Anti-Religious Sentiment in Video Games (have you noticed?)

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Shock and Awe

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Not really, seeing as many metaphors in the Halo Franchise place the protagonist Master Chief in a messiah like role. Take his name "John 117".

1 John 1:7 said:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
This is related to the fact that in the Halo Universe Master Chief became an icon for humanity. Giving everyone the message that if humanity united and followed him, we would survive.

John 1:17 said:
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Moses can be Dr. Catherine Halsey, head of the spartan II program, and Chief would be related to Jesus.
 

Arella18

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I didn't really care...you're reading way too much into the games anyway...doing that will only make you start hating your favorite franchises.
 

HT_Black

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...Nope, sorry, I don't see it. However, as far as I can tell, what with its worship of aliens and money-based class system, Unitology is a less-than-subtle dig at that other alien-worshipping money-based religion...
 

Iffat Nur

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The entire point of popular media is to never show a religion. Even if idoes, that religion gets the finger up its ass
 

Kollega

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Now that everyone brings it up, there is indeed an anti-religious subtext in many, many games. My guess is that said subtext is edgy enough to offend our grandmothers, yet not edgy enough to offend ourselves - in fact, many young people are atheists or anti-theists nowadays - and that's why many developers include it.

EnigmaticThor said:
But I don't see how any of those things are a parody of any mainstream religion. While a religious group is the main antagonist, the group has more of a feel of a cult writ large (and gone horribly wrong) than any mainstream religion now.
Note "the Forerunners, a people whose intentions the Covenant blindly miss the point of, in a debacle that leads them fighting for their own demise". The crusaders didn't exactly follow the Jesus' message of peace and love, now have they? At least i think that's how it is.

SantoUno said:
manythings said:
until then the fuckwits will make sure atheism is forced on people.
What? Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
Yes, if you think about it. If atheism is so great, it shouldn't be neccesary to "force" it upon people, they'll want to adopt it themselves. I'm an atheist/agnostic, by the way (depending on how much sleep i've gotten, like our OP).
 

Woodsey

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manythings said:
of course they have an anti-religious thing, the second religion is brooched as a subject nowadays people kneejerk and start screaming about the insidious way the right wing is trying to force dogma on them. When people can mature a few fucking shades then maybe something interesting with regard to religions can occur in the medium, until then the fuckwits will make sure atheism is forced on people.
Wait, who's forcing atheism on to who? I'll leave my retort to the "when people can mature..." comment until you've replied.

OT: I like the way Assassin's Creed openly tackles it and virtually announces that there really is no god. As for Dragon Age, I don't see what's anti-religious in it.
 

TheVampireCabbit

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SantoUno said:
manythings said:
until then the fuckwits will make sure atheism is forced on people.
What? Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
Yes, if you think about it. If atheism is so great, it shouldn't be neccesary to "force" it upon people, they'll want to adopt it themselves. I'm an atheist/agnostic, by the way (depending on how much sleep i've gotten, like our OP).

Well, i get your theory. But in practicality it falls down somewhat. There are people who believe the world is flat - and that all those rocket things are NASA lies and control over the populace. The truth is that the world is round. The roundness is no more 'great' than the flatness, its simply what is true. Actually, a universe where a God exists and is looking out for people is infinitly more desirable than the atheist universe. it just so happens the latter is easily demonstratable as correct.
In other words, the truth is not always immediatly more pleasant, and therefore is not immediatly adopted.
 

Valkyrie101

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Imperator_DK said:
Assassins Creed had you fighting Crusaders, and AC2 had you fighting the Pope.
However, the Templars, who were the enemies throughout both games, were actually self-declared atheists who scorned religion and used it as a tool for their own ends. So were the Assassins, though.
 

Gigano

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Valkyrie101 said:
Imperator_DK said:
Assassins Creed had you fighting Crusaders, and AC2 had you fighting the Pope.
However, the Templars, who were the enemies throughout both games, were actually self-declared atheists who scorned religion and used it as a tool for their own ends. So were the Assassins, though.
Yes, which to some degree protected people having belief; it didn't protect "religion" - the dogmatic system - though, but rather exposed it as an excellent tool for evil, never showing it doing any good.

And I'm not sure having everyone - good or bad - who actually call the shots and matter in the grand scope of things in the game world being "enlightened" type atheists is really a cadeux to religion either.
 

manythings

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Woodsey said:
manythings said:
of course they have an anti-religious thing, the second religion is brooched as a subject nowadays people kneejerk and start screaming about the insidious way the right wing is trying to force dogma on them. When people can mature a few fucking shades then maybe something interesting with regard to religions can occur in the medium, until then the fuckwits will make sure atheism is forced on people.
Wait, who's forcing atheism on to who? I'll leave my retort to the "when people can mature..." comment until you've replied.

OT: I like the way Assassin's Creed openly tackles it and virtually announces that there really is no god. As for Dragon Age, I don't see what's anti-religious in it.
My problem is there is never someone who is just a guy in the religious institutions, they're always the guy who is either the deranged zealot or corrupt malefactor (or if they are feeling crazy a combination of the two) which is just a lack of imagination. Are people incapable of noting that religion, for all the good and bad, is a part of the human world and maybe, JUST MAYBE, it can be looked at without people leaping to either side of the argument?
 

manythings

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SantoUno said:
manythings said:
until then the fuckwits will make sure atheism is forced on people.
What? Is that supposed to be a bad thing?

Not like if that's even true. Developers just have quite an imagination, so they project that by depicting what some religious groups can become.
At what point is forcing an idea on people a good thing? People have the right to be wrong, once you extract that idea you pretty much demand that everyone be you since you're the one who is right... Am I the only person who sees the danger there?
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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Yeslek Ssomllur said:
First, I gotta point out that Unitology was more of a rip on Scientology than any "real" religion.

As for your question, I think you're reading into things that aren't there. That's not to say there aren't any anti-religion games, because there's definitely a few, but they're certainly not as militaristic about it, nor as common, as you imply. For example, while Halo may borrow some ideas from the Bible, I highly doubt it's a criticism of Christianity. The structure of the Covenant is not from any part of the Bible I've read, and I've read most of it. Just about the only thing the Covenant borrows from Christianity in it's organization is from over 600 years ago, that being the idea of Christendom and religious leaders controlling society.

On a final note, why does it matter if games are predominantly anti-religion? If your faith is so insecure that it can't handle criticism, you're not doing it right in the first place. If you don't like to see anything anti-religious, just don't play the games containing it.
 

SyphonX

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Mar 22, 2009
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Religious organizations all over the world, America primarily (imagine that), directly try to chastise and outright ban most video games. They organize as part of a belief in "faith", "caring" and understanding.. yet instead of pioneering a cause like ending hunger or basic human rights, they spend their time frothing at the mouth at video game developers.

They're trying to limit the rights of others to express themselves.

I would think, at the very least, all of this would be displayed in virtually every game we play, and I'm glad. At least it shows that people still have a pair of balls in this world, rather than roll over and kowtow to faithless unholy crusaders. Religion has nothing to do with it, in my opinion. It's only neo-conservative nut jobs and masochist old world psychopaths that use religion as an umbrella.
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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manythings said:
My problem is there is never someone who is just a guy in the religious institutions, they're always the guy who is either the deranged zealot or corrupt malefactor (or if they are feeling crazy a combination of the two) which is just a lack of imagination. Are people incapable of noting that religion, for all the good and bad, is a part of the human world and maybe, JUST MAYBE, it can be looked at without people leaping to either side of the argument?
To be fair, the vast majority of people, in my experience, who actively participate in any sort of position of power within a religious institution fit one or both of those descriptions. They're either "true believers" who will do nigh anything for the church, or they're abusing the aforementioned believers to further themselves. Most everyone else has sense enough to stay out.

Good luck getting people to not choose sides. It doesn't matter what it is, if there's an argument of any sort, there will always be people on opposing sides. It doesn't matter what you do, that will be true as long as there's more than one human alive.
 

x434343

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Imperator_DK said:
Assassins Creed had you fighting Crusaders, and AC2 had you fighting the Pope.
More like *****-slapping the pope. And for the record, that pope is probably the worst in history. Best not to talk of him, or to portray him bad.

Probably the coolest take on religion are BioShock 1 and 2. In BioShock 1's backstory, there was no religion, and partially due to that, Rapture went to hell. In BioShock 2's backstory, and at one point during the game, religious fanaticism causes things to become even worse. Bioshock 1 and 2, therefore, takes a middle ground: religion is good, but it should not rule your life.
 
Sep 14, 2009
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manythings said:
SantoUno said:
manythings said:
until then the fuckwits will make sure atheism is forced on people.
What? Is that supposed to be a bad thing?

Not like if that's even true. Developers just have quite an imagination, so they project that by depicting what some religious groups can become.
At what point is forcing an idea on people a good thing? People have the right to be wrong, once you extract that idea you pretty much demand that everyone be you since you're the one who is right... Am I the only person who sees the danger there?
this is a problem i have to avoid with alot of people i know...

anytime even the whisper of "god" is brought up, even if you say "oh my god" or something they will be like "there is no god, your bad for even saying that" (and note they are dead serious when they say that) it gets really tiresome as they constantly force it upon others, and i dont think they realize they are just gonna make people do (or believe) just in spite even more for acting like that.

ot: in games i do NOTICE it, but i dont care, if its a fun game then its a fun game, i dont care if it has religion tie ins or not, if its based off the bible, and its cool, then sure ill play the game, if its based off of a whole world that doesn't believe in god and is a equilibrium type setting, i'll play that too
 

theultimateend

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Actually the games are lampooning extremism, acting like religion and butchering a woman because she tries to leave her husband are the same thing is a bad habit.

Most games don't have you fighting against your local community run church, they have you battling against a very real concept of extremism and religious dominance over a populace.

It's happened in the past a few bajillion times, North Korea is a good example of it happening now.

So yeah...don't cajol them all into one group. I am not a follower of any faith outside of Optimism but it still annoys me to no end when folks act like Religion has one form. I've yet to play a video game where I was just fighting a church handing out rations to the homeless :/.
 

Macgyvercas

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Yeslek Ssomllur said:
"Unitology" is a huge, hilarious middle finger to Christianity, and Dead Space is STILL flying off shelves!
Technically, it's a middle finger at Scientology, but now I'm just nit-picking.

And apart from Dead Space (and BioShock to an extent), I hadn't really noticed.

Oh, and anti-religious sentiments in video games don't bother this particular Catholic.
 

Z(ombie)fan

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manythings said:
SantoUno said:
manythings said:
until then the fuckwits will make sure atheism is forced on people.
What? Is that supposed to be a bad thing?

Not like if that's even true. Developers just have quite an imagination, so they project that by depicting what some religious groups can become.
At what point is forcing an idea on people a good thing? People have the right to be wrong, once you extract that idea you pretty much demand that everyone be you since you're the one who is right... Am I the only person who sees the danger there?
no, but you know what? The same problem applies MORESO to religion.

I grew up having christian Bullshit forced down my throat. 13 years worth Bible thumbing.
I knew this entire time that its fucking retarded. forcing Ideas is wrong. but between being forced atheism and religion, not only does religion do more of it, but atheism does it smarter. Atheism uses common sense.