Yoga, Dungeons and Dragons, and Video Gamers=Satanists???

Okay so I was having a dicussion with a born again christian awhile back, and we were talking about the string of supposed Murder cults in LA. Well he goes and tells me that his priests and such have been saying that alot of "new age" and "next generation" activities are causing people to turn to satanism and start murding people. He says that Dungeons and Dragons Players, Video Gamers, and people who practice yoga, are satanists.

Dicuss, please, I need insight.

Final Fantasy= Satanist Murder Cults?
Do people go from playing a 5th level Paladin to a Satan worshipping murderer?

No.

That's it, just no.

People like this are so friggin ridiculous. Their viewpoint is that anything that isn't directly from God is of the devil. So obviously Pokemon is an evil plot by Lucifer to steal attention away from God. Screw all that, is so much friggin nonsense.

I'm a Christian, and I think people who take it this far are seriously out of touch with reality. Last I knew I was a follower of God, not a satanist. Yet I love to play video games, go figure. Ridiculous.

[edit on 21-7-2004 by Faisca]

It's absurd, closed minded, and unintelligent thinking...at it's finest. While I do think that extremely violent games are not healthy for young children, and by young, I do not mean numerically, but more on the maturity level of the child, I do not believe games (those with no subliminal messages) will influence an other wise emotionally healthy persons actions any more than I believe music will/can make someone kill themselves!

I play Ad&D and video games, and have been for many years. See many "die hard" ,not all, Christians only need to not understand something in order to call it satanic. In the early 80's Ad&d was stuck with the lable and it stuck. So now the main taget is video games. The label of something turning you to evil changes with the times as all things do.
In the middle ages if you said the world was round, you were called a heretic. Abraham Lincoln said it best, "When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad,I feel Bad." Thats how i feel anyway.

As a past avid player of D&D (yep, my geekdom is showing) I can point to COUNTLESS studies that show just the opposite...

That roleplaying games lead to increased math skills, increased teamwork, and attention to detail. The problem is, the companies involved never bothered about fighting back in the press.

Those who make such claims have likely never even picked up one of the books and looked into it. If they did, they'd likely change their tune...

Indeed, most products of D&D focus on the adventurers being "good guys" and fighting evil...yeah, real satanic huh?

Originally posted by WolfofWar
....and people who practice yoga, are satanists....

When I was younger I practiced yoga extensively, as a way of controling stress levels and "making time for myself". I also studied T'ai Chi as it happens.

I wouldn't agree that I felt I was a satanist by using these relaxation techniques!! Of course, practicing yoga *can* introduce you to other philosophies of Live and Living - perhaps it was this that had your friend's priests concerned - that by studying yoga, practitioners might start to question the "uniqueness" of their faith??

These are the same people who freak out about Harry Potter because it promotes paganism and witchcraft, etc. They forget to mention that more children are reading now because of Harry Potter, and I don't think there's been a surge in children practicing witchcraft, has there?

Junk, pure junk.

I played, as did all of my children, AD&D among other role playing games and also video games and they do indeed build visual skills ... improve social skills, basic math skills, and creativity. It's sad. My DH as a child went to Christian schools and was not allowed to do these things, was taught that there was no such thing as dinosaurs, that scientists were wrong about earth dating, was not allowed to watch hardly any TV....it's religious fanaticism.

Originally posted by Gazrok
As a past avid player of D&D (yep, my geekdom is showing) I can point to COUNTLESS studies that show just the opposite...

That roleplaying games lead to increased math skills, increased teamwork, and attention to detail. The problem is, the companies involved never bothered about fighting back in the press.

Those who make such claims have likely never even picked up one of the books and looked into it. If they did, they'd likely change their tune...

Indeed, most products of D&D focus on the adventurers being "good guys" and fighting evil...yeah, real satanic huh?

i agree 100%. i think that ignorant folks latch onto some of the d&d terminology, such as dragons, etc. and run with it....i also used to play a lot in college and all it did to me was earn me a great group of friends and help my acting....i never started drinking blood or plotted to murder my parents......hmmmm, maybe i was playing it wrong lol

i actually miss playing d&d...

I am a total Everquest geek. People who play RPG's are some of the most intelligent and creative people I have ever met. It's not just your basic, 'shoot-em-up' games. RPG's actually require some intelligence to play.

As a kid, my mom wouldn't let me play D&D, because she said it was satanic. She heard it on "Dr. Jack Van Impe Presents", a doomsday prophet, who actually has the entire bible memorized. You can still catch him on Sundays at 10:00 CST. What a wack job.

Originally posted by Gazrok
Indeed, most products of D&D focus on the adventurers being "good guys" and fighting evil...yeah, real satanic huh?

You Chaotic Good people make me sick!

I just dont get what so many of these Christian/catholic/born again priests and followers have against some things. They say that voilent video games corrupt people, and then go and wage another Crusade. It seems like everything that they dont understand it someone satanic, and ironically, Satanists are seemingly more peaceful then Christians.

YOGA? ? ?
That has to be one of the most calming civilizing activities around.

Violent Video games are questionable. I would NEVER outlaw them, but I know for a time when I was playing Doom regularly, I found as I walked around in real life I would sort of jump, tense and ready for action, beyond conscious control. It does gear your mind and responses, similarly the way living in a war zone might. If young people play those kinds of games too much I think it could influence them.

Lets see . . . people have been murdering one another since before there was a human species. To lay that on video games by some religious zealot, especially in light of crusade wars etc. is simply bogus. I think Christianity is pretty suspect as is Santanism. Can't people be independent? Take the high road when you have options, and do what you have to to survive? Why would anyone want someone or something dictating their lives?

Edit grammar

[edit on 21-7-2004 by slank]

Of course they are.... no real "good Christian" would ever do those things. And anything that is NOT CHRISTIAN is satanic of course.

Some of the things fundamentalists will say. Just laugh it off.

You Chaotic Good people make me sick!

Well, to be honest, most of my characters are either Chaotic Neutral, or Neutral Evil if by choice....

I played Evercrack too...was even in the beta, and even led a guild, lol!

Hmmmm, I play WarHammer 40k, it's what you get if you mix D&D with Starcraft. I even watched a game od D&D and didn't see any satan from it.

Yoga? What in the hell do they have against freaking Yoga?

Gamers? Damn, so they are saying millions of kids in America, Japan, Canada, England, so forth are satan worshippers for playing things like Tekken and Final Fantasy Series? These people need to get a life.

Also, these are the people who wanted to ban Dogma(a Jay and Silent Bob film) saying it was evil, 3 groups even sent death threats. But if you watch it it is about a woman who has lost her faith and through a religous experience she finds her faith again. Not evil to find your faith again is it? These people want to ban something but don't understand a damn thing about it! It's like the anti gun people who say, this is a real freaking quote from the anti gun people, sort of a slogan. "I don't know anything about guns except that I hate them."

Yep, WH40K too... I have a pretty impressive Eldar army...

Damn I'm a geek, hehe...

Being a Satanist myself I can honestly say D&D and video games did not lead me to Satanism. Fact of the matter is...I've never played D&D and I dislike video games. I'm a big believer in personal repsonsibility and accountability. Movies, music, video games and D&D type recreation can influence people. It's not impossible. That doesn't mean the imaginary bad guy "Satan" has anything to do with it. I feel nowadays people just aren't willing to accept personal responsibility for their actions so it's easier to blame "the devil". Emotional and mental problems are easily dismissed as the devil and that really removes accountability. In my life, I've witnessed far more Christians and Catholics chasing people into the arms of "Satan" than D&D and video games. That's not to say all Christians and Catholics are bad though. This type of fundamentalist targeting though should be frowned upon.

The only discussion that needs to be going on here is a discussion between a psychologist, that christian friend of yours and those priests that are spreading this crap.

The day that D&D, video games, and ??YOGA?? has anything to do with satanism is the day that I crap a golden egg.

Sometimes I think the same crazies that can be influenced enough by video games, music etc. to go ahead and kill people because of it, are some of the same type of people that get so caught up in religion that everything around them seems like a battle between good and evil.

On another note I was flipping through the channels the other day and came across this christian program where they were saying J.R. Rowlings was trying to convert children to Wicca or witchcraft with the harry potter series. I mean WTF? Even if that is what is going on (which I highly doubt) God forbid another religion should be allowed to try and gain more members. Christians have multiple channels on the TV trying to convert/retain people but if another religion tries to do it its the work of Satan?

So basically anything that isn't written in the bible is to these people the work of satan. Welcome to the land of the crazies.

Im curious Sinobyte, may I ask what you mean by Santanist? Do you think there is some anthromoporfic power you align yourself with? Or are you more Pagan where it is more the disembodied natural forces of the Universe? I don't buy into the Christian thing and am also skeptical of Satanism. Please educate me in the matter. Thx.