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Many christians think that AD&D is "satanic". I am a christian and I don't agree. I don't think thre is anything wrong with playing AD&D. Please give me your opinions and input on this subject.

[ March 15, 2003, 12:58: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

If you think many Christians believe that D&D is satanic, I'm willing to say that you haven't met a lot of Christians.

 

While there are certainly a small number of highly vocal Christian groups who consider D&D satanic I have always found that the vast majority of Christians don't have any objections to it. This is quite natural as given a large enough group of people you will always find a few who will strongly object to just about anything. I am a Christian myself and my family and Christian friends certainly never objected to my playing D&D throughout my high school and university years. Personally, I think that as long as someone does not get too obsessive about it, D&D is a perfectly enjoyable and harmless hobby.

 

Ya, I guess you're right about not meeting many.

 

But those that you do meet are as funny as hell (no pun intended).
I love reading the stuff those Christians say and pick it apart. Its good mental exercise

 

I was a Christian as a kid. I even read the Bible thorough (as in, literally every page, thorough) several times before I turned then. And yet, SOMEHOW I turned into an atheist before I turned twelve. Since then, well... Christians have been something I like to abhorr and pick at. Yet, one of my relatively new yet pretty good (as in, someone I won't ditch because they annoy me) friends is a devout Christian and even with our MASSIVE differences of opinion, we get along.

Fringe groups do not define all. That applies to all religions. I might not like Christianity, but I sitll remember what it was like to believe. So, I am not saying they're all annoying twits who should seekcounselling. I am just saying they should learn to respect others as well, the fringe groups I mean.

I have yet to bring the subject of D&D with my friend, so I can't say what her reaction will be, but I can say that there are MANY Christian gamers.

(Legolas, one last time: Put the bunny costume back in the box!)

 

Nope. I'm an agnostic.

The people who you talk about are usually Southern Baptists - which is a very "fire and brimstone" form of Christainity. One of their leaders is Jerry Farwell. He made headlines when he publicly said that 9-11 was "God"'s punishment on America for legalized homosexuality, abortion, and secularism.

One of the factors that differentiates them from other christians - is a belief and a desire for World War III. This event that is supposed to destroy Israel (for the most part) and kill all Muslims is supposed to bring around the "second coming".

 

All i can say is, "what a load of BS". I totally agree with you view that you don't see why it should make you a devil worshiper.

That's like saying, if you listen to Cradle of Filth, Akercoke, etc, does that make you a devil worshiper. For instance, the members of Akercoke are actually satanists, but i don't think that because i listen to it, that makes me any different.
So long as you take it for what it is (music, a game, etc), and have the integrity to not take stuff too far, then you'll be fine.

 

I'm christian, and I don't think Fearun based cRPGs are satanic at all...

 

Well It's like Blackhawk said. In every large group of religious people there bound to be a few who think everything is bad.

I'm a christian and everyone in my group of fellow D&D players are christian as well. I am not sure but I think it makes a bit of a difference in style of playing. That is: less evil characters and no fooling around with demons etc. It also depends I guess at the level of playing. Do you get too involved and start looking up 'real' spells. It might get satanic. But basically everything can get you on to the wrong track, even the bible for that matter (it has lots of references to magicians!)

 

My directive on people who earnestly call everyday things (Like DnD, having sex or working on sunday) satanic, is that said people are usually extremists. I haven't been proven wrong so far.

 

I am Müslim,my whole stupid country thinks it's satanic because some stupid gay committed suicide, well i'm not satanic at all,and neither my friends.

 

As has been debated to death in other topics, I consider myself to be a Christian, and a devout one at that. I know several members of my own denomination who believe that playing D&D will corrupt you and make you into a devil worshipper. They usually have some pretty warped ideas of what the game actually entails, and so can be forgiven on the basis of ignorance. The occasional idiot who goes too far and ends up killing himself because he's crazy doesn't help, but I tell the zealots that crazy people have all sorts of triggers, and it's not the triggers that are the problem.

This one idiot says to me "why even get involved if there's the possibility of losing touch with reality and dying", and I said, "Hey, you shoot guns and ride snowmobiles -- why 'get involved' when so many people die from accidental shootings or snowmobile accidents? It's the same logic, moron" That shut him up.

I also like to point out to these sorts that Tolkien and Lewis, two highly influential fantasy writers (understatement!), were both very devout Christians.

 

For some christians DnD is said to be satanic, Harry Potter is occult and sex perverse. But not for me. As long as these subjects don't distract me from my faith, I see no harm in it. (Sex might be a wrong example, though, so would be working on sunday)

 

Well indeed, wrong, as in something you don't wish to do, because you feel it distracts you from your faith. That's your good right, and people should respect that. I know I do.

But to deem something as satanic because of that? No. Other people with a different (or no) religion might not have trouble with it, and practice beforementioned activities. Are they automatically worshippers of satan because of that? (Not attacking anyone here, merely following the logic.) Only someone severely detached from Reallife would agree with that statement.

When it comes to faith, at times, people simply lose common sense. Extreme cases such as these who yell "Satan!", need a fair dosis of reality, stat!

 

Although I certainly disagree with the notion that Dungeons & Dragons is satanic or can lead to suicide (although it probably does lead to some isolation for a few people), the attacks made by D&D players against Christianity and other organizations that oppose (or used to, thank goodness) are made with the same fervor and anger as the anti-D&D "extremists".

The whole point is that, sure, the other side (being anti-D&D Christians) started it, I find that people have begun to just retaliate with the resoponse that they are "narrow-minded" and "stupid". Clearly, both sides are quite subjective. But looking it as objective as I try to, I think that D&D isn't a dangerous thing to do, but there is a certain reason why D&D players are stereotypically branded as "losers" or "geeks".

I'm not going to delve further, but I will say that there is a certain... something about four guys going into a basement and pretending to be elves.

 

Very delicately stated, C'Jakob! While I know a number of decent Christians, there are a few that can definitely be classified as "narrow minded", but Christianity does not have a lock on that particular character trait -- I know some virulently illogical, small minded, idiotic atheists, just as an example.

 

Hey, Blakhawk, there are many seriously demented crazy people that call themselves christians, but we are not all like that, trust me!

 

The same can be said about Fundamentalist Christians.

(Or fundamentalists of any faith for that matter.)

 

Well, I'm that self-righteous hollier than thou goody goody who plays d&d nonetheless.

D&d itself isn't satanic, playing d&d probably even less. In crpg there's more of an issue with that since programmers put in satanic references just for mislead fun sometimes (though more of that in case of shooters of the sort of Quake).

The major danger is how those d&d words are build and how this influences playing and thus through players getting accustomed to that comes to their minds. If one gets involved too much this may lead to a severe dualism (two parallel words) and double morality. Still, schizophrenia is more likely here.

Myself, I don't like the idea of politheism, of some ying-yan kind of balance or esoteric order in d&d - too much for my taste, especially that the concepts are simply said lame, only partially logical, inaccurate and too ecclectic to be of any sense. I prefer fantasy words with one deity, good and loving, who created the universe (not only the world) and isn't some ascended mortal. I mostly play cRPG, but I suppose in pnp that would be more of a problem and definitely I wouldn't take part in a LARP featuring pagan offerings or prayers to imaginary deities of whom many are based on various Earth's beliefs and religions. However, it's still acting - like acting in plays. I suppose it's everyone's decision where and when it's too much for him.