Topic: The Binding of Isaac teased yet again

It's not just "fanatical" Christians that are made fun of (what do you consider fanatical, anyway?). Christians, and Christianity, are often mocked in very general terms. If any Christian points that out, they are labelled as fanatical, and told they have a persecution complex. That in itself is a form of persecution, and one you have demonstrated well.

And no, not all rights are privileges. Some rights are, or should be, inherent to every human, including the right to freedom of religion. Privileges are something special that only some enjoy, and can be lost.

?

I'm glad I could contribute to your paranoia.

This is getting very off topic. Mormons are some of the most made fun of Christians in the world, but media that insults, criticizes, or makes fun of them is released pretty frequently. So why shouldn't Bind of Isaac be able to come to 3DS? If Nintendo doesn't want to let it be on the system that is their issue to deal with, no one here can speak on Nintendo's behalf. BoI is about a developer expressing himself in a game, why should it not be allowed on the 3DS eShop in your opinion?

The sad thing about it is the chances are Issac was sacrificed. (They both go up together - only Abraham comes back which implies it was changed after the fact badly). The other bits seem like a copy and paste of Abrahams life.

Another thing I don't understand is as far as I know the only concern should be what God thinks any other opinions should be irrelevant. (And it seems to be the case for anybody I have spoken to who actually I regard as being a Christian.) The only time I can imagine it being a problem is if they don't really actually believe it.

(I was interested once in getting an exorcism just to see the whole bell book and candle thing actually done. Stopped when they wanted to get it done by a Bishop and require a psychiatric examination first. But what I thought was totally irrelevant but yet didn't cause any sort of offence).

I don't know much about Mormon beliefs, or how they're made fun of, so I'll have to ask, is it their belief that's made fun of, or the Mormons themselves? And if it is their belief, is it simply shown, or is it twisted and changed to make it insulting? BoI takes a story from the sacred text of Jews and Christians, twists it into something blatantly insulting to their faith, text, and prophet, and puts it into a disgusting game.

It's also worth mentioning that I've never heard of a game on Nintendo's systems that mocked Mormons. Even if they are commonly insulted, and even if those insults rival BoI, if Nintendo doesn't have the content on their platforms, it doesn't help your argument that BoI should be on Nintendo's platforms.

The fact that the developer is "expressing himself" doesn't excuse the content. A racist could make a game expressing their racism, but that wouldn't make it any less racist.

Have you even played the game before? Or where does this "it is twisting and insulting x and y religions blatantly blatant blant" argument you speak about comes from?

Honest question.

Facts about Mormons and what they believe are twisted all the time. No one has any say on what Nintendo is going to do. Why do you think this game shouldn't be on the eShop? Because it is insulting? People find Pokemon insulting, with its references to a God pokemon and evolution. People find Doom insulting but that came to Nintendo systems (edited but still came to the system). People find lots of different things insulting. Do you think this game directly insults your religion without understanding it or do you think someone expressed their experience with your religion and it was negative so they show it in a negative light. (again, i have only played this game for about 5 minutes, it is on my backlog of a bunch of humble bundle games I have gotten)

God's judgement is final, of course, but that doesn't mean Christians are fine with people dragging Him through the mud. BoI in no way affects my faith, and in no way affects God. Even so, I will point out that it is hateful and insulting. Imagine if someone took a story of your mom caring for you when you were sick, and changed it to your mom trying to make you worse. Their version of the story wouldn't change what happened, and probably wouldn't affect you or your mother, but you'd probably still be annoyed, and you'd probably still want to defend your mom, even if it wasn't necessary. BoI takes a story of strong faith and makes it a disgusting story of insanity and abuse.

If it doesn't affect you or your religion or your relationship with God, then why is it bothering you so much that people want to play this game on a particular platform? You have shown how this doesn't affect you at all.

@TheWiiMaster

This game is about child abuse and people with mental illness using god and religion to justify hurting their children. Play the game, there are free demos online. Stop spouting lies. You are the only one twisting things to fit your agenda.

No, I haven't. I don't need to play the game to know how it starts, plays, or ends, or what it's referencing. Isaac's mother is watching Christian TV when she believes she gets a message from God to kill her son (I had heard it was made out as insanity). Isaac flees into Hell, or something like Hell, and fights for his survival against various grotesque/disgusting enemies, all while getting stronger through equally grotesque/disgusting power-ups, culminating in a fight with his mom. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Because it is insulting to a specific group based on their religious beliefs. There's a difference between something being considered offensive (Pokemon, Doom, etc) and something specifically going after a group of people. BoI directly and blatantly insults Christianity, Judaism, and Jewish history. I guess you could call it the difference between taking and giving offense.

I said it didn't affect me. That doesn't mean I don't find the game hateful or insulting. Some guy could call me a racial slur as I walk by, and that wouldn't affect me either, but that doesn't make it okay.

If that's all it was about, I wouldn't have such a problem with it. I still wouldn't support it, but I wouldn't really care. As it is, I think the developer could have made the game that way very easily. All he had to do was not use Isaac's name. By using Isaac's name, he's basically telling his own version of Isaac's story, and his version goes against everything the original stands for. What was originally great faith, his version labels insanity and/or hatred. That is absolutely insulting. What have I twisted to come to that conclusion? Where did I lie about the game?

So you are caught up by the name? Other games and media have used the name Isaac. I am still lost on how it is insulting. He takes a story from the Bible and changes it... just because some people may not like what he changed it to doesn't make it insulting.

This is not a version of a tale from the bible. This game is not about the bible.

He used a tale from the bible as a base for the story, but it is not meant to replace the original story in any way.

Anyway, that's enough of this thread for today for me.

You are overemphasizing the religious aspect of the game. Sure there are religious themes, but the game does not use religion in an insulting manner at all. It is not about religion per se, but is rather about child abuse, mental illness and the creator coming to terms with his own experience as a child.

Artists have been using popular religious stories to explore various themes for a long long time. Examples: Milton's Paradise Lost, Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel according to John, Martin Scorsese's The last temptation of Christ, Darren Aronofsky's Noah, etc. These works of art are not created to insult or bash Christianity, but rather to explore popular stories or myths or beliefs in order to come to new understandings about themselves and the world.

Filtering one's own life experiences through a biblical story is not insulting. But you twist the themes and the story of the game in order to claim that this game is a direct attack on Christianity when it is clearly not.

Anyway, back to the game...

The demo is pretty fun and I would love to see it come to the eshop.

It's not simply the use of the name Isaac. People use Biblical names all the time. It's that he specifically borrowed it from the Bible because he was telling a warped version of the story of Isaac.

That's quite an understatement. He didn't just take a Bible story and change it a little. He twisted it to mean the opposite of what it originally meant, and made it disgusting. If someone was trying to insult the story of Isaac, they couldn't do a much better job.

It uses a character from the Bible, starts with a very similar premise to that character's Biblical story, and then warps it. It is the developer making his own version of the story. And whether the game is about the Bible is a matter of interpretation. It's very easy to interpret it as attacking faith in God.

Of course not. It's meant to twist the original story.