Worship + fetchlands

[Fubar]

I have an active Worship out and I'm riding it out on one life.  I then activate a fetchland, is this considered damage?  Thus am I still 'hiding' behind my worship?  By extension, is the loss of life from Force of Will/Contagion one and the same?

Worship  3W  Enchantment
Oracle Text:
If you control a creature, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.

[Anusien]

Damage causes loss of life, but Worship only affects damage.

Flooded Strand and Force of Will both cause loss of life, and can kill you under Worship.

[Fubar]

Thanks.  I think alot of players have difficulty understanding what is 'damage' and what isn't.  Is there anywhere besides the comp. rules where this is explained and easily accessable? 
Or is the concept so simple that: if you pay life as part of any effect; or if the opponent causes the loss?

[diopter]

Thanks.  I think alot of players have difficulty understanding what is 'damage' and what isn't.  Is there anywhere besides the comp. rules where this is explained and easily accessable? 
Or is the concept so simple that: if you pay life as part of any effect; or if the opponent causes the loss?

Informally I think it's like this:
- When creatures attack (or block), they deal combat damage (which is a form of damage) if they have power greater than zero.
- When an effect says it deals damage, then it is damage.

Anything else is not damage. Furthermore all damage causes loss of life.

[Fubar]

This would lead to the understanding that necro/bargain would not be technically damage.

[wiley]

Anything that asks you to pay life is considered life loss, not damage.  Necro and bargain are not damage, they are life loss.

[Fubar]

Logically that makes total sense, in order to not have a ridiculous interaction between card like bargain and worship.

Yawgmoth's Bargain  4BB    Enchantment
Oracle Text:
Skip your draw step.Pay 1 life: Draw a card.

So am I to understand that the key point to get is the 'self-inflicted' part of losing life points?

[diopter]

Logically that makes total sense, in order to not have a ridiculous interaction between card like bargain and worship.

Yawgmoth's Bargain  4BB    Enchantment
Oracle Text:
Skip your draw step.Pay 1 life: Draw a card.

So am I to understand that the key point to get is the 'self-inflicted' part of losing life points?

Not exactly. Your opponents can also inflict life loss upon you, e.g. Tendrils of Agony. The keys are that a card will differentiate when it is dealing damage, except of course for creatures, which have an inherent ability to damage either other creatures or players via their power and the combat phase.

For your example,  Bargain doesn't specify damage, therefore it is not damage. Something like City of Brass, however, is damage because it specifies its effect as damage.

City of Brass
Rules Text (Oracle):
Whenever City of Brass becomes tapped, it deals 1 damage to you.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

[Anusien]

Creatures deal damage in combat.  Everything else specifies on the card.

[Nefarias]

While it is not relevant to the question answered, it is also important to note that damage causes loss of life. It's still damage, but anytime your life goes down, you have "lost life." It's kinda like how all squares are rectangles, but not every rectangle is a square. The most relevant card for this is Sygg, River Cutthroat, who's reminder text actually states "Damage causes loss of life."


Likewise, anytime your life total would increase, it's considered life gain. So if you have Boon Reflection in play (If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead), and cast Blessed Wind on yourself (Target player's life total becomes 20) while you were at 9, you'd actually end up at 31 life. The Reflection sees that an effect is trying to gain you 11 life, and doubles it, even though Blessed Wind does not actually specifically state that life is being gained.

[Alamoria]

Damage
Many spells and abilities deal damage to creatures and/or players. Creatures may also deal combat damage during the combat phase.
     Costs and effects that read "lose life" or "pay life" don't deal damage, and that loss of life can't be prevented or otherwise altered by damage-prevention effects.
Note that mana burn is loss of life, not damage, so it can't be prevented or altered by effects that affect damage.

From the comprensive rules...old rules, but they're the newest on wizard.com, and as far as I know nothings changed about damage since.