Pagans: do you take offense from the numerous fictional depictions of your gods?

[an anarchist]

I started playing two separate video games this week that is “mythology” themed: Age of Mythology and Titan Quest. They use the Greek mythology as backdrop and characters for the game. And it’s not the first game I have played that has used pagan gods as characters. Hades has several charming depictions of the gods. That’s not even talking about other forms of media, such as movies and TV shows, where there is plenty of fantastical depictions of pagan gods as well.

Pagans, do you take offense?

This is a bit before my time, but Life of Brian got a bunch of Christians mad when it came out. Now, imagine a video game where you have to kill an evil tyrannical Jesus Christ. On your journey to kill Jesus, you have to kill His superpowered 12 disciples along the way (boss battles). That would maybe get some Christians mad. Idk, it’s not the 1900’s anymore so maybe Christians wouldn’t take offense. My point is, in the scenario, if you replace the Christian lore with pagan lore then you got an average already has been made before video game.

I think the assumption by people who make media is that there is no pagans to offend. This is of course wrong, but Christianity is no doubt the majority religion, so media makers would probably try not to offend them while making video games at the expense of pagan beliefs.

 

[Quintessence]

I think the assumption by people who make media is that there is no Pagans to offend.

For the most part, these folks are not depicting contemporary Pagans so it's no big deal.

What you write here?

That, actually, is what offends me - that stupid assumption. Not that it happens, but the complete and utter lack of any consideration whatsoever. And the failure to capitalize Pagan like literally every other religion gets capitalized. I genuinely don't expect anything other than a complete and total lack of any consideration whatsoever and continued failure to properly capitalize Paganism, but that's not a good thing. Especially not when demographically we're comparable to the number of Buddhists or Hindus in my country (aka, somewhere in the ballpark of 1% of the population each).

 

[an anarchist]

For the most part, these folks are not depicting contemporary Pagans so it's no big deal.

What you write here?

That, actually, is what offends me - that stupid assumption. Not that it happens, but the complete and utter lack of any consideration whatsoever. And the failure to capitalize Pagan like literally every other religion gets capitalized. I genuinely don't expect anything other than a complete and total lack of any consideration whatsoever and continued failure to properly capitalize Paganism, but that's not a good thing. Especially not when demographically we're comparable to the number of Buddhists or Hindus in my country (aka, somewhere in the ballpark of 1% of the population each).

Didn’t mean to offend.

 

[an anarchist]

What you write here?

That, actually, is what offends me - that stupid assumption

It’s not stupid. I’m sorry you feel that way but it was a legit question.

 

[an anarchist]

Any other pagans want to weigh in? I am still curious

 

[an anarchist]

And the failure to capitalize Pagan

It’s called a typo

 

[an anarchist]

For the most part, these folks are not depicting contemporary Pagans so it's no big deal.

What you write here?

That, actually, is what offends me - that stupid assumption. Not that it happens, but the complete and utter lack of any consideration whatsoever. And the failure to capitalize Pagan like literally every other religion gets capitalized. I genuinely don't expect anything other than a complete and total lack of any consideration whatsoever and continued failure to properly capitalize Paganism, but that's not a good thing. Especially not when demographically we're comparable to the number of Buddhists or Hindus in my country (aka, somewhere in the ballpark of 1% of the population each).

Your offense is not a reflection of my question or myself. Your offense a reflection of yourself and your attitudes.

 

[an anarchist]

Gosh I’m logging off again came back too soon and tried to ask a simple light hearted question and I’m offensive and stupid. Bye

 

[SalixIncendium]

That, actually, is what offends me - that stupid assumption. Not that it happens, but the complete and utter lack of any consideration whatsoever. And the failure to capitalize Pagan like literally every other religion gets capitalized. I genuinely don't expect anything other than a complete and total lack of any consideration whatsoever and continued failure to properly capitalize Paganism, but that's not a good thing. Especially not when demographically we're comparable to the number of Buddhists or Hindus in my country (aka, somewhere in the ballpark of 1% of the population each).

While we're speaking of assumptions, how is it you were certain by reading the OP that @an anarchist was speaking of contemporary Paganism and not paganism in general?

Even if he was, the lack of capitalization of a proper noun seems quite the trivial thing to be offended by nowadays given much of the younger generations were apparently never shown the 'shift' key on their keyboard. Unless one is deliberately using lower case letters with the intent to deprecate another's belief, being offended says more about the reader than it does the author.

 

[VoidCat]

I don't get offended by folk not captializing pagan. I don't do it myself so that would make me a hypocrite. It's not because I don't respect pagans I am one myself. But because I hardly capitalize other religions. I usually write hindu, christian, muslim etc. I don't usually capitalize them. Altho sometimes autocorreçt does it for me with say Christian or Muslim. It just did it just now. I don't know why it sometimes capitalizes and sometimes dont.

Edit: I can see why @Quintessence got offended tho. You capitalized christian but not pagan. Why is that? This is called implicit bias if you did so without autocorrect getting you. That doesnt mean you intentionally being offensive. Just there may be some biases you have that you don't exactly notice. Im not offended by it. It's a small thing and even if you take paganism seriously you might do that for a variety of reasons most you'd be unaware of without consciously thinking on it.

 

[VoidCat]

On the OP...i dont get offended by video games depicting pagan gods. There's many interpetations of deities in myths. So it makes sense there would be games that depict the deities in many ways even in ways that dont line up with the myths

 

[VoidCat]

It’s not stupid. I’m sorry you feel that way but it was a legit question.

I dont think @Quintessence was refering to your question. You can ask them to be sure but I took what they wrote as the assumption that there are no pagans to offend as being offensive. I agree it kinda is. But not your question itself.

Edit:
However I would ask why you get so up in arms about their offense? I question this because it's good to analyze your own reactions when told something is offensive. Sometimes we can think someones offense is wrong disagree with it that's fine but in order to learn from that offense we have to analyze why they feel that way. Getting up in arms prevents us from doing so. We dont listen well when we get mad at someone else's feelings of hurt. We hear them but don't listen. How can we properly know someones point of view and why they feel hurt if we don't stop to listen? It's something most of all of us needs to work on knowing what triggers emotional reactions in ourselves either valid or not and recognize when its preventing us from listening and learning whether we agree or disagree with what weve learned. Something I myself have recently learned.

 

[GoodAttention]

I dont think @Quintessence was refering to your question. You can ask them to be sure but I took what they wrote as the assumption that there are no pagans to offend as being offensive. I agree it kinda is. But not your question itself.

Edit:
However I would ask why you get so up in arms about their offense? I question this because it's good to analyze your own reactions when told something is offensive. Sometimes you can think someones offense is wrong disagree with it that's fine but in order to learn from that offense you have to analyze why they feel that way. Getting up in arms prevents you from doing so. We dont listen well when we get mad at someone else's feelings of hurt. We hear them but don't listen. How can you properly know someones point of view and why they feel hurt if you don't stop to listen? It's something most of all of us needs to work on knowing what triggers emotional reactions in ourselves either valid or not and recognize when its preventing us from listening and learning. Something I myself have recently learned.

Thank you for this comment.

 

[VoidCat]

Thank you for this comment.

i recently learned something bout my own behavior noticed the same thing going on here. Might as well share if it helps great if not well we are all allowed to not take advice from internet strangers.

 

[SalixIncendium]

However I would ask why you get so up in arms about their offense? I question this because it's good to analyze your own reactions when told something is offensive.

I think it's every bit as important that the person being offended analyzes their own reaction to something another tells them.

As I see it, being offended is essentially giving another person permission to affect you directly. If one is offended, they have given the opinion of another enough importance to impact their feelings/emotions. One has allowed another's reality to become their own.

I think it's important to assess why the offended person has allowed this to happen.

 

[VoidCat]

I think it's every bit as important that the person being offended analyzes their own reaction to something another tells them.

As I see it, being offended is essentially giving another person permission to affect you directly. If one is offended, they have given the opinion of another enough importance to impact their feelings/emotions. One has allowed another's reality to become their own.

I think it's important to assess why the offended person has allowed this to happen.

Emotions are valid. Reactions to them might not be. It's always good to listen to emotions and acknowledge whenever they present themselves in strong ways. If you get offended there's a reason. And if you get offended by someone else's offense there again is a reason. It's always good to notice when our emotions get big enough to distract from what is being said. Distract from actually actively listening and understanding.

My point is on active listening. Not on whether or not offense is a bad or good thing. To learn and practice empathy we have to listen.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Emotions are valid. Reactions to them might not be.

Emotion and reaction aren't mutually exclusive. It's reaction that drives emotion.

It's always good to listen to them and acknowledge whenever they present themselves in strong ways.

Sure, but unproductive emotions can be avoided entirely. If I haven't given another permission to offend, then I'm not offended.

If you get offended there's a reason.

The reason is one has reacted to something another has said or done, have given it a degree of consideration, and have taken exception to it.

And if you get offended by someone else's offense there again is a reason.

Yes. As I said above, "you" have given another person permission to affect your emotions. One has a choice to be offended or not.

My point is on active listening. Not on whether or not offense is a bad or good thing. To learn we have to listen.

On this we agree. To learn, we have to listen.

However, we don't have to react to learn.

 

[VoidCat]

To learn, we have to listen.

This is the important part. Emotions and reactions can prevent listening. That was my point. It happens. Good to notice when it does. We can start another thread on offense later if you wish. I only pointed out what I did to help @an anarchist out with communication if he chooses to take my advice or not. He seemed to me to have gotten a huge reaction to @Quintessence 's words and may have allowed his emotions to cloud what he was saying. Why could be a number of reasons- he couldve been tired and had a rough day, maybe hes mad cuz he likes pagans and is offended at the thought he's offended one, maybe its another reason. Either way to me it seemed his reaction to his emotions was affecting effective listening and thought I'd share something that might help. He wrote:
Gosh I’m logging off again came back too soon and tried to ask a simple light hearted question and I’m offensive and stupid. Bye

That tells me his emotions are preventing from listening.

 

[Quintessence]

Didn’t mean to offend.

You didn't -

I dont think @Quintessence was refering to your question.

Exactly. Sorry if that was confusing. The bastardization of Paganism itself is substantially less bothersome than there is no consideration paid in the first place.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I started playing two separate video games this week that is “mythology” themed: Age of Mythology and Titan Quest. They use the Greek mythology as backdrop and characters for the game. And it’s not the first game I have played that has used pagan gods as characters. Hades has several charming depictions of the gods. That’s not even talking about other forms of media, such as movies and TV shows, where there is plenty of fantastical depictions of pagan gods as well.

Pagans, do you take offense?

This is a bit before my time, but Life of Brian got a bunch of Christians mad when it came out. Now, imagine a video game where you have to kill an evil tyrannical Jesus Christ. On your journey to kill Jesus, you have to kill His superpowered 12 disciples along the way (boss battles). That would maybe get some Christians mad. Idk, it’s not the 1900’s anymore so maybe Christians wouldn’t take offense. My point is, in the scenario, if you replace the Christian lore with pagan lore then you got an average already has been made before video game.

I think the assumption by people who make media is that there is no pagans to offend. This is of course wrong, but Christianity is no doubt the majority religion, so media makers would probably try not to offend them while making video games at the expense of pagan beliefs.

Yes, I find it offensive at times. Like with the God of War games, which I have never really played although I own a couple of them. However, I don't feel that Pagans are especially singled out for such disrespect in pop culture as Christianity is bashed all the time in movies, music, etc.