Is Dungeons and Dragons Satanic?

[Black Knight]

Very interesting question. I have a member in my DnD group who hasn't been playing for the last 6 months because he is a born again Christian and feels he needs to work out some issues with the gaming sect. My problem with it is if he thought it was Satanic before...hmmm... not going to speculate too much on that...

Personally, I believe DnD, like life, is GIGO - Garbage in, Garbage Out. If you think of it as a game, then it is just a game. If you think of it as a true Avatar for yourself and if the character dies, off pops a finger/limb/head....then you have more problems than too many dice rattling in your cup.

While I'll admit that you can come across some Satanic ritualistic things, and I could see how some would find an interest in the occult from that, it all comes down to parenting. (speaking as a non-parent, of course) I know that my parents and I had an open dialog about anything - sex, God, Drugs, Drinking, Sports, etc. IF I had a question about it, my parents would talk about it with me. If I still had questions, we would go to the Library (later the internet) and find info on it. We would go over it together and they would let me make my own decision about it. They trusted that I was a smart young kid and that I had been raised well.

So to answer the main question, no I don't believe the game is Satanic. But if you bring an agenda to something...different story.

BK

[LennonCook]

I agree with Cerek. If someone picks up a gun and murders twenty people with it, are you going to blame the gun ??
They might not have done it had they not noticed the gun; but it was their decision, not the guns, to murder people.
In the same way, if an AD&D player converts to satanism, they might not have done it had they not been an AD&D player, but it was not the game which converted them; it was their decision, not TSRs.

[The Collective]

Agree with Cerek here, but occult does not mean harmful by basis.
It is not Satanic and interest in the occult is not being a Satanist either.

It is however totally up to the person in interest to make the decisions.

"Again, it is the individual - NOT the game - that determines the direction thier life will take. " Nicely put Cerek! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

BK!
Nice answer as well, we the assimilatig ones remembers discussion like this as well

[skywalker]

Yes it is Satanic and here is my proof:

http://www.deadalewives.com/funny.ccc

(Click on the third link down.)

I've posted this before, but it's worth posting it here. It is hilarious.

And really, no, D&D is not Satanic...If people who play go overboard with it, it is the behavior of the people that are the problem, not the game. Some like to blame the material rather than trying to understand the psychosis of the ones involved.

Mark

[Grojlach]

Jack Chick is hysterical as well...

[johnny]

I think the person that came up with that statement saw a movie or two too many himself

[Attalus]

A lot of fundamentalist Christians (I am a confirmed Episcopalian, BTW) that I run into just get it from someone else that it is satanic, kind of like that Procter & Gamble moon logo flap that is still going around on the Net. I always tell them, most people elect to fight evil in the game, and those that play evil characters are either looking for a laugh or are immature, the same types that think that Nazis are great. How can playing a Paladin be satanic?

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by K T Ong: Every now and then one comes across material accusing Dungeons and Dragons (if not fantasy RPGs in general) as Satanic by nature, causing people to become interested in dangerous occult practices or the like. I consider it silly, but what do you think? Just curious.

Depends on what your opinion of Milton's Paradise Lost is, I would imagine. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Attalus]

LOL, one of the things that the Prof told me when I was (unwillingly) reading Paradise Lost in college was that One standard criticism of the poem was that Milton was too interested and sympathetic to Satan, making him too attractive, etc. I guess that way of thinking has been around for a long time. Funny, they never say that about Dante, though no one could say that he makes the Inferno attractive, to say the least.

[K T Ong]

Originally posted by Memnoch: Depends on what your opinion of Milton's Paradise Lost is, I would imagine. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Testing my knowledge of English literature, huh, Memnoch?

Well, I've read portions of the poem and I have to say I kinda like the language (though I do find it rather verbose as well). And I understand Satan was supposed to have been portrayed in rather heroic terms in the poem, so much so William Blake said of it that Milton was of the Devil's party, though perhaps without knowing it.

Liked Milton's references to the Chinese BTW, who 'drive with sails and wind their cany wagons light' (Book III). Speaking of which, do you happen to know of any major works of Chinese literature? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 07-20-2002, 11:39 AM: Message edited by: K T Ong ]