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  • Subject: Halo as a Christian Allegory
Subject: Halo as a Christian Allegory

I find your lack of faith disturbing, admiral.

You don't need to take Bibles into the writing sessions to make connections with Christianity - people know the basic elements of the religion/mythology even if they're not believers.

Let's review the links
- the game is called HALO. a halo is what goes round an angel's head
- there are religious bad guys called the COVENANT. the covenant is God's agreement with his people in the bible
- there is something called the ARK which is where species were taken to be saved from the FLOOD. i presume you're familiar with the story of Noah's ark and the great flood.
- there are other things like masterchief's name, John 117 mapping to a bible verse, the 'Eden' which the Librarian speaks of

are you saying all this is just coincidental? it's almost certainly intentional, and from there you've got licence to look for further, less obvious connections in the story

now, like i was saying, it's not actually an allegory for Christianity, it's more like an explanation for Christianity, it uses fiction to meld the book of Genesis together with the theory of evolution. there's no 'hidden meaning' or allegorical meaning, just direct suggestion that some of the myths of Christianity would be related to actual Forerunner actions

also when they talk about the 'Great Journey' after the Halos are fired, ie. after all sentient life is dead, it's similar to how judgement day will only come after the end of the earth, when the dead will re-awaken to enter heaven. so there's another parallel

  • 01.10.2011 6:09 PM PDT

seventh coloumn pride

bungie could stand for:

B rain washing
U nder-fed
N anners (for)
G od
I s
E ffective



[Edited on 01.10.2011 6:38 PM PST]

  • 01.10.2011 6:37 PM PDT

Posted by: Traxus 04
I find your lack of faith disturbing, admiral.

You don't need to take Bibles into the writing sessions to make connections with Christianity - people know the basic elements of the religion/mythology even if they're not believers.

Let's review the links
- the game is called HALO. a halo is what goes round an angel's head
- there are religious bad guys called the COVENANT. the covenant is God's agreement with his people in the bible
- there is something called the ARK which is where species were taken to be saved from the FLOOD. i presume you're familiar with the story of Noah's ark and the great flood.
- there are other things like masterchief's name, John 117 mapping to a bible verse, the 'Eden' which the Librarian speaks of

are you saying all this is just coincidental? it's almost certainly intentional, and from there you've got licence to look for further, less obvious connections in the story

now, like i was saying, it's not actually an allegory for Christianity, it's more like an explanation for Christianity, it uses fiction to meld the book of Genesis together with the theory of evolution. there's no 'hidden meaning' or allegorical meaning, just direct suggestion that some of the myths of Christianity would be related to actual Forerunner actions

also when they talk about the 'Great Journey' after the Halos are fired, ie. after all sentient life is dead, it's similar to how judgement day will only come after the end of the earth, when the dead will re-awaken to enter heaven. so there's another parallel
Yeah, it's kind of obvious that the Covenant (called the Covenant because that's what they are: A Covenant. Look the word up) are a radical religious group (they're the ones that gave instillation 004 the name "Halo" in the first place). The Covenant worship Forerunner ruins and technology due to being brainwashed by the San'Shyum (prophets) and work towards locating and activating the Halo arrays in the hopes of participating in the "Great Journey", which they don't know is massive lie by the Prophets to achieve their own ends (which are, strangely enough, to activate the array). Humanity (the former plot was that the Covenant attacked humanity because the Prophets knew that we were the Forerunners, or at least the inheritors of what they left behined (IDK what the plot is since Greg Bear got ahold of it)is on the verge of destruction at their hands, and at the hands of what the Forerunners had thought they destroyed (the Flood. Another Biblical reference that I doubt seriously is meant to symbolize the event of the Bible with which it shares namesake).

I fail to see the Biblical Parallel there. Also, everything is similar to Christian mythology. Any given story can be linked to it in some way. It isn't hard at all. You could make this same thread about Mass Effect, or The Lord of The Rings, or any given large-scale story-line. The Bible is a very old written-set of stories, so a ton of things are going to resemble it in some way. The key is understanding when they're meant to.

Halo is not Christianity. There is not a direct, intended allegory. Halo is Halo. And as far as melding the theory of Evolution together with the book of Genesis, such is certainly not going-on in the Haloverse. It makes no damn sense to jump to this conclusion.

[Edited on 01.10.2011 7:35 PM PST]

  • 01.10.2011 7:31 PM PDT

So Bungie used a bunch of Christian nouns (covenant, flood, ark, halo), when there are MUCH more appropriate words available, JUST by chance? Come off it.

So if the next Bungie game features a hero called Mohammed, rather than, say, 'Rodger,' and a planet called Mecca, and an AI called Allah, and a crystal called the Koran, etc., you're going to turn round and say it's got nothing to do with Islam? Riiight.

Open your eyes. They made deliberate connections with Christianity, some blatant, some subtle. They didn't make any sort of allegory, but they did make the obvious suggestion that a Forerunner (Librarian) created the Garden of Eden and that modern humans descended from that point when they were re-seeded post-Flood. Evolution, meet Bible.

  • 01.10.2011 8:01 PM PDT

Posted by: Traxus 04
So Bungie used a bunch of Christian nouns (covenant, flood, ark, halo), when there are MUCH more appropriate words available, JUST by chance? Come off it.

So if the next Bungie game features a hero called Mohammed, rather than, say, 'Rodger,' and a planet called Mecca, and an AI called Allah, and a crystal called the Koran, etc., you're going to turn round and say it's got nothing to do with Islam? Riiight.

Open your eyes. They made deliberate connections with Christianity, some blatant, some subtle. They didn't make any sort of allegory, but they did make the obvious suggestion that a Forerunner (Librarian) created the Garden of Eden and that modern humans descended from that point when they were re-seeded post-Flood. Evolution, meet Bible.
No, you need to open your eyes. The Christian terminology used to name all-things Forerunner-related just fits properly. Religious names and themes are present all-over Science-Fiction and fantasy, but that does not make the entire genera an outlet for Christian allegories.

It's hard, maybe impossible to name a story that doesn't parallel something out of the Bible in one way or another. Face-it, if Halo is an intentional Christian allegory, then so is everything else in Sci-Fi and fantasy.

  • 01.11.2011 5:43 PM PDT
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Your simple, if not odd, friend whose ideology makes the nearest American conservative scream bloody murder. A gun-waving Socialist who hates backwardness.

Look for the gamertag, Soviet Strelet, to find my pwn-tage creations of doom. Can't connect my bloody Xbox because of personal issues outside of my control.

Thats about it, other than that... uhhh, I.... uhhh, hmmm. I can fly?

.... Quick! Captain Dumb*** away!!!

I'm pretty sure that the creaters of this game were not trying to make a point of religious historical referencing. And if so they were, why with a video game that features almost every cuss word know to the English language, and one in Spanish, with an idea that something such as a war on a galactic scale could happen under the nose of God. You religion folks can find a religious reference in any thing in the vitural or entertainment world. >:(

Oh, oh. Max Payne was fighting against the New York Mafia and druglords! It must be a religious reference.

Seriously,... just let video games be video games and religion be religion. In fact, the idea that mankind could have the possiblity to creat artifical images of themselves with the progression of technology should rise a few flags with religions around the world.

I intend no offense to you or any other person on this forum but to me subjects such as this are aggiating to me for personal reasons and some my past experience.

  • 01.11.2011 8:15 PM PDT

You guys are crazy. It's easy to find parallels in science fiction and fantasy, to mythology and/or religion. Sure. But we're not talking about parallels, we're talking about direct references which are very foregrounded.

If Battlenet was called The Matrix, AI were called agents, Masterchief was called Neo and Sgt Johnson was called Morpheus, we could safely say Halo had some connection to The Matrix.

But we have a story called HALO with a saviour called John 117 with a place called THE ARK with an enemy called THE FLOOD with a concern called THE COVENANT and a GARDEN referred to as EDEN on Earth where humanity would have spread out from. Therefore we can be 99.9 % sure that the games are deliberately connected with the Bible.

*shrug* maybe you just don't know much about Christiianity or about creative writing - stuff like that doesn't happen by accident.

  • 01.12.2011 12:47 PM PDT

Posted by: Traxus 04
You guys are crazy. It's easy to find parallels in science fiction and fantasy, to mythology and/or religion. Sure. But we're not talking about parallels, we're talking about direct references which are very foregrounded.

If Battlenet was called The Matrix, AI were called agents, Masterchief was called Neo and Sgt Johnson was called Morpheus, we could safely say Halo had some connection to The Matrix.

But we have a story called HALO with a saviour called John 117 with a place called THE ARK with an enemy called THE FLOOD with a concern called THE COVENANT and a GARDEN referred to as EDEN on Earth where humanity would have spread out from. Therefore we can be 99.9 % sure that the games are deliberately connected with the Bible.

*shrug* maybe you just don't know much about Christiianity or about creative writing - stuff like that doesn't happen by accident.
Once again, by this logic, almost every conceivable Sci-Fi story is an allegory for the Bible.

Also, don't even -blam!- with me about creative writing. I'll take that as a joke.

[Edited on 01.12.2011 2:55 PM PST]

  • 01.12.2011 2:54 PM PDT
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Your simple, if not odd, friend whose ideology makes the nearest American conservative scream bloody murder. A gun-waving Socialist who hates backwardness.

Look for the gamertag, Soviet Strelet, to find my pwn-tage creations of doom. Can't connect my bloody Xbox because of personal issues outside of my control.

Thats about it, other than that... uhhh, I.... uhhh, hmmm. I can fly?

.... Quick! Captain Dumb*** away!!!

I may not be a creative writer but I am a deep thinker, I do not believe that this games is making a religious reference. To think of a name for some completely alien to you and me alike is much harder than it seems. The Covenant are called their name because of THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEF SYSTEM AND SOCIAL MAKEUP. You can't call them any singular name or just simply,"the order of -blah blah blah-" because that would not me orginal thought... there have been many "orders" in the Science Fiction world. You need a creative name, and just because it can precieved differently does not mean that its intended meaning is the same as the preception.

It is not just John that it is there savior, it is then entire group of Spartans that makes up that image, not just one soldier in their ranks is the face of the entire group of the said soldiers. So to say that ONE Spartan is the savior of mankind is incorrect, to effectly apply him to the role you precieve him to be filling would be bypassing all of his comrades in theire respective roles to.

The Ark could be a Christian allegory to me, so I'll give you that one.

The Flood are named correctly, for they throughout the games seem to just try and role over their enemies with brute force and numbers. Just as a flood in real life would work as it simply rolls over the objects in their collective way with the brute force of trillions of fast moving atoms crashing in to the said objects. I do not see how you can just label them an object of Christian reference due to the creative naming on the part of the Bungie staff.

As for the Garden, I have not heard of such reference in the game series so I am guessing that it is in one of many books about this subject. The books are not made by the entire Bungie team so this cannot apply to the games series as a whole. If I am wrong about that being in the books just disregard this segment.

Humanity's home planet is Earth, and through progression we have advanced into the stars. It is our home, not just some shelter for temporary halts in progression of technology. So of course it is a safe place for Humanity to propser and then expand. That is what it means to be a home planet home-planet, base for progression.

  • 01.12.2011 4:20 PM PDT

Sure, any one of those names could be insignificant when used in a story. But TAKEN TOGETHER they mean that The Bible is definitely being referenced. I didn't base any of it on the books, btw. The Garden of Eden part is from the terminals in Halo 3 (I haven't read the books personally). When I said spread out I meant from an initial place on Earth to the rest of the planet, not to the stars.

Basically in the Bible it says humanity began somewhere called the Garden of Eden, created by God, and then the descendants populated the reset of the world. In modern science, they believe that the first humans evolved somewhere on Earth (in Africa) about 100 000 years ago. In the Halo story, a Forerunner found Earth in the last days of the Flood war. She built a 'garden' there (which the terminals refer to as Eden), and was indexing the humans that lived on the planet, before they were all wiped out by the rings firing. THEN, and this was about 100 000 years ago, the planet was 're-seeded' with indexed humans, who were sent through the portal and left to flourish, starting from the Forerunner Garden. Don't you see how it all ties up? It doesn't just fit, it's the only logical conclusion, considering all the coinciding facts and references.

You could look at Star Wars and say it was a parallel for Christianity - like you have a guy with a religious name like Luke who uses something a bit like the Holy Spirit called The Force to save us from evil - but what Star Wars doesnt have is a bad guy called Darth Judas and a female character called Mary Magdeleine and a robot called Moses. You can make parallels to lots of other things too, like LOTR or Dune, with some degree of truth in them. But even there you don't have any direct references.

What Halo has is a religious title ('Halo') and a bunch of explicit connections to the Bible. Go figure.

  • 01.12.2011 5:40 PM PDT
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Your simple, if not odd, friend whose ideology makes the nearest American conservative scream bloody murder. A gun-waving Socialist who hates backwardness.

Look for the gamertag, Soviet Strelet, to find my pwn-tage creations of doom. Can't connect my bloody Xbox because of personal issues outside of my control.

Thats about it, other than that... uhhh, I.... uhhh, hmmm. I can fly?

.... Quick! Captain Dumb*** away!!!

Hmm... let's just agree to disagree. I did not fully read nor understand the Halo 3 terminals, and thus I will have to re-read to complete a counter arguement on this. But for now I have niether the time nor the will to do it. The burdens of life call for their resolve and thus they must be awnsered. Good arguement through, but I still voice my disagreement.

  • 01.12.2011 5:46 PM PDT
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Scary wall o' text...

  • 01.12.2011 9:54 PM PDT

<(0_0)> REACH pwns blackops

While I do believe that Bungie may have had this in mind when making HALO, I dont believe that is the only thing they had in mind. They just thought that it would give HALO a good structure and large sandbox for writers to use in HALO themed literature and media, there are probably hundreds of ways to interpret the meaning of the HALO galaxy and its past. It was created to be abstract and yet defineable.

  • 01.14.2011 6:17 PM PDT

"It is the cruelest fate, to have written words that meant well and see them made wicked and unwise. What was meant to encourage life, used instead to justify taking it."

Halo 2 Legendary Ending:

Gravemind: "I will ask... and you will answer,"

Job 40:7b ESV:

God: "I will question you, and you make it known to Me,"

...HOLD ON A SECOND

[Edited on 01.14.2011 7:39 PM PST]

  • 01.14.2011 7:38 PM PDT

Well writen. Good job!

  • 01.14.2011 8:28 PM PDT

Posted by: Traxus 04
Sure, any one of those names could be insignificant when used in a story. But TAKEN TOGETHER they mean that The Bible is definitely being referenced. I didn't base any of it on the books, btw. The Garden of Eden part is from the terminals in Halo 3 (I haven't read the books personally). When I said spread out I meant from an initial place on Earth to the rest of the planet, not to the stars.

Basically in the Bible it says humanity began somewhere called the Garden of Eden, created by God, and then the descendants populated the reset of the world. In modern science, they believe that the first humans evolved somewhere on Earth (in Africa) about 100 000 years ago. In the Halo story, a Forerunner found Earth in the last days of the Flood war. She built a 'garden' there (which the terminals refer to as Eden), and was indexing the humans that lived on the planet, before they were all wiped out by the rings firing. THEN, and this was about 100 000 years ago, the planet was 're-seeded' with indexed humans, who were sent through the portal and left to flourish, starting from the Forerunner Garden. Don't you see how it all ties up? It doesn't just fit, it's the only logical conclusion, considering all the coinciding facts and references.

You could look at Star Wars and say it was a parallel for Christianity - like you have a guy with a religious name like Luke who uses something a bit like the Holy Spirit called The Force to save us from evil - but what Star Wars doesnt have is a bad guy called Darth Judas and a female character called Mary Magdeleine and a robot called Moses. You can make parallels to lots of other things too, like LOTR or Dune, with some degree of truth in them. But even there you don't have any direct references.

What Halo has is a religious title ('Halo') and a bunch of explicit connections to the Bible. Go figure.
Actually, LoTR and Dune have bigger references to the Bible than anything in the Haloverse.

You should really try and know what you're saying before you say it. That would make your posts more of an argument and less of a "Yes it is teh bible because it has teh ark and floodz!!".

Sci-Fi is spattered with the Bible. It's all over the -blam!- place. The religious terminology in Halo that's attributed with the Flood and the Covenant is perfectly befitting of those respective plot-elements, and does, obviously, draw religious references. But is the story directly following the Bible? Nope. Is Bungie trying to refit Christianity for a new generation? Nope. You can tell that just by playing the games. It's a well-thought, fleshed-out universe crawling with references to 'Aliens', 'The Thing', previous Bungie games, countless other Sci-Fi sources, and, of course, The Holy Bible.

  • 01.14.2011 9:36 PM PDT

You seem to be severely lacking in literary analysis skills.

I have explained exactly how the Halo storyline ties in exactly with the Bible and evolution, and how Bungie choose names with Christian significance for the most important aspects of the story. The fact that you would deny the Flood/Ark connection to the Old Testament is hilarious. It is a 'monument to your sins' of poor imagination. A space-borne parasite? Oh obviously it should be called The Flood. A doomsday weapon? OBVIOUSLY they'd call it 'Halo.' /sarcasm 'Oh,' I hear you say, 'but that's because of its shape.' and why did they CHOOSE that shape?

All you have done is repeatedly make a few unproven assertions and hinted at the vague idea that LoTR and Dune are more 'parallel' to Christianity than Halo. Lulz.

This debate is over, you lose.

  • 01.15.2011 5:22 PM PDT

You.. sir... are the father of Halology

  • 01.23.2011 8:24 AM PDT

Traxus 04, I certainly stand by basically everything you've posted above! For the rest of you who believe I'm reading into things, let it be known that I certainly did not intend to write this post as if Bungie intended EVERY ONE of my connections, I was just merely diving deeper into a subject that was clearly somewhat intended by the creators of the game. It is VERY true that much of western society is based upon Christian ideals and symbolisms, and so it should come as no surprise that the writers of Halo's story saw fit to directly reference certain aspects of the Bible (which, as has been pointed out countless times now, is seen in the form of the FLOOD, ARK, and COVENANT, which you would be completely deceiving yourself not to see a connection with). Christian or not, pure, unbiased literary criticists would have a very hard time not seeing as least some basic Biblical allusions, and therefore looking deeper is not only acceptable but possibly even intended! Keep the debate going folks, as I've certainly come to reevaluate my own assumptions quite a bit by reading your thoughts!

  • 01.28.2011 10:12 PM PDT

I like turtles


Posted by: Adam 36O
Thanks for the encouragement, everybody! Regardless if all of this lines up perfectly or not, I'm happy to see some interest from the Halo community. Certainly not everyone will agree with this and not everybody who plays Halo is a Christian, but there's no denying that the Christian faith is a big part of the American culture and makes its way symbolically into many forms of media. Keep those eyes open in future Halo installments and beyond!

You're name is ironic
'Don't you even think about eating that apple.'

  • 01.29.2011 6:55 AM PDT

POMC S117 Owns owns

Cool. I never noticed the similarities.

  • 01.29.2011 7:35 AM PDT

-Some guy who lost all his gamer score somehow.

i read this whole thing and it CLEARLY took some time to write this and figure all this out. i always DID know HALO had a lot of heart in it, but i never thought it was THAT deep.

No wonder i always loved the HALO story!

[Edited on 01.31.2011 3:31 PM PST]

  • 01.31.2011 3:29 PM PDT

Has life ever felt like a really bad sitcom?

Ok, that stuff or
"the Ark" = Noah's Ark. The Flood = huge flood that nearly wiped out humanity. And Master Chief = Noah/ Christ or Savior of Humanity

  • 02.02.2011 4:30 AM PDT

The U.E.S.C. Marathon emblem that appears on my profile was designed by me and picked by Bungie [Bungie All-Star competition] to be available for use by anyone on the Bungie forums.
"Yours to manipulate, to destroy and rebuild"

Wait, what about the previous decades? Marathon was, and still is an amazing game. Not to mention all the other cool games released prior to this millenium.

  • 02.02.2011 5:01 AM PDT

No signature found. Click here to change this.

There's no need to copy and paste, we can read Halopedia just fine.

  • 02.04.2011 10:46 PM PDT