basic overview - you are the god of a small village in a polytheistic world.  to exist, you need people to worship you, and the more worship you get, the more powerful you become.  you compete with other gods to win over other villagers, by showing off your powers any way you can.  you can be as good or as evil as you like.  also, you eventually get a large animal of your choosing as your physical representative; you can train it to help your followers, attack others, etc.  that's the game in a nutshell.

My dad went to an OSC (the author of Ender's Game) writing seminar that lasted several days.  That must've been cool.
Yes, there is a movie coming out, scheduled for 2006.  There will be differences from the book, but OSC is helping with it.

Black & White sounds like it might be fun to try, but I couldn't imagine spending as much time on that as I do other games...

I think Rogue is right on about playing God.  I don't think we are capable of playing God correctly, so I wouldn't play Him at all.  Just to be safe ;)
As for playing other gods, or demigods, or whatevers, as long as they are in the fantasy realm, I think it is okay.  Hey, it might actually strengthen your belief in God.

So then Elfear, what if you're not christian? Is it ok to play other gods then?

I've met OSC several times.  Nice guy.

Truth is, to some extent we play God all the time, certainly whenever we make a child.

Yeah, but we have God's explicit permission for that, thankfully.

Not always...

We also play God whenever we are promoting our religion, whenever we make anything, whenever we make a decision that affects another human being, etc.

except that we're not really playing god with a lot of those things - we're playing human.  every theistic religion that i've examined includes a bit about humans having free will; judaism and christianity even have god explicitly saying so.  using our free will to do things that affect other people or promote our beliefs or whatever isn't supposed to be an imitation of the divine, it's people doing what people are supposed to do.

And just what are people supposed to do?  They're supposed to act like God. QED

I can back Heath on his comment/question. Freewill means we can choose on our own, it doesn't mean anything we want is good for us.

i never said that.  all i was saying is that the whole "playing god" line is overused and not particularly meaningful.  and if we agree with



then it becomes irrelevant.

Sorry, but your comment about relevance does not make sense to me.  How is it irrelevant?  So we should not follow the example God set for us or do as he asks?

I don't get what you're saying.

josh brings a very interesting point.

Many Christian conservatives are against the concept of genetic manipulation in humans because it is "playing God." However, men are supposed to act Godly, that is like God, or righteous. If man is supposed to act like God this would seem to contradict the statement above.

Josh? I copied it right from your post. I highlighted it with red.


There's a bit of word play there. Where did you read we are supposed to design worlds, universe's, life, and everything there ever is.
We are human. And humans are to exhibit qualities of God, not acts of God. You're playing word games Fish.

Word games? Perhaps. But word games are still interesting, are they not? It still seems paradoxical how acting like God in some ways is a good thing, and acting like God in other ways is bad. Tell me, rogue, how does one exhibit qualities of God without acting in God's likeness?

The opposition to genetic manipulation is a good point, but it stands for the opposite of the way it was used above.  Whenever we "play God," we must be very careful.  God has infinite wisdom; we do not.  When we begin playing around with genetic manipulation, there are ethical and moral considerations -- including the limited capacity of Man -- that must be taken into account.  In other words, I am not opposed to genetic manipulation so long as Man can guarantee it is right and good.  However, I doubt such a guarantee will be possible in the near future.

In other words, NoFish, you missed the point.  Acting like God is always a good thing, but that means acting like God with responsibility, wisdom and knowledge.

For example:
Making children=playing God.
Making children out of wedlock=not a good choice in playing God (i.e. certainly not acting like God).

Genetic manipulation does not change the rules, just the scope.

You'll have to explain paradoxical to me. Why is it paradoxical, because you said it in a certain way, or because you thought of it in a certain way?

I earlier asked where does it say we should create our own worlds, universes, and life in the bible? (it doesn't) So really, where did you get the idea we should literally try and do acts of God?

As to your question Fish, who said exhibitig qualities of God is not in God's likeness? I believe I have already answered this question.

I agree with Rogue in substance, if not in totality.

Assume we had the wisdom and knowledge of God; then perhaps the Bible would tell us we could try to do everything God does.  Until that point, God's word leads us down the safe path towards him, which often assumes we are not wise enough to do everything that God would do.

For in our ignorance, if we try to play God, we may end up playing the Devil.

"So then Elfear, what if you're not christian? Is it ok to play other gods then?"

Whether you are Christian or not does not affect whether playing god is ok.  However, it may affect whether or not you care.  A non-christian wouldn't care if it is ok to play god, as he doesn't believe any god exists anyway.

Again, it all depends on what you do as god, and whether or not you can keep it in the realm of fantasy.  The fact is, we can't judge for others when they have stepped over the line into what is not okay.  We can sometimes see that they did so in the past, but we can never judge when.  Only they can do that.

One point, I asked if it were ok to play other gods, not God. And there are many non christians who believe in God, or gods.

I am not asking you to judge them, I'm asking if it's ok to tell someone that even without a guiding God, they can do whatever they want?

Erm...could you rephrase that?
I'm not axactly sure what you are trying to ask...

my theory on playing god is this.

If god did not want us to play god at all then why did he give us the mental capacity to allow ourselves to. if god is allpowerful than how come he would allows to blatantly go against his edict like that.

That really goes more on the subject of free will. Here's a few explanations:
1. God is a parent, not a tyrant, he wants us to be our own people.
2. God wants us to be righteous. One cannot be righteous unless one does good with intent of being good.
3. Lucifer's rebellion against God loosened his grasp on us, thus granting us free will.

Just because he is not a so-called tyrant. If he did create us why did he create us with the ability to choose. he could have created us with out that ability and it would have saved him a load of problems. If you were to follow christianity to the book (no pun intended) you would want to end all other religions. Why would someone who is supposed to be nurturing and protective want this. that is my main problem with christianity. it is phoebic against all other religions. if you cant have a choice then why would he even give you one.

This has been done. Look in the topic on free will. You can find that here: link to a message in "Community Chat:Religion"

oh i did not see that. but ohwell. it still stands.