My Players Are So Fierce

Chapter 2888 -963: Crow’s Deconstruction of Faith: A Brief Discussion on the Great Work of Godmaking (2)

“I know you’ve been exploring the mysteries of faith all this time, so we want to hear what insights you, as a foreigner, have on this matter.”

Murphy said.

Under the gaze of the four vampires, Crow thought for a moment, coughed, put down the Avalon scriptures in his hand, and said in a low voice:

“I come from a world of atheism. Strictly speaking, I have no right to speak on matters like this, but since Governor Morphy has invited me, I’ll risk making a fool of myself. If there are any flaws in what I say, I hope you’ll forgive me.

But before I state my conclusion, we need to first discuss one question: the nature of faith…

In my view, ladies and gentlemen, faith is very much like a bearing.

It connects the Divine Spirit and the believers and functions at both ends at the same time; it is by no means a fixed, immutable system, but something that is constantly in flux.

The imagined community of mortals, through this changing link, shapes the aspect of the Divine Spirit, thereby determining the Divine Spirit’s personification and mode of action; and once the Divine Spirit’s aspect is formed, it in turn influences the mentality and Spirit of the believers.

It is a support to both sides, and even more, a constraint upon both sides.

And according to my understanding of the existing systems of faith on the Continent, there is a rather obvious logical flaw in the beliefs of the Avalon Church, the Winter Wolf Religion, and the Church of Wam.

The believers only know that their Divine Spirits are great, mighty, and righteous, yet they do not understand what the Divine Spirits want to do or what they are currently doing.

The direct result of this is that the imagined community forged in their prayers is severely lacking in a goal. This may sound somewhat hard to grasp, so let me give a more concrete example.

The unique mode of existence of the new gods allows them to exist without relying on faith, so this lack of a goal does not affect their power; The Fury Vam, however, suffers greatly from it.”

“Oh?”

Murphy blinked and said:

“I actually have always thought that Vam’s faith could not develop because the conduct of His followers is too wild, but it seems you have a different understanding of this?”

“Yes, the Barbarians’ behavior is indeed too brutal and not conducive to the spread of faith, but all of that is only superficial—especially since the great popularity of Vam’s faith among foreign groups has already proved that the Barbarians’ brutality is not the main problem hindering the spread of the faith of The Fury.”

Crow explained very earnestly:

“I have conducted in-depth research into the process of Vam’s birth. He is a Divine Spirit that the Barbarians spent centuries condensing, yet for many years after His birth He remained within a relatively closed system.

His believers are warlike, yet they do not know why they fight. This severely limits Vam’s progression toward true power.

The contrasting example is The Master of Hunting.

The Wolf People long to conquer the world and escape their plight; under the doctrinal guidance personally designated by the King of Bone Biting, their shared imagination formed an Evil God who acts with brutality, reveres strength, and takes conquest as its goal.

The Evil God bestows power, making the Wolf People even more frenzied and savage; this further brutalization in turn deepens the aspect of The Master of Hunting, granting it greater might.

The joint efforts of both sides thus advance the realization of the goal of ‘world conquest.’

Setting aside good and evil, and merely deconstructing this from the perspective of efficiency and system, this is a remarkably successful homomorphic evolution. This is also why the faith of The Master of Hunting could, in just a hundred years, gestate the form of an Evil God and awaken it, and why its power at birth could surpass that of Vam.

Through the comparison between The Master of Hunting and Vam, it is easy to see that when shaping a faith, establishing a clear goal for the imagined Divine Spirit is the best way to help It grow strong as quickly as possible.

Mortals who wish to accomplish something need clear goals; so do Divine Spirits.

The more concrete the goal, the stronger the execution of the followers responding to that goal, and the more complete the rules and agendas corresponding to that goal, then the quicker the shaping of the Divine Spirit and the faith will be.

In this process, the believers’ piety is not even the primary factor. After all, within a community of faith formed by the aggregation of tens of thousands of imaginations and thoughts, the piety of an individual cannot affect the larger situation. And from my actual experience in the Avalon Church during this period, truly devout believers are far fewer than we might imagine; most people go to worship with a purpose—they hope the Divine Spirit will help them solve the troubles they encounter in life.

In this respect, the two worlds happen to mirror one another.

As for shaping a Divine Spirit, in my view this is a systematized project that requires precise planning and coordination!

Efficient group operations, a complete structure of faith, and scientific methods of management are the decisive factors in whether a faith can become widespread. To put it more simply: the assistance that a hundred highly efficient, goal-oriented believers can bring to a Divine Spirit far exceeds that of ten thousand muddle-headed zealots who only know how to bow their heads and chant scriptures.”

Crow had entered his stride.

He waved his hands, paced back and forth, and, in the posture of a man without faith, loudly expounded his own deconstruction and understanding of Divine Spirits. His eyes shone as he said:

“The reason the Church of the Sacred Light has developed so rapidly is also because the members of the Rushing River Knights Group are foreigners with clear goals and strong execution!

Tepar once invited me to revise their organizational structure, to manage the circles of believers in a planned way. I set the principles for assemblies: groups of twenty gather once a week to debate the faith, and believers are not forbidden to reinterpret the doctrines anew from the standpoint of their own thinking, because truth always requires analysis and deconstruction again and again before it can be understood by more people.