Video games depict religion as violent, problematized, study shows

Almost all forms of entertainment present religion as violent.

If you watch sci fi or horror movies, the "overly religious" guy is usually depicted as either the main antagonist, or as a person who goes nuts in the middle of the chaos and causes nearly as much trouble as the main antagonist.

Anyway, usually there is at least one "nut" mis-quoting Bible verses, or other allegedly Christianized lore, in a horror or sci fi movie:

Carrie's mother.
Doom, one of the guys, forget which.

Anyway, it happens often enough that it's an annoying stereotype that completely pisses me off. Moreover, it's often inserted for no real reason regarding plot.

In Final Fantasy games "religion" of a sort is involved because Final Fantasy is larger than life, and the antagonists are usually parodied archetypes of Satan, attempting to "become" God, which is obviously ontologically impossible.

In other movies and video games, this "anti-religion" theme is often inserted for no apparent reason.

It isn't just all forms of entertainment media either. Pull out a history book and read about the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem Witch trials. Turn on the news today and watch the middle east. It isn't games or media that equate religion and violence. Violence and religion have been hand in hand in the real world, and in everything designed to represent the real world.

It isn't just all forms of entertainment media either. Pull out a history book and read about the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem Witch trials. Turn on the news today and watch the middle east. It isn't games or media that equate religion and violence. Violence and religion have been hand in hand in the real world, and in everything designed to represent the real world.

While what you've said about the Crusades is true, I hope you realize that all respected denominations of Christianity have totally renounced the Crusades, the Inquisition, and witch trials as being fundamentally opposed to the basic tenets of faith, and have done so for centuries?

Anyone who reads the New Testament for themselves would see that there is little to no justification for most of the acts of those events.

Leaders have a natural and God-given right for war and law enforcement when appropriate, but these events hypocritically violate the basic principles on which Christianity was founded.

Video games are actually putting a good spin on intolerant religions. Religion is outright fascism. The etymology of the word religion is religare in Latin, which means to re-bind.

What do you re-bind it to? A fascio. What is a fascio? It is a bundle of sticks: the Roman symbol of fascism adopted by Hitler and all fascists since Rome.

The we have the Papal Bulls written on the skin of tortured, sodomized and murdered children. That's the basis of all Western laws. Then it's not hard to understand why the elite gather yearly at Bohemian Grove to worship Moloch, the Vatican god of child molestation adopted in 11th century. No mystery why the Vatican bankers called the FED put an image of Moloch hidden on the dollar bill. No wonder why hell was invented in the 11th century by the catholics as a Moloch's world, where innocent souls are sent to burn as sacrifice. No wonder why catholic Hitler build gas chambers to anesthetize innocents before they were burned alive in crematoriums.

Almost all forms of entertainment present religion as violent.

Cut the games dudes a break. First people criticize games for not being realistic, and here they are criticizing games for being too realistic. Imagine Santorum as dictator ... you don't have to, we have the Taliban. The games don't go far enough.

GaryB:

It is completely unfair and ridiculous to claim that all religious denominations are violent.

I certainly have nothing to do with Catholicism and have condemned the historical actions of the RCC, as I have understood them.

The Crusades, the Inquisition, and witch trials were inexcusible. Even the modern catholic church condemns most of these acts, and that's a pretty big step,s eeing as how they even had to change their own doctrine and retroactively remove the title of Pope from some people to make up for it.

You want to try to blame it on "all religions" or denominations, but it isn't.

Right now, they have muslims in the mid-east who kill Christians just because they exist, or mobbed and killed Americans because they accidentally burned a Koran.

If Americans got that pissed about something that really mattered, like the fact Pakistan was housing that murdering bastard Bin Laden the whole time like a war hero...then maybe we'd matter in the world today.

But they killed two Americans because they ACCIDENTALLY burned a Koran, and our PRESIDENT ignored his oath of office by APOLOGIZING to the Muslims over the burning of the Korans, when in fact the constitution demands that he protect and avenge the lives of the Americans.

if somebody burned a Bible, it wouldn't matter to me, or for that matter most other Christians, because I know that's just a copy of a book, and we have them by the millions, besides starting a fight wouldn't solve anything, and killing somebody over it would be about as far from Christian as you could get.

If somebody burns a Koran accidentally, the "peaceful" Muslims throw a tantrum and kill the first person they can get their hands on.

I hope to God you can see the difference here.

Add decades of car bombs between Christian factions, and you also get lots of Christian terrorism.

Video games are stories.
Stories require conflict.
Religion is fertile ground for conflict, as is War, Boardroom Politics, Romance, and Interdimensional Alien Contact.

You can find video games about all of them.

@Lurker
I wouldn't bother arguing for Christianity here. The only ones who will care enough to respond are intensely athiest or agnostic. No matter what you say and no matter how much truth is in it, their blind hatred of religion as a whole will win out for them.

For some reason, they are convinced all religion is bad and all those under any religion are idiots and insane. Personally, I think it takes more faith to believe that there is no creative design or greater intelligence out there.

I never argue religion here because the response is nothing short of genocidal hatred rather than desire for intelligent discussion.

...their blind hatred of religion...genocidal hatred...

Hyperbole much?
I would suspect the reason you don't argue religion is that your strawmen aren't animated and it's no fun playing by yourself.

Relision can present a range of archetypes. Unfortunately, religion itself has the tendency to create a large amount of violence (note most of history and a whole range of religions). This makes it very suitable for games that have heroes &/or heroines that seek to detroy evil. I find it wondrously compelling that most games seek to destroy evil, that evil is something regarded as existing and important enough that it must be destroyed. Maybe if religions of the present spent more time trying to create good and tolerance then the games-making people would get bored of religion.

I hope to God you can see the difference here.

All three Abrahamic religions are based upon intolerance. But christianity takes the price, being an amalgamation of Roman religions in Rome forcefully unified (catholic means unification) into a single religion, which would be intolerant towards all others and have heritics destroyed.

More xtian intolerance: "Copies of the Auschwitz Protocol, information about the planned extermination of the Jews of Hungary was passed on to the Allies,to the Hungarian government, the Jewish Council, Horthy and the head of the Catholic Church. Nobody warned the victims. Nobody protested publicly. The British government forbade Palestinian Jewish commandoes to parachute into Hungary and arouse the Jews.The Americans refused to bomb the railway lines leading to Auschwitz.The Canadian government declined to take in Hungarian Jewish children.The Allies disallowed trading trucks for lives earnestly offered by the SS. Horthy later barred deportations

"Religion appears to get tied in with violence because that makes for a compelling narrative."

--Understatement of the year!

bastard Bin Laden the whole time like a war hero...then maybe we'd matter in the world today.

OBL died of kidney failure. A CIA stakeout was planted across the street in the alleged Pakistan residence for two years. It had reflective glass windows which, of course, was not a dead giveaway. He got a $billion from the CIA after his assistance in Afghanistan. Also he was a pleasant in person and very educated. He lived in Sherman Oaks, CA while undergoing CIA training and nobody had any problems until his new assignment to be the fall guy and lightning rod for American idiots who take the Zionist-owned media at their word.

Zionist owned media?

What are you smoking? The liberal channels are about 10% owned by Arabs right now!

Video games depict everything problematic and violent, especially when they're 1st person shooters... Their principle is aim and shot, nothing else.

Zionist owned media? What are you smoking? The liberal channels are about 10% owned by Arabs right now!

You obviously are unaware of the influence the Saudis had in Britain after the war. Why do you think the Saudis are not at odds with Israel? It's because they are partnered with the Vatican against the rest of the Muslim world so as to control it. It's the same reason Nazis found a new home in Egypt where they could freely murder the local Jewish population and "contribute" to Egyptian intelligence, which was pathetic at the time.

Zionists are merely playing their role for the Vatican. They don't represent Jews. The Vatican needs zionist skills in banking and media too badly to have them burned alive. Keep in mind Adolph Hitler was the man populating early Israel. Effectively he was a Zionist prior to the war.

Wow...just wow. kochevnik why don't you just skip the whole "gather insane believers" part of your existence and go straight to the Koolaid. This ranks up there with the Chemtrails/Cold Fusion whacko junk.

Just....wow. This thread has already brought out all the crazies.

Simple: Life (in this case the games) imitates art (the art of owning peoples' minds through mysticism and the supernatural). This could be the start of a new dawn of rationally examining the world as it really is. Kudos to the game designers (I never play, but am now curious) for bringing this systemic and dangerous way of thinking into the hands of the average person.

@Xbw This ranks up there with the Chemtrails/Cold Fusion whacko junk.

That's a standard KGB/CIA line as my friends in intelligence tell me: Try to associate facts with some moronic garbage (notice solely of your mention) to dilute the credibility of same. Fortunately I couldn't care less about your fallacious argument from ignorance because the facts eventually emerge regardless of the fools sticking their head in the sand. But thanks for being the fool. Remember you're the one mentioning looney garbage. Go talk to you buddy Glenn Beck.

Notice you can't disprove a single thing I said. And I have history on my side.

kochevnik:

the Vatican god of child molestation adopted in 11th century.

No.
(from Wikipedia): "As a god worshipped by cults of the Phoenicians and Canaanites, Moloch had associations with a particular kind of propitiatory child sacrifice by parents."

No mystery why the Vatican bankers called the FED put an image of Moloch hidden on the dollar bill.

Do point out the location and nature of this supposed image.

No wonder why catholic Hitler build gas chambers to anesthetize innocents before they were burned alive in crematoriums.

No. They were *killed* in the gas chambers, using the pesticide Zyklon B.

an amalgamation of Roman religions in Rome forcefully unified (catholic means unification)

No. (from the Online Etymology Dictionary):
catholic--
literally, "universally accepted," from Late Latin 'catholicus' ("universal, general"), from Greek 'katholikos', from phrase "kath' holou", from 'kata' ("about") genitive form of 'holos' ("whole")

Lurker2358:

our PRESIDENT ignored his oath of office by APOLOGIZING to the Muslims over the burning of the Korans, when in fact the constitution demands that he protect and avenge the lives of the Americans.

The presidential oath of office makes no such (explicit) demands. It says: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

That's it. No vengeance mentioned.

Zionists are merely playing their role for the Vatican. They don't represent Jews. The Vatican needs zionist skills in banking and media too badly to have them burned alive. Keep in mind Adolph Hitler was the man populating early Israel. Effectively he was a Zionist prior to the war.

Hitlers mother was jewish so Hitler was a jew, goes the saying here. I think Hitler wasn't necessarily against jews but against everyone who was not with him. Its not surprising the vatican supported Hitler anyway(something about Jerusalem and the churches on Jerusalem).
So he just killed anyone who didn't cooperated with him. The others were deported to what now is called Israel.
Actually the Jewish people thinking that they are the ones chosen by god and the idea of Hitler of a master race are the very same, the ideas of Zionism also look a lot like Nazism.
This was the German inquisition.

Zionist owned media?

What are you smoking? The liberal channels are about 10% owned by Arabs right now!

And Arabs can not be Jewish? Don't be ignorant. There's Chinese, African, Indian etc. Jewish people over the world.

http://en.wikiped...in_India
http://en.wikiped...h_tribes
http://en.wikiped...in_China

"There have been some new openings by the United Arab Emirates as reported in the media. In an article in USA Today Arabs try outreach to Israel, U.S. Jews, 2007, it is reported that: " Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, are making some of their most public overtures ever to Israel and American Jews in an effort to undercut Iran's growing influence, contain violence in Iraq and Lebanon and push for a Palestinian solution...Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have stepped up contacts with Israel and pro-Israel Jewish groups in the USA. The outreach has the Bush administration's blessing: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said six Gulf states and Egypt, Jordan and Israel are a new alignment of moderates to oppose extremists backed by Iran and Syria. She has said an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would weaken militants such as Hamas and Hezbollah...Saudi and Gulf Arab contacts with Israelis and American Jews go back more than a decade but have never been so public."

"Arab countries have treated Israel as a pariah since it gained independence in 1948. Most Arab countries ban travel to Israel, investment there and other commercial ties with the Jewish state and routinely refer to it as the "Zionist entity." ...Among the other recent Arab-Jewish contacts: Saudi national security adviser Bandar bin Sultan met privately with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jordan in September, said Daniel Ayalon, Israel's former ambassador to Washington. He said it was the highest-level Saudi-Israeli meeting he'd ever heard of. The United Arab Emirates has invited a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The conference, a 51-member umbrella group, is a strong supporter of Israel. Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres met the emir of Qatar in late January after taking part in a debate with Arab students there. It was the highest-level Israeli meeting with the Gulf nation since 1996"

" The Jewish members of America's armed forces will again receive kosher K-rations this Pesach throughout the holiday, provided by the U.S. Defense Department.
Thousands of packages containing kosher for Pesach MREs (meals ready to eat) have already reached U.S. army and navy supply bases, with special shipments aimed at Jewish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan...
The Jewish Chaplains Council estimates that the number of Jews stationed in Iraq is between 500 and 600. Of the 30 Jewish chaplains on active duty around the world, eight chaplains are stationed in Iraq, including two female rabbis.
Each chaplain stationed in Iraq will hold two seders at base camps, with central seders taking place in Baghdad, Falluja and Tikrit. There will also be two seders at the army headquarters in Bahrain, and air force headquarters in Qatar. Jewish soldiers stationed in remote locations will be able to attend seders led by soldiers who received special training for that purpose."

Going back on topic..

First, games of course need dramatic stuff. Ned Flanders is too nice and bland to add anything to a shoot-them-up story.
"Elder Scrolls: Oblivion" practically sounds like a Lovecraft story with crazed worshippers of Ctul'hu and the Elder Gods running about doing evil stuff, so you cannot expect Mother Teresa to pop up in the storyline!
The only Church Ladies you will find in here are the ones with human skulls decorating their temples.

Second, when you have collections of obscure religious texts going back to the iron age and beyond, you can expect them to be opaque, and that is before considering the generations of censorship and later additions.
Surprisingly few Christians (and other religious groups) are aware of these layers of obfuscation and downright vandalism.

The final product is something that anyone can use to justify anything, slavers or abolitionists, the Kaiser saying "Gott straffe England" while the English shout "God save the King"

Religion has been a source of hatred and violence for thousands of years, and still is today. Buddhism is the only faith which does not have a violent history, as far as I know.

Video games are being realistic when they depict religion as violent.

Gamers really don't care where the violence comes from.

The religious motifs just serve as a ready made template that resounds with stuff players have heard about in the past (i.e. they have less of a problem suspending disbelief).

But I highly doubt that such depiction of religion and violence really influences kids into thinking religion is intrinsically violent. Either the daily news is just doing a much better job at that or they know from religious people in their environment that the violent ones are the minority.

Surprisingly few Christians (and other religious groups) are aware of these layers of obfuscation and downright vandalism.

They usually get around this by transitioning, as needed, from literal interpretations to figurative interpretations, or producing dichotomies such as "that was under the Old Testament, now it's the New Testament". See below.

The final product is something that anyone can use to justify anything, slavers or abolitionists, the Kaiser saying "Gott straffe England" while the English shout "God save the King"

Oh I agree. Every Christian group believes their denomination or sub-group is more correct than the next.

Then again, there's also the "Palpatine" hypocrite, who doesn't actually believe what he says, but uses a twisted version of other people's own beliefs to motivate them to evil, manipulating other people through fear or ignorance. This is true of all dictators, whether religious or atheistic.

Gamers really don't care where the violence comes from.

The religious motifs just serve as a ready made template that resounds with stuff players have heard about in the past (i.e. they have less of a problem suspending disbelief).

But I highly doubt that such depiction of religion and violence really influences kids into thinking religion is intrinsically violent. Either the daily news is just doing a much better job at that or they know from religious people in their environment that the violent ones are the minority.

Abrahamic religions are emotionally violent, they use the tools of social acceptance and emotional suppression to keep their disciples in check. They even support apostasy(yes christian religions also do that originally).
Children are forced into religion by their parents and their surrounding communities, one of the reasons why the koran is so successful.

As far as i know God is still an important part for western armies.

I have a copy of Diablo 2 which I haven't had a chance to play yet. I'm not even sure that it will work on my new Mac. Maybe after Spring planting I'll get a chance. I don't know if it has music tracks. Lurker, do you have that game?

Abrahamic religions are emotionally violent, they use the tools of social acceptance and emotional suppression to keep their disciples in check.

But gamers really don't care about that. They get emotionally as involved if you tell them about the Knights Templar or the Jedi. It doesn't matter whether the subject is fictional or not - there's no effect of a game on perception of the reality of the religion.

It's a game. Gamers know this.

Children are forced into religion by their parents and their surrounding communities, one of the reasons why the koran is so successful.

Well, that may be true - and I see no difference here between Islam, Christianity, or even Buddhism or Hinduism. The effect isn't limited to religions, either. Grow up in a mysogynistic or racist environment you're likley to become a mysoginist or racist.

But this has precious little to do with the subject of the article.

But gamers really don't care about that.

True, but Assassin Creed which was cited in this article is a big exception, many people know the evil things the Vatican has done. And that's why so many people relate to AC. Religious influence is also a major role in AC's story.

It's a game. Gamers know this.

You will be surprised how many people are actually influenced by games, especially when they are younger. I did play GTA on the PSOne when i was young but i didn't relate to the violence at all, i just saw it as a time killer. I was lucky enough i got to play FF7 and this game was a real eye opener to me. So much philosophy was put in that game, it was amazing. For other people i can understand they actually relate to violence and to religious violence.

Simple question:
Gamer goes into a shop and want's an action game. He has two choices:
- Action game with religious backdrop
- Action game with fictional backdrop

Do you think that plays ANY significance whatsoever in the selection of the title? No. Reviews, graphics, gameplay - those play a part.

I was lucky enough i got to play FF7 and this game was a real eye opener to me. So much philosophy was put in that game,

Oh, boy. You think that was 'philosophy' in there. You should pick up a philosophy book. FF7 has about as much philosophy as "Dick and Jane" or "The Matrix" (read - only philosophy in the most trivial sense).

Oh, boy. You think that was 'philosophy' in there. You should pick up a philosophy book. FF7 has about as much philosophy as "Dick and Jane" or "The Matrix" (read - only philosophy in the most trivial sense).

Have you played the game? IT made references to actual books and used ideas from actual theories?

Gamer goes into a shop and want's an action game. He has two choices:
- Action game with religious backdrop
- Action game with fictional backdrop

Where can i find such claim in the article?

You said they get influenced by this - but the reality is: Gamers don't care about this. (Neither do they care about the 'philosophy' of a game). Games are games. We shouldn't overinterpret their importance nor their effects.

IT made references to actual books and used ideas from actual theories?

So? Many movies and or games do that. Almost EVERY anime does it (and this is why seeing something like this in a japanese production isn't really surprising - it would actually be surprising if they DIDN'T do it). Does that make these games/movies good sources for philosophy? Hardly. Stuff like that should be already known to you from your school days.

Anyone who reads the New Testament for themselves would see that there is little to no justification for most of the acts of those events.

Lie. What is not violent about presenting yourself and your loved ones for martyrdom? The NT is the more insidious - it causes believers to commit suicide for their religion, just like the little godman showed them.

34 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn

"'a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
36 your enemies will be the members of your own household.

"39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it." matt10

-Disgusting.

Simple question:
Gamer goes into a shop and want's an action game. He has two choices:
- Action game with religious backdrop
- Action game with fictional backdrop

Trick question, they're the same game. Ha!

Anyone who reads the New Testament for themselves would see that there is little to no justification for most of the acts of those events.

Isn't Matthew 5:18 basically jebus saying that the Old Testament shall hold true to ever letter (I'm paraphrasing as it's been a few years since I've picked up a christian bible)?

You want to try to blame it on "all religions" or denominations, but it isn't.

YES it IS.

Right now, they have muslims in the mid-east who kill Christians just because they exist, or mobbed and killed Americans because they accidentally burned a Koran.

And xians are doing the same thing in africa, serbia, ireland etc. Give or take a few years.

if somebody burned a Bible, it wouldn't matter to me, or for that matter most other Christians

Because as we all know, YOURS is the GOOD religion right? But somewhere in the world somebody is being killed for blaspheming your particular god. Because your book tells them it is the right thing to do.

For some reason, they are convinced all religion is bad

It is.

Personally, I think it takes more faith to believe that there is no creative design or greater intelligence out there.

You dont THINK that. You FEEL that. Thinking is not involved.

I never argue religion here

-as xbw argues in his own passive-aggressive way.

More NT kevorkianisms:

"16 "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves...17 Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues.

"28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Fathers care." matt 10

-But as we know from history millions upon millions of little sparrows have fallen. But their souls live in that great disneyland in the sky! No they dont.

More justification for murder and mayhem:

"21 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22 Everyone will hate you because of me, but those who stand firm to the end will be saved." matt 10

-This is just from one chapter of one book. Elsewhere, jesus kills a fig tree from spite and paul kills a young couple just for skimming the till. Not directly mind you, but by magic. More passive-aggressive xianism.