Gamestation has taken the peculiar step of recreating the Christian Nativity scene using modern video game characters. The stunt is to kick off its Christmas marketing drive and puts well known characters from our favourite games into the roles of key figures in the Christian story.
I’m a little bit rusty on my Christian mythology so forgive me if I get any of the roles mixed up: Sackboy is playing the baby Jesus, Zelda is cast as the Holy Mother with Marcus Fenix as Joseph (there’s a match we wouldn’t have predicted). The visiting Magi roles are given to Mario, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Solid Snake.
I’m not sure who Sonic and Yoshi are supposed to be but I hope they’re not the animals who came to witness the birth of Christ. I mean, I know they’re animals but somehow I find comparing them to cattle much more egregious than casting Sackboy as the Lamb of God.
It’s all a little weird and I’m sure there are several humourless Christian groups already penning letters of disgust that their mythology is being treated in such a lighthearted way. What do you think: Offensive, just a bit of fun or weird and irrelevant?
I’ve just checked the official press release and it seems that Yoshi is the donkey that carried the heavily pregnant virgin on her trip to Bethlehem. Sonic would have got them there before all the inns filled up.
Omac_brother
This offended my eyes in a way that I thought not possible. Not because im a devout christian or anything but its just really shoddy. If your going to do something like this, at least make it of a reasonable quality.
PoorPaddy89
Doesn’t offend at all, I find it pretty lighthearted. But I think you should rethink some of your terminology in the article. ‘Mythology’ is quite offensive. You’re perfectly entitled to your beliefs, but I’m also entitled to mine. Perhaps use terms like ‘beliefs’ instead in the future.
colossalblue
That term is factually accurate, although I can see that it could possibly have limited negative connotations for those that still believe in the particular mythology it refers to.
Most current religious believers don’t seem to like the allusion to previous religious mythologies (like those of the Norse and Romans) that have already died out. But that seems to me to be more of an issue with not understanding a definition and I don’t believe in dumbing down to meet those that don’t understand, I firmly believe that we should encourage understanding and education.
According to Dictionary.com, Mythology is a “set of stories or beliefs about a particular person, institution, or situation, esp. when exaggerated or fictitious.” Which seems to fit perfectly, whether you subscribe to the “esp. exaggerated or fictitious” part or not (optional within this definition).
My use of that term does not inhibit your belief in the Christian teachings in any way. Your request to refrain from using that – factually accurate – term would inhibit my belief in the importance of promoting understanding and continuous education through reading. So why are your beliefs, which are factually unaffected, more important than mine, which would be limited?
This is not really the place for a psychological/theological debate though, is it?
IAmJacksMedullaOblongata
Exactly.
Personally, I would have gone with mythos, which Dictionary.com describes as ” … a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people.” Maybe even “ideology”.
Mythology is technically correct though. I can see why some sensitive people would take offence, however.
IAmJacksMedullaOblongata
Also, to quote a famous atheist saying: “You believe in one god. I believe in one less.”
Countless religions have come, flourished and died out.
Also reminds me of that famous science paper about if hell was endothermic or exothermic. One of the axioms stated was: “As it’s impossible to follow more than one religion, and the majority of religions state you’re going to hell if you don’t follow it, QED: we’re all going to hell.”
:)
PoorPaddy89
I’m not going to say ‘mythology’ is a an incorrect term in its literal translation, but as you say it has negative connotations. I don’t want to come across as demanding – especially as the religious are the bad guys of the internet – I just want to point it out. And no, I don’t want to have a philosophical debate here either!
“Christian thicko”? What a fantastic day for freedom of speech. I’m not trying to opress anyone with my personal beliefs, so frankly, fuck yourself.
SpikeyMikey23
The Frankie Boyle of TSA strikes again ;)
kjkg
http://tinyurl.com/ctwoqot
billsmugs
I’m not a Christian, or even particularly religious, but I thought that the (repeated) use of “mythology” was a bit pointlessly antagonistic to be honest. People constantly insinuating that religions are all lies/stories etc is one of my personal pet hates, so maybe it’s just me (and PoorPaddy89 of course) who takes exception.
With regards to “This is not really the place for a psychological/theological debate though, is it?” If you think that, why use terms that are likely to start one? “Beliefs” or “teachings” would have worked just fine and wouldn’t make it sound like you yourself necessarily believe them, which you seem overly keen to avoid.
Sorry to rant on so much, as I said it’s just something that I find really annoying and it seems to be getting more prevalent in the media and in general these days (though that may just be my imagination).
colossalblue
I had no intention to annoy anyone, I firmly believe in the right to hold whatever notions you’re most comfortable with as long as they don’t have a harmful impact on anyone else.
My reason for using that term was simple: that’s how I think of the subject. It didn’t occur to me that I should try to explore different ways of phrasing this because this way is perfectly natural to me.
My personal beliefs (spiritual or otherwise) are my own and I wouldn’t want to flaunt them or use them as some kind of reactionary or antagonistic method to engage with anyone publicly. I used a word because it adequately met the definition I required, nothing more dramatic than that.
I usually save my personal opinions on controversial issues for Twitter these days, I welcome anyone to argue with me there ;)