Making Astral Collision (An RPG Maker MV Project) Part 13

This is a brief update, as I was pretty busy with other projects, which meant I wasn't able to make as much progress as I would've liked this week. That said, I did do some updates to the interior maps as per my thoughts last week on the matter. I also added a few new interiors and an enchantment state or two.

Religion for Games X Astral Collision: A Practical Example | Part 3

In this video, I continue the process of fleshing out each individual world that I'd started last time. However, the sheer number of details I needed to work out for some of the worlds means that I was only able to fit in the next four. All of this work should help me make a way more compelling game!

Making Astral Collision (An RPG Maker MV Project) Part 12

In this episode, I show the houses I've made so far for the residential district in the first major city of this RPG. It's the sort of thing that takes a lot more time to create than demonstrate...

Religion for Games X Astral Collision: A Practical Example | Part 2

In this episode, I begin to turn the base states I'd created last time into something I can more actively work with for the game itself. This is a process that takes long enough, I'm going to have to do it over two videos.

Making Astral Collision (An RPG Maker MV Project) Part 11

In this episode, I go over map making work that I've done as I build the first major city of the game. It's the sort of work that takes a lot more time to do than one might think, and that also gets reviewed pretty quickly...note that I also go over a technique I used to make transfers between long edges way less tedious to do.

Religion for Games X Astral Collision: A Practical Example | Part 1

I decided to conclude my Religion for Games series with a practical example. This works out well to do, as Astral Collision, the game I've been making on Let's Make a Game, has really needed this sort of worldbuilding work done for it. There's a lot to do, however, so this is necessarily a multi-parter!

Making Astral Collision (An RPG Maker MV Project) Part 10

In this episode, I make the rest of the building maps for the starting village, begin the process of creating the maps for the first major city, create a new state type (which includes the design concept for it), and make a few more skills.

Religion In Conflict—Religion for Games

In this episode, I discuss how to handle the relationships between religions when worldbuilding.

Making Astral Collision (An RPG Maker MV Project) Part 9

In this episode of Let's Make a Game, I primarily go over the work I've done on the next tier of enemies. I also cover some balance stuff and game design philosophy with regards to creating my characters, as well as a few other miscellaneous things.

Changing Your Religion—Religion for Games

In this episode of Religion for Games, I discuss how to change a religion once you've created it. (Hint: Human nature is heavily involved!)

Making Astral Collision (An RPG Maker MV Project) Part 8

My work on Astral Collision continues, as I begin creating unique skills for the various classes, preparing the world map for music and more enemy encounter regions, and fill out the Sage class.

A Deep Dive into creating Deities—Religion for Games

I felt with the previous episode that I hadn't discussed deities in as much detail as the subject deserves, so I've inserted this more thorough discussion into this Religion for Games series.

Channel Update: Narrowing My Focus

In this video, I give an important update about what'll be happening going forward with content on my YouTube channel.

There's some important adjustments that'll happen here as a result. For one thing, the videos I'll be uploading there (sans the Stream VOD experiment) will be getting individual posts, rather than group posts, not unlike the Geekdom of God videos from a while ago.

Speaking of Geekdom of God, I'm planning on continuing that as an article series here, on this blog. So those will be showing up irregularly in the days to come.

Building Your Religion & Making Astral Collision Part 7

The Saturday video continues my Religion for Games series. In it, I discuss the many aspects to consider when creating a religion for a game (or other worldbuilding endeavor, really).

In the Sunday video, I continue to work on Astral Collision, to the shock of hopefully nobody. I'm slowly getting initial playable stuff pulled together, which is exciting!

Kingdom Come Deliverance Episodes 6-10

This week concluded the introduction portion of the game, judging by the credit sequence I got in the middle of the week. And thus, the real game begins!

I'm definitely enjoying the atmosphere of this game. It's one of the more grounded games I've played, due to a combination of historical setting and overall tone. The main character is just a guy, living in a politically complicated landscape, trying to figure out how best to live. That makes for a pleasant departure from the often "special, saving the world" type of hero story that we see so often in games. It's actually kinda similar to what I love about the start of Guild Wars: Prophecies, now that I think about it...

Religion for Games: Mechanics & Making Astral Collision Part 6

On Saturday, I continued my Religion for Games series by breaking down some of the mechanics that are currently in use. I find these mechanics to be very simple and shallow, but understanding why and what they do is a useful foundation for the parts to follow.

Then on Sunday, I continue working on Astral Collision. However, I've decided to try a new technique, where instead of recording me working, I instead work then record a summary. This produces a shorter episode that's hopefully more approachable. Let me know what you think!

Kingdom Come Deliverance Episodes 1-5

Like I mentioned on Friday, I've decided to start playing a new game this week. Specifically, I've decided to finally start playing Kingdom Come Deliverance, a historical first-person RPG set in Bohemia at the start of the 15th century (1403, specifically). It's been pretty interesting thus far. The game also provides a pretty extensive codex with lots of historical information, so be prepared for some reading!

New Series: Religion for Games & Making Astral Collision Continues

This Saturday, I introduced a new series where I talk about creating religions for games. I decided to start by making the case for why this matters. (Spoilers: There's a lot of untapped potential!)

Then on Sunday, I continued working on Astral Collision! This really shouldn't be surprising at this point...the game's got a long ways to go before it is complete!

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 51-55

I spent this week working my way up Taejin's Tower, only to be confronted by a rather frustrating boss fight. I spend most of the Friday episode analyzing the game's design, before very narrowly coming to the decision to take a hiatus from the game.

There's a lot of combat in these episodes, as that's what's emphasized at this point in time with this game.

Final Guild Wars 1 Skill Review Project Episode & Making Astral Collision Part 4

This week, I finally finish the Guild Wars 1 Skill Review Project by discussing lessons learned over the course of making it. I talk a lot about aspects related to making a game (or series of games) that have ideas similar to how Guild Wars 1 works.

I continue working on Astral Collision in the second video, where I finish the first draft of the world map. Some stuff I know I'll need to tweak, and other stuff I may tweak (as playtesting reveals the need to do so), but I at least figure out where everything is gonna go and which world map regions originate from which hero's world.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 46-50

This week, I made my way into Taejin's Tower and began the process of ascending it. This results in a lot of battles, both as part of advancing, but also because my characters desperately need to be stronger, and getting CP from defeating enemies is an important part of that. I also find the balancing of this game to be very weird.

Review of Guild Wars 1 Common Skills & Making Astral Collision Part 3

For the Guild Wars 1 Skill Review Project this week, I cover the last of the actual skills! That's right, I talk about all of the Common Skills, which are skills that can be used by any profession. Next week, I plan to make a summary of lessons learned from this whole endeavor, then it'll be off to new territory!

I also continue working on Astral Collision. I imagine I will be doing that for quite some time...anyway, this episode involves a lot of math, as I work on figuring out power formulas for a couple of the weapons. Of course, I talk a lot about what I'm wanting those formulas to do and why!

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 41-45

This week was all about exploring Gran Pulse, and getting familiar with it. A few new systems are introduced, I meet two Eidolons, and the difficulty curve feels out of control, with some enemies being very difficult and others being quite reasonable.

Of course, we also get more backstory, especially about Vanille.

Paragon Skill Review & Making Astral Collision Part 2

This week I reviewed the Paragon profession's skills for my Guild Wars 1 Skill Review Project. I talked about the design of the Paragon a lot in the introduction part.

I also continued working on Astral Collision, and probably will for a while yet. I experimented around with some new (for me) editing techniques for this video, with a couple of sped-up sections! I also don't have a great idea for how to name individual episodes, so I think I'm going to use the very generic name scheme I've got going here.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 36-40

I spent a lot of time in the Fifth Ark this week, making my way through groups of enemies and looking for plot. I find some from Cid Raines, then a massive amount of progress happens when the group defeats the Eidolon Bahamut and leaves Cocoon for Gran Pulse. What a way to end the week!

Guild Wars Skill Review Project for Dervish & Introduction to Let's Make a Game: Astral Collision

This week I reviewed the Dervish skills for the Guild Wars 1 Skill Review Project. That means next week is the Paragon, and the week after are the PvE-Only skills not associated with a profession (and also Resurrection Signet). I'm thinking I might do those all in one video...

And this Sunday, I've started a new series where I make a game. I introduce it, and the game I've started making (Astral Collision) in this episode. Hopefully it's interesting to people! While this game is in RPG Maker MV, I'm planning on using Unity for future installments.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 31-35

The plot really ramped up this week, as the entire party finally got together (Fang, Snow, Sazh, Vanille, Lightning, and Hope) and the leader of Sanctum revealed himself to be a fal'Cie in disguise. He explains our heroes' focus to them, but not before beating them up a bit. The characters now have to figure out what to do with this information...

Guild Wars 1: Ritualist Skill Review & How to Make a Team Build

This week saw me complete the Ritualist portion of the Skill Review Project. So that's what Saturday was all about.

On Sunday, I decided to take a break from the Prebuild challenge that I was doing to talk about how to make a team build in Guild Wars 1. This is something I have somehow neglected to do thus far, a fact that was brought to my attention by a friend of mine.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 26-30

Two-thirds of the group had met up at Hope's father's place by the start of the week, but they didn't get to rest long before PSICOM caught up with them and the game transitioned to focus on the remaining one-third of Sazh and Vanille. Massive stuff goes down with them involving Dajh, Sazh's son, and the events surrounding the boy becoming a l'Cie. However, Sazh and Vanille ended up captured. The rest of the team learned of this and went to rescue them!

Guild Wars 1: Assassin Skill Review & PvP Prebuilds only Challenge Run Continues

This week I covered the Assassin profession in my Guild Wars 1 Skill Review Project. I've been both enjoying and getting a lot out of this project, but I'm also looking forward to the conclusion—it takes up a lot of time! Just three professions left to go...

I also continued my PvP Prebuilds only challenge run, this time making it over the Shiverpeaks and through the Gates of Kryta!

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 21-25

This week saw part of the party united in Palumpolum, as Snow and Fang rescue Hope and Lightning from the military. I also spent a bunch of time trying to figure out why I have been disliking the combat system so much.

Guild Wars 1: Skill Review Project Monk & Start of a Challenge Run

On Saturday, I reviewed the Monk skills for my Guild Wars 1 skill review project.

On Sunday, I started a challenge run series, where I play through the missions of Guild Wars: Prophecies while only allowing myself to use some old PvP prebuilds (many of which are terrible, and some of which don't even work correctly anymore).

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 16-20

I spent a lot of time this week making my way through the Gapra Whitewood. I also spent a lot of time talking about my thoughts on Final Fantasy XIII's design.

Guild Wars 1: Skill Review Project for Necromancer & Wayfarer's Reverie

This week, I reviewed the Necromancer for the Guild Wars 1 Skill Review Project.

I also decided to play the Wayfarer's Reverie quests. All in one go. This...ended up longer than I was expecting. But, hey, I did it with four different characters! So you do get to see different playstyles across the course of the video.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 11-15

This week, the party slowly made its way through the Vile Peaks. Sometimes they were together, more often they were apart. Also, the game is continuing to introduce new mechanics. To be clear, this is fine, but it does feel like it takes a while for it to add all of the core combat mechanics.

Guild Wars 1: Ranger Skill Review & Journey from Lion's Arch to Ascalon City

This week, I did the Skill Review for the Ranger. I've again made it six parts, as that hopefully makes it more approachable!

I also learned last time that my female Dervish, Elandra, hadn't yet been to Ascalon, so the last video from this week is the journey from the port city of Lion's Arch to the ruined capital of Ascalon City.

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 6-10

Final Fantasy 13 continues this week (and likely for many, many weeks to come). Most of this week takes place on the crystallized Lake Bresha, but I do eventually leave there by the end of the week!

Guild Wars 1: Skill Review Project Mesmer & Eye of the North Finale

This weekend saw a ton of videos drop on Saturday, as I split the Skill Review for the Mesmer up into sections (six, to be exact), so as to hopefully make it more approachable, as I felt the 3+ hour long videos I had made previously to be intimidatingly long.

I also beat Eye of the North on Elandra Yggdrasill, my female Dervish!

Final Fantasy XIII Episodes 1-5

This week, I started playing Final Fantasy XIII for the channel. This is a game I've been wanting to play for a while now, so I'm glad to finally get started playing it!

Guild Wars 1: Elementalist Skill Review & Orozar Highstone's Quests

The first episode this weekend was the very long Elementalist part of my Guild Wars 1 Skill Review Project. Part of what made this episode so much longer than the previous one was wanting to go into more game design detail, which I think makes the content better, at the cost of making it longer. I intend to respond to this outcome by breaking up the next part into multiple videos. They'll all still come out the same day (according to current plans, anyway), but it should be more palatable!

The second video continues Elandra's journey through the Eye of the North content.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 31-35

I beat Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night this week! I completed the main story, anyway. I then spent an episode analyzing and reviewing the game, then concluded things by wrapping up a few known loose ends of exploration. I expect the game will come back on weekends, likely when I get access to new playable characters.

Guild Wars 1: Skill Review—Warrior & A Gate Too Far

The first (extremely long) video is the first of my profession-specific Guild Wars 1 skill review videos. In it, as you'd expect given the name, I review the Warrior's skills.

In the second video, I play more Guild Wars 1, completing the A Gate Too Far mission, which almost completely closes out the third leg of the first part of the Eye of the North story.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 26-30

I continue to wander around while lost. I ended up taking a bit of an interlude in the middle of the week to get ingredients to cook a bunch of new recipes. Once again, I end the week by looking up the barest hint of information on how to progress, and find a bunch of it as a result. I overall like this game, but it has a bad habit of hiding its late game progress a little too well.

Guild Wars 1 Skill Review Project Intro & More Eye of the North

The first video this weekend is the start of what will (according to current plans) ultimately be a twelve part series analyzing the skills in Guild Wars 1. I'm looking forward to it, as I've been wanting to do this for a while!

The second episode continues my journey through Eye of the North on my female Dervish.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 21-25

I spent much of this week searching for progress. I eventually gave up and took a peek at a barebones walkthrough that pointed me in the direction of the Aegis Plate. I do find and collect a lot of stuff during my search, though!

Food & Cooking in RotN and Oola's Lair & the G.O.L.E.M. project in GW1

In the first video this weekend, I analyze the design of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night's food and cooking system, which does a lot to add micro-reward structures to the game.

My Guild Wars 1: Eye of the North adventures continue in the second video.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 16-20

I find a couple of very useful abilities in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night this week. The first is the ability to sink in water, which proves most useful. The other is the ability to invert Miriam's gravity, which has some very interesting visual implications. Both open up a bunch of exploration!

Game Design about Trade-Offs and Guild Wars 1 Buildcrafting

I wanted to talk about trade-offs in game design—things that force the player to make choices—and I chose to do this by using Dark Souls 1. Hopefully this is the first in many weekend videos about game design or game analysis, as that's something I think can be my channel's niche.

The second video is some more Guild Wars 1 stuff. However, much of the first part of the video is the process of me constructing a team build, and going over my thought process. I also discuss some skills, which I suppose is game designery? Regardless, I had fun playing the game again! It'd been too long.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 11-15

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night continues! The most significant advancement was in the last episode, as gaining the ability to (sort of) swim really opened up a lot more areas. This week also marks the beginning of some experimentation with thumbnails. I'm curious to see if the seem to have an impact.

Final Hollow Knight Epilogue and Dark Souls II Retrospective Episodes

This weekend is one of conclusions, as it has had both the last episode of the Hollow Knight Epilogue as well as the final episode of the Dark Souls II retrospective.

In the Hollow Knight episode, I give a try to beating The Radiance again, but I just do not enjoy the fight. I decide to go poking around at a few other odds and ends (such as the Coliseum of Fools), where I find some other stuff. But I think I've gotten out of this game all I care to, so it's time to go ahead and set it down.

Speaking of odds and ends, that's mostly what the Dark Souls II retrospective episode covers. There's a bunch of smaller things I talk about in it. I end the episode with some of my final thoughts from the series.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 6-10

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night continues! I found a lot of movement abilities this week, and figured out about how more systems function. Also, this game continues to make me hungry!

Hollow Knight Epilogue 10 and Part 4 of Dark Souls II Retrospective

A tragedy struck, and unfortunately a bunch of boss fights failed to get recorded. So this week's Hollow Knight episode is a search for all of the grubs. I find a lot of other stuff along the way, so it's got some nice exploration in it, too.

The Dark Souls II retrospective episode (with a name change because a check on Google Trends has shone that "Dark Souls 2" gets searched for far more than "Dark Souls II" does) is about the world design and level design of the game, along with a bunch of adjacent concepts (like torches, enemy respawn limits, etcetera).

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Episodes 1-5

I was a backer of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and now that the game has released (just a few days after I recorded this, anyway), I'm excited to get to finally play it!

Hollow Knight Epilogue Episode 9 and Dark Souls II Retrospective Part 3

The Hollow Knight epilogue continues. Rather than continue to attempt to beat the final boss, I go after some of the DLC in the hopes of gaining additional tools to help me beat the final boss.

The Dark Souls II retrospective also continues, this time with a discussion of game mechanics more closely associated with the player character.

FTL: Faster Than Light—First Play

FTL: Faster Than Light is a space crew simulator rogue-like type of game. I started by going through the tutorial, then attempted several runs. None of them ended well, but that's OK. The game is fun, and I expect to play it on the weekends occasionally.

The Importance of Hope - Geekdom of God Ep. 51

Hope is very important! In this episode, I explore why, and also how cynicism can cause us to become hopeless. I also go over, for lack of a less odd sounding phrase, hope hygiene.

The Hope of Christianity: https://youtu.be/4xcSq2MUbrI

Also, I'm going to be taking a hiatus from creating Geekdom of God. I've been making it for about a year now, and I've learned a lot—including that I need to take some time off to refine the creation process. Geekdom of God will return this autumn! (Or spring if you live in the southern hemisphere.)

Note: This hiatus will not be affecting the video game content.

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Dark Souls Games World Connections Charts

A little while ago, I became curious about how the various zones of the three Dark Souls games connected to each other. I decided to satisfy this curiosity by making these graphs. When reading them, keep in mind that arrows indicate a connection, not just lines. So a line with only one arrow head is one-way only—no backtracking on foot (or via mouth, as the case may be) that way!

Note that bonfire warping is not accounted for. There would be no point in later games, after all.

Dark Souls 1

Dark Souls 2

Dark Souls 3

Hollow Knight Epilogue Episode 8 and Dark Souls 2 Retrospective Part 2

In Hollow Knight this week, I challenge the final boss. Again and again and again. It really gives me a proper what's for!

In the Dark Souls II Retrospective video, I gush over the level aesthetics. I generally avoid talking about the mechanical aspects of the level design, as well as the world design. Those are topics for future episodes. For now, join me in admiring the environment art of this game!

Base Building in Subnautica Creative Mode

Subnautica is a cool game of ocean exploration. But it also includes base building! This week, I decided it'd be cool to journey throughout the ocean to build bases in creative mode, which makes building far simpler by removing most of the constraints (such as material costs and durability).

Geekdom of God Ep. 50 - Who does the Bible say is responsible for controlling male sexual desires? Men or Women?

There are many today who claim that women must dress modestly so that men don't sexually mistreat them. In effect, they argue that women must try to control the sexual desires of men.

But what does the Bible say about this topic? Does it reinforce this idea, or does it refute it? Watch this video to find out!

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Video Game Content June 10-16, 2019

There was enough variety in the content this week that it didn't make sense to me to try to make separate posts, so here's all of it!

The first two videos are from a game called Airscape: The Fall of Gravity. It's a challenging platformer. I ended up deciding to not finish the game, as I wasn't interested in conquering the platforming challenge. I suspect part of the reason was lingering frustration with Hollow Knight's White Palace, even a week removed.

Next comes a trio of Guild Wars 1 videos. To some extent, these are content fillers. That doesn't mean I think they're bad by any means, it simply means they aren't a proper Let's Play series. I'm still in a bit of a limbo, as many of the games I want to start are (as far as I can tell, anyway) longer RPGs, and I want to start playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for the channel the week it comes out (it releases June 18). I also don't want to interrupt a series. This makes figuring out what to do a bit awkward. On the other hand, it has meant I've experimented some!

Next, we have the next part of the Hollow Knight Epilogue. I get to the final boss for the better ending I'm going for, but I'm going to have to actually beat that boss in a future episode, as it proves to be quite challenging!

And finally, the last video is the first in a new series I'm doing that'll be a retrospective on Dark Souls II, the much-maligned middle-child of the Dark Souls trilogy. This episode specifically examines the issues with the game being named "Dark Souls II," and everything that comes with that.

Legislating Morality - Geekdom of God Ep. 49

In this Geekdom of God episode, I examine the impulse to try to use the law to enforce moral behavior. This requires analyzing how the law works in a general sense, as well as its effectiveness in producing the desired result of eliminating immoral behavior.

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Hollow Knight Epilogue 6 and Unwaking Waters

I made a LOT more progress in this week's Hollow Knight episode than I was expecting! It starts with the Lost Kin fight, which was significantly easier for me than I expected. This meant I could make my way to the Super Meat Boy inspired White Palace!

The second video is the Guild Wars: Factions mission of Unwaking Waters with the story quests surrounding it. It was a much needed bit of relaxing after the challenge of the Hollow Knight episode!

No Man's Sky Stream Recording

I decided to try an experiment with streaming the weekday recording session. I did this with No Man's Sky. It was a worthy experiment, but I'm not quite happy with the results (in part because it actually created a lot of extra work behind the scenes). That said, I do want to figure out a way to work streaming into what I do in a way that doesn't create a lot of overhead.

No Geekdom of God this week

Hey, everyone.

There won't be a Geekdom of God episode this week. This is due to several factors, but the most important one is this:

My episode idea for this week sounded good when I came up with it, but slowly and surely fell apart as I was writing the script for it. Thankfully, my sister (who has been graciously helping me edit episodes of late) helped me confirm that the script was a hot mess.

This isn't a script that can be fixed, since it was concepted as a list, and a major problem with it is that each topic ended up being both meatier than I had originally thought it would be, as well as not connecting to the list's theme as well as I had thought it would.

The good news is that this problem means that the list topics can be split up into their own episodes that I now have head starts on.

Unfortunately, due to the way the last several days have played out, I did not realize the problem with the topic until I'd effectively run out of time. The reasons for this are connected to a broader issue that I'm going to be discussing with Patrons, so now is a good time to sign up if you're reading this and haven't.

Ultimately, it is my judgment that it is better to not try to rush some sort of episode out—only for it to end up being late anyway, as would be inevitable at this point—because this show is too important to lower the bar of quality simply so I can say that I've gotten something out every week since it started.

Thank you for your understanding.

-- Sientir

Hollow Knight Epilogue Episodes 4 & 5 and Gyala Hatchery

I ended up recording another two episodes of Hollow Knight this week. Unfortunately, something was off with my microphone settings, which resulted in it being too quiet and cutting out in spots. This isn't helped by the fact that the game was way too loud. That's something I'll have to fix for the next time.

Anyway, I went after the last two spirit warriors I'd previously missed, then took a stab at beating the White Defender. He proved...challenging.

In the Sunday video, I return to Guild Wars 1 and doing stuff on my Ranger, this time the Gyala Hatchery mission, though the episode itself starts with the prerequisite quest wherein I retrieve a chest of turtle eggs.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Episodes 1-4

Well, huh. This happened again...

Anyway, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a short (hence only 4 episodes) platformer in the style of the old Castlevania games. It serves as a prequel and companion piece to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which will be coming out in mid June. I wanted to make sure to give it a play before that game comes out!

Childlike Faith and Doubt - Geekdom of God Ep. 48

We all wrestle with doubt at times. But how do we reconcile those struggles with the instruction to have a childlike faith? Join me in this episode of Geekdom of God to find out!

I want to thank my sister for her invaluable help in editing the script for this video.

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Hollow Knight Double Feature and Guild Wars 1: Getting to 10k Luxon Faction

I didn't feel like starting a new thing for one episode, so Friday gets to be an honorary member of the weekend this week. At least for my video series, at least!

The first two of these are continuing my journey in Hollow Knight, as I pursue the requirements necessary to get a better ending.

The third video is more Guild Wars 1 stuff. Specifically, I continue what I'd started last time with the pursuit of 10,000 Luxon faction, except there's no anniversary celebration weekend to distract me!

Shadow of War Miniseries Episodes 3-6

Well, uh, spoilers for tomorrow, I guess, but I finished of the Middle-earth: Shadow of War miniseries today! Which is definitely not a Friday, so that's kinda awkward...

I had fun with this miniseries, though. Definitely something worth considering in the future as a format!

Free Will vs. Predestination: What's the debate about? - Geekdom of God Ep. 47

Christian theologians have long debated whether we have free will or if we are predestined. This debate can be rather confusing, so I endeavor to break down and analyse these concepts and topics in this video.

I want to thank my sister for her invaluable help in editing the script for this video.

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Hollow Knight Epilogue Episode 1 and Guild Wars 1 Anniversary

Guild Chat is gone, so the weekends are now whatever I feel like them being. For right now, Saturday is going to be more Hollow Knight, at least until I get a better ending than I did during the main playthrough.

The Sunday video is just some Guild Wars 1 stuff, because I love that game. :D

The Surge Episodes 6-8 and Shadow of War Miniseries Episodes 1-2

Hey everyone. Well, this was quite an interesting week for the Let's Play series, huh?

I ended up deciding to stop playing The Surge because I found the combat too frustrating to be fun. This led to a pivot to playing Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, just to have some fun. That's gonna end up being a longer thing than I expected, though definitely not as long as a full playthrough of the game would be. I just want to get my fortress back!

The Spouse-Idol - Geekdom of God Ep. 46

Our culture has fed us the idea that romantic relationships—particularly the spousal one—are the best type of relationship out there, and that having one is the key to happiness, if not more.

In this week's episode, I'm going to look at and challenge this idea.

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The Magic Circle Epilogue and Guild Chat: Creep Scope

The first video this weekend is an epilogue to the The Magic Circle playthrough. Given the ridiculous length of that game's finale, I didn't really have time in the final episode to give my thoughts on the game. Also, I wanted more time to digest and process it. So I decided to share my thoughts here.

The second video is a Guild Chat on scope creep, which is when a project slowly balloons to ridiculous proportions to the point where completing it becomes too resource intensive to do well.

This weekend also marks a bit of a change in the weekend video slots. I've decided that, in general, the Guild Chat videos are a bit too much of a content mismatch between the audio and video portions. As such, I'm discontinuing the idea. While I may still make videos on random discussion topics, I want to handle them in a more cohesive way when I do make them.

Moving forward, you can usually expect edited gameplay with live commentary, but unlike the Let's Plays, these videos will be with games I have experience with. Basically, I'm usually going to use these slots to play some games I've played before and I enjoy continuing to play. That said, I do intend to experiment with the weekend slots, too, so there will be some unexpected stuff!

Let's Play The Surge Episodes 1-5

As I finished The Magic Circle last week, this week we start a new game: The Surge! This game is set in the relatively near future, and features the dubious tech company, CREO, doing something dubious. Like their surgical procedures.

The game itself is a "Souls-like," which is a fancy way of saying it has combat mechanics reminiscent of Dark Souls, et al.

The Trinity - Geekdom of God Ep. 45

The Trinity is an important theological concept in Christianity about the nature of God, but it can often be confusing or ambiguous. In this episode, I delve into this topic to explain what the Trinity is!

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Guild Chat: Playgrounds to Gyms and Star Wars Continuities

In the first Guild Chat, I discuss how the ways we exercise change as we grow up.

In the second Guild Chat, I explain why I think the Original and Prequel Star Wars trilogies are in different continuities.

Let's Play The Magic Circle

The Magic Circle is a relatively short (given I finished it in one week!) game, but a very interesting one. I'll definitely have a future video discussing it. The game itself is a sort of metaphor for creativity and creation from multiple angles using the premise of a game called "The Magic Circle." It's very interesting, and a real thinker of a game!

The Old and New Covenants - Geekdom of God Ep. 44

In this episode, I discuss the similarities and differences between the Old and New Covenants (that is, Judaism and Christianity). This includes things like the general structure of the Covenants, what their purposes are, along with other similarities and differences.

Due to the way I handled the creative process, I did overlook an obvious similarity in that the Old Testament is an important religious text for both religions. I didn't realize I'd forgotten this until it was too late to add it in somewhere.

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Guild Chat: Humans - Good or Evil? and Pet Stories

In the first Guild Chat episode this week, I give my thoughts on the philosophical question of "Are humans intrinsically good or intrinsically wicked?" As you might guess from the title. Anyway, this requires me to talk about morality a lot—my thoughts there should be nothing new for people who've been listening to my content for a while, though.

In the second (much shorter) Guild Chat, I share some personal stories about pets my family had back in the day.

Let's Play Hollow Knight Episodes 46-50

I do a lot of exploration this week, including finding the final dreamer, The Beast. Most important of all, however, I beat the game! Yay! It was a lot of fun. I give my thoughts on the game's design and the like in the Finale episode.

Sacra-whats? - Geekdom of God Ep. 43

Have you ever heard the word "Sacraments" and wondered what it meant? Or have you heard of baptism or Communion (or the Lord's Supper or Eucharist) and been uncertain of what those things are? Then you've come to the right place, because in this episode of Geekdom of God, I go over these things!

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Guild Chat: Hero Driven 4X Game and "Wouldn't it be cool?" syndrome

In the first of this week's Guild Chat videos, I explore the idea of a hero-driven 4X game.

In the second, I analyze a problem that can crop up in game design, where you focus on things that sound cool, rather than on the hard details of how a game works. I also examine the idea of what it is like to experience game worlds, since that is a big part of this issue.

Let's Play Hollow Knight Episodes 41-45

I made a lot of progress this week, finding key upgrades, such as the ability to swim in acid water. I also made a lot of lore progress, finding the King's Brand and the Teacher. I get the feeling I'm rapidly approaching the end of the game.

Persecution and Representing Christ - Geekdom of God Ep. 42

In this week's episode, I talk about persecution and suffering for being a Christian. While it is something we should expect, we have to be careful to not automatically assume that persecution is indicative of us doing the right thing. Also, it is important that we understand what it means to represent Christ, which is actually rather connected to this previous issue.

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Guild Chat: Getting into favorite games and Managing the Star Wars IP

In the first Guild Chat this weekend, I talk about the unusual paths the led to me getting into some of my favorite games.

In the second one, I talk about the challenge of handling an IP that you didn't create, primarily by examining the challenge Disney has when it comes to managing Star Wars.

Let's Play Hollow Knight Episodes 36-40

I make significant progress this week, with a lot of exploration and finding a lot of things. Of particular note is the Wednesday video, where I take down a very challenging boss that leads to one of the beings I'm seeking. I definitely feel like I'm moving towards the end of the game, which, to be fair, I probably should be after 40 episodes!

Christians Should Associate with Sinners - Geekdom of God Ep. 41

As the episode title implies, in this episode, I examine reasons why Christians should associate with sinners. I also explore some of the things that can happen when we don't.

The episode on Cultural Christianity can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/xfG2zeUAMSY

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Guild Chat: UBI Benefits and Guild Wars 2 & Opportunity Cost

In the first Guild Chat this week, I look at some of the possible benefits of Universal Basic Income from a human empowerment standpoint, an angle that I feel gets less focus than the direct financial aspects of the concept.

In the second Guild Chat, I examine the idea of "opportunity cost" as a way to balance stuff in games. This topic is inspired by design decisions ArenaNET made when creating Guild Wars 2.

Let's Play Hollow Knight Episodes 31-35

I made a lot of progress in Hollow Knight this week! The main reasons were finding the double jump upgrade and the tram pass, both of which opened up a lot of new ears for me to explore.

John 3:16-21, A Message of Love - Geekdom of God Ep. 40

John 3:16-21 is a powerful encapsulation of the Gospel message, but we often cut it short by looking at just John 3:16. Please join me in this careful look at the entirety of this powerful passage.

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Guild Chat: Hyrule Warriors and Magic: The Gathering Tensions

The first Guild Chat this week is about some of the analysis I've been doing regarding the way combat works in Hyrule Warriors. While I'm overall enjoying the game, I can't help but find the controls get in the way sometimes, especially for certain characters.

The second Guild Chat is about the challenge that Wizards of the Coast has when managing Magic: The Gathering, as the game is both a game and a collectible. These two things push the game in different directions, which is what this video is about.

Let's Play Hollow Knight Episodes 26-30

This week saw me spend a lot of time exploring in an effort to find progress—and oh boy, do I! Well, narrative progress, at least. World progress mostly comes in small bits and pieces. Still I'm having fun and getting things set up for some much more significant progress next week!

Temptations in the Wilderness: What can we learn from them? - Geekdom of God Ep. 39

After Jesus was baptized by John, He was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. There's a lot we can learn from these temptations with a close examination of them, which is the purpose of this episode!

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Guild Chat: Sultai Christian & Homosexuality and the Bible

The first Guild Chat this week examines how my personality affects how I approach my faith.

The second Guild Chat is on a topic that's been a long time coming. I've posted the script for it, which can be found here: https://www.geekdomofgod.com/2019/03/guild-chat-script-homosexuality-and.html

Guild Chat Script: Homosexuality and the Bible

This is a script to the Guild Chat video of the same name. It can be found here.

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Many Christian leaders present homosexuality as inherently evil. This results in many Christians treating homosexuals poorly. But what does the Bible actually say about homosexuality? Is it as clear-cut as these leaders present it? Or is it more complicated?

In this lengthy video, I want to investigate these questions.

Before I begin, a few things. First, I’m reading this from a script and I unfortunately don’t have the bandwidth to edit the audio. I’m probably going to make a few mistakes, so I just want to apologize in advance for any flubbed lines. Also, there will be a link to the script in the description, so if you’d rather read this (or if you want links to references), you can check it out there.

Anyway, the first thing I need to do is start with some definitions so that we can all be on the same page.

I want to start by defining “homosexual.” This might seem strange, but it’s necessary because it has become clear to me that there are generally two definitions of “homosexual” that are used. The first is one that describes an individual who experiences same-sex attraction. That is, they are sexually attracted to individuals that present themselves as having the same sex as them. The second definition is that of one who engages in sexual activity with people who are the same sex that they are. Sometimes this gets referred to as a “practicing homosexual.”

I have an issue with this second definition of homosexual, insomuch as I see it as not useful for reasons I’ll get to in a moment. I think it’s an older definition, and I do want to point out that when Christian leaders call homosexuality evil, I believe that this is the definition that they are using.

In this talk, I’m going to use “homosexual” to name the group of individuals who experience sexual attraction to those who present themselves as members of their same sex. This is how I think of the term, and I believe it is the culturally common usage of the word. It also has little to do with actual behavior.

I’m going to use “heterosexual” in much the same way. It describes individuals who are sexually attracted to those who present themselves as a member of the other sex. (As an aside, I dislike the term “opposite sex,” as I don’t believe male and female are opposites—men and women have far too much in common for that term to make any sense to me.)

The next important term to define is “same-sex.” This is used as an adjective or adverb to describe activities or states wherein the participants are the same sex.

I’m differentiating same-sex and homosexual because same-sex activities can be engaged in regardless of the sexual orientation of the individuals involved. This is extremely important, and a predominant factor in why I strongly dislike the use of “homosexual” as a descriptor for those who engage in these activities, as I believe it creates far too much confusion.

Common phrases that use the term “same-sex” include:

• Same-sex sexual activity: This is referring to sexual activity in which the participating members are of the same sex.
• Same-sex marriage: This refers to a marriage wherein the spouses are the same sex.

As a heads-up, this talk will necessary discuss various sexual activities. I’m not planning on defining any of these, on the assumption that you are aware of what they are.

I have a few final things I want to address before I begin digging into the Bible.

The first is why I’m doing this. I’m a heterosexual male, so what the Bible says about homosexuality (and, more critically, same-sex sexual activity) has little direct relevance to me. However, as I established in yesterday’s video, I have a powerful distaste for baseless rules, and I view all tradition as suspect and worthy of scrutiny to evaluate whether it is still applicable. I assign no inherent authority to tradition or culture, though I do view them as a useful source of information.

I am concerned that the church has been unduly influenced by cultural forces that denigrate sex (which God invented!) and that have painted homosexuality in particular as vile, especially cultural influences that have existed in the past.

I also dislike inconsistent rules. If it is OK for a man and woman to kiss, for example, why not a man and a man or a woman and a woman? Where are the lines? Why are the lines where they are?

If it is wrong for two men or two women to do activity X, then it should logically be wrong for a man and a woman to also do activity X. Or are we making the morality of activities dependent upon who does them in an inconsistent way? And if so, on what grounds?

While there can be clear lines, I argue that they must have valid rationale. For example, the error with sexually engaging with someone who does not consent to such activity—such as children, who lack the understanding to consent to such a thing—is clear. It is a violation of autonomy which causes deep harm.

I am also deeply concerned about the eternal well being of the homosexual community. I do not want the church to push them away by fighting cultural wars. It is my belief that Christianity is not supposed to try to force moral standards upon the outside world. Rather, Christians are supposed to be moral examples that draw people in. If Christians indeed demonstrate their ways to be superior, then people will be drawn to them. The Scriptures are filled with language describing this. I do not see the current interactions between the church and homosexuality as being successful in doing this. In fact, I see them as violating Peter’s instruction that Christians should not be meddlers and Paul’s instruction that Christians should not judge those outside the church.

I have also personally been negatively impacted by disgust towards homosexuality.

In many regards this is a tangential topic that has a lot to unpack, so I’ll leave most of it for a later video. Briefly, the negative view of homosexuality—especially male homosexuality—makes it difficult for men to display physical affection to each other, such as hugs. My primary love language is touch. Thus, I find it difficult to express platonic affection towards male friends due to the still-lingering effects of anti-homosexual sentiment.

But like I said, that’s a deep well of a topic that deserves its own video, and this one will be long enough without going into it further.

Also, if I didn’t make it clear earlier, I don’t really care what cultural or traditional thought on the matter is. Such things are extremely mutable and inconsistent, and thus they are irrelevant as a basis of understanding. However, understanding the cultural situation in which certain Biblical statements were made can inform us as to their purpose. There will be more on this once I start digging into the Bible.

Finally, before I begin examining the Bible, I think it is important to express my general conclusions now. I do not see the Bible as condemning homosexuality according to the definition I use for it. I do see the Bible condemning lust and sexual promiscuity. Both of these are problems for heterosexuals and homosexuals alike.

As for same-sex sexual activity, I see little direct condemnation, though there are arguments to be made. My general conclusion is that the Bible is specifically against anal sex, as well as uncommitted sexual relationships (such as prostitution or one-night stands). As for same-sex sexual relationships, I am more uncertain, though I lean towards the idea that they fall into the “Disputable Matters” category. For more on what a “disputable matter” is, you can watch my Geekdom of God video discussing the topic.

So, these are my general conclusions. Let’s dig into why I’ve come to them.

There are six broad areas I want to examine that I think are the ways the Bible is commonly used to condemn homosexuality. Three of these come from the Old Testament and three of them come from the New Testament.

These areas are:

• The Old Testament stuff
• Genesis 2:24
• The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah
• The Law
• The New Testament stuff
• “Sexual Immorality”
• Romans 1:24-27
• 1 Corinthians 6:9

Let’s just go through these in order, starting with Genesis 2:24, which reads:

Genesis 2:24—That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

I’m going to be blunt: This is, in my opinion, the strongest argument against same-sex couples engaging in same-sex sexual activity. But note that it has nothing to do with homosexuality itself.

Further, I think the argument can be made that this is a descriptive verse, not a prescriptive one.

The difference is that one is an observation of reality, while the other is direction for behavior. This verse is written in such a way that it seems clear that it is explaining why we see certain behavior (i.e. the sex drive) and the result of that behavior (the two become one flesh).

Basically, this verse is stating that (jumping off of 22-23, which you can read on your own), because woman was created from a part taken from man, the two have an urge to reunite in the sexual act.

What I’m arguing is that Genesis 2:24 is similar to The Hero’s Journey. When Joseph Campbell created the Hero’s Journey, what he was doing was describing a recurrent narrative structure found in a wide variety of myths. He was not giving a formula for creating a perfect story, but rather observing a structure. The fact that people took this observation of common plot points and turned it into a formula does not change Joseph Campbell’s original intention when documenting that structure.

When both Jesus and Paul reference this passage, they use it in a descriptive way. Both use it for the “two become one flesh” concept—Jesus when speaking against divorce in Matthew 19:1-9, and Paul when instructing Christians to not have sex with prostitutes in 1 Corinthians 6:15-16.

Therefore, I think it can be argued that this verse describes the cause of the sexual urge, as well as defining Biblical marriage as a committed sexual relationship between two people, not that it is forbidding same-sex sexual relationships.

So then, let’s look at the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is found in Genesis 19:1-25. That’s a long passage, so I’m going to give you a summary. You are encouraged to read the entire passage yourself, of course.

This tale actually begins a bit before Genesis 19:1, when, by way of two angel emissaries, God reveals to Abraham that He is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham knows that Lot, his nephew, lives in Sodom, so He asks God to not destroy the city if at least ten righteous people can be found within it. God agrees. This is found in Genesis 18, by the way.

Anyway, the angels make their way to Sodom. Lot is at the city’s gate, and when he sees the angels, who looked like men, he insists they stay at his house. Keep in mind that, in those days, there wasn’t really a system of inns or hotels or whatnot. The angels intended to sleep in the town square, but Lot was quite persistent, so they agreed to stay at his house.

That evening, all of the men of Sodom came to Lot’s house and demanded Lot hand the angels over to them so that they could have sex with them. Lot refused, and in an act born of a host’s responsibility to his guests that we would find repugnant today, offered the men of Sodom his daughters instead. The men rejected this offer and tried to kill Lot, but the angels opened the door, blinded the men, and rescued him.

By the next day, Lot had fled Sodom, and fire was rained down upon it and neighboring cities, destroying them utterly.

It is easy for modern readers to think that Sodom was condemned because the men wanted to engage in same-sex sexual acts. But I think such an argument is very weak compared to the argument that it was condemned because all of the men were would-be rapists, given over to lust.

In the New Testament, Jude’s letter reinforces this view. He writes, in Jude 1:7…

Jude 1:7—In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

There are some issues I have with how this is translated (a trend we’ll see when we get to the New Testament sections in general), so let’s look at the important underlying Greek sections of this verse.

The first is the word translated into English as the phrase “gave themselves up to sexual immorality.” In the Greek, this phrase is but one word: έκπορνευω. You can look it up yourself if you want to, it’s Strong’s 1608 (a Bible concordance system).

More literally, this word means: “To be utterly unchaste; to give oneself over to fornication.” That definition is taken from an older Strong’s dictionary that I have. To me, it feels like the idea that one has made one’s life purpose the pursuit of as much sex as possible.

The Greek being translated as “perversion” here is actually a phrase that can be more literally translated as, “chasing after different flesh.” How exactly Jude is using this phrase I am uncertain, but to me, it sounds like the men of Sodom kept pursuing different sexual partners—and perhaps even bestiality, though I have no proof of that.

Anyway, my point is that Jude only confirms my original statement, which is that Sodom and Gomorrah were condemned for giving themselves over to extreme levels of sexual desire and lust. This likely resulted in a lot of rape and other atrocities. Therefore, to claim that this is about homosexuality seems like way too much of a stretch to me.

The final bit from the Old Testament is the Mosaic Law, specifically Leviticus 18:22 and the similar Leviticus 20:13. I think the first of these is more popular, so let’s look at that one.

Leviticus 18:22—Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.

First of all, this expressly addresses men. Second of all, it is somewhat specific: It specifically prohibits two men engaging in sex in a manner similar to the way that a man has sexual relations with a woman. Note that this is an action, and therefore it is not about homosexuality.

I think you could argue that this is banning anal sex. If that is indeed the case, it would make sense why women aren’t mentioned.

I have seen statements that this verse somehow magically includes women in it, but I don’t find such arguments compelling for two major reasons.

It is true that the surrounding verses contain many bans on sexual relationships (for example, not having sex with your aunt). Like Leviticus 18:22, these are always presented as instruction to men, not as instruction to women. However, they also include a woman with whom the act is performed, which means that they implicitly prohibit the reciprocal act (e.g. not having sex with your nephew).

However, there is an example where this isn’t the case: Bestiality.

Leviticus 18:23 bans bestiality, and it does so explicitly for both men AND women.

Leviticus 18:23—Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.

I find the fact that women are mentioned here, but don’t have a similar prohibition of engaging in sexual relations with each other quite notable. Further, I find it a compelling reason why women engaging in same-sex sexual activity isn’t governed by Leviticus 18:22.

Further, if God is the all-knowing God that we Christians claim to believe He is, then He would most certainly be aware that women would engage in sexual activities with each other. Therefore, I posit that He would specifically ban it if He wanted it banned, in much the same way that He banned bestiality for both men and women.

Two things before I wrap this segment up.

The first is that an argument has been presented that Leviticus 18:22 is specifically banning the practice of men engaging in sexual acts with male shrine prostitutes—which would be a form of idol worship. There is some argument for this, as there are other prohibitions in the Mosaic Law that seem random until you learn that they were prohibiting pagan worship rituals.

The second is that Christians aren’t even bound by the Mosaic Law anyway, which is what Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 are a part of.

The subject of whether or not Christians had to obey the Mosaic Law was a matter of intense debate during the early church period, which came to a head in Acts 15. This resulted in a council meeting of church leaders, who concluded that Christians were in fact not required to obey the Mosaic law. There’s a lot more information there, so you can check it out for yourself. The important thing to remember is that the Mosaic Law was given to govern Israel, not Christians.

OK, that’s the stuff from the Old Testament. Let’s look into the things from the New Testament.

The first of these is a recurrent phrase throughout the New Testament that modern translations use: Sexual Immorality.

I hate this phrase because it is nondescript. It’s highly subjective, an empty bucket into which anyone can toss anything they please.

In the old days, it would’ve been translated as “fornication.” It comes from the Greek word πορνεία. I believe the phrase “sexual promiscuity” is a more accurate translation of this word. Of course, people are always going to argue for a more expansive interpretation, it seems, but nevermind that.

The word itself comes from “harlotry.” It seems clear to me that it describes physical sexual acts, given that it is often paired with lust in lists, such as in Colossians 3:5.

Colossians 3:5—Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Homosexuality is not described by sexual immorality because it is not an action, nor is sexual attraction of any kind synonymous with lust. (I would argue that lust is a twisting and perversion of sexual desire, but those are arguments best saved for a later time.)

And that brings us to Romans 1:24-27. Let’s start by reading this thing, then we can dissect some of the original Greek stuff, as that’s most likely going to be necessary.

Romans 1:24-27—Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

There’s a lot to dissect here. The first thing that is worth pointing out is that verse 26 is the only passage in the Bible that I feel can be construed to be about women engaging in sexual acts with other women. But I’ll get to that in a moment. Let’s start with the first half of this.

First of all, this passage is part of an argument Paul is laying out about how everyone is sinful. He starts by pointing out all of the sinful ways of the Gentiles—that is, those who aren’t Jews—then he follows it up by pointing out how sinful the Jews were.

Anyway, the first part of this comes from a section where Paul talks about the Gentiles abandoning God and worshiping idols. Things like the sun, moon, and stars, or the Greco-Roman pantheon. In this part, Paul states that God didn’t stop the Gentiles from pursuing their sinful desires.

This passage may be broadly referring to sexual promiscuity in general, or it may have been specifically referring to sexual practices that were engaged in as part of the worship of pagan deities. We definitely know that the latter of these happened—and for a very long time!

It continues, saying that, “Because of this”—that is, the abandoning of God—“God gave them over to shameful lusts.” I want to emphasize the use of the word “lusts” here, rather than something like “attractions.” The Greek word is πάθος, which means passions. Again, I’d argue that attraction and lust are not the same thing!

Then we come to this sentence: “Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.”

This is how the NIV translators chose to translate these words. The specific words “sexual relations” come from a Greek word that refers to the use of the body in a sexual capacity. That is, this sentence is communicating the idea that these women exchanged the natural way of using their body for sex for an unnatural one.

This could be referring to women engaging in sexual activity with one another.

But I’d argue it is even more compelling for Paul to be pointing out that the pagan women exchanged vaginal sex for anal sex. That is also exchanging the natural way of using the body for sex for an unnatural one.

And I would argue that there is a reason to conclude that this is the correct interpretation for this sentence from the culture around us. If God does indeed continue to do this “giving over,” then why would the results be different?

I would not be surprised if most Christians aren’t aware of this, but secular society sees anal sex as highly desirable. This fact is revealed in many ways. As an excellent example of this, consider the Kingsman movies.

I would argue that these movies are pretty mainstream. And I would also argue that they present anal sex between a man and a woman as more desirable than vaginal sex. The second movie in particular presents this idea, as the main protagonist’s girlfriend makes it clear that he gets to have anal sex with her as a reward for saving the world, a proposition that seems to especially excite him.

And I’d argue that these movies are simply reflecting secular opinion—likely the same opinion that Paul was highlighting in Romans 1:26.

The passage continues, saying, “In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

Frankly, it is ambiguous whether the men abandoning natural relations with women is referring to them abandoning vaginal sex with women for anal sex with women, or abandoning sex with women altogether. Regardless, what is clear is the intensity of the lust that these men experienced. That lust led to “shameful acts” that brought about repercussions.

Again, lust is not attraction! Therefore, this is also not specifically addressing homosexuality, but only lust and actions. (For anyone that wants to argue on this point, keep in mind that I’m using “homosexuality” to mean “has attraction for individuals presenting as a member of the same sex,” as I believe that this is the common usage of the word at this point.)

Further, if these “shameful acts” are indeed anal sex, then doing that without precautions (and possibly even with them) would indeed put one at great risk for contracting fecal-borne diseases.

It is also helpful to remember that the Greek culture that Paul was likely familiar with saw adult men having young male lovers as normal. Further, we know of at least one fertility goddess who had castrated male priests with whom male worshipers would have anal sex. From my research, these acts were often performed during religious orgies that also typically involved heavy drug use. It is extremely likely that heterosexual men engaged in anal sex with these priests!

That brings us to 1 Corinthians 6:9. This verse often gets translated poorly in my opinion. I’ll go into why after I read the way the NIV is currently choosing to translate it.

1 Corinthians 6:9—Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men...

First of all, this begins a list that is concluded in verse 10, the contents of which is irrelevant to this discussion, save for the concluding statement—that those in the list will not inherit the kingdom of God. For what it is worth, verse 11 points out that some of the Christians to whom Paul was writing this letter were those to whom the labels in verses 9 and 10 applied.

Anyway, there are a few things to note in this verse in a more general sense.

First, I want to point out that “sexual immorality” is listed separately from both adultery and same-sex sexual activity in this list. This more reflects on a previous topic, but I find it interesting nonetheless.

But let’s look more at the bit about men engaging in same-sex sex.

This NIV translation actually handles this better than some. The fragment, “men who have sex with men” is actually an abstraction of two Greek words, μαλακοὶ and ἀρσενοκοῖται, which in the Greek list are presented separately.

The first of those, μαλακοὶ, is a conjugation of a word that means “soft” or “malleable.” From what I understand, it was used as a euphemism for the receiving partner in male-male sex acts and also to refer to men who prostituted themselves to other men. The first of these is clearly about anal sex (that’s the most logical thing for the receiving partner to be), while the second is, well, prostitution.

The second word, ἀρσενοκοῖται, can be more literally translated as “one who beds a male.” The first thing I want to point out about this is that it is a word that describes a group of people by what they do. In this way, it is like the word “dancer,” which is a term that refers to people who dance. My point is that it isn’t a word to describe people by what they are, so translating it as “homosexual” (as some translations have done) is incorrect when defining “homosexual” as someone who experiences same-sex attraction.

The word ἀρσενοκοῖται itself is a compound word that is, as I understand it, unique to Paul’s writing. There is some thought that the origin of this word is as a reference to the Septuagint translation of Leviticus 20:13, which is the version of “a man shall not lie with a man as a man lies with a woman” sentiment that includes a punishment.

For those unfamiliar with it, the Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament that was created prior to the events of the New Testament and was in widespread use at that time, as Greek was a major scholarly language in those days.

If ἀρσενοκοῖται is indeed an allusion to the Leviticus verse, it may also be referring more specifically to the practice of men engaging in same-sex sexual activity as part of a religious ritual. Or it may simply refer to anal sex, with the use of ἀρσενοκοῖται and μαλακοὶ covering relational differences between social roles.

So, these are the parts of the Bible that talk about same-sex sexual relationships. A variant of ἀρσενοκοῖται shows up in 1 Timothy 1:10, but that pretty much wraps it up.

To recap all of this:

• The Bible does not condemn homosexuality according to the common definition of “homosexual” as “one who experiences same-sex attraction.”
• The Bible does condemn lust, sexual promiscuity, and adultery. It also speaks strongly against divorce. However, all of these things apply to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.
• As a corollary, homosexual individuals that have married a member of the other sex should not get a divorce to pursue same-sex sexual partners. Of course, this is taking a religiously based moral stand against divorce in general, so I see no reason to legally enforce it in a secular society, though I do encourage it.
• The only language the Bible contains that can be seen to explicitly refer to women engaging in same-sex sexual activity can equally apply to women exchanging vaginal sex with men for anal sex with men.
• I find it hard to assume that an all-knowing God wouldn’t explicitly mention women sexually engaging with each other if He wanted that prohibited, especially given that He does specifically call out bestiality for both men and women.
• Overall, I think there is a valid case to be made that the Bible specifically condemns anal sex, not all same-sex sexual activity. This would be regardless of the individuals involved, which seems to me to be a more consistent position overall.
• I feel the descriptions of prohibition (a man shall not lie with another man as a man lies with a women) can be understood as referring to a penetrative sexual act, which anal sex is.

I have heard conflicting testimony from homosexual Christians. There are some who do believe that engaging in same-sex sexual activity is wrong. Sometimes the response is to choose celibacy. Other times, God does provide a member of the other sex that they do experience attraction towards. However, I’ve also seen those who argue that the Bible does not condemn same-sex sexual activity, with the claim that the Levitical passages are specifically in place because of pagan religious practices.

My personal conclusion, as I stated at the beginning, is that homosexuality itself is not wrong, but that same-sex sexual activity can be wrong if one believes that it is wrong. This is a matter where I believe that the homosexual individual must wrestle with it themselves. What the Bible does seem to me to clearly condemn is lust, sexual promiscuity, adultery, divorce, and anal sex.

In the end, what the Bible says about anything should have little direct bearing on secular society anyway. Godly values should affect how Christians live, yes, and the Bible does contain direction on how churches should be run. But Christianity is not meant to rule secular society. Rather, we should be examples of what it means to live lives directed by the Holy Spirit and filled with the love of Christ.

Frankly, I feel that the way Christians have treated homosexuals is shameful and has been driven by cultural traditions. Rather than forming values from what the Bible actually says, too many Christians fall prey to trying to support their cultural, worldly values by twisting Bible verses, often by taking things out of context or separating them from the whole counsel of the Bible.

Christians are meant to be exemplars of grace, mercy, love, and holiness. We are not meant to be judges. We are to spread Christianity by example, not force, legal or otherwise. I do not see how the way Christians have treated homosexuals advances the cause of Christ, which is to seek and save the lost. And that is my primary concern.

Let's Play Hollow Knight Episodes 21-25

This week saw me finally making my way back to the Mantis Village, where I find the Mantis Lords, which is an excellent boss fight. This leads me into the Deepnest, a new area! I also return to old areas to find new things.

Geekdom of God Script: The Dangers of Cultural Christianity (Episode 38)

This is the script for Geekdom of God Episode 38, The Dangers of Cultural Christianity. The video of this episode can be found here.

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Matthew 7:21-23—“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

Hello! Welcome to Geekdom of God. I’m your host, Sientir, and today I’m going to talk about the dangers of cultural Christianity.

I should start by defining what I mean by the phrase “cultural Christianity.” Cultural Christianity is a form of Christianity that is typically based on cultural values and traditions rather than on what the Bible actually says.

While cultural Christianity does use the Bible, it generally does so primarily to justify these cultural values and traditions—that, and as a source of platitudes.

This brings us to cultural Christians, which, much like cultural Christianity, are people who claim to be Christian, but tend to be more concerned with maintaining a culture and set of traditions than with obeying God. As we will see later, they have much in common with the Pharisees.

I think there tend to be two main types of cultural Christian. In both cases, they arise because being Christian is part of their cultural heritage—which, to be clear, isn’t a bad thing! It is important for Christian parents to try to pass Christianity on to their children.

However, these efforts have to be done carefully, as they can go wrong in many ways. Some of those ways drive people away from the church, while others result in cultural Christians. Which brings me back to the topic of the two main types of cultural Christian.

The first is someone who is very superficial with their religion. They think of themselves as Christian, but it’s mostly a coat of paint. It’s a part of their culture, and so they identify that way, but they don’t really engage with what it truly means.

This happens to every religion given enough time, when it becomes, for many followers, simply a part of their culture and nothing more. This results in many of the religion’s adherents interacting with its rituals, values, and practices in a very superficial way.

The second type of cultural Christian is the individual who pursues their religion as a moral security blanket. Like a scared child, they wrap themselves up with it, using it to encourage themselves and to feel like a good person. This also happens with every religion.

However, this second group tends to be what fuels the rise of a cultural version of their religion, such as cultural Christianity. This is due to what such a person needs from their religion—needs of moral assurance tend to lead to legalism, which is usually the core of a cultural religion.

But more on all of this in a moment. First, I want to address a few of the consequences of cultural Christianity more broadly before further exploring what it looks like and the harm that it causes in the hands of this second group.

Broadly, two of the major consequences of cultural Christianity are that it hides the lost and that it damages the reputation of the Christian church.

The Bible clearly warns that not everyone who claims Jesus as Lord is actually saved. The reality of that statement is both frightening and heartbreaking.

And, unfortunately, people who call themselves Christians and believe themselves to be saved when they’re not are rather harder to identify than are unsaved people who don’t call themselves Christians.

As for the second issue, cultural Christians harm the reputation of the church by not living according to Godly values while claiming that they are doing just that. It causes a misrepresentation of the church in the eyes of the world. This can happen in many ways.

The obvious ones are very loud individuals who espouse views and rhetoric that are not Biblically supported (often with Bible verses taken out of context or misrepresented in order to bolster their claims).

However, there’s also a quieter impact: Statistics.

When cultural Christians don’t live lives that are in adherence with Godly values, the resulting statistics they create make Christians look like hypocrites. How can we claim to be different from the world if the statistics about us don’t look all that different from statistics about it?

With those negative impacts covered, let’s return to the topics of religion as moral security blanket and legalism, as these two things go hand-in-hand. I’ll explain how in a moment, but first I need to define legalism.

I’ve talked about legalism before, but to quickly summarize it: Legalism is the belief that moral purification can be achieved through obedience to a set of rules. By obeying these rules, a person can become morally good. This mindset also often leads to idolizing these rules.

A common path to developing a legalistic mindset is this: A person wants to be able to believe that they are a good person, but they don’t actually believe this. So they look to an outside source to be able to assuage them, something they can use to convince themselves they are good.

What this outside thing is can vary a great deal. When Christianity is sought in this way, it can easily fall into one of two extremes. The first is overemphasizing grace at the expense of holiness. The other is overemphasizing holiness at the expense of grace, which becomes legalism.

Briefly, the overemphasis of grace leads to erroneously turning grace into a license for immorality. Jude writes about this in verse 4 of his one chapter letter.

Jude 4—For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

The grace-filled forgiveness granted us by God through the blood of Jesus does not give us permission to pursue ungodly desires as we please. Rather, it is meant to reconcile us to God by washing away the sin that separates us from Him.

The path to this erroneous extreme is quite clear: One learns of grace, and sees it as saying that nothing that they do will count against them. They then think they will be saved regardless of their actions, thus they can do whatever they want without worrying about morality.

The path to legalism is less immediately obvious. However, it is likely more compelling for most people.

This path generally looks like this: A person feels like they are a bad person. However, they accept the idea that someone who obeys some set of rules is a good person. So they set out to obey that set of rules.

The way this works is that obeying the set of rules allows them to reflect on their obedience so that they can convince themselves that they are a good person. The desire to do this pushes for ever more specificity of the rules so that they can more solidly convince themselves of their goodness.

This tends to lead to very black-and-white thinking, with very strict, clearcut rules.

This is how the desire for a moral security blanket leads to legalism. Legalism becomes that security blanket, because a person can convince themselves that they’re good by using the evidence of their obedience to legalism’s rules.

Christianity proper has no room in it for this type of thinking. This is because it asserts that humans are intrinsically wicked, and we cannot obey our way into salvation. Instead, we must rely entirely on God. Paul writes about this in Ephesians 2:8-9, among many other locations.

Ephesians 2:8-9—For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

In Galatians 2:11-21, Paul makes it resoundingly clear that obedience to the law cannot bring about salvation. I don’t have time to read the entire thing, though I do encourage you to do so (a link is in the description), but I think it is worth reading his conclusion in Galatians 2:21.

Galatians 2:21—I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!

Therefore, Christian confidence does not come from what we do, but rather from our faith in what God has done.

But this requires a high degree of faith in who God is and what He has done—far more faith than a system based on works requires, because it is easy to believe in our own works.

So we see that a works-based mentality is incompatible with Christianity. However, those who simply seek to pacify their consciences with a legalistic moral security blanket will subconsciously take whatever system is available to them and turn it to this purpose, regardless of its suitability.

This, then, is what creates cultural Christianity, which tends to focus more on obedience to a moral code than it does on a maturing faith and deepening relationship with God. It creates rules for itself to follow, then justifies these rules using the Bible as best it can.

This is not unlike the ways of the Pharisees. For, though Judaism provides many laws, they were not clear enough nor plentiful enough for the Pharisees. And so they invented more, to the point that they traded God’s law for human tradition. Jesus rebuked them for this in Matthew 15:1-9.

Matthew 15:1-9—Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’”

Cultural Christians likewise do the same thing. Like the Pharisees, they get caught up in following human rules rather than seeking God and knowing Him. In this way, they act as those who still belong to the world, as Paul points out in Colossians 2:20-23.

Colossians 2:20-23—Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

In the end, this pursuit of rules instead of the pursuit of God leads to self-righteousness and judgmentalism, both of which tarnish the reputation of Christianity. They also push people away from the faith, and can cause a great deal of psychological harm.

And if those extremely serious consequences weren’t enough, the pursuit of legalism can ultimately lead to the damnation of those who engage in it.

Thank you for listening. Until next time, take care, everyone. Buh-bye!

The Dangers of Cultural Christianity - Geekdom of God Ep. 38

In this episode, I discuss the dangers of cultural Christianity, as well as what that is. To do this requires me to also discuss legalism in depth and the way that people use religion as a moral security blanket.

You can read all of Galatians 2:11-21 here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians+2%3A11-21&version=NIV

Join my Discord Server: https://discord.gg/s6ajzsg
Support me at https://www.patreon.com/Sientir

Guild Chat: Childhood Assumptions & Taxation

In the first Guild Chat this week, I talk about assumptions I had in childhood about how the world works that have been frustratingly corrected by reality.

In the second one, I talk about what I think is fair to tax and why I think that way.

Let's Play Hollow Knight Episodes 16-20

This week on Hollow Knight, I spent a lot of time exploring and finding lost little corners of the world. This results in me finding a bunch of upgrades!

The Importance of Loving Yourself - Geekdom of God Ep. 37

The Bible often instructs us to be selfless, not selfish, and humble, not arrogant. This focus can easily cause us to overlook the importance of loving ourselves.

Join my Discord Server: https://discord.gg/s6ajzsg
Support me at https://www.patreon.com/Sientir

Guild Chat: Patents & Superpowers

In the first Guild Chat video this weekend, I rant about patents, specifically some problems that they have. At least, in my eyes, anyway. I don't pretend to have heavily researched them, hence the subtitle.

In the second video, I talk about my top 5 superpowers. It was fun to come up with a list! I probably should've ordered them from number five to number one, but I didn't think about it until late enough in the process that it really wasn't worth trying to reverse the order.