If you were worried that you'd be burning in Hell for all of eternity because you shot someone in Grand Theft Auto, then fret not, my son. According to the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, a reader was seriously concerned about this, but their minds are sure to be at rest over the answer.
Q: I'm very sure that killing/suicide stealing and anything like that is not accounted as an actual sin if it's only in video games. But I'm still not very sure, when I play video games, I'm not murdering at heart because I would never try to take the life of any living thing. And whatever is a video game can't die because it's not alive in the first place, video games are a false alternate reality...
A: As normally defined, taking the life of another in video games (as in acting or in any other fantasy situation) is not a sin against God's prohibition to murder. If, however, what is done in the video game is an expression of hatred or callous disregard for human life, then the heart and motives are wrong, and then it is sin in God's eyes...
For the record, however, obsession with video games can involve other departures from God's will... Typically, this can involve a colossal misuse of valuable time and also end up diverting time and attention from more useful and valuable pursuits that better glorify God and serve our neighbor...
So, the main message here is to glorify God, not violence. I've never gotten that whole "glorification" thing, it doesn't sound like a very modest demand of one's followers, but I guess if I knocked up an entire ecosystem in a week I'd want an ego boost too.
I still can't believe someone was genuinely concerned about this, though. That's just silly.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
8:28 AM on 09.21.2008
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Just sayin'.
Ohh shit... Wasting time is a sin now? I'm so going to hell.
Then again I also carved the faces of my enemies on all the pawns.
But this was rather obvious. What I'd really like to know is whether it is a sin to put large amounts of small change in the collection basket. Or better yet, obviously counterfeit bills.
Only if you use it to summarily wipe out everything in the game.
Mainstream has done nothing but hurt what we gamers love. I speak of course about the Wii and Nintendo E3 08. I loved the crap out of my N64 and Gamecube but I haven't really touched my Wii for a while now.
It comes down to: Why spend the money to make Fallout 3 or other games when Wii Play will move more than 10 million units? Mainstream is "Zomg 10 buttons I r confused! Makez it simple!" and I'm terrified that they're going to steal the hobby we love so much and morph it into something for my mother.
Also I'm horribly off topic now... So how about killing those virtual people? Yep... *runs*
Is that bad?
Could you contact them and ask for me, Jim?
Wait, who is God?
Is that bad?"
BAD? That's apparently how we all supposedly GOT here!
No, someone asked an antiquated, corrupt governing body a question about something that should've been so common sense, it shouldn't have even been asked. Hell, I probably could've told him that the only real "sin" was potentially idolatry - which could apply to golf, drinking, watching sports, and probably eleventy-billion other hobbies that are infinitely more interesting than mass and being molested in the rectory.
Here's a novel approach to life: if you don't know much about something, there's absolutely nothing wrong with keeping your mouth shut and your mind open. I'm no fan of blustering and hypocrisy, wherever it comes from.
What MaxVest said.
And the guy who answered the question was pretty spot-on, in my opinion as a sensibly nutty Christian. Christianity is, in reality, about the heart, about the motivation. An action might be perfectly innocent in and of itself, but if there's a selfish or hateful motivation behind it, then it's no good. Also, for a Christian, God should always come first, even before vidya gamez. (Also also, "glorification" has nothing to do with giving God an ego boost. In Christianity, it's seen as the only appropriate response for creatures like us to have towards a being like God. He certainly doesn't need it.)
But hey, this is the internet, so let's mock and deride the religious people, because who do they think they are, having their own belief system that isn't anything like ours!
I'm really disappointed with many of the responses I've read here, because isn't this what we are looking for, someone to say that video games are not inherently evil, and who is not trying to bash them every chance they get? yet you all still want to mock him anyway just because of what he personally believes in. are you all really that insecure?
I think most of the bashing is aimed at the guy who had to check if it's a sin to kill someone in a videogame. As I said, that's just a little bit silly.
And for my part, what I said about glorification in the article was a joke. There's something to be said about insecurity there as well.
mock: To treat with ridicule or contempt; deride.
Joke: Something said or done to evoke laughter or amusement
jokes are fine, its when they start mocking that it goes to far, use common sense if you are having trouble.
The "bluster", I suppose, is a matter of opinion (one with which I don't agree), but I'd love to see where "hypocrisy" came from. How exactly did I hold anyone to a standard to which I myself don't adhere?
<i>But hey, this is the internet, so let's mock and deride the religious people, because who do they think they are, having their own belief system that isn't anything like ours!</i>
Bottom line - people "obey" and talk to thin air, and yet are so in the majority, that others who rely on the common sense needed to realize that you can't have a relationship with a non-responsive nothing are the ones who are "crazy" or "weird" and in the minority. I can look at the ground in front of me, not see a chair, and state "There is no chair here" as an empirical fact, and that's fine. Acknowledge the same of "God"? No, no, no. Something is seriously wrong with that.
Am I about to throw anyone on the stake for it? Never. But make fun of them when they do idiotic shit like wring their hands over whether or not "gaming is a sin"? Absolutely. I suppose it's difficult to understand why that paints the epitomized picture of utter insanity to me, but it does.
Well if you really think about it it's not all that silly, its not the act of killing someone in a video game that is a sin obviously, its when a video game replaces God in your life that it becomes a sin, same goes for anything that replaces God. And this only applies to believers anyway, those of you without God in your life are living in sin whether you play video games or not.
And like he hasn't done that with . . . just about everything else? Depending upon who you are, or what side of the fence you stand on, it's either funny to you or it's not. Jump on the religion, and all of a sudden, no one can laugh at it. We can make fun of certain game devs, hypersensitive "feminists", hypersensitive race card players, but heavens no, not the Christians!
By all means, make jokes about atheists sometime. "Those idjits, not reading the Bible and praising Jesus, lulz!"
HAHAHAHAHA.
I knew it would eventually come out, I figured we'd just be somewhere towards the 100-comment mark before it did.
Well? Was your mind blown!?
As Jesus once said, "we're no strangers to love. you know the rules, and so do I"
I think we should all follow this rule, the goldenest of goldens.
So let me get this straight. I mock, criticize and satirize everything I can get my hands on in all my articles, but I make one offhand joke about one thing that YOU personally hold dear, and that's it, off you go.
Okay, fine. I'm sorry you feel that way.
God does not exist.
Looks like I'm going to hell, I often look for Africa and Chinese people to run down while playing GTA and sometimes when Im just driving home from work.
But wheres the fun in a game if somethings not getting shot or blown up?
JOHN 4:20
"Never gonna give you up."
What's worse is that I read the first quote you made and thought "that sounds familiar ..."