What to make of these arguments regarding sinfulness of fantasy roleplaying games?

[Dakota_Roberts]

Oh my. Also, any female wearing a schoolgirl uniform is bestowed with invulnerability, super-strength, super-sassiness, the skill to pilot any starship in the galaxy, and a heart that skips a beat whenever BOY OF DESTINY looks in her direction.

FYI having anime include soft-core porn is “edgy”, but of course since everyone has it now the quantity is going up and up

 

[Speedypizza]

Not to mention the eeeeevils of “Pattycake, pattycake, baker man”.

• Defenseless babies and toddlers are invited to engage in ritualistic practices intended to simulate culinary practices far too dangerous for children to perform.
• There is an attitude of selfish disrespect toward the authority of the Baker Man, as the ominous chant demands service and a cake “as fast as you can”.
• Obviously, fertility magic is involved. You know, yeast and rolling things and all that gross stuff. Shudder. And there is a Cake in an Oven, and Of Course you know what That means.
• Obviously, the cake is being marked with a B not for Baby, but for Beelzebub.

Stay tuned for the horrible ritualistic roleplaying occult secrets of See See My Playmate, Cinderella Dressed in Yella, and The Itsy-Bitsy Spider.

I just want you to know that it is THIS kind of “joke” that is DIRECTLY responsible for me waking up my child who was asleep in the living room with the TV on because I was laughing so hard, I hope you are proud of yourself!

Pax

 

[Nom_the_Wise]

• Don’t play Monopoly; it emphasizes building wealth at the expense of others.
• Dont read the Sherlock Holmes books; the protagonist was addicted to opiates and engaged in vigilantism (and taught disrespect for the authorities).
• Don’t take the kids to see Disney movies; they assume the existence of magic.
• Don’t read the Odyssey, the Illiad, or the Aeneid – or, for that matter, any of the classics from Greece and Rome – because they assume the existence of other gods.
• Don’t play chess; it’s based on killing the enemy and capturing the king.
• Don’t watch any of Shakespeare’s plays; there are bad guys in them – and some of them win!
• Don’t watch any movies starring John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Jean-Claude Van Damme, or Chuck Norris; they all teach by example that violence is good in some contexts.
• Don’t watch football; it teaches that physical violence against your competitors is good.
• For that matter, don’t watch professional sports, don’t watch television or the movies, and don’t listen to professional music; they teach that easy money is available for entertainers when others are starving to death.
• Don’t play cowboys and Indians, cops & robbers, or anything similar; the kids always pretend to be killing each other. And they try to make it seem realistic, too.
• Don’t follow politics; you’ll just get used to the idea that lying works, cheaters succeed, and the only way to get ahead is to stomp on the other guy. Inevitably, by mere exposure to the medium, you’ll become corrupted in your own life.

This is the classic Appeal to Common Sense. Bravo.

Games of *any kind *were once frowned upon, and it was even said that there were fallen angels that introduced games to mankind (if you’ve ever perused the old angel lists). There are dangers, of course, with anything; everything has uses and abuses. A game could cause you to sin as easily as taking the “bigger piece of pizza” can cause you to sin (gluttony). You can’t give anything a blanket pardon, however. What if someone was going to mass every Sunday because they believed in their heart that by doing so God would give them more power over people or even grant the ability to perform miracles, or something crazy like that. Uses and abuses.

 

[Nom_the_Wise]

That is an argumentum ad hominem and does not address the issue whether role playing games (especially those that involve “magic” and “witchcraft”) can be sinful. And anyway the article was written by William Schnoebelen, not Jack Chick - it’s only carried by the Chick web site.

You’re right, of course, about the ad hominem, but I think in Jack Chick’s case, Joe5859 should get a pass. For a very, very long time Chick has demonstrated that he is kind of a Play-Doh fallacy factory. In all good argumentation the source must be considered, which isn’t always ad hominem, e.g. when I taught writing years ago I never allowed Wikipedia articles to be cited.

 

[Xlainamo]

Wow. If all these posters saying RPGs are sinful are right (because they take away from focusing on God, they emphasize gathering wealth, they permit violations of law and morals inside the game, they teach witchcraft, etc.), then:

Perfect fundamentalist points