Maybe it’s because I’m young and pretty inexperienced, but I feel that if we don’t act like we’re living in an ideal world, we’ll never get any closer to it. Fundies are losing legitimacy (or so I’d like to think) these days, so maybe pissing them off won’t be quite the “avalanche” you describe.

Although young and inexperienced you can still be on the right track, and I’m beginning to be convinced that you are. Acting as if we are living in that ideal world might get us closer to its realization, and I am willing to give your optimism a try. My caution has come from disappointment and bruises, but perhaps my pace is a little too slow and we need to move forward boldly anyway. I am inspired and encouraged by the idealism and optimism of the young. It wasn’t so long ago that I had it too, and maybe I still do.

Somewhere there is a balance between patience and effort. Too much effort without enough patience can be destructive recklessness while too much patience without enough effort can be stagnation.

Of course, the real issue here, which I’ve sort of been missing for some reason, isn’t so much that he made the game as that he claims to speak for atheists. As others have pointed out, he displays a great deal of ignorance in this regard; perhaps he’s one of the few atheists he knows and is unaware that they make up a small but significant portion of the population. So yes, I’m just as irked by his claims to represent atheists as a whole as you are. Which makes him more misguided than an asshole, perhaps. But I really do think this will blow over without too much incident, and I’d certainly like to believe that one college student who’s grasping at his 15 minutes of fame can’t harm the atheist cause in any meaningful way.

I guess that’s about where we’re at. Sorry for ignoring the latter point for so long. Sometimes I get too worked up at any perceived notion of censorship.

1. We’re hiking quietly through a narrow mountain valley with heavy snow layers on either side. It’s an avalanche waiting to happen. This guy, the author of the game suddenly decides that he wants to practice his opera singing at the top of his lungs. While one might argue that he has a right to express himself artistically, I’m going to be tempted to pick up a log and crown him with it.

2. We’re making our way through a jungle populated by dangerous natives. We’re in delicate negotiations with them for safe passage, when suddenly this same asshole decides he wants to loudly mock and threaten them, and says that he speaks for us. Yes, he’s got his freedom of speech but once again, the log solution comes to mind.

I know my analogies are not perfect, but bear with me.

Just to be clear, I’m not advocating censorship. Any call for the game to be censored I would be against from my principled side, and on my pragmatic side I know it would probably backfire and make the game more popular.

The point is that he is not going to hurt himself, but he could end up hurting others. He will remain safe in his anonymity while other atheists for whom he incorrectly claims to be speaking will be thwarted in their efforts to negotiate better working relationships with theists. That is why he qualifies very well as an asshole. If and when the poop hits the propeller in the media, all we can do is to have our various organizations and spokespersons denounce and repudiate the game and its implications. We’re limited to damage control that will probably not be very effective.
Hopefully you will be right and the whole thing will just quietly pass by.

I’m not worried about people who make intelligent judgments, I’m concerned about those who make stupid judgments. We have a never ending supply of those.

Well, the people who make stupid judgments are going to make them no matter what. It’s not that you’re wrong – you’re right, in fact – but it’s not this guy who made the game that needs to change, it’s the people making the stupid judgments. Should he have taken into account the probable reaction to his project? Perhaps. Given the obvious reaction, was his decision to publicize (not to make; whether or not he makes it is his business) his project unwise? Perhaps.

But he’s not the asshole. People who take stupid grad school projects personally (or as “signs of the times” as the pastor in the article says) are the assholes. Provoking assholes is kind of assholish in itself, but I’m still madder at them than I am at him. I don’t get mad at the artist (well, calling him an artist is a bit generous, but I’m generalizing here), even if he makes a piece of shit; I get mad at the people who refuse to criticize it on an intellectually honest level and instead demand that it be destroyed.

As you say, that’s inevitable. But I’m not going to argue that a piece of media shouldn’t be made because it might piss off fundamentalist religious followers who refuse to engage with the media in any meaningful way, because they’d rather see it burn. Sure, the whole idea behind this game may be shitty, but if we tell this guy he shouldn’t make it because it pisses off fundies, we’re setting a dangerous precedent, one that’s already affecting real art and real artists in Western countries.

No, I really don’t think it’ll cause me any problems. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’ll be forgotten in a month or so.

I hope you’re right, but I doubt it will be forgotten so soon. I think we’ll hear it on Fox News by the end of this week and for years to come from the the likes of Dinesh D’Souza.

I guarantee you it’s not going to result in any mob violence against atheists,

I was very clear in saying that probably won’t happen, but my point is about not needing any more problems with the public’s already lousy perception of us. It’s the cumulative effect of things like this that I’m talking about. If, as an atheist you think that you are not right now negatively affected by the public’s beliefs about atheists, then you are not paying attention.

and anybody who’s dumb enough to judge atheists as a group based on the actions of one probably isn’t going to make an intelligent judgment about it in any event.

Exactly. I’m not worried about people who make intelligent judgments, I’m concerned about those who make stupid judgments. We have a never ending supply of those.

Finally if we kill Abraham and some Biblical dudes, maybe we would stop Abrahamic religions, but then we might see the ascendancy of Baal, or Mithra, or some other desert religion that would undoubtedly become equally despised by this kind of atheist.

There’s no reason to assume that any religion would become dominant in the West in the absence of Abrahamic monotheism. Mithraism and Baalism weren’t missionary religions, and they had no real compulsion to spread their worship to other cultures. It may have spread on its own, what with the whole Roman Empire deal, but it wouldn’t have muscled its way to the top the way Christianity and Islam did. If Judaism and its successors had never existed, it’s possible that there would be many smaller religions and no large ones.

We make a video game where we go back and keep people from killing Jesus. In different levels we protect him from the Romans, the Jews, the Devil, etc. The last few levels are sitting around with Jesus serving him tea and biscuits and waiting for him to die of old age.

That’s actually an awesome idea. How could anyone object? It involves deliberately not murdering a religious figure! People would object, of course, but they wouldn’t be on very solid ground when they tried to describe how vile atheists are.

But now that I’ve had time to take many deep, slow breaths I’ll try to eloquently persuade you that this is a reprehensible thing that will cause us problems and could cause you, I like tea, problems. It will be a big deal if trouble comes your way.

No, I really don’t think it’ll cause me any problems. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’ll be forgotten in a month or so. I guarantee you it’s not going to result in any mob violence against atheists, and anybody who’s dumb enough to judge atheists as a group based on the actions of one probably isn’t going to make an intelligent judgment about it in any event.

Really, aren’t most games pretty much atheist games? Like Halo. There’s no mention of God, and you control your own actions.

Isn’t there a sect of Reptoids in Halo 2 who turn their back on their religion?

So far, Christians have had all the video game action.

Really, aren’t most games pretty much atheist games? Like Halo. There’s no mention of God, and you control your own actions. Sounds like an atheist game to me. Go out and spread the word that (one of?) the worlds most popular game is an atheist game!

Really, if this was a true atheist game, He would have gone back in time and brought science to the world ~4000 years sooner. Or some such fantasy.

It’s the general atheist premise that the world might be a better place without some of those religions

Since when are there “atheist premises”?