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Comment by jdietrich | Hacker News Reader

There was a widespread moral panic over D&D back in the 1980s. A lot of Christians sincerely believed that D&D was a recruitment tool for satanism. Well into the 1990s, many evangelical groups were producing materials warning that D&D inevitably leads to witchcraft, murder and suicide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATUpSPj0x-c

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/us/when-dungeons-dragons-...

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Damn I really wish I could title the book, it is on the tip of my tongue but I read the same thing.

What I found abhorrent is that the people interviewed in that book, ended up being prescribed meds by good professional Christian Doctors using all means to change their paths from evil. To avoid D&D as it was the devils work.

I would say that those parent's were mentally ill and/or uneducated and that the doctor's were mentally ill and/or uneducated.

Alas, religion.

You are probably thinking of

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dungeon_Master

Yes, this was in the 80s. I'm old.

Thank you.

I think I read that the makers of D&D removed/renamed things like demons and devils as a result.

They pulled them out of AD&D second edition for this reason [1]. In third edition they brought the words "demon" and "devil" back though, and they're still there in the latest edition.

[1] https://archive.org/stream/DragonMagazine260_201801/DragonMa...

I remember it being pushed by the 700 club. And the problem was that nobody knew what it really was.

Beware. "sincerely" is generally a term used to give irrational religious beliefs undeserved weight over (s-called) "mere" rational choices.

Interesting observation.

There's no functional difference between "sincerely" believing something that isn't true, and just plain old normal "insincere" believing something that isn't true.

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