Gaming as fictitious as Religion?

[robzo100]

JWeinCom said:

robzo100 said:

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.

Fair enough, plenty of examples to boot. Yeah, it's probably not there yet, not as wide-reaching, not as consequential or impactful, not nearly as elaborate. Nevertheless, and I'm not trying to "win" any argument persay, religion is slowly evaporating imo and gaming is growing as an arm or leg of a more secular holistic form of entertainment by which people express themselves very fanatically and impactfully (The music, the fashion, the geekdom, the fan art, the forums, the annual GDCs, E3s, Comic-Cons, etc.). 

Perhaps religion, encompassing many different branches(upon further branches - Christianity-Catholicism), would not be equal to gaming as gaming would be, as I just put it, an arm or leg (a branch) of something more fundamental. Not sure if that is sports as a whole, or entertainment as a whole. But that "whole" is what I'm referencing when I talked earlier about a sort of account system by which one automatically takes part in as a requisite to participating in a general entertainment community, one that would be virtual a la Miitomo with expressive avatars and the like reflective of their entertainment preferences.

But yeah, it's probably not there yet. However, this is what I see in the future, and culture, especially those facets rooted in technology, is generally exponential.