Games vs. Religion as Violent Inspiration
Hm, interesting how the media jumps all over it when a shooter appears to be (like the vast majority of kids in USA) a player of video games which have violent content. But how relatively silent they are when the harebrained “cause” might be religion. Examples abound, not the least of which are those, whether they be Christian, Muslim, Jew or other, (hm, few Buddhists…) who readily discard their lives or that of others to pursue a religious ideal in act of “war”, as they define it. To be more direct, I notice that in an article about the Viginia Tech shooter Seung Hui Cho, aka “Ax Ishmael”, his putative religious delusions are described but in no way commented on as a cause of his horrific act. As well they should not.
My point is not that religion, any more than games, can *drive* someone to violence. It takes a more deeply rooted insanity to justify killing others in any but the most extreme circumstances of obvious self-defense. In my opinion, religion seems to be a far better *fuel* for that insanity than games ever have been, but that’s another discussion to pursue later.
Tags: harmful-games, Politics, school-shootersCho, 23, of Centreville, whose family was religious and had sought help for him from a Woodbridge church, repeatedly made religious references. He said that he had been “crucified” and that, as with Jesus, his actions would set people free. He called himself a “martyr” who would “sacrifice” his life. He wrote that he would go down in history as the “Jesus Christ of the Weak and Defenseless.” He thought his actions would inspire others to fight back and get even.
Among the writings, Cho included three pictures of himself, which investigators think show how his self-image progressed. In the first picture, he is smiling. In the next, his arms are outstretched like Jesus’s on the cross. And in the third, his arms are crossed as if he is lying dead in a coffin, agents said.
