Science

Skepchick Quickies 6.5

  • New video game’s objective: Stop the spread of Christianity and Islam-  “A video image released by the computer game’s creator showing an injured man may not appear to be graphic, but you may change your mind once you know who it is.  It’s the Islamic prophet Muhammad.” Via.
  • Fake bus stop keeps Alzheimer’s patients from wandering offThe patients start to wander off, they see a bus station and stop to catch the bus.  Nursing home workers come by, tell them the bus won’t be by for a while and invite them back inside for coffee and in a few minutes the Alzheimer patient forgets he ever was waiting for a bus.
  • Will Smith’s Scientology school-  “The New Village Academy, which will open later this year, has reportedly hired a team of Scientologists to help integrate Scientology teaching methods into the school curriculum – although the dreaded ‘S’ word isn’t mentioned anywhere on the school’s website, www.newvillageacademy.org.”
  • Put 5 megatons in your mouth!-  No, really, there’s a diet supplement called, “Tunguska Blast!”  And I cannot stop laughing about it.
  • Researchers puzzled by Swedish chlamydia mystery– Swedish scientists discovered a new strain of chlamydia bacteria in the population.  “Given that sexually transmitted diseases move seamlessly across borders, researchers expected to find [the new strain] all over Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands.” But they haven’t!  And Chlamydia Mystery would make an awesome band name.

Amanda

Amanda works in healthcare, is a loudmouthed feminist, and proud supporter of the Oxford comma.

Related Articles

18 Comments

  1. I noticed that so-called Atheist game on wired the other day. And my first reaction was that this is going to go over like a fart in church.

    Atheists have never really had anything to speak for them like this. It’s the general atheist premise that the world might be a better place without some of those religions… It’s the idea of being able to go back in time and sort of nipping the problem in the bud.

    I wouldn’t presume to speak for the rest of you, but this game most certainly does not speak for me.

  2. I first heard of the bus stop idea from the 2003 Academy Award winning claymation film, Harvie Krumpet.

    Is this an Urban Legend that I smell, or did they get the idea from the movie???

  3. RE: atheist video game

    I don’t think this will be much of a winner. Reading the description it is all about trying to killing the religion’s founders. I see two huge problems with this.

    First it is going to conflict with the humanist values of most atheists, who aren’t going to want to buy it. Second, anyone with even a moderate familiarity with religious history (which include most atheists) would know that making martyrs out of religions founders isn’t a very effective way of stopping them (see: Jesus, Imam Ali and John Smith).

    There is also this other minor issue. The article says “The object of the game is to stop the spread of Christianity and Islam by murdering Abraham and the authors of the Bible, before beheading Muhammad.” Were you to kill Abraham before he had is offspring that would be sufficient to stop Islam. Islam is an Abrahamic religion. They worship the same god as Christians and Jews. They share many of the same prophets. If Judaism doesn’t arise, then there is no Christianity or Islam.

    This leaves aside the whole issue of non-Abrahamic religions. The Abrahamic religions came into being in a world full of religions. If they hadn’t arose the majority of folks in the western world would just be worshiping Jupiter, Mithras or some other deity.

  4. The game is obviously not a good idea, but really can those that hate atheists hate us any more than they already do?

    In my opinion fundamentalism on anyside is a problem, also fundamentalism generally causes fundamentalism on apposing sides.

    Now if you’ll excuse me I need to order my Cinematic Titanic screening tickets.

    Oh and one more thing…

    fundamentalism(just felt I should over use the word an even number of times.)

  5. That game developer sounds like. . . hmmm. . . how do I put this politely. . . .

    “A fucking douchebag”?

    No, not quite there.

    “A fucking douchebag who needs to get laid”?

    Better, but still missing that certain je ne sais quoi. How about this:

    “A fucking douchebag who needs to grow up, learn the actual truth behind the history he is butchering — the history which is at once more interesting and less favorable to organized religion than his inept caricature — meet an atheist who is older than sixteen, and get laid instead of beating off to Ayn Rand fanfic.”

    OK, I think we’re almost there.

  6. I think the video game is funny. The thing is this…. Jesus did get killed, and that certainly didn’t stop Christianity from coming to be.

  7. I think that video game should involve saving Jesus’ life. Eliminating the crucifixion and thus the resurrection would put and end to Christianity right quick.

    Also, that Alzheimer article is simultaneously the funniest and most deeply, deeply sad thing I’ve read in a long time.

  8. Jesus is like JFK, James Dean, and Marilyn Monroe. If he’d lived to a ripe old age, we might not even remember his name.

  9. Blake pretty much summed up how i feel about the game. just toss a few more cuss words around in there. I just want to add, as an avid gamer. that game doesn’t even look fun to play, with or without the religious stuff in there. a game where you kill innocent people isn’t challenging, and gamers want a challenge of course. and I think making muhammad some giant end level boss is equally ridiculous.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button