Pokemon ist Böööse (Antwort auf einen Text von Christen)

Ich gebe es ja zu, ich war etwas angepisst :)
Ich verlinke nicht zur Quelle zurück, weil ich die nicht fördern will.
Der Ursprüngliche Text stand auf einer (fundamentalistisch) christlichen Seite, die erzählte, dass Pokemon böse ist (hier in Kursivdruck dargestellt).
Nebenbei: Ich bin nicht christlich.

Pokemon ist Böööse (Answer to a text from christians)

Please Note: I am not a christian. If I make remarks about God, etc. that is for those who believe in that idea, because like that they can better grasp what I say.

First: Don't think I would discourage anyone from burning pokemon-cards. If I had some, I'd burn them, too, but not because I fear satan, but because I don't want children throwing their money into the mouth of some corporation, without getting back anything which is worth the money. They wouldn't be able to play with those cards for long, so they would have to keep buying all the time.

Some comments on your site might change that attitude in some time, though. It seems, that Pokemon helped very many people.

"A global games phenomenon, Magic: The Gathering is to the 1990s what Dungeons and Dragons was to the 1980s, but with the added dimension of collectibility. Here is the official reference to the biggest new teen/young adult fantasy game of the decade, complete with full-color reproductions of every existing Magic card."

Be AFRAID! Really. Maybe you also fear Harry Potter, which has a magic system, which is really far off from reality. "Wave around with a stick and say some words in pseudo-latin to evoke magic". It is just a tale, like the one with the two children burning the witch, but less violent.

But Ash underestimates the power of his opponent. When he and Sabrina meet for the fight, both hurl their chosen Pokemon into the air, but only Abra (who becomes Kadabra) evolves into a super-monster with a magic flash. Haunter hides. "Looks like your ghost Pokemon got spooked," taunts Sabrina.

Obviously, Ash didn't understand the supernatural powers he had confronted. Neither do most young Pokeman fans today.

And should you be right, then they learn to be careful.

"3. To teach young children a Biblical attitude toward evil before they learn to delight in gross, ugly characters, make comments such as, "Who would want to play with that evil monster? I don't even like to look at him. Let's find something that makes us feel happy inside."

That is a basic mistake. In the monster many youth see themselves, because every youth feels somehow displaced. If you tell a youth, "who would play with that monster", you say "who would play with you".

If you tell it "god loves everyone", and then tell it, that s/he doesn't love that monster, then you contradict yourself. Better ask yourself honestly, why your child wants to play a monster.

First thing to do is: Play yourself. If you see after some time, that the game isn't good for you, then it may be bad for your child.

But if you are afraid of New Age or Occult Symbols, then you give them power. Don't fear it, know it instead and don't use it, if you think it bad.

I would call myself not religious, and I don't know if god exists, so I can't judge that. Still I play role-playing games, and I see them as a great thing to build my character. Instead of covering your children in fear, that they might become bad evil worshippers, you could tell them of the positive things roleplaying can teach them. Or are you afraid, that they might believe, that monsters from D&D exist?

Most roleplayers I know can quite clearly distinguish between fantasy and reality, because a roleplayer always comes back to abstract terms (like HP: 50, TP, 1d+3), and thus draws a clear border between those two.

"It seemed to us that these cards had some sort of power," continued DiAnna Brannan. "Another nine-year-boy had stolen money from his mother's purse ($7.00) to buy more cards. When questioned, he confessed and said he had heard the devil urging him to do it. The family quickly gathered in prayer, then saw God's answer. Both the boy and his little sister burned their cards, warned their friends, and discovered the joy and freedom that only comes from following their Shepherd. "

You are afraid!

Mrs. DiNozzi refused to let her son participate in the "Magic club." But a classmate gave him one of the magic cards, which he showed his mother. It was called "Soul exchange" and pictured spirits rising from graves. Like most other cards in this ghastly game, it offered a morbid instruction: "Sacrifice a white creature."

Now you were afraid?

There are things, which your children should keep away from as long as they are children (but not be kept away). One of that is "Demon: The Fallen". There they would possibly learn those negative reactions you describe. Also they should keep away from "Vampire: The Masquerade", but not because playing a Vampire means a connection to the occult, but because it encourages betraying others and seeing humans as prey and inferior.

Inform yourself about those games, read them, play them two or three times, and then play some games which are set at an age limit below 16. As far as I know, your children aren't allowed to play those two games, at least not in my country.

You don't have to disallow it, you have to teach them, why they aren't allowed to play those games.

If you immerse yourself in games like that, you walk a narrow road. Emotions, especially the dark one, are strong and a tie to your own soul, but you have to be careful not to fall in to them, so that you don't become depressed. The world is a nasty place, and some of the games I play and lead are even more nasty, but when the gaming session ends, I dispel the dark by going back to the light, by describing a sunrise, the return of a loved one, or similar scenes. Even a nicely done joke can do that, and the true christ is that one, who tells the joke, when everyone shakes with fear, and really manages to make everyone laugh, so that all can begin to let go of their hate and act out of love again.

I tell you, that love can do, what hate will never manage.

Walking in the dark is something christians did in all times, but they always fought that dark, and that is, what I enable my players and myself to do.

Fighting the dark in a world, which has faded to grey.

What do you do? Fight the dark, where you think you see it? Then you might fight the light instead, but never realize it.

Christianity brought so much suffering to this world by fighting the "dark", that you should be careful when choosing your enemies.

"What does 'summon' mean?" he asked his mother after school one day.

"Summon? Why do you ask?"

And now you were afraid, that they really summoned the powers of evil into themselves?

That fear is, what gives negative forces power. If you believe, that they are summoning the devil upon themselves by calling out like that, then you endanger them. Let go of that fear.

It's not surprising that deadly explosions of untamed violence suddenly erupt from "normal" teens across our land.

From those teens, whose mothers can't spend time with them, because they have to work the whole day, and still haven't got enough to eat?

Good god, you really see the devil in all things. The problem there is human made, and a problem, which christs could solve! Look around you, and see the suffering. If your god said anything, then that you should help the weak! Those children are the weakest of the weak, and noone helps them.

Don't keep them away from role-playing, give them something to eat and a goal in their life instead!

Occult role-playing games teach the same dangerous lessons. They also add a sense of personal power and authority through personal identification with godlike superheroes. Though the demonic realm hasn't changed, today's technology, media, and multicultural climate makes it easier to access, and harder than ever to resist its appeal.

If you see the demonic realm everywhere, then you already entered it.

"Did the devil tell you that?"

.o(If I tell her, that I just wanted to be better than my friends, then she'll be angry)o.

"Yes, he did! I heard him calling from the cards!"

"Let us pray and burn those cards."

.o(Damn. Ha! I got the solution! I'll just tell my friends tat the cards are evil, and only evil persons play with them. Then I am better than my friend, because I burned them first!)o.

But before I stop with that I will comment a bit on your answerstopokemon:

I mention this, because the passion many of you express illustrates the kind of obsession that worries parents and grandparents across the country. Some children, when asked to stop playing these games and rejoin the family, either ignore their parents or rage at them.

That passion is something, which gets people motivated. It only draws children away from their families when they aren't tolerated in there, because they don't come in time for dinner.

Many children today spend far more time in the mythical world of television and movies than they do learning the facts about the real world.

THAT is the real problem.

Why don't their parents have time for them?

It was great for me, that I read your article. Before I thought christianity as a religion talking about love and loving your neighbors. You last three paragraphs showed me, that what you call belief is a set of rules, which I couldn't have written much better, if I wanted to found a sect.

Some quotes from you:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will."

No one can really understand God’s truths or Scriptures unless His Spirit opens our minds to understand.

"the message of the cross is foolishness" to those who reject God

All this is very comforting for the members of a sect. Noone else can understand it, and noone else needs to understand it.

If you took the love for each other out of that religion you would have the perfect power-focus.

Sadly it wouldn't be "good" anymore.

The only thing, which breaks out of the pure power-basis is love. Love is the single emotion, which is able to draw enemies together, but most christs I know, don't allow themselves to feel real love for someone else, because their love belongs to god (and because being touching each other is "bad").

Hey, you already took the love for each other out of it.

If the pain and joy of love wack your body and heart, you know, what too many people miss.

Recover your own life, and you see, that christianity isn't everything.

But I have to admit, that it is very comforting to be a christ. Rules you have to life by, and restrictions, which reduce the uncertainty and pain which come with new discoveries and with foreign or even alien experiences. Sadly they also kill the joy of new experiences.

The christian values aren't bad, but the stricture with which you follow them is. That is my opinion.

You say, you walk a narrow road, but I say, that your road leads to destruction. Now, after reading your article (and reading it again while ignoring the attacks against pokemon and concentrating on the way you used to attack) I see, that your way goes too far off the human nature.

Your way is the way of an extremist, and extremists harm the society they live in. You don't walk the way of God, but the way of the WORD OF GOD, which is a REPRESENTATION of God and thus you shouldn't worship it.

A bit of the self-restraint you use is good, because it helps in the creation of new things, (more specifically: the development of science), but the way you go to it is so hard, that it breaks the life, and creates fear of life.

Be alive, feel alive and live a life!

And a last quote:

"Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - let your mind dwell on these things." (Philippians 4:7-8)

I really like that one. This text tells me: See the good in things!

Try seeing the good in pokemon, and see the good in role-playing-games, then you'll follow the word of your apostle!

And read this, besides. It explains some of the good points about role-playing:

http://members.aol.com/essuncius/cover3.html

And (last point): Watch "Bowling for Columbine", and let loose of that fear.

I'd be happy to read your answer.

PS: "Could you be confusing resurrection with resuscitation, Devin? Paramedics provide emergency care for those who are having a near-death crisis such as a serious stroke, heart attack or drowning. While paramedics and doctors might revive or resuscitate someone whose heart or pulse disappear for several minutes, they can't bring back to life someone who has actually been dead for a long period of time. Jesus had been dead from Friday to Sunday morning. His miraculous resurrection has never been duplicated."

Seems you don't take the development of science into account. Jesus was dead for only 48 hours. Today people who have been dead for 15 minutes can sometimes be revived. How do you know, if reviving someone after 48 hours will not be possible in 50 years? Reconstructing the cell-structure doesn't seem so far away.

Or would that be against the bible and therefore have to be forbidden?

PPS: "Evil may surround us on all sides, but you have believed a lie. Opposites don't have to complement each other. Can't you see a beautiful rose without garbage in the background? Can't you appreciate a magnificent sunset over the ocean without also seeing something ugly? How about kindness and genuine love? "

No. I couldn't see a beautiful rose AS BEAUTIFUL, when everything was beautiful, because I couldn't distinguish it. And I am pretty sure, that you couldn't either.

But a not quite as beautiful rose would be ugly, when everything was beautiful.

If I didn't know, that there are things, which aren't beautiful, I would see beauty as normal aka boring.

Kindness is considered normal in many cultures.

I also wouldn't recognize love, if I was in love al the time. It would be normal.

PPPS: You made several claims in your answers to mail, that you didn't support with anything.

PPPPS: Some more thing, sadly:

Where did you get that idea, Mewtwo? From suggestions in various anime myths? The bigger problem is failing to realize that human nature is not naturally good. I could cite some studies but I would have to find the documentation.

Exactly as I could cite studies, which showed, that humanity is good. Grow out of the study-believing. There are studies to everything and saying everything about it. Just explain, why.

PPPPPS: Look up the word "occult" in your dictionary and see if it doesn't fit. Remember, the powers of the Pokemon are not "natural." No human or animal can do such feats. They win by supernatural power, and the trainers essentially control that power by their will.

What happens, if I push a button and wondrously a bolt of lightning flashes through the air. That isn't natural, either. Is it bad?

What would you say, if every Pokemon was just a toy, produced by high technology, which created those powers?

They would be nothing else, then utilities. Do you dislike them, because they are beings, who possess that powers?

Do you dislike fish which produces strong electrical bolts? Sadly those are natural. Their muscles produce the energy for those bolts. So how can a bolt be supernatural? It could just be a variety in nature, which we don't know yet.

Fear of the unknown... FEAR OF THE DARK! *gg*

PPPPPPS: My point is that any symbol or mythical expression of supernatural powers not from God would fit into the realm of the occult. The Bible calls the source of those powers evil.

"What isn't mine is evil. Destroy the symbols of others, because they are evil. Throw down those F****** towers."

Oups. Someone else listened to you. What they did is now called 9/11.

I don't support what they did, and I don't support you.

P7S: If I only found one occult card in a pack of Magic cards, I would say the whole deck is corrupted. The entire context changes when overtly occult images are used to provide thrilling entertainment.

"If I only found one wrong deed from christianity, I would say the whole christianity is corrupted. The entire context changes, when nice words are used to cover horrible crimes."

P8S: From HP and the Power of Suggestion "The love of servitude cannot be established except as the result of a deep, personal revolution in human minds and bodies. To bring about that revolution we require, among others... a greatly improved technique of suggestion through infant conditioning ...."

Also called the christian church.

P9S: Does the nature of an oak tree change? Does the basic genetic code of a human change without human interference? While water is continually moving, does its quantity change?

1.) What do you call the nature

2.) The genetic code changes, yes. We name that mutation. If it didn't change, then humanity wouldn't exist. We would be single cells swimming in the sea, or not even that, because it needed a change to bring us to life.

3.) Yes, the quantity of the water changes, as long as the water isn't in a waterpipe, and thus restrained from flowing naturally.

P10S: The Mewtwo character was given life, consciousness, emotions, senses, personality, desire for love, awareness of values, supernatural power -- all the characteristics most pagan gods demonstrate. Those are not the characteristics one usually associates with a "weapon" or "tool."

Ask the robot-scientists that question, and you'll get a different answer. Let me translate roughly: "Humans can use robots more naturally if they react in a fashion, the human mind can interpret easily.", which just means, that robots should display emotions, which humans understand, to make them more useful.

P11S: I do! When we relegate God to second place -- or less -- we are no longer close to Him and enjoying His presence. Nothing is more exciting than walking with Him. I'd rather have Jesus than anything!

If you heard your god telling you, that you should bomb a city, would you do it and take down the two towers? What if someone tricked you into believing the message came from god?

Your attitude seems dangerous to me.

P12S: "Dragon is bad ..."

The image of the dragon is one, which Freuds teachings show as the primal human nature and the female mother, whom the dragonslayer had to kill. That it appears in the bible as bad only shows that the writers also feared the primal nature of humanity.

You cannot make better (very much), what you fear, so you must say, that you are not part of it, or try to kill that part.

Best Wishes,

Arne Babenhauserheide ( https://www.draketo.de )

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