Okay...I admit it! I’ve been playing god! I have hundreds of little people who worship me and are enthralled by my every move. I can cast miracles that impress my followers and I even have a giant creature that helps me out! Well, alright, it’s actually this really neat (not to mention very addictive) computer game called Black & White (B&W).
B&W came out last year, but the computer I had was to old to run this huge game. Reed and I upgraded our systems a few months ago and I eagerly looked forward for the time to play this game.
The game begins with you being “called into existence” as a couple cries out to the heavens for a god to save their child. The idea is gods are willed into being by needy humans. It doesn’t stop there — after all these humans seem to have many needs for you to fulfill. They need food, wood to build houses, protection, healing, and endless other needs!
These people are also rather fickle — you see, they actually expect their gods to make their presence abundantly known. You get “belief points” as you do things — whether that be by fulfilling a need or impressing them by throwing rocks around. You have the option of being a good god or an evil god. You can heal the sick or throw them across the village — either way, you get your belief points. The consistent thing here is you have to actually DO something. Most of the time you are busy hustling around trying to gain your belief points, because if you stop impressing people they will stop believing in you and other gods will take over, leaving you alone in the abyss from whence you came.
You see, this is where the gods of today’s human society get off easy — they never actually have to do anything. Oh sure, lots of things get attributed to them — but you never have any direct evidence. God always get credit for the “good” things that happen, but (unlike in the game) God never gets blamed for any of the bad things. In the game, if lightening strikes a village and sets things on fire, your belief points start to drop as your people yell for you to save them. Or if the village store runs out of food and the people begin to starve, they will stop believing in you very quickly — after all as a god you are responsible in making sure they have everything they need. What I want to know is, why doesn’t God lose points in this world when he slacks off on the job?!
People of today are giving God way too much credit! It’s too bad that more people didn’t have the realist attitude like the little worshippers in my game do. They believe it when they see it — and that’s how it should be!
Hello. My name is Angela Christine Byers (yes, my mother actually named me “Angel of Christ”), and I am an atheist.
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