D&D
I would first like to say that I have been playing D&D for several years now, playing the pen and paper game as well as many D&D computer games (Neverwinter Nights for example.) I have enjoyed playing the pen and paper version with many different groups of people in different parts of the country. So I think I can give an accurate depiction of what happens at a normal game.
I would first like to make some arguments against what others have said here before making refutations to William Schnoebelen's work
http://www.chick.com/articles/dnd.asp and
http://www.chick.com/articles/frpg.asp
. After that, I will give several reason why you
should play D&D.
To the posters:
1) I would like to point out how many of you automaticly assume that somthing is evil before giving it a second thought. I would pose a challange to you: Give me five things which are not
evil and are not religious in nature.
2)To Deuteronomy 18: Remeber, this is old testement, IT IS NOT CRISTIAN, not to say that it has no anilitical merit, but assuming we are based on a Cristian standard, we look at the teachings of Christ, who hung around prostitutes and tax collectors, not holy saintly people.
To William Schnoebelen's articles:
He writes: "Today shelves in major bookstores literally groan under the weight of various of books on Wicca, for example. Some of these books, like TEEN WITCH, are written for young readers. There is even a DUMMIES GUIDE TO WICCA AND WITCHCRAFT!! When D&D started, you could perhaps find four or five books on Wicca in print.
Now, obviously not all of this can be laid at the door of D&D. But in the 1970's, it was one of the major cultural phenomena that planted the seeds that have sprouted into Harry Potter and all the occult books and movies."
But he never again tells you why it planted the seed, He sets a
post hoc fallacy, or says that just becuase somthing came before the second, it was the cause of the second.
Will goes on to talk about how there are different charachters in the game, such as Wizards, Palidins, Fighters, Barbarians, Druids, Clerics, and Monks (which are
i agree a more eastern varient.)
Then he goes about attacking each one of these.
The Wizards may be bad, ok I will agree to that,
the fighters, monks and Barbarians may randomly kill, so that could be bad,
but when it comes to the Druids Clerics and Palidins, those can be really good.
Druids are at one with nature and natures god, they seek only to protect nature and its creatures. Yes, they get spells after some expirence, but these are from the power of nature, not some demi-god.
Palidins and Clerics: I will cite the players handbook: pg 29 "A cleric uses the power of his god to make his god's will manifest. [...] Clerics are masters of divine magic. Divine magic is especially good at healing. Even an inexperienced cleric can bring people back from the brink of death..."
I think if we fond a god worshiping person in our world who could cure wounds we might call him a saint.
And finally, D&D is a fantasy role playing game. There are several things this impacts: (1) It is not real, who cares. (2) It gives you the ability to choose what you want to do with your charachter's life, your charachter is not you, so it can't be tied to your values, but if it were, your charachter could still do good.
I would like to explain some things which are good about D&D:
It teaches children good values; these include: empathy, your child will be able to ask herself, how does this person feel when I do that;
friendship, your child will find an activity to do with friends (and even you!) which would keep them off the streets and from doing drugs, etc. ;
it nourishes a creative imagination, somthing which great people like Dante had to use to bring us all closer to God in his works;
it promotes teamwork, charachters often group together in partys to achive a quest.
If these things are bad, then I don't know what is good.
I would invite people to attack what I have said here, I would like to respond to you arguments and clarify my ideas
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