http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=211296

As a simulation of evolution from single-cell organism to space-faring civilisation, Will Wright feared his latest creation, Spore, would draw criticism from religious groups. But so far, the game's creator has revealed, the portrayal of religion in the game has only drawn the ire of angry non-believers.

Wright told Eurogamer: "I think our bigger fear was that we didn't want to offend any religious people; but looking at the discussion that unfolded from this thing, what we had was a good, sizeable group of players that we might call militant atheists, and the rest of the players seemed very tolerant, including all of the religious players."

Life in Spore is created according to the theory of panspermia - which hypothesises that it has been seeded on Earth from elsewhere in the universe. But it's the mere presence of religion in the game's civilisation stage that has raised hackles amongst some in the gaming community.

"I didn't expect to hit hot buttons on the atheist side as much; I expected it on the religious side," Wright revealed. "But so far I've had no critical feedback at all from anybody who is religious feeling that we were misrepresenting religion or it was bad to represent religion in the game. It was really the atheists."

He added that early objections from team members enabled the studio to iron out any potential areas of conflict early on.

"We have a number of team members that are pretty religious," he continued. "And so in design, on the team, in our small, little microcosm of players out there, we tried our best to make sure we weren't overtly offending any religious people, but yet we wanted to include the idea, the concept of religion in the game."

Wright, however, who described himself as an "atheist", insisted that with Spore he was not trying to pronounce on the issue one way or the other:

"We didn't want to go too far down that path: we leave the whole creation of the universe question open," he said. "Obviously as the player you're coming in and playing something like a god, directing the evolution of a species, but we never really state who you the player are."

Either Will Wright is exaggerating or those atheist that are voicing their critics are just stupid. I'm an atheist and I see no reason to be offended with Spore, as I haven't been with other games that have portrayed religion in various degrees and forms (Black and White, Europa Universalis, Medieval Total War, Final Fantasy Tactics, etc.). They need to know it's just a game (and an excellent one, if I might add).

Also, there is a full interview with Will Wright here

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=211273

I doubt he's exaggerating. There are a lot of militant atheists who are as intolerant as any fanatic of any religious stripe. I'm agnostic, and I can't abide them.

It doesn't surprise me. Militant Atheists is often code for "People who hate a religion".

Rather then people who don't believe in god because they see it as the most rationale course.

You don't have to be a theist to understand the cultural importance of religion to civilization. These people are just as daft as anybody else who deals in absolutes.

As a six day creationist, most works of entertainment which involve evolution on a macro scale doesn't bother me (X-Men, Stargate, Star Trek, various video games, etc.). It's a form of enjoyment I take as fiction just for the "fun of it." I CANNOT prove that the earth was created in six days. But since I would like for others to accept me for what I am and what I believe in because I'm not perfect, I attempt to do the same with others. Just enjoy the game, and have fun. If it's not your thing, just move on to the next one.

That's dumb. Extremist atheists are no different than their religious fundamentalist cousins.

I'm a 'militant atheist', 'new atheist', or whatever you wanna call us, and I think any atheists annoyed by this are being stupid.

Also, I've pretty much only heard positive things regarding Spore from other atheists. At worst, I've only heard a couple of grumbles that it isn't scientifically accurate.

Why Spore, of all games? Is it because it has evolutionary components in it as well?

The militant athiests should stick their flying spaghetti monster up their arse ;)

I'd guess because Spore is basically an "intellegent design" model?

I don't know... it sounds like they're really pissed though that religion is a part of the civilization phase... which is just... weird.  I guess they think... religion and games should be seperate?  Nobody bugged Civilization 4 about this.