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Will Wright: 'militant atheists' upset with Spore's religious aspects

Posted Aug 13, 2008 at 10:19PM EST by Karl B.

Listed in: PC Gaming Tags: apple news, Will Wright

Spore's civilization phase - Image 1

It looks like Spore creator Will Wright has been beset by some criticisms from "militant atheists" who have problems with the game's religious aspects. Here's what Wright told Eurogamer in a recent interview:

I think our bigger fear was that we didn't want to offend any religious people; but looking at the discussion that unfolded from this thing, what we had was a good sizeable group of players that we might call militant atheists, and the rest of the players seemed very tolerant, including all of the religious players.

And most of the atheists were very tolerant as well. I didn't expect to hit hot buttons on the atheist side as much; I expected it on the religious side. But so far I've had no critical feedback at all from anybody who is religious feeling that we were misrepresenting religion or it was bad to represent religion in the game. It was really the atheists!

Religion does play a part in Spore's civilization phase, and players are undoubtedly playing something akin to a god, but it's never overtly stated who the player is. The game also leaves the whole creation of the universe question open.

Spore is currently scheduled for release on PCs and Macs in September.

E3 2008: EA goes all out on Spore - trailers, presentation galore

Via Eurogamer

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As am atheist myself i find that hard to believe. (get it? hard to believe...nevermind)

Now offending religious groups would be easier to understand, but atheism means you follow the evolution side and would therefore understand that the societies there would then create their own religion based on a god/gods to make them comfortable with their own world. Right?

Get me some oxygen, long sentence is long.

# So... — Xastabus 2008-08-14 02:10

... does this mean that "Militant Atheists" would rather the game play its self, with no user interaction so the player couldn't play god?

I have to agree with Will on this one, I would have expected religious groups to be all up in arms about the whole evolution aspect of this game.

That gets into the age old argument of evolution v. creationism. Then there's my argument which the most vocal of the two camps never seem to think about; why can't there be creation-evolution-ism. To me it makes a whole lot more sense to believe that "God" (or whatever) has a hand in evolution and made everything over time rather than to believe that everything just came into being exactly as it is now and hasn't changed since.

To me, the study of evolution doesn't take god out of the equation.

Besides, if you were god wouldn't you want to keep inviting new things on the glorious world you created?

If you don't believe in god, wouldn't you rather look at the game from a purely scientific viewpoint and see how the creatures could evolve?

Seriously, people really need to learn to look at things through multiple points of view rather than being so hidebound.

# repeat after me.. — lavino 2008-08-14 02:48

"IT'S A FREAKING GAME!!!!" If they wanna protest it... time travel back 15 years ago and protest against Sim Earth.

# Ya know... — Xastabus 2008-08-14 09:38

"It's only a game," is my first response to most of the stupid stuff people get upset about involving video games. It's unfortunate that those people don't think the same way.

# uhh — Koru-Kun 2008-08-15 05:52

Aren't athiests religious too? Thiests believe in God or gods and athiests believe that there is no God or gods. Both have their beliefs on the beginning of the universe.... Thiests believe that God or gods created the universe and athiests believe in the philosophical ideology associated with the big bang theory. Everybody is religious, it's just the athiests that don't like to admit it.

# Nope — Games4James 2008-08-17 06:55

To be religious means you subscribe to a particular religion, which usually involves a belief in supreme beings (or God(s)) that created/control/influence the Universe, Nature and man. Athiests do not believe in the existance of supreme being(s), but that does not automatically mean they believe in the big bang theory, since it's not one or the other (just as rejecting Creation does not mean you believe in Evolution), and those that do believe in the Big Bang theory are not following a religion, since theories are not religions.

Sorry to be equally anal. ;)

# Dogma... — Xastabus 2008-08-19 02:42

I think the answer to Koru-Kun's question is best said in the movie "Dogma."

To paraphrase; religion is when people take a good idea and build a system of belief around it.

There's another form of thought, called Deism. Deists believe there -could- be one or more greater beings, but don't have a system of rules and worship. Deists are not religious because they think if there is a Creator, he/she/it isn't an intervening factor in our daily lives. They don't see a reason to worship something that they believe simply watches the world. The important thing to a Deist is to live a good moral life.

Before anyone starts an argument about this, morality CAN exist without religion. The "golden rule" is a perfect example; "Do unto others as you would have done unto you," nowhere in that sentence is any mention of God, religion, or worship. Everyone can live by the golden rule whether they are religious, deist, or atheist.

I guess the simple answer would be, religious people believe there are rewards and consequences for how they live that not only exist here and now, but also extend beyond their mortal lives. That a supreme being of some kind can help them in their every day lives or when needed most and will judge them at death for their actions in life.

Deists believe there could be greater beings, but they don't really care all that much about what we do here. It's more important to be a good person for the sake of being a good person than to impress some unseen entity.

Atheists don't believe in any of that. It's hard to categorize atheists on a moral scale because I have never met anyone who is truly atheist. I have met people who claim to be atheist only to discover they are more of a deist.

Granted, I don't go around talking religion with everyone I meet since my own beliefs are often the subject of gross misunderstandin g, ridicule, and persecution.

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