Atheism in games

[Insult to Rocks]

So, as an avid gamer and an outspoken atheist, I always take notice when religion comes up in games. What I have found surprising, however, is how overwhelmingly negative religion is portrayed in most games.  So, I wanted to ask around, and see just how many games have anti-religious sentiment, mainly out of curiosity. So, post a game that you've played that has anti-theist themes in them. To start of when an easy one, God of War is all about murdering the Greek pantheon in the most brutal way possible. One of my favorites, personally .

[GrinningYMIR]

Mass effect lore has religions being shaken to pieces and losing most of its sway when aliens were discovered (and after some moves by cerberus)

Dragon age has many religious people looking like crazies, the church is corrupt, and it seems more like a military occupation in some areas and less like a religion

In diablo the angelic figures that represent what the church maintained is good are instead shown to be vain and see humanity less as a race to guard and more of a tool to fight the demons

Those are a few off the top of my head

[Solitary]

Mass Effect has a line from commander Shepard where she says, "I have a little faith." And the fact that she has a specialist in the third series that is definitely a lesbian is against the Christian right. And then there is Liara a mono gender noted for their sexual promiscuous ways with any species. And the synthetic with the great camel toe and exaggerated figure is very sexy and wants to know if she can make moral changes in her programming to love the pilot. I love this game more than any other. They even have a homosexual relationship in the third series. Liara's dad tells her if sex for her is civil she isn't doing it right.  And in the third series Aria kisses commander Shepard on the mouth, as a female, saying she never knew she'd have another partner. I can't wait until the knew game comes out where you can play other characters. Best video game ever in my opinion. If you have a very good graphics computer the graphics in the three series are awesome. Solitary

[Shol'va]

Mass Effect caused quite a stir with some religious people, that ultimately led to nothing, just trolling. The only issue I take with that trilogy is the giant shit the developers took on its ending that later on needed fixing and the fixing was not much of a fix.

How about a classic of the genre, Doom and Doom 2. You've got two whole games with a storyline centering around demonic forces, and the final boss as an "easter egg" is one of the developers at id Software, John Romero's head on a stick, hidden behind a demon's face, uttering the words "to win the game, you must kill me, John Romero". I like to think of it as one giant troll if you regard it from that angle.

[GrinningYMIR]

Mass Effect caused quite a stir with some religious people, that ultimately led to nothing, just trolling. The only issue I take with that trilogy is the giant shit the developers took on its ending that later on needed fixing and the fixing was not much of a fix.

How about a classic of the genre, Doom and Doom 2. You've got two whole games with a storyline centering around demonic forces, and the final boss as an "easter egg" is one of the developers at id Software, John Romero's head on a stick, hidden behind a demon's face, uttering the words "to win the game, you must kill me, John Romero". I like to think of it as one giant troll if you regard it from that angle.

Don't even mention that ending

[Shol'va]

Oh crap, I forgot to not speak of the unspeakable.
Mass Effect is a fantastic trilogy. I've been wanting to do a replay with a fem Shepard for a long time.

[GrinningYMIR]

I love mass effect, it's my favorite game series ever. But that ending was very unfitting for the game.

Most people view Citadel DLC as the spiritual ending of the game, and it works well, very nostalgic.

Still...ending was terrible


If you do a femshep romance Garrus!

Team alien FTW

[Insult to Rocks]

I actually liked the ending to Mass Effect 3. Better than the crappy endings of the first two games. Shepard stares into space dramatically! THE END.
Another great one is Dead Space(The first one is the only good one, BTW). Those crazy space scientologists and their death wishes.

Altman be praised.

[GrinningYMIR]

I actually liked the ending to Mass Effect 3. Better than the crappy endings of the first two games. Shepard stares into space dramatically! THE END.
Another great one is Dead Space(The first one is the only good one, BTW). Those crazy space scientologists and their death wishes.

Altman be praised.

No


I like dead space though, it's a good representation of religious fanatics

[Hydra009]

So, as an avid gamer and an outspoken atheist, I always take notice when religion comes up in games. What I have found surprising, however, is how overwhelmingly negative religion is portrayed in most games.  So, I wanted to ask around, and see just how many games have anti-religious sentiment, mainly out of curiosity. So, post a game that you've played that has anti-theist themes in them.

While not anti-religious per se, Medieval 2 Total War had an interesting take on it.  Both Christians and Muslims are unrepentantly zealous and aggressively proselytize each other (any religious sentiment in a province other than its "native" religion quickly leads to civil unrest).  Christian nations are beholden to the Pope, who occasionally calls for Crusades, and not staying in his good graces can quickly get your entire nation excommunicated and almost certainly destroyed by rival Christian kingdoms.  Muslim nations, in contrast, are more or less left to their own devices.  Christian royalty can become targeted by the inquisition (which tends to end badly for them).  But you can also work your own influence into the Vatican, getting your people promoted to Cardinal or even Pope and using his influence to hurt your rivals (failing that, it's not impossible to have the Pope assassinated).

The take-home lesson is that religion is simply a tool to exert power over others.

[Insult to Rocks]

So, as an avid gamer and an outspoken atheist, I always take notice when religion comes up in games. What I have found surprising, however, is how overwhelmingly negative religion is portrayed in most games.  So, I wanted to ask around, and see just how many games have anti-religious sentiment, mainly out of curiosity. So, post a game that you've played that has anti-theist themes in them.

While not anti-religious per se, Medieval 2 Total War had an interesting take on it.  Both Christians and Muslims are unrepentantly zealous and aggressively proselytize each other (any religious sentiment in a province other than its "native" religion quickly leads to civil unrest).  Christian nations are beholden to the Pope, who occasionally calls for Crusades, and not staying in his good graces can quickly get your entire nation excommunicated and almost certainly destroyed by rival Christian kingdoms.  Muslim nations, in contrast, are more or less left to their own devices.  Christian royalty can become targeted by the inquisition (which tends to end badly for them).  But you can also work your own influence into the Vatican, getting your people promoted to Cardinal or even Pope and using his influence to hurt your rivals (failing that, it's not impossible to have the Pope assassinated).

The take-home lesson is that religion is simply a tool to exert power over others.

To be totally fair,  the medieval era was kinda like that. It's also know as "The Dark Ages" for a reason.

[SGOS]

I have an old PC game "Mafia".  One of the episodes is a shootout in a Catholic Church.  The Mafia guy pays off the reluctant priest for "church repairs" with an envelope of hard cash (I can't remember, but I think it was supposed to be "keep quiet" money).  The priest takes it, but acts like he doesn't approve of blood money, but of course he takes it.

[SGOS]

I've also noticed that quite a few protagonists in games, TV, and film claim to not believe in god.  I guess this is supposed to give them an edgy quality, since they're somewhat bad ass heroes.  Dexter comes to mind.  And of course in the Avengers, the only hero that seemed to have any spirituality was Captain America, who was usually portrayed as the odd man out or kind of a tag along that no one paid much attention to.  He was reawakened from his cyber sleep and still carried a lot of old time 1940s mindset.

[Hydra009]

Here's one that's actually fairly anti-religious:  Sins of a Solar Empire.

It's a space RTS game depicting a three-way war.  Humanity has colonized much of the galaxy and simply call themselves Traders (their military is the Trader Emergency Coalition or TEC) and as the name implies, is heavily into interstellar trade, with emphasis on industry and engineering as well as a consumerist culture.  One thing is notable in its absence:  religion.  The implication is that this is a thoroughly secular society.

It wasn't always this way.  One world, a barren desert planet, was fervently religious and its populous dabbled in genetic engineering and a whole range of unspecified social and scientific taboos.  The narrator's voice quickly turns to a mixture of disgust and hatred in describing how his Trader ancestors exiled this "sinful society of deviants" into the depths of space.  But these religious fanatics did not simply die, they continued their experiments, perfected their technology, and returned as a theocracy of linked psychics at the helm of a vast fleet of warships hellbent on a crusade of revenge.  Creepy doesn't even begin to describe them.  *shudders*

While it's not stated outright, the military struggle between the Advent and the TEC is also a clash of theocracy versus secularism.

[frosty]

In my opinion being an "outspoken atheist" has it's drawbacks. Atheism is not a religion, and if you are an "outspoken atheist" on the Internet you are not going to have much fun in most scenarios, unless you are the type that likes to laugh at religious nuts. I laugh a little, but mostly get disappointed when I see the fundies slamming their keyboards in spiteful rage over their mental delusions.