Hindus Criticize Smite For "Trivializing" Their Religion

[Oroboros]

(snip)

It's not just about that. Religion is tied to cultural identity, by disrespecting the Hindu religion in such a way, the developers are showing a lack of respect for its worshippers and their culture. Regardless of one's religious belief (or lack therof) I think that we can all agree that cultural identity is important. Putting Kali in a thong to give her sex appeal for consumption by a western audience is Orientalism-not a good thing. The fact that Kali has been singled out amongst all of modern religions and thrown into a game with religions that are no longer worshipped further complicates things by suggesting that the developers don't consdier Hinduism to be a 'real' religion, or at least that they do not consider it a religion of importance. They have dismissed the cultural importance of Hinduism through their actions-and while I do not think they maliciously intended to do so, but it doesn't change the fact that they were acting rather insensitive here by trivializing and comoditizing Hinduism such as they did.

If Kali (et al.) doesn't exist then their cultural identity is tied to a lie being perpetuated by the ignorant onto the naive. It's not Hi-Rez's responsibility to help shore up someone else's house of cards.

If Kali does exist and he/she/it is upset by being put into a thong, presumably they can pull the still beating hearts out of a few nerds' chests or at least rain a few million frogs onto the offices and stop the game that way.

There is no such thing as a perfectly rational culture. While as an Athiest, I do not believe in any of the mythological attributes of Hinduism are 'real', they are crucial in creating social and cultural solidarity within the subcontenent. To discount the entire way of life of a billion or so people as somethign that doesn't deserve to exist merely because it posesses some discrepincies is arrogant and ethnocentric in the extreme. And ripping hearts out? That's extremely racist and has no basis in Hinduism.

Culture is not a house of cards, by any means, and it is blatently offensive for you to suggest that another culture is. Furthermore, regardless of whether Kali is real or not, her worshippers *are* and such comments are deeply and needlessly disrespectful to them. Congragulations, you have managed to be even mroe disrespecful and offensive then the develoepers, with an added dash of racism thrown into the mix.

 

[BanZeus]

There is no such thing as a perfectly rational culture. While as an Athiest, I do not believe in any of the mythological attributes of Hinduism are 'real', they are crucial in creating social and cultural solidarity within the subcontenent. To discount the entire way of life of a billion or so people as somethign that doesn't deserve to exist merely because it posesses some discrepincies is arrogant and ethnocentric in the extreme. And ripping hearts out? That's extremely racist and has no basis in Hinduism.

Culture is not a house of cards, by any means, and it is blatently offensive for you to suggest that another culture is. Furthermore, regardless of whether Kali is real or not, her worshippers *are* and such comments are deeply and needlessly disrespectful to them. Congragulations, you have managed to be even mroe disrespecful and offensive then the develoepers, with an added dash of racism thrown into the mix.

I see you've cast yourself as the white knight in this scene.

If your evidence for my racism is a half remembered reference to Temple of Doom rather than talking about the collar of severed heads Kali is popularly depicted with, then I guess I'm guilty?

I don't think I'm a bad person for saying any culture that can't survive without bronze age superstitions need not be kept on life support.

 

[Oroboros]

There is no such thing as a perfectly rational culture. While as an Athiest, I do not believe in any of the mythological attributes of Hinduism are 'real', they are crucial in creating social and cultural solidarity within the subcontenent. To discount the entire way of life of a billion or so people as somethign that doesn't deserve to exist merely because it posesses some discrepincies is arrogant and ethnocentric in the extreme. And ripping hearts out? That's extremely racist and has no basis in Hinduism.

Culture is not a house of cards, by any means, and it is blatently offensive for you to suggest that another culture is. Furthermore, regardless of whether Kali is real or not, her worshippers *are* and such comments are deeply and needlessly disrespectful to them. Congragulations, you have managed to be even mroe disrespecful and offensive then the develoepers, with an added dash of racism thrown into the mix.

I see you've cast yourself as the white knight in this scene.

If your evidence for my racism is a half remembered reference to Temple of Doom rather than talking about the collar of severed heads Kali is popularly depicted with, then I guess I'm guilty?

I don't think I'm a bad person for saying any culture that can't survive without bronze age superstitions need not be kept on life support.

It's pretty hard co cast myself as anything other than the 'white knight' in light of such an extremist attitude on your part.

The Temple of Doom scene is one of the more racist things that Lucas has put into his movies, it's a real shame that you can't seem to grasp that comparing all worshipeprs of Kali, and Hindus in general to Thugees (who themselves did not tear out hearts) is a broad generalization. You admit that your only knowledge about the religion comes from Indiana Jones and the superficial realization that she is often depicted with severed heads. Yet you somehow extrapolate with your self-admittedly limited knowledge that Hindus practice human sacrifice and that India is a bronze age nation whose culture would implode without their primitive religion. It's obvious that you don't think very highly of the religion, or its followers, despite having next to no knowledge about their religion. You view their culture as inherently inferior despite a fundemental ignorance of it merely because many people who are cultural Hindus are also religious Hindus, despite the fact that abrahamic religions have their fingers into neraly every aspect of western culture, regardless of if you are a christian or not yourself. (do you wear clothes in public, wear a wedding ring, use the surname of your mother or father, are you patrilocal or matrilocal, circumcised or not etc etc)

yeah, that makes you pretty racist.

 

[BanZeus]

It's pretty hard co cast myself as anything other than the 'white knight' in light of such an extremist attitude on your part.

The Temple of Doom scene is one of the more racist things that Lucas has put into his movies, it's a real shame that you can't seem to grasp that comparing all worshipeprs of Kali, and Hindus in general to Thugees (who themselves did not tear out hearts) is a broad generalization. You admit that your only knowledge about the religion comes from Indiana Jones and the superficial realization that she is often depicted with severed heads. Yet you somehow extrapolate with your self-admittedly limited knowledge that Hindus practice human sacrifice and that India is a bronze age nation whose culture would implode without their primitive religion. It's obvious that you don't think very highly of the religion, or its followers, despite having next to no knowledge about their religion. You view their culture as inherently inferior despite a fundemental ignorance of it merely because many people who are cultural Hindus are also religious Hindus, despite the fact that abrahamic religions have their fingers into neraly every aspect of western culture, regardless of if you are a christian or not yourself. (do you wear clothes in public, wear a wedding ring, use the surname of your mother or father, are you patrilocal or matrilocal, circumcised or not etc etc)

yeah, that makes you pretty racist.

Wow, way to project. I don't, as a rule, base my world view on movies I saw 20 years ago, but I will make throwaway comments about fictional characters based on them. You make a bunch of assumptions about me then put a pointy white hood on my head, congratulations, that's a straw man.

I don't think very highly of ANY religion, because religion is a bronze age superstition (which is what I said before, nothing about India). You're the one who insists culture is inexorably tied to religion, don't get mad at me when I point out the weakness in that hypothetical construct. The reason we're not talking about christians or muslims is that it's not christians or muslims who are featured in the article.

Since you brought it up, I don't think "god told me to" is a valid reason to cut off someone else's foreskin either, I suppose that makes me anti-semitic in your mind?

This conversation is going nowhere, I can see where you got your user name.

 

[Oroboros]

It's pretty hard co cast myself as anything other than the 'white knight' in light of such an extremist attitude on your part.

The Temple of Doom scene is one of the more racist things that Lucas has put into his movies, it's a real shame that you can't seem to grasp that comparing all worshipeprs of Kali, and Hindus in general to Thugees (who themselves did not tear out hearts) is a broad generalization. You admit that your only knowledge about the religion comes from Indiana Jones and the superficial realization that she is often depicted with severed heads. Yet you somehow extrapolate with your self-admittedly limited knowledge that Hindus practice human sacrifice and that India is a bronze age nation whose culture would implode without their primitive religion. It's obvious that you don't think very highly of the religion, or its followers, despite having next to no knowledge about their religion. You view their culture as inherently inferior despite a fundemental ignorance of it merely because many people who are cultural Hindus are also religious Hindus, despite the fact that abrahamic religions have their fingers into neraly every aspect of western culture, regardless of if you are a christian or not yourself. (do you wear clothes in public, wear a wedding ring, use the surname of your mother or father, are you patrilocal or matrilocal, circumcised or not etc etc)

yeah, that makes you pretty racist.

Wow, way to project. I don't, as a rule, base my world view on movies I saw 20 years ago, but I will make throwaway comments about fictional characters based on them. You make a bunch of assumptions about me then put a pointy white hood on my head, congratulations, that's a straw man.

I don't think very highly of ANY religion, because religion is a bronze age superstition (which is what I said before, nothing about India). You're the one who insists culture is inexorably tied to religion, don't get mad at me when I point out the weakness in that hypothetical construct. The reason we're not talking about christians or muslims is that it's not christians or muslims who are featured in the article.

Since you brought it up, I don't think "god told me to" is a valid reason to cut off someone else's foreskin either, I suppose that makes me anti-semitic in your mind?

This conversation is going nowhere, I can see where you got your user name.

I don't care what you think about other religions, you have made it abundantly clear that you are nonreligious. The fact that you have equal disdain for all religions just means you are even more arrogant over your belief in your own cultural superiority. You have likened the culture of Hindus to a bronze age house of cards that deosn't deserve to exist. The fact that you might feel similarly about other religions and cultures that don't behave in a way comfortable to you does not do you any favors.

Despite your insistance that "bronze age superstition" meant all religion, your wording is infinitely clear that you were including Hinduism in that definition, so I don't quite grasp the importance of attempting to distance yourself from that comment. I find your insistance that you have somehow pointed out some mythical realm in which religion and culture exist in sperate spheres and never meet to be laughable. You have pointed out nothing that would even come close to indicating as such. The fact of the matter is, religion and culture are frequently intertwined.


I find it interesting that you seem to focus on the 'bronze-age' aspect of religion. Apparently in your mind the technology level that a given religion worshipped in a culture developed in determines if they deserve to exist or not. I guess you would support shipping off the Kung! and Aborigines of Australia off to boarding schools to remove such harmful suprestitions. After all, as representitives of a more advanced form of culture, it is our duty. Perhaps we could name this duty, I reconmend calling it "White Man's Burden" how does that sound to you? Here's a tip: Just because someone doesn't utilize the same level of technological sophistication as you do, doesn't make you a better person, and it sure as hell doesn't give you the right to dictate what they should and shouldn't be allowed to believe. Stop throwing around the tern 'bronze age' as an insult.

I don't know what you are trying to prove bringing up the fact that you still have your foreskin. Lots of athiests don't-which proves my point about religion being deeply intertwined with culture. You haven't said anything about your surname etc so I assume that some of those religion-generated practices still apply to you, furthering my point.

At any rate, the issue at hand here with the game is that the developers have appropriated a goddess from Hinduism and turned her into a sexual object. They have turned a representative of the religious/cultural beliefs of millions of people into a sex product aimed for sonsumption by a western audience with no regard to respect or sensitivity to the culture that spawned it. It sends a clear message that Indians are there to be exlpointed for the titilation of westerners and are not worthy of their respect. The fact that you see this as a good thing makes you culturally insensitive at best.

A 'throwaway comment' about how Hindus practice blood sacrifice in the vein of the Aztecs is anything but innocent. The fact that it was a fictional representation is irrelevent. 'Birth of a Nation" is fiction, but it is certainly racist. Making a 'throwaway comment' referencing the racist carricatures of black individuals in the movie would be no less racist because of its fictional content. I don't need to put a pointy hat on your head, you did that plenty well enough with that comment.

 

[Jaeke]

Ymir is in this game?!?

How the hell does this even work... that's not fair.

His body makes up the entire universe after all.

 

[Peace Frog]

They should definitely add Jesus to show that they are being fair. If people don't want to play as him because he makes a lame fighter then they don't have to...

He could be support healer and could arguably fight with magic since he is capable of exorcising demons and surely false gods could be classed as demons...

 

[larryparker]

Some video games companies use the character of this section which is not a good thing.