I am insulted. Clearly, your subjective and heaily biased opinion on a religion (the vast majority of whose practitioners practice peacefully and advocate entirely peaceful methods of conversion and interaction with converts nd non-converts alike) has heavily colored your ability to objectively critique this sort of news. While I agree and recognize that particular practices change over the course of the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible, suggesting that the Bible encourages genocide is inaccurate (though it does set out certain rules for interactions between some cultures). In fact, the concept of forced conversion is in direct opposition to worship then and now, as it renders meaningless the concept of coming to God through faith.

I agree with Hawkes. The message that Fr. Tucker is neglecting the fact that the bible contains some nasty stuff too is kind of lost in the Holly book advocating pain and suffering message (a point that could be argued in context, literary license, and conditions of the target audience, but that debate is more for a religion website than a gaming site).

For your Old Testament game you could "borrow" the Kryl from GOW as 1 plague ;-)

Ok, Ok, I feel I need to clarify a few things.
Hundreds thing has been cleared up. Thanks Edie!

2. "the vast majority of whose practitioners practice peacefully and advocate entirely peaceful methods of conversion and interaction with converts and non-converts alike"
Josh, I'm not questioning that - you and the VAST majorty of believers may practice peacefully, and even feel insulted at the very mention of the fact that there are entire sections of the Bible that are fucking crazy. Revalations? Laws? I was brought up a Roman Catholic, and those bits didn't sway with me when I was 7, and don't know. One cannot simply choose what to believe in and whant not to believe in with regards to a religion - why can I not stone my children if I have a weighty belief in god? Society, and to an extent the moral compasses we are born with, dictate what is right and wrong. And to say that I have a "heavily-biased view on religion" is ridiculous. Unless you are born into society without religious beliefs, it's impossible not to hold a bias one way or the other.

2. I"In fact, the concept of forced conversion is in direct opposition to worship then and now, as it renders meaningless the concept of coming to God through faith". No, it doesn't. Two concepts can exist in the same world, and the same belief system - although they may contrast, they certainly do not cancel each other out.

3. "While I agree and recognize that particular practices change over the course of the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible". Change! I haven't seen a change that big since Transformers The Movie! A WHOLE PLANET TRANSFORMED!

4. "has heavily colored your ability to objectively critique this sort of news". And what, pray tell, would allow me to objectively view this piece of news? One cannot take a neutral stand on religiosity - If I had dislpayed blatently pro-christian viewpoints, would be writing the same message? Would I then still be subjective? Or is bias OK when it's on the side of a certain belief or other you may hold.

If anybody, at all, has any points they would like to raise with me, I would love for you to send me an e-mail; capt.bluebearATgmail.com

Okay. I gotta step in here, because as the first person to step in this steaming pile of controversy, I have to back Dominick up on this one.

He is clearly NOT a religion hater. He never once said, "I hate God."

What he did say is that the Rev. Tucker believes that playing video games makes you violent because you are exposed to violent images and situations.

Dominic -- quite correctly -- points out that the Bible is one of the most violent books in history. Even moreso than Homer's Odessy. By the Reverend's reasoning, Christians -- exposed to tales and situations involving rampant incidents of chaos, destruction, blood, dismemeberment, infantacide, war, rape and torture as described in the Bible -- then Christians would be very violent people, indeed.

But they aren't. The Bible is a book, and just because it contains violent imagery it doesn't make you kill. And video games are just video games, and they don't make you kill, either.

I can appreciate a Christian being offended because he or she thinks his or her religion is under attack, but if you can take a breath and back away from the fog, you'll see that Dominic is pointing out the hypocrasy of this reverend's argument against games AND simultaneously noting that Christians aren't, de facto, agression junkies.

Oh damn. This isn't going to be a repeat of the Left Behind article fiasco is it? Let's not have relapses into an old problem people... lol

Anyways...

Edie, I greatly appreciate your mix of retaliatory wit, stance on disliking some of the people who use religion and not religion itself, as well as generally keeping your cool.

However people, I don't think that he meant to denigrate the entire Christian religion as he was just trying to point out one crazy religious person that may influence the religious views or actions of others who aren't smart enough to keep from taking in everything they're fed. Am I right?

But as for these two paragraphs, Dominic:

"As many of GA's US readers are aware, there is a religion on the planet whose holy book advocates the mass slaughter of women and children of other races and faiths (but only after due legal investigation, of course...), the killing of others to achieve your personal goals, the stoning of children for misbehavior, the slavery of entire races, and the prevention of bestiality (heh). It's all here.

If Tucker's "monkey see, monkey do" mentality is true, surely a quick flick through the "holy book" is one of the most painful, degenerating things a young boy or girl can do in his or her life! So why, oh why, would a madcap priest go on a rant about thought crime ("...We and the demons combine in committing sins. The demons work through evil thoughts alone by forming in the intellect what fanciful pictures they wish...")??"

While I see that you are trying to point out the hypocrisy that this priest thinks games are sin but the Bible and all it's content is OK, I still don't think these paragraphs were necessary and should have been either omitted or at least shortened up to just give a brief statement about how the contents of the Bible contradict what he said instead of going on too long and hard on the contents of the Bible itself. Reason being that your article did sound slightly slanted against religion, although you clarified you are not. This is just a tip for the future: If you want to write an article, then put in more points that clearly state you are not against a certain religion because you did not seem to show much favor towards religion in the article itself.

Oh, and I just refreshed the page, so bravo on your points Edie! :D

Well I had quit, but then came back, but then I quit again and Andy sent nice men with baseball bats to my house and now I'm back.. so right now no one.. ;)

I know that more than likely I should just let this end at what OSVG said, but I do want to offer up one thing. I didn't mean to imply that Dominic was against any religions, as I really don't think he was out to criticize any general faith groups. He is right to point out that Fr. Tucker is neglecting a lot of nasty things that are discussed (some times at great length) in the Bible, and even if you look at the history of most religions (besides their scriptures) you can see a number of things that they certainly wouldn't mind sweeping under the carpet are facing (crusades? roman emperors? papal dynasties through blood lines and illegitimate children).

I just intended to caution Dominic as OSVG did that he was close to a line. I wouldn't call myself a religious nut (I hope that these few first posts wouldn't make you do so either), but I do consider myself some what learned in my own faith at the very least. All I meant was a caution to not imply that an entire religion is represented by one hypocritical priest with some unexplained hatred of video games. Then again, it is just a new step in the cycle, maybe I'm on a bad path cause I listen to that "Devil Music" Rock 'n Roll ;-)

I would also like to say that I think Edie made some good points as well, and this really is a big issue for the entire gaming community. I only hope that the voice of the gamers can be heard.

If I came off as a "sftu you Jesus-hating lunatic" poster then I apologize.