D&D Still Satanic? "So my mom threw away all my D&D books..."


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In reading this thread I just had to share my own experiences. I grew up a small conservative TX town and when I got into D&D we didn't openly board cast. As for my parents my dad was the most vocal and he even got one of his minister friends to come over and talk to me about D&D and out of respect for my dad I let him and his friend burn my D&D collection. Now that I'm older I still love and play D&D and I'm even teaching both my boys to play. From my observations it seems most people have a knee jerk reaction when they don't fully understand or try to understand. Also I've had to explain to my wife that I was a gamer and will always be one. I still fondly remember her comment to me when my first son was born, "You're not going to have play that game are you?...ahh!! Good times, she has since calmed down quite a bit.
 

And yes I have given you plenty of reasons. You will just dismiss them out of hand because you don't want to see it. Just as I've been saying.

People will use any means at their disposal to not change their minds. It doesn't matter what the words they use or how verbose they get, it's still a dismissal of something they don't want to believe or see.

Wow, there's enough irony here to build a battleship.
 

Well, getting back to the original topic before things get too heated and I get removed from another discussion, here's my sordid story of my experience with "D&D Is Satanic".

Believe it or not, when I was in high school, my high school held a rally about.... Satanism. The teachers were up in arms over D&D and other Satanic influences. Some of the teachers got up in front of the entire school body, which numbered about 400 students (I lived in a small town of a thousand people), about how Satanism turns people into horrible horrible monsters because they don't believe in God. They told sordid stories of how they found some places where Satanists gathered and sacrificed cats and other animals and even human sacrifice.

But the biggest story I remember is the teacher getting up and telling the story of his experience with Satan. It seemed he got concerned over a record he was listening to, so he decided to burn it. He set it afire and the fire went out just as it reached the center of the record. And yes, I am talking vinyl records here for this was a time before there was CDs and Commodore 64s were the best home computers money could by.

He got really scared and said the center of the record wouldn't burn because demons inhabited. it. He went so far as to fill a small bucket up with a gallon of gasoline, put the center of the record in it. He made a long fuse so he wouldn't get caught by the huge fireball, and lit the fuse and let her rip. I could imagine the huge column of fire that would erupt from a full bucket of gasoline. He was actually trembling while recounting his story.

Well, he said that after the fire finally burned out and the bucket was almost melted to nothing, he saw the center of the record. It had been untouched. He got really frightened and the only thing he could think of was to bury it somewhere. And he vowed unto God that he would never reveal the location of where he buried this piece of the record.

Now here's the kicker. The record was by KISS. Which, according to the teachers meant "Kids In Service To Satan", and of course other rock and roll bands worshiped Satan as well and even said so in their lyrics and the band names. Another such band was AC DC, which meant "Against Christ Destroy Christ".

But at the time I was far more gullible than I was now, and I got scared of it. I ended up throwing away almost a hundred dollars worth of AD&D things. But I was also a kid of about fifteen or so when this happened.

So, there's my story.
 

They are based on the behavior I've seen and experienced from people.

And I do do my utmost ability to support my posts. The thing is, I don't care for logic, because it really does make people arrogant and turns people into jerks. I also don't care for religion because it does the same thing.

Truth doesn't need logic or religion to support it. Truth is just there.

And the truth is you cannot change a person's mind when it is made up, and it doesn't matter who it is, all people behave this way.

Some people rely on logic to do so, some people rely on their emotions to do so. But it doesn't really matter, it is the same behavior.

Yeah, people get locked into persistent schemes of thinking that are very hard to change, often locked into childhood experiences and wrapped up in subconscious actions over which they have little control. Says he lighting a cigarette.

But that doesn't necessarily rule out the capacity for change and to present opportunities for change?
 

Yeah, people get locked into persistent schemes of thinking that are very hard to change, often locked into childhood experiences and wrapped up in subconscious actions over which they have little control. Says he lighting a cigarette.

But that doesn't necessarily rule out the capacity for change and to present opportunities for change?

We're going to have to agree to disagree and let things get back to the original topic.
 

In my own work in clinical psychology, I often have to remind myself and clients that we all understand the world based upon our own learning and experiences...

...and that we do not all learn the same way, nor have the same experiences.



My best work is usually done when I try to understand another's learning and experiences...or when I teach others to develop that capacity within themselves.



The hardest obstacle to that is admitting that everything I/they know might be right from my perspective and experiences, and TOTALLY WRONG from another set of perspectives and experiences.


(I mention these experiences not only for the young man and his mother, but also given the direction the thread has taken...it's a bit of a microcosom of the event the OP mentions.)


EDIT: That doesn't mean I have to reverse my position, though. It means I have to BROADEN my understanding.
 
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Well, getting back to the original topic before things get too heated and I get removed from another discussion, here's my sordid story of my experience with "D&D Is Satanic".

Believe it or not, when I was in high school, my high school held a rally about.... Satanism. The teachers were up in arms over D&D and other Satanic influences. Some of the teachers got up in front of the entire school body, which numbered about 400 students (I lived in a small town of a thousand people), about how Satanism turns people into horrible horrible monsters because they don't believe in God. They told sordid stories of how they found some places where Satanists gathered and sacrificed cats and other animals and even human sacrifice.

But the biggest story I remember is the teacher getting up and telling the story of his experience with Satan. It seemed he got concerned over a record he was listening to, so he decided to burn it. He set it afire and the fire went out just as it reached the center of the record. And yes, I am talking vinyl records here for this was a time before there was CDs and Commodore 64s were the best home computers money could by.

He got really scared and said the center of the record wouldn't burn because demons inhabited. it. He went so far as to fill a small bucket up with a gallon of gasoline, put the center of the record in it. He made a long fuse so he wouldn't get caught by the huge fireball, and lit the fuse and let her rip. I could imagine the huge column of fire that would erupt from a full bucket of gasoline. He was actually trembling while recounting his story.

Well, he said that after the fire finally burned out and the bucket was almost melted to nothing, he saw the center of the record. It had been untouched. He got really frightened and the only thing he could think of was to bury it somewhere. And he vowed unto God that he would never reveal the location of where he buried this piece of the record.

Now here's the kicker. The record was by KISS. Which, according to the teachers meant "Kids In Service To Satan", and of course other rock and roll bands worshiped Satan as well and even said so in their lyrics and the band names. Another such band was AC DC, which meant "Against Christ Destroy Christ".

But at the time I was far more gullible than I was now, and I got scared of it. I ended up throwing away almost a hundred dollars worth of AD&D things. But I was also a kid of about fifteen or so when this happened.

So, there's my story.

No wonder you ain't so keen on logic, when the figures representing logic and understanding were . . . a graphic novel earlier in the thread. Craig Thompson's Blankets. It's not a dudes' book, but I'd want to read it if I'd been in your position. And the brushwork's awesome.

My folks paid for me to go to town to pick RPG stuff at the game store, drove me to and from games, and bought me Led Zep, Thin Lizzy and Rolling Stones' albums. When my grandparents gave me a bit of cash the folks let me invest in a great deck, amp, . . . the lot. Both professional teachers :)
 

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