Jflotrogdor

Kingdoms of Amalur had an option like that. You could select a god to follow which entailed a bonus to a certain skill, damage, or resistence. Or you could pick the option of "beholden to no god. your self sufficiency yields its own rewards" and get a flat xp bonus. I agree that atheism would be very difficult to work into a fantasy setting. You could go the route simliar to what HeedlessHorseman and Grimlorn were talking about above: you acknowledge the gods existence, but you don't believe them to be actual gods, instead that they're simply entities of a different order of existence than humans/orks/elves/whatever races are available. Their power, age, and intelligence are such that they are beyond mortal comprehension, and the term 'god' is the closest mortal language and thought can come to understanding them. They're forces to be reckoned with for sure, but they're not divine. To me that's kind of like how H.P. Lovecraft approached the elder things like Cthulhu.