The Power of Belief (in setting)

[Becq]

Well God still wins the believer power chart by about 2 billion people and has been fed countless sacrifices (animals etc), though if you really wanted to stress that angle ever holy war and inquisition could be seen as massive ritual sacrifice,  which could easily explain his top spot and absolute supremacy. (In setting)

Or it could have something to do with the little-g gods being the first generation offspring of the Big-G God's servant (per OW).

[vultur]

I don't think there's any evidence in the novels, except one ambiguous sentence in what Odin says about the Lords of Outer Night, to suggest belief in a god = power of that god, or even necessarily worship in general = power (sacrifices specifically are a source of power, yes, but that's not specifically 'religious' - works fine for warlocks ).

The power of belief we've seen is power for the believer, not for the object of belief.

When Odin explains why he can't just smack down the Lords of Outer Night, he talks about advantage of location (Chichen Itza is the LotON's power center, someplace in Scandinavia is his) and that the Norse pantheon has fallen apart. Never mentions lack of worship. He does say that the LotON were once worshiped by many, but he also says the power of their blood is divided among thousands of descendants, whatever that means .... at the very least, it doesn't seem to be a straightforward belief/worship = power thing. Advantage-of-location comes up with the naagloshii in Turn Coat too. We have much more evidence for gods and god-like entities having power based on where they are and something to do with their relationship with their 'pantheon' or others of their kind (Odin and the Norse gods, the LotON and 'dividing' their power among their descendants...) than based on worship.

[Silverblaze]

Preface: I think this thread could easily spiral into bad territory.  I hate having to type 1 million disclaimers.  I tried my best to be inoffensive in my post.  These are only my opinions; how I'd run my game, and how games I play in handle such things.  I plan to post in this thread sparsely ( do not take silence for inability to argue my points, more like inability to do so kindly or within the forum rules) - I really am adamant about thios IRl and in my gaming and I keep the two seperate as possible. 

That said; here's what I think.

If the holy powers come soley from belief then I want the following to be contemplated:

Holy: indicates it hurts evil (as is evidenced by examples in the book/what monsetrs catches are)

Belief: is a scary thing; it can be very good or very bad.  It is very powerful regardless of the ends.  It can also lead to fanaticism or absolute lunacy.  In theory strong fait in cans of tuna should grant power.  While that sounds stupid to most normal people, the right person might think it makes perfect sense.  This leads me to believe said belief should not add holy powers to this individual.  JUST MY OPINION.

There is no accountability for a character who is a zealot if the powers come only from their own belief, then --- lets use the X-Men as an example.  This example is used to avoid any real world groups or religions.

The Purifiers beleive they are doing God's work in killing stinkin' muties.  These Muties did nothing wrong, many were children ; they still kill them. 

Dresden Files - witch hunters should not get holy powers becuase much like mutants - witchs and wizards etc aren't always evil or in opposition to the Almighty's plan (as per the Dresden Files universe)

I liken Holy chracters in DFRPG to Paladins or Clerics in D&D: they don't have to be goody two shoes at all, but if they screw up bad enough...no more power for them!

[Tedronai]

if they screw up bad enough...no more power for them!

This.
Even if they have absolute faith that their actions were perfectly ideal.

More practically, Rampaging Murder-Hobos (TM) should not gain bonus damage from Holy Touch while attacking Knights of the Cross just because that Knight happens to be wearing clothing of mixed fibers, or some other BS.