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Atheists Riled Up Over Spore

Posted by Cole Stryker

 

Eurogamer has posted an illuminating interview with acknowledged 61FPS crush object Will Wright, on Spore his eight-years-in-the-making project. It turns out that "militant atheists" are pissy about the game's depiction of evolution:

"I didn't expect to hit hot buttons on the atheist side as much; I expected it on the religious side," Wright revealed. "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."

Weird. You'd think that a game based on the evolution of species would be lauded by atheist groups. On the other hand, the player acts as a godlike creator, and the player's creations worship him or her as such. It could be argued that Spore promotes intellgent (and less than intelligent) design.

I tried to find people online who are decrying Spore's hidden agenda. All I could come up with was a bunch of atheist bloggers making fun of the easily offended unbelievers responsible for Will's comments. I'm sure he gets hatemail, but I could not find even one serious complaint about this game regarding religion or evolution. Where are these people?

Related Links:

Crush Object: 8 Ways Will Wright Owns
The Contrarion: Games Critics Awards are a Pointless Waste of Time
What Hath Science Wrought: Spore Freakshow Extravaganza!


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Comments

Roto13 said:

Oh, the militant atheists are out there and they're every bit as obnoxious and annoying as the religious people who try to convert you at every turn.

As for this case, I dunno, maybe Wright just wants there to be controversy. It helps sell games.

August 12, 2008 11:37 AM

Amber Ahlborn said:

Oh, love the picture heading the article, lovely strawman.  When I first read the premise Of Spore I'll admit up front that I was irritated it was described as evolution.  It's a god game (as you noted) and plays out within the bounds of the Intelligent Design concept.  It has no more to do with evolution than does Pokemon.  I'm one of those dreaded militant atheists you hear about and yet all I can seem to muster is mild annoyance over the terminology.  Indeed, who are the people Mr. Wright is talking about?  

On the other hand, I can see a reason to get hot under the collar about the misused terminology.  It really has less to do with the game than it does with the state of science education in the USA.  Few people understand how evolution works (I laugh till I cry at the cartoon-like descriptions I hear from Average Joe).  So every false representation tends to make folks in the know cringe a little.  And while I'm on this soapbox, I'll say the same about atheism: it has nothing to do with evolutionary biology and its position is about equally mischaracterized.

August 14, 2008 10:25 AM

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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

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