Naturally a literally minded people, the vast majority of Aragonians hold no reverence for a deity; their science and technology provide them with the greater meaning and comfort that most other races gain through their religion. Although not truly a religion, Aragonians tend to believe in the concept of "Providence", which is a mix of luck, timing, destiny, cause-and-effect, and karma that they believe shapes their lives.
Although they acknowledge the effects of Deities on the other Races, they see the Gods as simply being creatures of immense power... not entities that deserve praise or worship. That time could be better spent doing something to improve the immediate world, they feel.
The Aragonian Flaw
Some scholars from other Races criticize Providence for being little more than a thin veneer of reverence coating the Aragonians' innate desire to believe that all things make sense, even if they themselves, as mortals, cannot fathom it. Providence is, at its core, the name that Aragonians give to their psychological need that the cosmos is inherently knowable and understandable through rational, logical means. The other Races of the known world have come to refer to this perceived psychological failing as 'The Aragonian Flaw'.
For instance, the saying "everything happens for a reason" is extremely common in Aragonian culture, but its said more to comfort the one speaking it, not others around. The suffixes of "...if only we knew what that reason was." or "... if only we had more knowledge of the entire holistic system, we could know what that reason was." is understood to be there.
Empiricists and Rationalists
There are two major Schools of thought within the concept of Providence: Empiricists and Rationalists. Put very simply, the Empiricists espouse the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience (physical experimentation and evidence), because pure logic, as performed by mortals, can be flawed. The Rationalists, however, insist that reason and knowledge are best ways to derive knowledge from the world, as the interpretation of the physical world can be flawed. Though this distinction may seem trivial to non-Aragonians, loud arguments, violence, and even riots have been sparked by the intense competition between these ideologies.
"Everything happens for a reason."
Comments