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From: al@mot.UUCP (Al Filipski)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp,net.religion
Subject: Re: Re: FRP games--a work of the devil... :-(
Message-ID: <315@mot.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Sep-85 19:31:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: mot.315
Posted: Thu Sep 26 19:31:56 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Sep-85 21:26:24 EDT
References: <6601@ucla-cs.ARPA> <16240@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ  85282
Lines: 34
Xref: utcs net.games.frp:1919 net.religion:7634

> >
> >using magic to do so, so this argument can't be carried too far.  The main
> >point has to be the distinction between fantasy and reality.
> 
>         Thank you, Frank, for getting to the heart of the matter. The
> main point IS (emphasis mine) the distinction between fantasy and reality.
> The Bible makes many injunctions against the use of witchcraft, sorcery,
> and such like. Christians who are following the teachings of the Bible
> MUST NOT engage in such activities. 
>         If, in the course of a D&D game, the DM starts handing out spells
> which have been in the past, or are currently being used by certain
> religious groups (i.e. Satanists, Voo-Doo, etc.), the
> play ceases to be fantasy and becomes reality no matter what your own
> personal religious beliefs are. By reality I mean that someone once or
> still takes them seriously.

This is an unusual definition of reality.  Does a Christian have to
find out what everybody else's rituals are so that he can avoid them?
If some fraud or mental case makes up a belief system with chants
and gets others to adopt them, do the chants take on some power?
It seems to me that a Christian who frames his outlook in this way
is giving the "Satanists" a great deal of power as far as defining
reality goes. Why should a Christian believe a Satanist when the
latter makes some claim about what is real?  Does believing in evil
spirits mean believing everything anyone says about them?
This is similar to the Christians who accept without question statements 
of "Satanists" about the vast extent of their conspiratorial activities.

No offense meant to anybody by the above, just curious about people's
criteria for judging what to believe.
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Alan Filipski, UNIX group, Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ U.S.A
{seismo|ihnp4}!ut-sally!oakhill!mot!al  |   ucbvax!arizona!asuvax!mot!al
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