Dawkins on Worlds Apart: The Islamic State and Video Games

‘Religion and politics have always been an explosive mix, perhaps never more so than in the case of ISIS. But is the brutality that we’ve seen a result of violent ideology or a reflection of the darker side of human nature? Oksana is joined by Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and author, to reason on these issues (26 September 2014)’.

But one should not lose track of the fact that the Caliph’s beheaders are young men, arguably well-versed in the ways of the internet and arguably equally well-acquainted with violent video games. Games such as the following three, presented by David Houghton, a self-described ‘Associate Editor at GamesRadar UK. Future Publishing word-tamer. Fan of good horror, smart, interesting film, eclectic noises. Fashions semi-spectacular cookery’.[1]

God of War III – The Helios head-pull (2/16)

‘Decapitation method: An agonisingly slow, pornographically torturous twisting of the neck until muscle, sinew and veins eventually give way and snap like wet spaghetti, resulting in fervent spurts of the red stuff and a dripping, ragged neck-hole’.[2]

Mortal Kombat series – The triple-decap (6/16)

‘Decapitation method: Uppercut with the power of a medieval catapult. Overzealous love of repeated uppercuts. Possibly a glitch. Outcome: The head comes off. And then comes off again. And then comes off again. After launching his opponent’s cranium clean into the stratosphere, Johnny takes another swing at their neck-stump, miraculously finds a new head attached to his knuckles, launches that, and then repeats the process a second time. None of this makes sense. But it’s awesomely gratuitous, so in a way it also makes total sense’.[3]

Resident Evil 4 – The iconic one (9/16)

‘Decapition method: Chainsaw. Outcome: The head comes off, by way of one of the most graphically shocking death sequences in video games. The entire game becomes immediately 300% more terrifying due to the simple knowledge that the chainsaw guys exist. Shinji Mikami laughs like a cruel emperor at all who complained that an action-driven Resident Evil wouldn’t be scary, and the player involuntarily voids their bowels at the sound of a ticking engine for the rest of his or her life’.[4]

[1] https://twitter.com/david_h_esq.

[2] David Houghton , “The 13 most gruesome decapitations in video games” Games Radar+ (s.d.). http://www.gamesradar.com/13-greatest-decapitations-video-games/.

[3] David Houghton , “The 13 most gruesome decapitations in video games”.

[4] David Houghton , “The 13 most gruesome decapitations in video games”.

Richard Dawkins on Palestine, Jews, Science and the Burqa

About three weeks ago, Darwin’s Pitbull appeared on the Beeb to talk about certain issues. And yes, Dawkins turns out to be your typical liberal-minded person when it comes to such things like the plight of the Palestinians or the right to wear what you want . . .   Published on Feb 18, 2015.