism of all kinds - be it Jewish, atheist, Catholic, or what-have-you (those are the varieties I run into most often).

My religious studies tend toward the mystical and linguistic, and I've been atheist at many points, like any good Jew.

[Brennan Taylor]

I'm a Quaker.

[johnmarron]

I was raised Roman Catholic (CCD classes up till confirmatioon, the whole nine yards).  It wasn't until I was introduced to the idea of transubstantiation (the idea that the bread and wine of the communion ceremony actually physically change into the blood and flesh of Christ during the mass...) in a college Humanities class that I realized I had no idea what the actual beliefs of Catholicism were.  By that time I had become a hardcore "rot-in-the-ground" atheist.  In my old age, I have mellowed into a "I can never know for sure and neither can you so let's all just respect each other's beliefs and try to get along" agnostic, believing that real atheism is a much an act of faith as belief in a religion.

John

[DannyK]

I've spent time in the LDS church and the Lutheran church as a kid; Buddhism as a young adult; and an increasing commitment to Judaism as an adult and a parent, with exposure to both the Sephardic Orthodox and Reform movements.

[Christopher Kubasik]

Hi,

Nikola's second question was:

"I'm terribly curious about what kind of religious nature would bring someone to this kind of game."

Now, I haven't even gotten a chance to read the rules yet (though, as the internet is aglow about it, I know a lot about it) so I won't respond to this thread at this time.

But I'd love to hear people's answers to this second question.

I doubt it will come down to a specific "religious nature."  Dogs seems to be about Conflict, sorting out what is Right, what Behavior is Right in what circumstances, and Storytelling.  Which is, as a practicting Catholic, what I think the best of religion is about.  (Orthodoxy and Fundemantilism reach out to different branches.)

But what do the players who play it think in terms of their "religious natures" -- or lack thereof?

Best regards,

Christopher

[Keith Senkowski]

Hey,

I was raised Catholic but I would classify myself as enlightened agnostic.  I don't have my copy of the game yet, but got the opportunity to flip through it at GenCon.  I have to say I was more drawn to it from a love of Westerns than any sort of religious conviction.  Perhaps when I get my copy I'll have a different opinion of it, but it just made me think of Pale Rider (which is my secret love).

Keith

[Brennan Taylor]

But what do the players who play it think in terms of their "religious natures" -- or lack thereof?

I already said a fair amount about that in this thread.

[MajorKiz]

Deist.

[Christopher Kubasik]

Hmmmm...

thanks for the link, inthisstyle.  Good thread.

But let me be clear, because the sentence you quoted was muddy on my part.

Nikola's second question wasn't about bringing Dogs to a player's own religious nature. He asked what was it about one's "religious nature" that brought one to Dogs.

The designer of the game is an atheist.  I suspect there's something else going on here besides the appropriate religious nature exciting interest in a religiously colored game. What is that something else? I'd love to hear more about that.

And I think that Nikola's curiosity about this matter is a sound one.  

Christopher