Catholics, Buddhists Join Hindu Protests Against Smite

[Gabanuka]

Hmm, this is a interesting issue:

One the one hand I see their point, all religion should be respected and its good to see people of various faiths joining together

On the other hand its a video game and censorship is an awful thing, anyone who saying they have no reason to be upset (AKA most of the "Lol-so-atheist" members of this site) is being silly but maybe they should focus this joining of religion on something a tad more prominent, like hate, that needs to be stopped.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Well at least it's bringing people of different faiths together?

That's something.

 

[Aprilgold]

The only appropriate response:


QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

THATS NOT ENOUGH!
QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ
QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ
QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

___________________________________________________

Well glad to see their capable of protesting more then same-sex-marriage.

 

[Scorpid]

Seriously though, if Smite offends these guys, their heads are going to explode whenever they find out about the Shin Megami Tensei series. lol

LOL

Oh I had a good laugh when I read that.

But seriously people stop being butthurt over a game. First of all it's not slandering your religion it's just using figures as heroes. Second of all your religion is not protected from slander.

I can say anything I want about it whenever I want to. So please, go cry in the corner silently.

Sigh... So it's okay if gamers get offended when Samus takes a character turn that they don't appreciate, but a religion getting offended that their gods, that they hold as absolute truth, are getting put into a fighting game where they can lose to another religions god is just them being bitchy and not knowing that they've already lost?

Personally I can see their point and sort of agree with them, I certainly wouldn't want to see my mother or father or some other person I hold near and dear getting their face beaten in by someone as a game. Though Hindus and Buddhists getting together for something isn't at all surprising for anyone that has studied Indian history for more then five minutes.

 

[thethird0611]

Wow, such an interesting thread. On one hand, we have the respectful people speaking up and saying, "Great to see them come together, but ehhh, not sure about the game".

Then you have all the hypocrites (I can finally use this word!) who bash on religions and tell them to respect and accept other religions/sexualities/etc. in one thread, then coming here and being extremely disrespectful because of a calm statement of their views.

"Respect other peoples views bigots!"
"What? We cant have your God's murder each other? To hell with your views."

Onto the original topic though... This is a great thing to hear. Standing up for their beliefs and standing together on it to. Kinda reminds me of this.
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/03/5981906-christians-protect-muslims-during-prayer-in-cairos-dangerous-tahrir-square?lite

 

[AngloDoom]

If people believe in a all-powerful creator-figure then they can feel free to be insulted on its behalf. I'd argue that such a powerful creature is simply beyond the mockery of humans, but if religious individuals don't like it they shouldn't play it: just as how I wouldn't play a game where you are God and you beat atheists until their Christian-metre goes up and they become 'better people'.

Done and dusted. People of certain faiths don't like it, so they're not going to play it - no problem.

 

[dancinginfernal]

I am an atheist and even I find the image of Kali incredibly offensive, guys get into perspective, this isn't a small group of people hiding behind religion to get something they personally don't like banned, this game is quite clearly degrading deities like Kali.

I know that the I am an atheist opener may get some, hopefully most, saying so? but it was put there to discourage people from I'm a religious *insert your pick of swear words here*.

Then they can, and you can, ignore it and not play Smite. There are plenty of other MOBA's to play, and plenty of other things to do than worry about a game misrepresenting a deity when they're (probably) never interacting directly with it. It's not a big deal.

I mean sheesh, Jesus/Muhammad/etc. parodies have littered the internet for over a decade but you don't see everyone protesting whole websites when they make fun of a god.

I, for one, don't give a damn. Each character is just a character to me.

 

[Maleval]

To be fair, a lot of christian, muslim and jewish religious figures would just not be that good for this kinda game. Most were just humans who received temporary powers.

Jesus would make a hell of a tank though

 

[SmegInThePants]

but again, we're leaving the real issue in the dust and not addressing it here - is what they did disrepectful? I don't see how it could be seen as such. It was not reverent, but they aren't believers, so that's to be expected. But depicting kali in a work of fiction, to me, is not the same as being actively disrepectful towards people who might believe in kali. At least not by itself. (obviously if your intent is to be disrespectful, then that same work of fiction could easily be made to be so).Believers cannot expect non-believers to show reverence toward things they do not believe in. The best way to achieve that would be to convince them to be believers themselves.

But with that said, respect is something that's earned, and not there by default. I'm under just as much obligation to respect religious beliefs as the belief that Lord of the Rings is a historic book, that Spiderman is real, that the stars tell our future, that Elvis is still alive or that the cosmic bunnyrabbit of Neptune wants us to do something - none. Until someone brings proof to their baseless (and often immensely contradictory, with itself or the facts) assertions, fiction is what they are.

And not only that, but it's fiction that people take as fact, which is poison to the mind. Ridiculous ideas deserve ridicule and all that.

yeah, I guess i'm equating 'disrespect' w/'insulting', and 'respect' w/'civility' - which isn't right. So i'm misusing my terms. One can have no respect and disagree w/a religious belief, actively argue against it both directly and in one's works of fiction, yet one can still be civil and not maliciously insulting (arguments of logic, reason, and non-malicious satire contrasted w/name calling, hurtful satire, and deceitful rhetoric). There is respect of the belief, and that must be earned. There is respect of the person, and that also must be earned.

Then there is respect for civil discourse itself. As long as one is not being uncivil/malicious, then I think they are being 'respectful enough'. Even civility isn't required, i'm not saying it should be the law that one *must* be civil. We'd lose half the internet if that were the case. But if the goal of your creation/work/product is to be persuasive, or to at least avoid pissing people off so they will buy your product, then being civil certainly helps said goals. Of course, if you're a politician and your goal is to be divisive and inflammatory in order to polarize a constituency - then the opposite might be true.

But no *idea* should be considered sacred. Critical examination is the method by which we discover when we are wrong about something.

and its much like sexual harassment. If a man in an office keeps grabbing his secretary's breasts after she tells him to stop = sexual harassment. he's been warned she considers it sexual harassment and he keeps doing it. But the law, at least in my country, states that it also has to be *reasonable* to consider the behavior sexual harassment, for it to be so. In other words, the same secretary can't just go around calling anything she doesn't like 'sexual harassment'. "When you breathe my air I consider that sexual harassment!". "When you spell it 'woman' and not 'womyn', that's sexual harassment!". I think this group calling Smite disrespectful is on par w/the secretary calling 'breathing' sexual harassment - unreasonable. The secretary might feel harassed because you spell "women" w/an 'e' and not a 'y', but just feeling harassed doesn't mean she has been. This group might truly feel insulted, but not everything that they find insulting is actually an insult.

 

[AnarchistFish]

The Universal Society, led by President Rajan Zed (pictured, left)

Didn't know Asaris were Hindus..

A message to all world religions.

Fuck. Off.

Yeah as far as I can tell it's just a few people getting pissy though.

 

[McFazzer]

Guys? Gals? Should we tell them about Shin Megami Tensei?

 

[HardkorSB]

Call me silly but I just don't understand what is so offensive, what effect or impact on anything does the playable nature of their gods have?

Every believer thinks (or at least should think) that his god is the greatest and the very idea of being able to kick the ass of that god is unforgivable.

I'm quite surprised at the response of Abrahamic faiths coming to defence of the depiction of Hinduism's pantheon, seeing that their holy scriptures down right accuse polytheistic faiths of being heretics. At least stick to your outdated/ridiculous beliefs people.

They're worried that if they'll let this one go, their gods will appear in the game as well. They don't give a shit about Kali.

mhm

Those people are giving a great publicity for the game.
I bet most people on this website (or anywhere else) wouldn't even hear about it (including me) but thank's to religious leaders crying about it, the developers/publishers don't even have to spend money on promoting the game.

Also, If people like WBC can disrespect everyone in the name of freedom of speech then this game can be made and all these fuckers of faith can do is to tell the people who listen to them not to buy it.

 

[AnarchistFish]

But seriously people stop being butthurt over a game. First of all it's not slandering your religion it's just using figures as heroes. Second of all your religion is not protected from slander.

I can say anything I want about it whenever I want to. So please, go cry in the corner silently.

They can say whatever they want about this game whenever they want to. Go cry in your bedroom, hypocrite.


Fucking hate this site sometimes for the self righteous and stuck up users that infest it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Who gives a shit what some religious nuts have to say, anyway?

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

I'm glad that Religion can't invoke copyright laws.
The main offence I'd take if I was religious is that some creepy Kali rule 34 will probably result from this.

There has been creepy Kali rule 34 for years already; she was in Megami Tensei. Besides, "NO EXCEPTIONS", remember?

 

[keinechance]

Un-fricking-believable.

You have the right to be offended and not buy the game, and that's it.

 

[Mr F.]

Meh.

From reading the first 2 pages of this thread I do not think I have much to add. Most of the reaction seems to be rather out of proportion, insane and ignoring several key factors.

Depictions of Ra, Odin, Thor, Zeus and whatnot are more acceptable because there are very, very few people who still follow those largely dead faiths (Sure, you might be able to find someone who believes, but you would probably struggle). Hinduism however is not a dead faith whatsoever. So using hindu gods within this context is insulting on multiple levels, both the depictions (As in, the art style and the gameplay) plus the conotations "They are as important as Zeus and whatnot", you can be pretty certain that they will not have Allah in a punching match with God because Christianity and Islam are taken seriously.

To those who say that the Flying Spaghetti Monster should be in this game... Meh, I get that you are trying to be funny, but if s/he was included this would be much, much worse.

I am totally behind the arguments against this game and I am totally behind the game being made. I just think we should take a step back as a community and think before we get all uppity because some people are angry about their religious figures, the beings they consider to be supreme, being reduced to this level. It does no matter what your faith is, you can still attempt to understand.

So whilst I think that this game is insensitive and perhaps should pull the dieties from "Living" faiths out (You would still have plenty to work with from less mainstream faiths) I will fight to the last gasp both for the right of the producers to make this incredibly inflammatory game and the right for the religious community to speak up against this game.

And for the love of god, I hope they do not try and use Islam as a punching bag. That would end badly. We all know it would.

Which brings me to my final point, something which many people seem to forget when bleating about free speech.

Just because your right to say what you want is protected does not mean that you should say whatever you want, whenever you want. Just because you CAN do something does not mean you should. And if you say something (Or produce something which is protected by free speech) that people disagree with, they have as much right as you had to produce said item to disagree with said item.

Good day to you.

 

[Malty Milk Whistle]

snip

Big problem with your analogy. The company making the game, to my knowledge, is not doing it to be offensive or hurt anyone. They are simply taking fictional characters and making a video game out of them.

Telling them to stop because it hurts your feelings is censorship. They are not infringing upon your right to worship, or any of your religious practices. Therefore, an attempt to stop them is censorship, pure and simple.

And in case you haven't noticed... this site doesn't like censorship.

Two things, 1) I'm an Atheist.
2) I never actually said i agreed with them, I could just understand their position, and in case you hadn't noticed, elderly, deeply religious people can't take jokes about their religion very well. This's their opinion about the game, and most likely, a minority of Hindu's probably won't really care that much.
And as long as two religions aren't trying to curbstomp each other, so much the better.
And if it gets this good looking game publicity, even better!

 

[mfeff]

If they don't include Muhammad, I'm going to issue a Fatwah on them for inconsistency.

That would be pretty simple... Islam as a philosophy brought forth by Muhammad was quite clear on it's position of the early Christian church... as being a den of idol worshipers and polytheistic. The same could be said for the Hindu manifestation of Brahmanism.

One could imagine that it would go something like this: That these idol worshipers and polytheist have come together to protest how their idol's and iconography are used in a medium are more of a confirmation of Muhammad's philosophical position rather than a defacing of it.

Commenting on the issue, Buddhist Reverend 'Jikai' Phil Bryan added, "Shame on the game-makers for denigrating these Supreme Beings."

Really? 'Jikai' is hardly known in Buddhist pow-wow's but he has chimed in on this stuff before... last time I saw him he was doing the same thing with the fashion industry...

"Bryan points out that Buddhism values freedom of expression. But business houses can also show responsibility and not unnecessarily drag revered religious symbols to advance commercial interests. Faith symbols are highly important to devotees and attempts toward commercial use can be painful to the devotees."

A monk asked Ummon,"What is Buddha?" Ummon answered him, "Dried dung."

Now mind you that is Zen, which is it's own flavor of Buddhism. Yet what does the Tibetan say as it relates to Buddhism in the context of progressive human effort?

Now I go to research this guy, and find about nothing... other than he is being constantly refereed to as a "Reverend". Buddhism is sort of funny about this, in that when it is discussed one normally refers back to one's particular school within a particular tradition. Not being able to find "anything" on his school or tradition certainly engenders a strong skepticism as to his authenticity and purpose.

Maybe someone could help me out here... but I call bullshit on this guy and his practice... including his claim to be anything other than some guy out of Reno in robes playing Hindu favorites while he masquerades as a Buddhist.

 

[Gather]

Change the name from Smite to Smitten; problem solved. Otherwise Dungeon Siege 3 has monsters the Hindu authorities should also be complaining about.