Gaming as fictitious as Religion?

[JWeinCom]

robzo100 said:

JWeinCom said:

Hell is still part of Christian belief for most christians.  If you think that eternal torture is something that only applied in the middle ages, then you really haven't been paying attention for the past thousand years.  

You should consider the way it impacts people's lives. "Eternal torture" makes sense during those ages mentioned because it dictated life to the point that people could be executed if they wrote sacreligious things, protested, and even more so the music form that time period was specifcally devoid of major and minor chords because it would inspire too much emotion, just as sex was considered too emotionally expressive.

You're looking at the issue too literally and "factually." Yes, Hell is an unchanging fact of the Christian belief system. But how it is viewed and consumed is not. Religion is so much more lax today, I find it very plain to see. Hence the argument I'm putting forth. Religion is growing weaker, but gaming, as a general act of society, in-sync with other forms of entertainment, is growing to the point where it is beginning to adopt many sociological elements of something traditional and pattern-like, like the concept of Religion.

I'm not sure where you're from, but the fire and brimstone form of Christianity is still alive and well, and Islam is still growing.  

There is no supernatural aspect to gaming, no consequences for gaming or not gaming, no gaming missionaries, no wars being fought in the name of gaming, nobody turning to their local 50th level palladin for guidance in life, nobody claiming gaming could provide the answers to all of life's mysteries, nobody suggesting that we teach our students that animals evolve when they get enough experience in battle instead of through natural selection,  nobody going to spread the gospel according to Kratos in Uganda, nobody saying that you shouldn't use condoms to prevent aids because it would offend Palkia, nobody claiming that a candidate is unqualified for office if they don't play games, or if they play on the wrong console, nobody praying to Hylia for guidance, no organizations that will kick you out for not playing games, nobody trying to tell you who you can or can't marry based on the tome of eternal darkness, nobody claiming that we needn't worry about global warming because the Earth is just going to be invaded by reapers anyway, nobody claiming that natural disasters occur because we've offended Viridi, nobody who wants to deny access to healthcare because of the Doom Marine, etc.   

Unless you take an INCREDIBLY broad definition of religion (like anything people do that they really like), then there is really no way they are remotely the same.  And if you take such a broad definition, then basically anything becomes a religion, to the point where the word loses all meaning.

Peh said:

o_O.Q said:
"atheists" from what i've experenced are some of the most fanatical believers and followers that i've ever seen. it makes their constant desire to bash people who have a religion all the more ironic to me. the truth is that this stems from a flaw that all people have, even if it doesn't push you to pursue a religion it can push you to pursue some other type of irrational belief - like the ideology that men and women are the same baring influences from their environment

*sigh* ...

Atheism is not a believe. So,.. "most fanatical believers" is pretty much wrong. As there are blacksheeps in christianity, islam and everwhere else, be it religion, societies or whatever, there are also idiots who push atheism way too far. Those are called militant atheists. Atheism has no doctrine. It teaches nothing. It's just a position. Therefor that actually has nothing to do with atheism itself, even if those people are promoting atheism in an agressive way.

It's really just not worth engaging him on this.  Trust me on that.