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Religion in Video Games
The Opposable Thumbs blog recently took a look at how religious themes are handled in video games. Most makers of mainstream games are hesitant, given the strong feelings of most consumers on the subject, but other companies are trying desperately to bring religion into the spotlight. Quoting:
"Part of the problem is that the game industry is often touted as being a corrupting influence for the youth of the world. Criticism against the game industry has come from leaders as high up as the current Pope, and many of us who have been exposed to sermons bemoaning the influence that games and movies have on kids. Even when groups like the Christian Game Developers Foundation put out a video encouraging developers to create wholesome titles for kids, the attitude conveyed towards current members of the industry was contemptuous at best. Needless to say, games with heavy religious content are usually fringe projects, independently created and oftentimes sporting dodgy production values, because publishers wisely don't want to risk boycotts from legions of the faithful."
There's an obvious difference here. The Christians persecute others to spread their religion. Atheists persecute others for other reasons. In this case, it was to spread political ideas rather than religious ones. Religion is a direct cause of many murders while atheism cannot be blamed for it because there's nothing in the ideology about committing murder in the name of any superstition.
Video games satisfy the lusts of the flesh.
By definition that conflicts with the goals of religion.
I think there's a need for religious content in video games like I think there's a need for schizophrenic content in video games, and bipolar content in video games, and Alzheimers-based content in video games. Why pander to just one form of mental illness?
Are we really supposed to believe that people that excel at a kind of looping, repetitive, analytic logic are really going to believe in the Great Spaghetti Monster? A God-game is only going to be fun as fantasy or history.
Quack, quack.
You do realize that that view is just about as universal as an idea can get ?
Christianity - yep, you cannot marry outside of your creed. Consequence for acting non-racist : non-recognition of the marriage. Biggest consequences relate to inheritance and the rights of the children of such a marriage. In practice : no consequences.
Hinduism - yep, one cannot marry outside of creed. Worse you cannot marry out of your caste, and your partner needs to have near-identical skin color (no white boy black girl or reverse). Some versions accept the right of the more "arian" men to fuck (but not marry) non-arian women outside of marriage. Consequences for not acting racist : for the woman - being buried alive or set on fire. For the man : banishment. In practice : in rural settings, this actually happens.
Judaism - yep, you cannot marry outside of your creed. Conseqences for acting non-racist : stoning to death for a woman, if necessary after carrying the resulting pregnancy full term. Consequences for a man : nothing (or a monetary sum if there is reason to assume the woman was raped - generally this sum is quite easily granted the family of the woman). That's theoretically. In practice : consequences are banishment from the family.
Islam - yep, you cannot marry outside of creed (but male muslims can capture and fuck as many non-muslim women as they want). Consequences for acting non-racist : theoretically : stoning to death for both man and woman. In practice, death for the woman is widely practiced. Death for the man extremely rarely
Oh and to top it all off, there's a good argument about atheists too. There are many, many views on this amongst atheists. But the largest group of atheists, soviet and chinese communists generally considered this treason, generally resulting in violence against the couple involved.
So yes, perhaps you can consider this hateful, but every creed (including "no creed") has a shameful history in this department.
Perhaps there is a game in this. You start out as a member of the varying creeds, and you have to find an "offending" couple through detective work and have to administer the consequences demanded by the relevant creed.