Having a Video Game Character Commit Adultery

[Tarvos]

Case Study: Christianity
It's called religion.

Do you even know what religion _is_?

Morales are set up from inside of a religion

.

Great. All atheists are immoral, even if they abide by the 10 commandments. Morals aren't set up from within religion, a particular religion may provide a set code of morals though. As for Christianity's - they aren't really any good.

Marriage is also a religious bond besides a legal one.

Only if you choose to make it so.

From a Christian standpoint:
Thus, a part of Christianity is the sacred connection of Marriage. People of a religion, including Christianity, follow the rules set to them by the religion, because it makes sense to them in their relative morals. Otherwise, they wouldn't be religious, would they?[/Christian Ranting]

My parents married before the church. They are officially baptised, but neither of them believe in the Catholic church anymore. Is their marriage sacred? I fucken think not. My parents liked the ritual. A marriage is nothing more than a contract of paper. If you want to make more of it it is your own choice, don't expect others to follow it.

Unless you're angry about Christianity in general. Then it's fine.

Nobody is angry about Christianity. I am sad, rather.

Oh, and if we're talking about Judaism, ignore this post.

I am not sure but I think marriage is sacred in Judaism as well.

 

[Sage Noctowl]

Do you even know what religion _is_?
.

Great. All atheists are immoral, even if they abide by the 10 commandments. Morals aren't set up from within religion, a particular religion may provide a set code of morals though. As for Christianity's - they aren't really any good.

Sorry, I worded it badly, I meant that a certain set of morals were relative to one religion.

Only if you choose to make it so.

And that too. I meant to say 'may'.

My parents married before the church. They are officially baptised, but neither of them believe in the Catholic church anymore. Is their marriage sacred? I ****ing think not. My parents liked the ritual. A marriage is nothing more than a contract of paper. If you want to make more of it it is your own choice, don't expect others to follow it.

To some, marriage is completely legal, and if they aren't in the religion, then they're not believing it is sacred. Religion comes from people, and they can choose whether to think it sacred.

To sum it up: besides the critical may/is error, I was trying to bring across the point that some people think of it as more than just legality. No one is forcing you to stay in that marriage. But if you're in a religion, you probably know the reason (in that religion) why it is frowned upon.

 

[Tarvos]

I know the reason why it's frowned upon in Christianity. The reason is completely retarded.

 

[Chaon]

Sin is a societal construct and doesn't really exist.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[SonicNintendo]

Provided that the characters aren't obviously Catholic/Christian, than it's not an issue.

 

[Ymedron]

Well, considering I read somewhere that games, books and movies can be considered sin too (aka escaping from the reality, which is apparently a sin), I don't think virtual adultery is going to be that bad.

But hey, if you are worried about that, you can pray for forgiveness. Even if you actually didn't do anything wrong, praying is said to relieve.

 

[1. Luftballon]

there are people who apparently believe that living is a sin.

should that prevent you from living? obviously.

 

[Tarvos]

Praying is rationalising away your fears by asking God to solve problems for you. Praying is the great nothing.

 

[ultraviolet]

once again this has turned into 'religion is stupid'. great work, guys. >_>

 

[1. Luftballon]

and hitler!

because no discussion is complete without an invocation of godwin's law.

 

[Tarvos]

once again this has turned into 'religion is stupid'. great work, guys. >_>

The only one who would complain against a video game character (!) committing adultery is a religious group with some overzealous antisexualist morality. It's a fucking video game, for His Noodly Appendage's sake. It's a FICTIONAL CONSTRUCT. IT DOESN'T EXIST. IT'S NOT REAL. SO WHO CARES.

Nobody is declaiming religion (well I am but I always do anyway and to be honest I've never found prayer to be useful; I have tried and been to church. It made zero difference). The strict fundamentalist sexual morality of Christianity and Islam is, and will always be, disgusting and despicable to my eyes. Add to that the point mentioned above and I don't really see how there's any other conclusion you could end up with in this case. I'm all for alternate viewpoints and everything but I don't really see anything this debate has to offer in terms of that.

 

[Minish]

The only one who would complain against a video game character (!) committing adultery is a religious group with some overzealous antisexualist morality. It's a fucking video game, for His Noodly Appendage's sake. It's a FICTIONAL CONSTRUCT. IT DOESN'T EXIST. IT'S NOT REAL. SO WHO CARES.

Oh come on, it's not that strange to imagine. :/ It's not that "oh my god the video game character is doing it, that's wrong because somehow I think video game characters are real". The OP is wondering whether making something act out adultery is wrong; it makes good enough sense, especially if you're a particularly sin-fearing Christian.

 

[Patar]

The only one who would complain against a video game character (!) committing adultery is a religious group with some overzealous antisexualist morality. It's a fucking video game, for His Noodly Appendage's sake. It's a FICTIONAL CONSTRUCT. IT DOESN'T EXIST. IT'S NOT REAL. SO WHO CARES.

Well, obviously, some people care because this thread exists. But I have to say that making a character commit adultery is not a sin. I mean, I know a lot of my friends play Halo and are Christian/religious in some way. THEY. ALL. TEABAG. THEIR. KILLS. That's another thing. Killing in video games. Have you killed in a game? It's not like you're stupid enough to kill someone in real life. Or are you? But the point is that even if you do commit sins in video games, you still can repent them or whatever religious people do. I'm Chinese. So I'm supposed to believe in Buddha. Hah. Yeah, right. I believe that someone is watching us and as long as we fix things up before we die, we'll die peacefully.

 

[Minish]

Well, obviously, some people care because this thread exists. But I have to say that making a character commit adultery is not a sin. I mean, I know a lot of my friends play Halo and are Christian/religious in some way. THEY. ALL. TEABAG. THEIR. KILLS. That's another thing. Killing in video games. Have you killed in a game? It's not like you're stupid enough to kill someone in real life. Or are you? But the point is that even if you do commit sins in video games, you still can repent them or whatever religious people do. I'm Chinese. So I'm supposed to believe in Buddha. Hah. Yeah, right. I believe that someone is watching us and as long as we fix things up before we die, we'll die peacefully.

I can understand how it might twinge someone's conscience to do something in a game that's called "killing" if they happen to consider killing to be breaking a moral code. And hey, one of the reasons why I and a lot of people don't play games involving killing people is because I don't get my kicks off destroying things, be they physical or virtual.

Same thing as the OP's issue really, just less weight on my conscience and more distaste for pretending to be destructive.

 

[Lili]

for His Noodly Appendage's sake

Let me guess... you're a Pastafarian?

 

[Sage Noctowl]

The only one who would complain against a video game character (!) committing adultery is a religious group with some overzealous antisexualist morality. It's a fucking video game, for His Noodly Appendage's sake. It's a FICTIONAL CONSTRUCT. IT DOESN'T EXIST. IT'S NOT REAL. SO WHO CARES.

But it's a religious group, nonetheless, and should be respected in its own beliefs. It's all on how you are treating the game. If you're trying to make it real for yourself versus fooling around (BURN EVERYONE FIRE YEAH!), then it's a whole different ball game. I agree that it's fictional, but some people take their gaming seriously.

 

[Ymedron]

(Just to clarify, I say praying might relieve, just like confessing to someone that you did wrong. It's not for THEM, it's for you, so you don't have to deal with it in your mind. If you feel that you have offended your god, saying you are sorry will let your mind be at peace.

I don't pray either, but I can see the logic of praying and why it originally sprung up.)

 

[Tarvos]

Let me guess... you're a Pastafarian?

No, I just refuse to use God every time.

But it's a religious group, nonetheless, and should be respected in its own beliefs.

No. No fucken way. They have the freedom of religion, maybe, but I have freedom of opinion. I respect the religious people's integrity, sure. But no fucken way will I in any way ever respect a belief that is so misguided as this.

It's all on how you are treating the game. If you're trying to make it real for yourself versus fooling around (BURN EVERYONE FIRE YEAH!), then it's a whole different ball game. I agree that it's fictional, but some people take their gaming seriously.

This is exactly the PROBLEM. People need to separate fiction from reality. They are not one and the same and pretending that they are only has disastrous consequences for anybody involved.

Oh come on, it's not that strange to imagine. :/ It's not that "oh my god the video game character is doing it, that's wrong because somehow I think video game characters are real". The OP is wondering whether making something act out adultery is wrong; it makes good enough sense, especially if you're a particularly sin-fearing Christian.

The Bible sure as fuck has fictional characters that commit adultery; kill; sacrifice their own children; surely such a thing as committing adultery in a video game is relatively minor to the horrors described in the Bible? It'd make a good horror flick, that's for sure.

 

[Music Dragon]

Actually, it doesn't make any sense to say that we have to respect religious beliefs. Nobody would tell you to respect a homophobe or racist or neo-Nazi, regardless of what justifications that person may have; there are certainly cases where religious followers are worse than all of the above. Obviously this doesn't apply to every single Christian (although I'm not sure why you'd want to be affiliated with such a religion if you have a moral compass), but those to whom it does don't deserve an inkling of respect.

 

[Minish]

This is exactly the PROBLEM. People need to separate fiction from reality. They are not one and the same and pretending that they are only has disastrous consequences for anybody involved.

The Bible sure as fuck has fictional characters that commit adultery; kill; sacrifice their own children; surely such a thing as committing adultery in a video game is relatively minor to the horrors described in the Bible? It'd make a good horror flick, that's for sure.

I'm pretty sure the OP knows that the Sims is not reality. And I don't believe making a video game character commit adultery if adultery goes against your religion is something strange to feel slightly conscientious about.

I personally feel a bit squeamish at the thought of "killing" something in a game, just because it's labelled killing, there's blood involved and I feel like I'm making light of murder. But don't you dare tell me I'm getting confused between reality and fiction, because that's simply not true.

Don't worry, I would never defend the Bible. I'm only defending well-meaning, if misguided, Christians who probably don't know half the amount of horrors that book contains.

Actually, it doesn't make any sense to say that we have to respect religious beliefs. Nobody would tell you to respect a homophobe or racist or neo-Nazi, regardless of what justifications that person may have; there are certainly cases where religious followers are worse than all of the above. Obviously this doesn't apply to every single Christian (although I'm not sure why you'd want to be affiliated with such a religion if you have a moral compass), but those to whom it does don't deserve an inkling of respect.

Eh, I think it does make sense. I think the type of respect everyone needs is to have the chance to explain their beliefs, as opposed to being screeched at in the face that their views are just wrong, wrong, wrong. But homophobes, racists and neo-Nazis tend to be actively discriminatory, which is different. I'm just going to say the age-old "If it doesn't hurt anyone..." philosophy, which obviously only applies to people with benevolent beliefs, rather than "Eve ate the apple therefore women are second best!" because things like that should never be respected.