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| Kid Playing Video Game. Credits: Masterfile |
With the recent global situation, a lot of kids (and adults!)
are spending more time playing video games. We occasionally are asked
what our position is on games that include evolutionary content.
Because evolution is such a commonly accepted idea, and because
science education lobbyists always look for opportunities to promote evolution
in education and children’s media, it is important that parents are on the
look-out for evolutionary propaganda in the entertainment their children are
consuming. While some organizations would take a hardline stance that no
Christian parent should let their child consume any evolutionary media, we have
always maintained that it is ultimately the parents’ responsibility to make
decisions for their family.
Regardless of the decision you make
for your own family, you should be talking about creation with your children!
Evolution
as a gameplay mechanic
One of the most popular video game series of all
time—Pokémon—has evolved as a core mechanic (though evolution in Pokémon
games bears no resemblance to the biological hypothesis). Many games similarly
involve powering up creatures to unlock new abilities. Even though the only
thing this has in common with biological evolution is the name, children
hearing about evolution over and over may help to persuade them. If you choose
to allow your children to play games like these, it may be worth having a conversation
to explain how ‘evolution’ in these games is just a fantasy mechanic that has
no real-life counterpart. Evolutionary threads are common in video games. Back
in the 1990s, a popular game was SimLife, where the players attempted to
‘evolve’ living things over simulated millions of years. Similarly, we
reviewed Spore when it came
out several years ago. Its evolutionary premise is just as unrealistic as most
other video games. There are a multitude of merge game apps that “evolve”
objects from single cells to advanced lifeforms through ‘merging’.
Yet games sometimes include evolution in ways that are a bit
more subtle. A newly-released game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons,
is one example of this. It features evolution in a museum that the player can
build in the town. Throughout the game, the player obtains creatures and
fossils to gradually add exhibits. Running throughout the museum is an
evolutionary ‘tree of life’. The curator is an NPC (non-player character) who
gives facts about each exhibit when they are donated, and many of the fossil
facts contain evolutionary dates. When the player donates an australopith
skull, it is said to be an ancestor of humans (“Lucy” is a famous
australopith specimen). However, the game itself is about exploration and
building an island town, and the evolutionary aspects could easily be ignored
as the entire museum sidequest is technically optional. And if the player
chooses to participate in the museum quest, not only can the teaching dialogue
be skipped, but I suspect many players would do just that.
Games as
a conversation starter
Regardless of the decision you make for your own family, you
should be talking about creation with your children! Even if you scrupulously
pre-screen every game, documentary, movie, and book your children consume,
evolution will sneak in somewhere, and the best thing you can do is make sure
your children are prepared with good creation information, and more
importantly, that they know that they can come to you with questions.
It is common for people to want a clear-cut opinion that “X is
bad and we should boycott it”, and it might be appropriate for some families to
choose not to play games that include evolution. But as a ministry, we see our
position is to equip families with information that allow you to help your own
children as you make the best choice
By Lita Cosner
Source: Creation.com
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