Religion, Myth and Games

As expected, Bill Maher’s new documentary Religulous is stirring up strong reactions from supporters and opponents of religion alike. I probably won’t watch this movie because it seemingly aims to prove a predetermined point: that religion is ridiculous. A more bipartisan effort might have tried understanding why people subscribe to a religion, and what the religious belief adds to their lives.

But I don’t think that a discussion of the validity of organized religion will lead to a fruitful result, anyway. As game developers, understanding why religion plays such an important part in many people’s life can help us, though! Because religion is myth. And understanding myth can help us to create games that connect with the audience on a deep emotional level.

The first chapter of Rollo May’s excellent book “The Cry For Myth” presents a summery on myth’s purpose in a person’s life:

A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence. […] Myth making is essential in gaining mental health, and the compassionate therapist will not discourage it. [...] Through its myths a healthy society gives its members relief from neurotic guilt and excessive anxiety. [...]

Our myths no longer serve their function of making sense of existence, the citizens of our day are left without direction or purpose in life, and people are at a loss to control their anxiety and excessive guilt feeling. […] Hence the psychologist Jerome Bruner can write, “For when the prevailing myths fail to fit the varieties of man’s plight, frustration expresses itself first in mythoclasm, and then in the lonely search for internal identity.”

We all have an inherent hunger for myths that reinforce our internal belief system. This belief system reassures us that we matter, that what we believe in matters, and that our existence makes sense in an otherwise overwhelming universe. We seek out stories that reinforce our beliefs. The belief that good will triumph over evil. That one should give up his life for the good of the many. That true love prevails. That’s why we can’t get enough of “The Return of the King” or “Star Wars: Episode IV”. That’s why little girls will watch their favorite Disney movies countless times.
Not everybody who is reading this might consider himself religious, but the same information can help us understand why so many people are followers of religion: religion adds order and meaning to daily life. It gives reassurance that we matter. It reinforces the validity of the rules which govern our interaction with society.

We live in a time when rationality is assaulting the position of traditional religion, and this clash of ideologies is becoming increasingly apparent in our society. The great comedian Bill Hicks joked in the 90s that “the reason our institutions, our traditional religions are all crumbling is because they’re no longer relevant.” But be that as it may, rationality cannot wipe out the need for the internal belief systems that religion traditionally provided! Something has to fill the void, and the notion that our new found rationality is negating the need for personal belief is wrongheaded. In a way, a belief in rationality is a personal myth in itself: it is a way to make sense of the world.

Because this rational belief is the polar opposite of traditional religion, many non-religious people have a strong aversion to the very notion of religion. The idea that other people might subscribe to a religious belief offends them on a deep emotional level – never realizing that they have haven’t abolished their own need for “religion” at all. Followers of rationality might distance themselves from the churches by saying that they have freed themselves from dogma, that they are not letting anybody dictate how they make sense of the world. This might be true, but they are not following a school of thought that is uniquely their own. Just consider this: I do not believe in organized religion, and I have my own view of the world. But I am building my worldview through books like The Cry For Myth. This entire post is colored by the ideas put forth in one book. As far as this post is concerned, “Cry” is its bible.

Anyway, what does any of this have to do with game development?

The above helps us to understand the origin of religion and other personal belief systems. It shows us that there is a huge demand for myth reinforcing stories in today’s society because, even though traditional religion might lose its place in the world, we have a biological craving for stories that reinforce our own personal beliefs (beliefs which aren’t all that personal, actually – our society shares many commonly held truths, something that Jung called the Collective Unconscious).

In his 2005 GDC lecture, Bob Bates put forth the notion that games (just like movies, books and old shaman tales) are a myth reinforcing medium. (In fact, my post rehashes a fair bit of Bob’s talk, which you should really check out for yourself). And therein lies a huge source of potential! Our industry has the chance to create games that connect to the audience on a fundamental level, a level that transcends the actual gaming experience and adds value and reference points to everyday life. Very much like we might encounter a real-world problem and overcome it by believing that “Frodo didn’t give up, and neither should I!” Call this example geeky, call it absurd – the Lord of the Rings trilogy became as successful as it did because people can find themselves in Peter Jackson’s films in exactly this manner. Romantic comedies keep telling us that true love is out there for those who search for it, and Bridget Jones has probably helped more women in their mid-20s than our society will ever care to admit.

It will take several additional posts to examine the methods in which we can add this myth reinforcement to game narratives, and to truly tap into the potential that game stories present. Listening to Bob’s talk will give you some pointers, and I have my own ideas that I will try to post at a later date. For now, I just wanted to take the time to point out the opportunity, and its vast potential. If you’re wondering how games will ever take the next step and turn into a truly mass market medium – well, this is one of the ways!

There will be ultra religious people who will call this suggestion – that a game experience may take the place of a religious one – ‘blasphemy’. “How dare you, ” they will say. “What’s in the bible is true, spoken by God himself. Your myths are just that – myth.”
And there really isn’t much that I can say to those people. Everybody who believes in the literal truth of the bible and doesn’t recognize it as a mere allegory for life is lacking a perspective that I find hard to understand. I feel that I understand why this rigid subscription to the belief adds to substance to these people’s lives. But I can’t empathize.

Going back to the movie Religulous… I’ll have to watch it after all, so that I may legitimately judge it as harshly I am about to do: I feel that it misses the point. It doesn’t aim to understand the source of the religious zeal that it makes fun of. And by not doing so, it doesn’t help us to understand life in a more profound way. Of course religious doctrine is ridiculous in many ways – but I don’t have to watch Religulous to know that.

Ironically enough, a movie experience like Religulous is myth reinforcing in its own way: it will be sought out by many who hold religious beliefs to be stupid and absurd. By watching it, they reinforce their own belief systems. They even pay money for it! That, right there, shows you the power of the idea we’re discussing here.