Final Fantasy and Christian Mythology

Zena got me Final Fantasy XV for Christmas, and I spent a few hours with it today, while I can't pas judgement on the entire game I am optimistic, it has a sense of fun about it that I haven't seen in the series since FFX-II, which, while a terrible story, still managed to have enjoyable moments and characters that looked like they wanted to be in the game. The more recent games didn't manage that, plus they made their gameplay the shittiest thing imaginable.

FFXV currently takes the form of a road trip taken by four friends on their way to a wedding, which is honestly a fun concept to start things out, oh there is the usual evil empire lurking in the background, and I am sure at some point I will have to punch out space Jesus or something, but the journey seems to be the key element focused on here, and I appreciate that.

Speaking of Space Jesus...

As I am sure most of you are aware, Christmas just happened, I hope you all had a nice time and if you didn't, I hope there is a way to force the world to make it up to you someday. As you may know, Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God and our Savior apparently, and also God in some way that isn't clearly explained. Now it is generally accepted that Christmas is actually on the date it is in an attempt to co-opt Pagan solstice celebrations into Christian tradition, but the story itself is actually pretty legendary, let's say things happened the way the songs and bible tell us it did, it means that in the time leading up to His birth, there were signs and portents that the wise and learned could interpret, a child was going to be born that would change everything, and He did in many ways even if as I do you don't accept the literal interpretation of Jesus as the son of God and also sort of God. Mankind was going to be saved, our sins forgiven, and so on and so forth, plus the preaching of a generally positive message which I am sure was refreshing for many at the time.

But taking the story literally really doesn't paint God in a god light at all, like the birth of Jesus marks a divide of sorts between the New and Old Testaments(I realize not literally but that is totally the perception and you know it.) Before Jesus we had a God who was basically cruel and arbitrary, He commits Omnicide on at least one occasion, punishes randomly and flagrantly disproportionately, and is basically the pantheon of any of the ancient religions of the area rolled into one being, which pretty much means He is a huge ass.

So while Jesus' birth and death is putatively about salvation and original sin, you can also read it as a sort of atonement from the big man Himself, an apology of sorts and a promise to turn over a new leaf and maybe dial back on the smitings a bit.

A kinder, gentler, God if you will.

Except that's a totally passive aggressive dick move on so many levels, let's start off with consent, Mary, the Virgin, was impregnated by God and told she would carry His son, she wasn't really given a choice in the matter, and to be honest even if He did ask, if we look at the relative balance of power between a human woman and the literal world creating deity there is no way that any consent can be considered freely given, I mean, we rightly accuse Bill Clinton of rape during his probably numerous extra-marital affairs while president because of just such  situation, the gap in status is a little bit wider in this particular case.
So God's atonement or apology is also starting off on the wrong foot, but things go on and Jesus is born and he is cool and after a while comes to accept his fate to be crucified and die in agony for mankind, and I have to stop there and ask why? Not why God couldn't just forgive us anyway, or prevent Jesus' fate, those can't be logical discussions as I mentioned before, just file under "He has a plan" and move on, but why the whole plot? At this point it seems less about us and more about Him.

Like, if I am a husband who beats his wife and she leaves me, I can't set my car on fire and expect her to take me back because I sacrificed for her. That isn't how it works. Especially when you consider that Jesus came back a few days later and bodily ascended to heaven, to continue the analogy it would be like I then got a fantastic insurance payout on my car and now bought a better one, but see how I suffered for you? You have to believe I have changed?

It's just a swap of outright aggression for passive aggression, and even if the smiting stops, or I stop beating my wife, the fists are still there. I may not use the belt, but it's framed above the fireplace, the Old Testament is still included in the bible, etc.

In a human, most of us wouldn't think twice about condemning this behavior as abusive at best, but God gets a pass on account of "mysterious ways?" That shit don't fly, the only morality we have to judge Him on is what He gave us after all, and His documented behavior contradicts every single aspect of the moral code He demanded we live by.

It maybe wouldn't be a huge deal, but a life defining moral code with one exception becomes a moral code with as many exceptions as those in power want, it's worse than useless because it becomes used to redefine immoral acts as moral if committed in the name of the exception. As a power structure it is second to none, but as a reason to believe in the competence of the creator of all things it leaves something to be desired.

In real world events, I talked a week or two ago about how The Toddler should rightly be criticized for every mistake he makes, no mater how small, because as the President your mistakes affect the entire world, why should we hold the mortal ruler of a country to a higher standard than we hold our deity? If you claim perfection than you should be able to avoid even the appearance of imperfection.

Anyway, that has been on my mind for a couple days, the usual disclaimers apply and are as follows: I am an atheist, this has all been a thought experiment rather than a critique of things I think actually happened, those of you who are Christian no I don't hate you but your book is pretty fucked up. Please continue to ignore the worst parts and take the best into your hearts.

Happy Holidays.