A commenter on a recent post at IO9 about fundamentalist Christian attacks on Dungeons and Dragons came up with this wonderful quip:
It was never a fair fight between fundamentalist Christianity and D&D. One was a dangerous system full of dark mysticism and threats to warp a young mind beyond repair, and the other was a tabletop RPG.
It isn’t just a clever reversal. It really is the case that fundamentalism has people imagining that they are part of a real-life battle between themselves and diabolical spiritual forces. Perhaps the strong reaction to D&D is explicable precisely because it recognized as an appropriate subject for gaming and imagination, what many fundamentalists insist is real?
But if so, then which of the two is likely to be more dangerous?