310°

How an Atheist Found Religion in SPORE

This amusing article chronicles the experiences of a secular writer who takes offense at SPORE's assumption that atheists lack the moral compass required for nonviolence. The author also comments on the fact that SPORE's portrays belligerent and religious civilizations quite similarly, with the economic path being the most benevolent of all.

Quote:
"Upon purchasing my retail copy of the highly publicized 'God' game, (pun intended, kids!) I decided to follow my secular humanist inclinations and create a race of totally non-violent duck-badgers, whom I intended to evolve to the point that they could one day rule the galaxy relying on nothing more than decidedly un-holy trinity of benevolence, knowledge, and industry. That was the plan, anyway. Sadly, it was not to be."

Read Full Story >>
theexplodingbarrel.com
donalbane5701d ago

I sure hope nobody approved this article believing that any atheists will actually join the flock as a result of playing SPORE. The title was comically misleading... you know, like 'A Modest Proposal'.

donalbane5701d ago (Edited 5701d ago )

I take it you're a turbo-Christian. How about some of that forgiveness I've been hearing so much about?

ChickeyCantor5701d ago

Some one being convinced because of a game that basically makes you a god...What? Wait what? EH??

thor5701d ago

Did you read the article? Sigh...

Altered_Soul5701d ago

Yeah dude, seriously, the title is completely misleading. He literally FOUND religion in the game. Like, there were religious things in the game, and he noticed them.

As for the article itself, I am playing Spore right now (very cool game, or toy more exactly), and he carved a religious path according to the terms of the game, not philosophy. I get the idea that the religious take is musical and stuff, but it is not the only peaceful option. Its all about developing your creature, if he outfitted them with traits for broadcasting happy go lucky peacefulness, then of course that will evolve to religion.

Additionally, who is to say atheism isn't a religious foundation? The belief in no god is still a belief, and can have a organized and systematic following. Atheism can be just as dogmatic as the evangelical churches. So there's the bend. As for not developing a species riddled with the desire to be zealots of any pursuit, maybe the proper evolutionary track he was looking for was not in purely social. It can be achieved without violence or zealots.

Heldrasil5701d ago

Still, Atheism is not "organized", one of the key ingredients to religion. A belief, yes but far from religion.

Xi5701d ago (Edited 5701d ago )

athiesm isn't a theology because they don't belive in a god, and they don't not belive in a god.

Athiesm is the lack of a belief in a diety. People need to stop mixing that up. Every athiest is free to do and believe what ever he choses, there's no dogma to follow, no scripture to reflect upon and nothing to believe in, it lacks all of that. It's not that they don't believe in a god, it's that the concept is completely foriegn to begin with. Just like you're an atheist if you don't consider hindu gods, or greek gods, or native american gods, or roman gods, or the millions of other (shintoism has some 8 million spirits or something).

However, What the article fails to mention is that there very clearly is a god, in this game and his creations will develop a religion based on that. What would be nice is if the creatures could evolve on their own based on natural laws (like natural selection) and that version wouldn't actually have a god.

radio0o5701d ago

actually atheism is quite organized. ideally atheism means lack of a belief in god, but if you have eyes and a brain you can clearly see how the majority of them follow certain patterns, how they preach similar dogma, etc. they have even created churches for themselves, symbols for themselves, and they have idols/icons/leaders as well.

you can cry all you want about how atheism is supposed to mean this or that, but the fact is that they are just as much a group of followers with a certain agenda as any religious group.

vickers5005701d ago

"The belief in no god is still a belief"

No, it is a lack of a belief. People are not imprinted with the idea of god when they are born, so atheism is NOT a belief, it is a lack of belief. Saying atheism is a belief is like saying believing in gravity is a belief. But you don't call yourself a gravitationist (or w/e) just because you believe in gravity.

iamtehpwn5701d ago

To be Anti-something is to be pro-Opposite.

Lucreto5701d ago

@Altered_Soul
"Atheism can be just as dogmatic as the evangelical churches."

Its not Atheist's usually believe the world was not created by a god and usually follow science. Science can be tested over and over proving it to be correct and if something is proven wrong 10 to 15 years later the old way goes and the new knowledge paves the way so science is ever changing. We will see what happens when the particle accelerator is turned on tomorrow.

Religion on the other hand especially evangelical churches will completely ignore new revelations if it goes against the bible and will refuse to change it. For example of the hundreds of gospel 4 were picked out which was 4 first hand account of Jesus but as least one was written 100 years after Jesus died and if was another Mark. But evangelical believers say that he lived up to 500 years and what's worse it some believe the first time it rained was the time of Noahs Ark.

Sorry I seem to ramble on about this stuff.

BISHOP-BRASIL5701d ago

@Altered_Soul; Radio0o

Most atheist aren't organized in any way, specially because this is a tiny minority of people in the world. Never heard of a atheist church... And idols, leaders and icons aren't necessarily linked to religion, actually, in most cases, they aren't. Actually, only religious people (monotheists) believe you can't idolatry nothing aside from god.

@Xi

You should differentiate atheism of agnosticism. Atheists don't "believe in whatever they want", they can't believe god, this is basically prerequisite to be an atheist. Agnostics can believe anything, cause they just say "we don't know if there is god", never YES or NO.

@Vickers500

Right to the point man! Bubbles up!

@Lucreto

Not just usually. Atheists don't believe in god of any kind. At best, it believes something physical created everything. There enters science. I'm a biologist myself, and "pragmatic agnostic", which is as close as an agnostic comes to an atheist.

@all
Anyway, I think Will Wright is an atheist himself. Actualy, it's pretty obvious to me that WW is poking fun on religious people. We know the most usual evil comment about religious is that they need god to be, or to think they are, more than mediocre people. Well, just look at the sins, desperately needing you to do anything right and even blaming YOU when THEY commit mistakes.

Xi5701d ago

I can believe in what ever gods I want, I'll still be an athiest to some other gods.

shine13965701d ago

FYI: There have been athiestic 'uprisings' in the past and there are Athiestic organisations now. Take for example a thought experiment where God must exist as a scientific priniciple, will then -in that scenario- an established reputable scientist be allowed to join?

+ Show (9) more repliesLast reply 5701d ago
PS360WII5701d ago

heh that's kind of funny right there. So religion in the game is displayed as music? I'm not sure why he's ragging that the peaceful way he was playing left him in the status of a religious creature. Ah well least he likes the game :)

Imallvol75701d ago

I respect this guys views. Not every religious person is a crazy, close minded, unaccommodating nut case.

Show all comments (40)
90°

The 10 Weirdest Video Games You Can Play Today

From Xfire: "Anyone who's played video games for a couple of years has stuck around long enough to stumble across a few weird ones. Some are even quite popular, which is all the more reason why you'll wonder what made the developers think about making such a game and why people are loving it, despite its weirdness anyway. Not all weird video games are head-scratches. Some are actually quite good."

BlackDoomAx1075d ago

The stick of truth is a must have for any South Park fans. I spent a good afternoon on Goat simulator, a rare real open world. I planned to try hatoful boyfriend since it was free on Ps Plus. Disco Elysium is on my radar since the final cut came out; as soon as there is a discount, i will take it. Like movies, i like weird games too :)

150°

The 10 Best Video Games With Cut Content

From Xfire: "The four-hour director's cut known as Zack Snyder's Justice League has led to the discussion of movies in the past that might have fared a whole lot better had they been released to be more in line with the original vision of their creators. But, as it turns out, cut content doesn't just happen in movies. In fact, the act of cutting content before the release date happens arguably just as often in video games as it does in cinema."

anast1081d ago (Edited 1081d ago )

I can't believe they cut stuff from Skyrim. At release, it was a barebones game with a slight improvement in graphics.

-Foxtrot1081d ago

"Now, before we proceed, we'd like to say that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is one of the best video games ever made. It's not just a fine piece of gaming. It's one of the finest there is"

Really?

MGSV is easily the worst main line MGS game and not just because of cut story content, the open world is bare bones and there's hardly anything to do. It's repetitive, samey and is just lifeless. I appreciate the stealth mechanics, the animations and the way you can go with combat but it's not enough to keep me engaged the full way through.

Kojima should have done a twist and make the main chunk of the game a Metal Gear & Metal Gear 2 remake to bring the story full circle.

lsujester1081d ago (Edited 1081d ago )

Story issues aside, V has amazing gameplay. I'm not sure what you're wanting out of the world in terms of "things to do", it's all the great gameplay the series has always had. Useless filler that other open worlds have like collecting flags and petting horses would have added nothing to that game.

JRMVN1074d ago

THE TRUTH! I don't even know how that game gets praised. The previous ones were so much better.

40°

Classic Games I'd Love To See Again.

While we have witnessed a lot of remakes, remasters and even sequels to games a decade old. There are still some gems that are close to my heart that are lost to me. Here are some classic games that I'd love to either see remakes or remasters of, or even a sequel on new hardware.

Read Full Story >>
gideonsgaming.com