Pokemon "Morality".

[Miss Doronjo]

Just in case you haven't, did you know that Pokemon is often criticized by cultural beliefs?

Pokemon has been criticized by Christan, Jewish, and Muslim beliefs, and so on in that fashion. Its because they believe that Pokemon is portrayed by violent themes, and evolution is akin to "metamorphosis", which goes against the theory of evolution the believe in.

Now, hearing / looking at this, how do you feel about those who goes against pokemon in cultural beliefs? Or in other words, how do you feel about Pokemon "Morality"?

[just be warned that since this is a religious topic sort of, flaming is obviously not going to be tolerated.]

 

[Kirbychu]

I'm pretty sure the reason the franchise was criticized for using the word evolution was because those people didn't know that it was more like metamorphosis. Really, all of this could've been avoided if the devs opted to use the word "transformed" or "changed". But then again, it doesn't sound as cool.

So yeah, it's jut a lack of understanding. People criticize and fear things that they don't know understand. I've heard all sorts of absurd stuff. I remember going on Serebii forums 3 or 4 years ago and seeing a guy preach that we should boycott D/P because Darkrai was obviously the devil. If any Pokemon is remotely based off Satan it's Giratina. Still, people can find "proof" that something's satanic in everything. How is Darkrai satanic? He's black and he looks bad? It's sort of saddens me that people just jump to conclusions like that.

Another issue is the whole Arceus thing. This just shows another lack of understanding. Arceus isn't based off the Christian/Jewish/Islamic God. Even his dex entries have obvious eastern references.

The violence is really low key. Even the anime's constantly saying that fighting is bad, Pokemon battling is bonding, etc. In Pokemon games that don't feature humans we've seen that Pokemon just naturally fight each other, people don't force them to. Pokemon battling is more like boxing than cockfighting. Really, the Pokemon aren't trying to kill each other, it's like they're wrestling.

Although it's rather obvious to you guys, the franchise is filled with good morals and strong messages about love, kindness, friendship, teamwork, the importance of nature, etc. Some people would say the game/show is about homeless children traveling and utilizing demons to gain the most power in the world. I could say it's about children exploring the world, making new friends, and learning about life.

People need to actually study the "satanic" subject before they spout off garbage like that.

 

[Townes]

I do believe that the Vatican released praise for the Pokemon series, citing it's creativity and message that working together with others can lead to great good being achieved and evil overcome, which let's face it, is what the games are about- working with your Pokemon to make yourself and your Pokemon better. Speaking as a die-hard Catholic, I think that people who say that Pokemon's evil are exaggerating. It's a fictional universe with maybe 5% of the Pokemon based off of slightly evil things. I think that when Judgement Day comes, God's going to be looking for murderers and rapists- not video-game players- to punish.

 

[Frisky Arcanine]

I do believe that the Vatican released praise for the Pokemon series, citing it's creativity and message that working together with others can lead to great good being achieved and evil overcome...

(etc)

I believe that was after some controversy mishaps with the series towards the whole evolving thing that it was changed to being positive. It's just another silly thing that gets around, like Harry Potter being banned in some school libraries because of "magic and satanism" and whatnot.

Touchy subject, yea. Pokemon definitely makes enough references to eastern culture however that I think it hasn't been much of a problem lately; I hope, at least

 

[aspie3000]

I am a bible believing christian conservative who believes in evolution about as much as I believe in fairies and I have never ever had any problem with pokemon using the word evolution, like one poster said, it is just metamorphosis. It also makes me mad when christians do this because the the bigoted masses are going to try and associate these moronic people with all christians.

 

[Palkia]

I have a permanent mark on my face from face palming so much at pokemon being 'satanic'. I feel people do it just to cause a unnecessary fuss.

Anyway, I think Pokemon is fine morally.

People need to actually study the "satanic" subject before they spout off garbage like that.

This pretty much as well, including the rest of Kirbychu's post.

 

[Zeffy]

Those people who claim that Pokemon is 'satanic' and 'violent' haven't played Pokemon yet, obviously. Because if you have played it, you'd understand what the terms in it means. Like what Kirbychu pointed out that evolution is not really evolution, its more like metamorphosis. But I don't see them wasting their money on a game that they claim 'satanic'.

 

[aspie3000]

And that's another thing, how exactly in what alternate universe does pokemon have anything at all to do with satan?

 

[U.Flame]

I've seen plenty of creepy things in Pokemon. (especially Red and Green/Blue) But I'm positive it wasn't subliminal messaging or anti-religion. People who think Pokemon is evil are probably just paranoid. Although the original Lavender Town music in Red and Green did rape my ears, but that's different from being evil.

 

[Esper]

Aside from the people who think everything is evil and Satanic I don't think anyone believes this about Pokemon anymore. The only real moral issue I think that's still relevant is the whole cockfighting/animal abuse idea, which I think has a little validity if you see the whole bonding aspect as just an attempt to put a positive face on something which might be ethically a little grey otherwise. Obviously, if you take Pokemon at face value there is nothing morally wrong with it.

 

[Punches]

People who take video games too seriously make me point and laugh at people who take video games too seriously. Enough said.

 

[Eucliffe]

Pokemon is a fantasy series. A synonym for fantasy is "make-believe". ...Yeah.

You wouldn't believe how many fantasy series are banned (Harry Potter and Golden Compass being two of them) in certain parts for defying religious beliefs and whatnot.

 

[Myles]

It's not so much that Christians are against Pokémon, as people who are against Pokémon use Christian beliefs to say its bad (and also the most fundamentalist Christians, but they're rare). Most Christians don't have a problem with Pokémon. As for the evolution thing, even if it were real evolution, most Christians aren't too against evolution anyway. e.g. the Catholic Church's position is largely theistic evolution and evolution is taught in Catholic schools as fact.

Likewise with other religions, it's usually mainly just the fundamentals.

The only thing to (potentially) complain about is the violence and even that is low compared to most media. I mean if you have a problem with Pokémon's violence, you're going to have a problem with practically everything in today's media.

 

[aspie3000]

No, not even the fundamentalists are against pokemon, only people with mental disorders are against pokemon. I don't know if I qualify as a fundamentalist but I do believe in every little thing in the Bible and take almost all of it literally except for the the parts in Daniel, Ezekiel, revelation, and other parts that are supposed to be symbollic, I believe that theistic evolution and evolution in general is a bunch of bull and you'll find that my kind is quite common among Christians, and none of us are against pokemon. I don't know, maybe the Westburo baptist church is against it. The only time that I have ever seen a Christian against pokemon was when I was looking at this Catholic website forum (I'm not Catholic), and this guy was saying the phrase "Got to catch them all" incites greed or something and he got told off by this twelve year old kid, it was funny. The point is that even Christians that haven't folded to the theory of evolution do not believe pokemon is evil. The only time that pokemon could be considered evil is if a child puts it before God therefore making it an idol, but that's true for everything so even in that circumstance pokemon is no more evil than anything else.

 

[GStheHero]

People just like to *****. As popular as Pokemon is, it was bound to be targeted eventually.

 

[ORegan]

I explained the Pokemon franchise to a woman once at my job in the most basic summary I could, which went as follows:

Basically, you follow around young Michael Vick as he goes around and crams many cute magical creatures into these little orbs, only to release them to fight other cute magical creatures until one of them passes out. Then he beats up gangsters and becomes the greatest animal fighter of all time. There's also something about mutual respect between the guy shouting at the cute fire puppy to bite off the face of the other animal and love through battling, but that's just to make it PG.

Also had to explain to the woman that in the realm of the gaming world, that isn't considered bad. Who here remembers mowing down hundreds of people in the airport of MW2, suffocating someone to death with a plastic bag in Manhunt or ANYTHING that you can do in GTA within five minutes of playing the game?

 

[Golden Warrior]

Most Christians don't have a problem with Pokémon.

Correct you are, a family I know are strong christians, and love pokemon at the same time (that's also me and my family, so... yeah!)

As for my opinion. Pokemon is morally fine and should not be criticized badly by any religion.

 

[Cherrim]

Pokémon is fiction. If established religions or organizations feel that it's too violent or too blasphemous or too anything, it's their choice to not let their children see it. But at the same time, come on. Pokémon is a fictional universe primarily aimed at children. It goes out of its way to teach good values, the good guys always win, and it's really hard to claim that it would ever teach kids the wrong things. If your child's conviction or ability to tell right from wrong is so easily swayed by a fictional TV show/game series, then I think your problem is with how you're teaching your child, not with the series they watch.

In a nutshell, I think if you're paranoid about your kid being into Pokémon and can't trust them to watch/play it safely, you're probably a bad parent and it has nothing to do with the series itself.

 

[Flashmeteor]

Bashing Pokemon is like bashing Super Mario Brothers for being too violent. Lol it's rated E for a reason.

As far as the whole cockfighting thing stands, Pokemon are made to seem very equal to humans as they have personalities, and in some cases voices. Having a Pokemon team is no different from being a Wrestling coach.

 

[Etoire]

I understand that it seems wrong since it's basically two people pitting animals to fight one another and betting on the outcome, aka winning money at the end. It's not so bad, though, I mean, it's not real.
I always found it interesting how the pokemon would never fight trainers, but only the animals. If pokemon have minds of their own, then it'd make sense for them to defend themselves. They would have never been domesticated... Wild pokemon should be more territorial, etc. Things like that. There's no moral issue since they're not real. If someone suggests that this violent theme might lead to children growing up to become violent persons, then video games would be worse. It's more likely that there's a problem with the child than the video game, or tv series in this case.

Something like that.