"What did you do in class today Don?"
"Eh not much man, we got this assignment for my religion class that I need to do before Monday and I have no idea where to start."
"So why don't you grab us a couple of beers and lets see if we can come up with something that the teacher had not heard before."
"Sounds good"
"How about this man, fucking video games and the entire entertainment industry man."
"Dude I think you have smoked a little to much for your own good." "Na man im serious just listen, alot of thing are influenced by the Christian bible and just how far the word’s of God have reached...", on a side note we were working on finishing the half-rack that was in the fridge before we started this oh so deep thought voyage.
"Alright man what do we have so far?"
"Um let me look"
The bible and religion are in everything that man has created to help explain and deal with their existence. One area that tends to rely on religion and the bible the most is the entertainment industry. The most obvious of this is movies, and for good reason. Most people today have an attention deficit order to pay attention for more than an hour or so. There are so many movies out there that are either blatant in religious theme; Dogma, Passion of Christ, Ten Commandment for example. Than there are the ones that require more thinking like the Matrix or Star Wars and The Chronicles of Narnia. Another form of this is in the music. Every form of music out there has a connection to religion and the bible. From rock to rap, country to new age, all music has been touched by the word of God, even if the artist does not believe in God, for example the artist Marilyn Manson has come out and said he dose not believe in organized religion and questions the blind followers of a faith with out asking some questions of their own. The other form of entertainment that is out there is the video game industry. Most of the video games are created in Japan which has a very different view of religion than that of the western cultures. The video game that I want to talk about is Super Mario Bros. from the Nintendo Company.
Super Mario Bros. is a game where a little Italian plumber works his way from level to level trying to accomplish some goal. It could be saving a friend, to reestablish a kingdom or correcting a wrong by the main evil character named Bowser. The game has been around since the mid eighties from the Japanese company Nintendo. The game has had numerous follow ups to the breakthrough game titles Super Mario Bros. Each one is more of the same that was in the last game. Which Mario goes and defeats the forces of Bowser to save the Princess Peach, along the way Mario teams up with friends to help him accomplish his task. In the first game it was to rescue the princess from Bowser, the second was all of Mario’s friends in a dream world, third was Mario traveling to distant lands to help the kings get healed. When looking back at the bible you can begin to see some of the similarities between the them.
The main character(Mario) is a character of blue collar working force. Jesus grew up the son of a carpenter and was a carpenter in the beginning of his tale in the bible, Mario was a plumber before being called upon for a divine quest of his own. Both of these men were tradesmen who possessed a certain trade skill. In the game Mario has a twin brother named Luigi, you can only use Luigi in two player mode after player one(Mario) dies. So you can think of Luigi like the risen Jesus after his crucification. The main villain (Bowser) is a dragon character who has his castle in the depths of a world with a huge lake of fire around his castle. Which is an obvious relation to the depths of Hell. Also Bowser is in a demon form instead a human form to make him appear to be more satanish. Bowser goes around and makes life very hard for Mario and his band of friends, much like Satan does in the bible, also seen in the creation story with Adam and Eve in the garden with the serpent. The main female character in the game is Princess Peach who can be compared to Mary Magdala, the one that has Mario and Jesus’s heart even though in the game nor in the bible does it ever show these two characters getting together. Both ladies are pictured like a girlfriend or more but it never outright states it. Some of the friends that travel around and assist Mario with his epic battle against Bowser is his loyal friends Toad and Yoshi. Toad is a very short character who wears a mushroom for a hat and is very strong. He goes around and helps Mario in the same way that the apostles did for Jesus. Toad more often than not got himself and Mario into trouble by mistake. Mario knew this would happen but still kept Toad by his side. Jesus shows this many times over right before his betrayal from his closest of friends. Yoshi would fall into the category of beast of burden. He just does what he is told, kinda like a donkey in the bible. Jesus sees a man beating his donkey and spares the creature, Mario does the same with Yoshi. Yoshi is a donkey like creature that Mario can ride and use to get around and carry items. In the game there are a lot of secondary non-playable characters that can be viewed as any of the different ethnic and religious tribes that are mentioned in the bible. The minions of Bowser can be viewed as the Romans in the Christians eyes and the helpless people of the Mushroom kingdom can be viewed as the Hebrews from the Old Testament.
"I dunno man it seem like a bit of a stretch."
"Thats the point, how many other students are going to do a paper on Mario? Not to many I would think, and thats what makes it full of awesomness."
"Alright well lets see here where was I, oh yeah here we..."
There are items throughout the game that aid and hurt Mario. Mario eats mushrooms to gain in size and strength but there is a poisonous mushroom that hurts and can kill Mario like the fruit from the Garden in the creation story in Genesis. When Mario eats a fire flower he can shoot fireballs out that destroy anything that it touches. This is close to the fire that fell from the sky that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Granted that is was not Jesus that did this in the bible but an act from God, Jesus and God are getting to be close to the same towards the end of the Bible. Another item that is of interest is the star. The star in the Bible is what led the three wise men to find Jesus and in the game the star makes you invincible. When the three wise men showed up they came bearing gifts for a king, in the Mario Bros game there are special items that can be viewed with the same awe. The wise men in this case would be the game designers for allowing Mario find these kingly gifts. They are gold coins that when you get enough of them(100) you get an extra life.
In Super Mario Bros. 3 game they introduce the twelve kings of Mushroom Kingdom. These Kings remind me of the 12 tribes of David. Another view on these kings is that they are all under a spell from Bowser and they need Marios help to cure them. So Mario travels all over the place helping to heal the people just like Jesus did as one of his miracles. The game Super Mario All Stars, on the Super Nintendo, is a collection and retelling of the older/original Mario Bros game just like the book Revelations appears to be a retelling of the Old Testament. Throughout the new testament the gospels are retelling’s of the book of Mark. In this collection of games you had the original games but they were made to look prettier for the new graphics that were out and a new game, Mario bros. The Lost Levels, that is an add on to the very first game out but it added new stories to complete and explore. This is comparable to the Apocrypha. It was not in the original Bible but was included in the remake by King James Version.
So we have the Bible and religion and the influence on the world everyday. It could be from a sports athlete showing an outward sign to God for a good play or in a movie, music and even video games. It could be blatant show of faith or a deeper hidden showing that you have to uncover to get the true meaning of it. It could take many times going over it and you may never get it. In Video games there is a subtle way to show religion without people feeling like they are being force feed religion but at the same time are getting the same message that reading and reflecting on the Bible would have. Some people will not believe this and its ok for we are all allowed to have our own opinions and thought and beliefs of what is around us. After all this discussion and many many beers we stopped to think what does the eastern religion’s think of their work being plagiarized from the oldest story told on earth.
"Dude I think you got it."
"Damn that was easier than I thought it would be thanks for the help Matt."
"No worries bra, now had me another beer while your up and I will load up another hit."
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