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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Category: Weirdness
Posted on: January 24, 2008 8:30 AM, by PZ Myers
It's safe, it's harmless, it's a good way to vent: Faith Fighter! Pick your favorite deity and pound the space bar until your enemies are unconscious.
When you look at the list of opponents, you might wonder why atheism is not represented. That's because atheism is the real world matrix upon which the religious fantasies are exercised — therefore, the godless parts are the computers and networks upon which it is played. (Yeah, I know, way too much philosophy for a mindless kick-punch game.)
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Comments
Posted by: Krystalline Apostate | January 24, 2008 8:51 AM
Well, that, & 'we don't need no stinkin' deities'.Posted by: True Bob | January 24, 2008 8:53 AM
Well, that was a lame game. The big plus was while I was Buddha fighting Cheeses, FSM floated by in the background.
Posted by: Peter | January 24, 2008 8:59 AM
Can you believe this?- The faith fighter site is blocked by the IT department at my biological research institute! It's been categorized as 'sex'. Ha! I'm quite sure that the IT people, unlike most of the researchers on campus, are very religious and think faith fighter is too disrespectful for a work environment. sucks.
Posted by: Aaron | January 24, 2008 8:59 AM
Meh, I really prefer Bible Fight.
Posted by: Italo M. R. Guedes | January 24, 2008 9:44 AM
I have been reading your blog for quite a long time and something that always worried me was that the creationism epidemics plaguing the US and other coutries might also infect Brazil. Well, I don´t have to worry anymore. You are probably not aware of the coverage in Brazilian press of the fact that our Environment Minister, Ms. Marina Silva, has recently declared herself an ardent creationist, even defending the teaching of this superstition in school, since evolution has showed itself ineffective in explaining nature, according to her. It may not surprise you that Brazil is not exactly a top ranker in scientific education and that she is a very influent politician and "opinion shaper" around here. Please, spread the word.
Posted by: JJ Wally | January 24, 2008 9:46 AM
Maybe the final boss - Xenu, the alien overlord who shoots nuclear bombs at you can be the atheist representation?
Posted by: Lledowynn | January 24, 2008 10:16 AM
#6, Nah, since the whole point is to beat the snot out of Xenu at the end. What they really need to do is to add the FSM as a deity that you can play, and that can be the atheist representation. ;-)
Posted by: Ozymandias | January 24, 2008 10:52 AM
How about atheism be represented by a simple human being. Their special attack can be lighting a candle, and when any opponent deity comes close enough to the light they just fade away.
Posted by: Stephen | January 24, 2008 12:13 PM
Nothing Adult Swim does is good.
Nothing.
Posted by: AtheistAcolyte | January 24, 2008 12:28 PM
xkcd should be the atheist representative.
http://xkcd.com/54/
http://www.xkcd.com/store/try_science_shirt_300.png
Posted by: Evan | January 24, 2008 12:29 PM
I would have liked to have played the Invisible Pink Unicorn. Or maybe Russel's Teapot.
Posted by: skyotter | January 24, 2008 1:24 PM
i *did* pick & play the IPU. what, you didn't see Her?
Posted by: True Bob | January 24, 2008 1:29 PM
Troglodyte.
;)
Posted by: Sergiy | January 24, 2008 1:59 PM
Wally, Xenu is from Scientology. And I thought it was hilarious to have him as the secret final boss. I must have missed the FSM, though.
Posted by: Leon | January 24, 2008 3:19 PM
Peter, on a serious note, your IT dep't probably isn't blocking it deliberately. Most IT departments use subscribe to a service that crawls Web sites and categorizes them. The IT department simply tells their blocking software which categories to block and which to allow. Certainly that's how it works in my department. So most likely it's the crawling service that's got it flagged inappropriately (in both senses of the word).
PZ, I'm surprised at you! Atheism isn't represented because you're supposed to pick a deity. Since atheism isn't a religion (remember our pet peeve about people saying atheism is a religion), it doesn't have a deity to represent it.
Posted by: Syckls | January 24, 2008 5:07 PM
Actually, I was really looking forward to fighting Richard Dawkins as the final boss. Although on a personal level it's nice for me to fight Xenu; it was after seeing how ridiculous Scientology was and then realizing the hypocrisy of my own religious belief that led me down the path of deconversion.
Posted by: Michael X | January 24, 2008 5:13 PM
I always laugh when someone goes out of their way to do something sacrilegious and then adds a disclaimer that says they don't mean to offend anyone. But when Mohammed gets a disclaimer all to himself tagged with "peace be upon him", I'm just forced to shake my head.
The whole disclaimer only needed "Please angry muslims, don't kill me."