Sacred Symbols+, Episode 167: Gaming While Christian (Video)

This podcast discussion was what convinced me to become a Patron. Props to both of you!

Tyran Batten

Glad to do it! Thanks, Zac! -Paeter

Paeter Frandsen

Great conversation. Thank you Colin for exploring this & thank you Paeter for sharing your heart. As a filmmaker and as a christian, this was one of the most enjoyable discussions I’ve heard in a long time.

Zac Stracener

There is no one in the gaming industry having such interesting conversations as Colin.

James Buck

Man what an awesome episode. My favourite so far. I'm a Jehovah's witness and have been my whole life. So I often come across things that I feel o shouldn't play, watch or listen to. So hearing who others deal with those issues has been very educational.

James Buck

Thanks for listening and for the encouragement, Mark! -Paeter

Paeter Frandsen

Thanks for your thoughts, Kevin! I think emotions serve really well as "attention-getters", that can than lead us to a more logical evaluation of an idea. They help draw our attention to things, but work best if they are not the actual decision-maker for us. -Paeter

Paeter Frandsen

Just finished, was a great episode. If possible I would like to see more of these kind of episodes discussing religion in general and maybe also how popular media uses the themes of Christ very often (self sacrifice for the greater good at the cost of death and resurrection that you find in Harry Potter, LOTR, Marvel movies etc)

Tim

Will definitely check this one out soon, thanks for having a Christian on your show. I think many would be hesitant to do this. One thing that lead me back to Christianity was realizing how similar the mythology of lots of games and movies were and that Christianity gives you a lens to live that out in life. So look forward to seeing his take on things!

Tim

Nice job Colin and Paeter!! I will preface my comment by saying I am not a gamer and have never had any interest in gaming from the first Pong, if that was the beginning. I joined about 3 months ago to support Colin, Dustin, and all since I am Dustin's father-in-law. My closest connection to gaming has been watching Dustin and our other son-in-law playing a couple games. I have retired from a 43 year career as a technician and engineer for utility companies, 25 years in telecom attempting to provide gamers with more and more bandwidth. LOL Paeter, I find the calling to your ministry great! As you as well as Colin know God is the author of beauty. That includes the arts, which I find a lot of art in gaming. As you know our daughter Holly is a musician; while our other daughter is a visual artist. As a technical person, I have been surrounded by art; my wife is a musician as well. To the point, over the last 2 or 3 generations, Christians have given the arts over to the secular world. I am glad to see both of you, along with Dustin and Ben who I also know, reclaiming a new art form for Christians. I'll check back in on some other podcasts, but don't fault me if I tune out when I don't know what you are talking about in a particular podcast! LOL

Great episode. One of the great things that video games can do is allow us to view another’s perspective by enlisting our faculties, e.g. emotional responses, rational capacities, motor skills, empirical sense data, etc. the speaker seemed somewhat concerned with the coercive power of emotional responses but I think it is very possible for emotions to act as rational prima facie value judgements. Is it not reasonable to fear a home invader? But also, if one were to feel disgust when seeing an interracial couple or homosexual couple, they may have to dig further into their value structures to interrogate their deeply held beliefs. Self interrogation is a great undertaking. Protecting people from having to discern for themselves or choosing for them is not great and it seems this speaker is not advocating for that, which is good. I think it is the job of the individual, the community, and the government to equip people with the power of discernment through education. The world is the courtroom of ideas and it should decide.

Kevin R Lord

No one brought up the Darksiders series!? There's so much pseudo-biblical lore in that series!

Daniel B

Very interesting discussion. 👍🏻

BettyAnn Moriarty

I found this very interesting being someone who believes in a creator but not agreeing with most people around me that have the same belief. For me, BioShock Infinite is a game that really spoke to me on a spiritual level for many reasons.

Levelupbrady

I didn’t want to say it in fear of sounding rude, but I totally agree. As someone who was forced to go to church for 18 years, I couldn’t get through more than 10 minutes of this one. Sorry y’all!

Fat Gotenks

Definitely not a fan of this one. Found myself rolling my eyes quite a bunch. Coming from a very religious background growing up in the church, I didn't find much of this conversation useful. Looking forward to the next episode!

Thanks for that! Obviously I'm biased, but I definitely agree. There are a ton of biblical moral/wisdom principles that would benefit even those who do not believe in the theological foundations for them. So many pitfalls and pains in life that can surprisingly be avoided that way. Thanks for sharing your perspective. -Paeter

Paeter Frandsen

Great discussion, I've long said that Atheists like myself can learn a lot from people of faith and their works. Just because we don't believe the same things doesn't mean that we cannot gain some perspective or even useful information from people that are religious, we should not shun them. Morality has its roots in religion and yet we live our lives in the context of morality and the choices we make every day whether or not we are believers in a God.

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