As the title says I want to talk about religion portrayed in media where the media doesn't serve use as an educational source. Now I don't mean references or small similarities, but media that uses entire aspects of religion to use as their basis, not just the stuff everyone would recognise like the devil and etc. Now I might not be making sense but for example, in the video-game series; Bayonetta, creative liberties aside, it uses the Christian angelic heirarchy as a basis for the games enemies, going into details such as using each of the spheres "tiers" such as Seraphim or Powers, whilst not completely accurate it did give me something to google. So basically what I want to ask is this, do you think its good for non-educational media to take aspects of Christianity or other religions, dated or more modern, and use them to create a different world.

Personally if it gives people an incentive to search and learn isn't it good? I don't think I would have even gained any knowledge about the above or other stuff relating to lesser known Christian mythos, whether it be disregarded or not by Christians.

I think it's fine, but you shouldn't disgrace Yahova in the process.

Everyone tells a story.

Some people are merely looking for a mechanical template which works. Others have an objective to tell people what they believe through the entertaining media.

I've caught a few religious references in media and stuff, and I like it. I don't think we should be paying homage to evil gods, or portraying them as good when they are evil.

To me, that's really the thing.

Are they portraying good as evil, and evil as good?

What are their objectives?

You can know, if you look at it very carefully, and I have at a few different series. Some I see giving us the hard truth about life, or whatever. Most are not very serious.

Chronicles of Narnia was Christian media. It had a few Biblical references. Some very interesting ones. . . .

But it also had it's share of pagan myths imputed. Such as the Faun, ect.

Even though I liked that series, I wouldn't say it's totally clean cut because of those mythical creatures and how they are used.

If this is Christian media, then we shouldn't need to take from other religions to make our's so great. The Bible already has plenty of good stuff in it to draw from.

I like, but only if it's done right. (And I've only seen it done right once- and not in a game that openly promoted Christianity either.)


It is nice that things encourage people to look into this religion. But it can give them a slanted idea in the process. I know lot's of people who claim to be Christians. You start to look at their lives and wonder.

Of which I'm tired of. I want to be around true converts. Not emotional ones, or tradition based ones. Ones after the truth.

I suppose a slanted idea is at least a start. . .

Sword legion : To address whether they use religion as evil can in some cases be good can it not? To show that hypocrisy is a real thing, those who follow their faith blindly to reprimand and condemn peoples lifestyles whether the aspects condemned are choosen or not? I'm not saying those who have any degree of faith are bad, no, what I'm saying is that religion has been used as a tool to control historically, and even to a degree in modern society with so much suppression of freedom. Perhaps showing an evil side of religion within entertainment can help towards realization. Think of it as this; removing the head of a weed won't remove the roots, in some way that makes sense in religion where corruption is still present.

Just while where on the subject what are your opinions of religion in legislation? There are those who use their Christian faith to further their own agendas. I believe this to be where religion falls under the most criticism. I've seen aspects of this in Bayonetta, allow me to explain:

In Bayonetta, there are basically a trinity of realities, Paradiso (the light), our world (chaos), and Inferno (the dark). Within chaos there is to clans that oversee the world governed by there their beliefs, the Lumen Sages (light) and Umbran Witches (dark), they oversee the world in peace until one Lumen Sage corrupts and starts a war, having beings of Paradiso destroy the Umbran Clan. Now you can see, clearly there was nothing wrong with the clans existing harmoniously, but one blinded by his beliefs causes a great inbalance. The story of the two games is a bit more complicated than the summary I gave but do you get the picture?

It shows blind faith as the evil, not just religion as a whole. There can also be other meanings with throughout analysis. But I'll leave that for now.

I'm also curious about your statement, "But it can give them a slanted idea in the process. I know lot's of people who claim to be Christians. You start to look at their lives and wonder." I myself have met several people who suddenly become christian but when I go to talk to them about their values and or what mythos they believe has anything of value to teach they can either never give me a straight answer or do not know of Christian subjects outside the bible, i.e. historical texts and etc. So could you also expand on what you meant for me?

I'm not one to summon often but I'm pretty curious about your opinions.
Davideo7 :
Juliet :

iN008 :

Sure, I would say it's find to make religion look evil in a game, even the Christian religion. I was going to do this a lot in my own RP cause that's how it is a lot of the time! Especially in feudal Europe.

I believe in legislation, that God did not give the Hebrews a religiously orientated government without purpose in the Torah.

I believe we should keep it to this day, outside of the temple ordinances since Yahova's Temple now resides within our hearts.

I also believe that the idea, that government must be separated from religion, or cannot be dictated by it is a tradition and a lie. Yahova speaks differently in His book.


Just because I like it, I've done my share of research on other texts outside of the Bible. Some ancient Chinese recordings of the aftermath of the Great Flood. Hebrew Texts, et cetera. It's all very interesting. Nordic being one of my most recent to look into. (My my my, how much they have remembered of Eden. . .)

I've also looked into the Talmud. Loved reading it. (I'll bet some of the demonology is where bayonet got some of it's stuff from.)


Sonic 06 took an Italian City, modeled the religion after Catholocism, and then made them worship a sun god.

I was really surprised by that, especially since the sun god is the bad guy in that game, and also because of how much Catholic Church DID take from sun god worship into this new religion known as the Christian faith.


People should not hold to beliefs when they know that they are false. We should always remember this, and try not to judge others unless we know it is very clear that they are just lying to themselves.

I also like making stories where the bad guys where white, and the good guys where black, or are associated with those colors. This is a big theme in my fanfiction, the Suki Saga. As well as an echoing truth in real life.

Even Satan comes as an angel of life.

iN008 :  I don't know about other religions, but to trust the media to "teach" you Christian doctrine?  No, not likely.  It of course depends on the source of the type of media and their core values. The moral compass of today's general media is so crooked, there's no definite, clear cut wrong or right.  "Just do whatever you feel as long as it doesn't harm others".  That's the message going out from popular media these days and that creates such confusion.  People are hungry for the truth, not for 50 (000) shades of grey.  It's already being created in your Bayonetta example and I quote, "it uses the Christian angelic heirarchy as a basis for the games enemies".  Here, angels, which are generally depicted as good by the world and in the Bible they are of course heavenly beings, beings of the light, are now suddenly the enemy?  However, you did not elaborate on what "type" of angels the game referred to, since there are angels and fallen angels (demons).  IMO, if you truly want to learn anything about Christianity, ask your questions here (;p) or consult a respected Christian website.  Obviously if you're not a Christian or in those circles you wouldn't know where to go for "Christian info".  To get it from a game in this example, is really not a good idea.  Being a Christian and having been in the gaming scene for a long time, I have looked really hard for games with a good moral message.  I'm not even bothering with looking for something with a true Christian slant / theme, because there is none, unless you're actually playing Christian games made by Christians.  I'm talking about the mainstream, really good looking, great playing, AAA titles e.g. Skyrim, Call of Duty, Battlefield, GTA etc.  These games are riddled with cursing and immoral themes.  Please, I'm not trying to put a trip on anyone and saying "games / gaming is evil".  That's in any case a totally different thread if there's anyone wanting to discuss it.  Due to my personal convictions, I stay away from them and honestly it's tough, because I enjoy the odd game, but like I said, I'm not going into that now.  So bottom line - there's nothing "Christian" to be learnt from these games.

"To address whether they use religion as evil can in some cases be good can it not?

True Christianity is not based on religious works and it also does not teach "blind faith".  What I mean by religious works is, you cannot buy your way into heaven by doing "good works" (giving to charities, saving rhinos, helping the poor and sick etc.).  It's like you are trying to bribe God by showing Him how good you are by your noble deeds.  The Bible teaches, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)  It is by repentance of sin and faith and trust in Jesus Christ only that you will be saved.  It is by the grace of God and it is a free gift.  You don't have to work for it.  Anyway, I'm just mentioning this as a side note.  Unfortunately, many leaders in the past has under the Christian flag, abused their position of power and forced their religion upon others.  Nazi Germany was a great example of this.  Hitler created his own religion and brainwashed a nation by making them think that they are the only "pure" race and if they wipe the "unclean" (in this case the Jews) from the face of the earth, they will obtain favour with God.  He has done all this in the name of Christianity and has thus painted a distorted picture of Christianity for the world.  There are many more examples.  Some blatant and some subtle.  So if this type of forced religion is painted as evil in a game, then I would definitely say it's a good thing.  Many however, will unfortunately tag Christianity to this type of religion and will group it under the BAD sign.  Hypocrisy is the single biggest killer of the Christian faith.  It is the main reason why people hate Christians, because many "Christians" talk the talk but they don't walk the walk.  On the other hand, hypocrisy is everywhere.  It's hard to find people that are true to their word these days.

"opinions of religion in legislation?"

I think I have covered that.

SoL@R : I in no way mean that you would necessarily learn anything from any form of adaption, however I feel that it does promote learning and research to discover the origin of inspiration. As for Bayonetta 2 using angels, it should be noted that both "angels" and demonic creatures are fought. It fits within the games own theme. They have more connotations to religious zealots than biblical angels in character, in the first game they minipulate a lumen sage into having the umbran clan wiped out, he then corrupts and profits until a time in which both he and the angels can return Jubileus, the creator, as the ruler of the trinity of reality. Regardless of moral thats what they do. Notice how both clans are harmonious to start with. They accept that they both dont follow the same ideals and do not seek to change them.

There are several connections to god with Jubileus, however from completing the second game we know that Jublieus is technically not the true god within the worlds game, the true god being Omne, with Jubileus and Sheba (dark) both being a part of her. Making neither of the sides fundamentally evil.

It should also be noted the three realms of the trinity get there bases from a poem called Divine comedy, a famous piece of Italian literature by Dante Alighieri where he draws upon medieval Christian theology and philosophy. If you haven't heard about it or read it wikipedia does provide links to read it online. It has many meanings behind it and bayonetta only goes so far into that, however I wouldn't known about it, yes I haved heard of the Divine Comedy but had no further knowledge, this was what I meant in the first place, where I have new found knowledge of something that had only been presented to me in a video game format.

I myself am agnostic and find value in religious teachings, whether they come from Christian sources, or less common religions from where I'm from i.e. Hinduism and Sikhism, morals and values can be acknowledged regardless of faith, I myself have studied several religions within the past to years, in school and out and find it notable that many values that are found through many different religions are the same. However when I've asked people about what their belief about how you gain entrance to heaven, I've received several different answers, do you believe there is a problem that there are so many different answers to the question?

I actually want to move on from bayonetta here and talk about it in more of a broad way, saying that games and television can teach, thought they might not teach true Christianity, it still shows themes surrounding a diety above us is still an interesting idea, or in your case, faith. I myself believe in rebirth but I partially think that the only reason is my instinctual fear of death, something present within everyone, faith can be used to keep us going, to reassure us. I understand I ask more than I explain, but I think reading someone elses thoughts is far more interesting.