User blog comment:Weedle McHairybug/Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots = anti-Christian?/@comment-1210805-20131014013933

You're looking for something that really isn't there. The Patriots are not supposed to be God, they're to symbolise what happens when humans try to play God. They're dictators, and though some of what they did could be viewed as good for humanity, they ultimately took away people's freedom and right to choose for themselves. Their message is not one about God, but rather about the danger of two things. One, giving humans absolute power, and two, technology. The point of the AIs is the same message we've seen in a lot of media, if technology goes far enough, does it become sentient? It's talking about the dangers of information manipulations and about what this means for humans.

In your second point you're mixing up "lesser of two evils" and "not evil". Simply because Solidus is not as evil as the Patriots, does not mean that he still isn't incredibly evil. In MGS2 itself the Patriots are not given any motivation we can relate to, we basically just see them doing what they want with people's lives. Solidus on the other hand is given a motivation, he's related to a backstory we know, and given a tormented past. Why? To show that people are not simply born evil, but rather that they become evil over time, due to things that happen throughout their lives. He also stood in for Big Boss in a way and this was likely Kojima's earlier attempt to show that Big Boss' actions were motivated by, at their most basic level, "good" intentions. The use of the name "Army of the Devil" is likely just a name. We don't know if Solidus made the name itself, though I doubt he would have, but its use is not different from Bikie Gangs calling themselves "Hell's Satans". Sure, there's a connotation there. But believe it or not these people don't name their groups thinking "man, we sure are evil", its just a name they liked. In the real world there was a US/Canadian unit in WWII called "The Black Devils" or "The Devil's Brigade" which they preferred. They killed and worked against Nazi's and the reason for their name was apparently seen as a psychological weapon to strike fear in their enemies. If anything I'd argue this is the intention behind the name.

Snake has often been revered by characters (and players) as a perfect hero in the past, though he never has been or was suggested to be. That's the same thing that was happening in 4. Remember, EVA was crazy about Big Boss and by that point revered him as though he was a God. This would have been passed to he soldiers, then they met Snake, who has a similar reputation and is the closest thing to Big Boss still active. You also seem to ignore the fact that Big Boss wanted the Patriot's gone, and that by taking the AIs down, Snake freed him from Patriot control. He did the opposite of killing Big Boss and is in no way there to represent Jesus.

The Patriots were not thought to be brought down. One of the AIs was thought to be damaged, and as the game detailed, this was what the Patriots wanted, it was part of their plan and was all a test. The other AIs were still indicated to be very much active. We know Kojima is a movie buff and I believe and one point or another he said the original Matrix was something of an inspiration for him, but Kojima tends to mimic what's on the screen even if he doesn't fully understand the thoughts behind it. While Kojima has never indicated a stance on Christianity, he has never been shown to be against it. He used some commonly known biblical tales as metaphors once or twice, usually to show that someone had wrongfully elevated something else to the level of a God. That's pretty common for story tellers to do. The stories of Adam and Eve, of Noah's Ark, of Moses and Jesus, they're all very well known even by people with no interest in Christianity. It makes them good storytelling tools as you can just adapt them to your situation and people will get the gist.

Honestly, you're reading into things that just aren't there. You need to stop trying to project your ideas and beliefs onto other people's works, actions and words. Your religion might be a big part of your life, and that's fine, but it's not part of everyone's lives. Your ideals, politics and stances are yours, sometimes things might conflict with them but they're not purposefully targeting you. The closest Kojima has come to really discussing God is in a joking manner, where he shows himself as the God of the Metal Gear universe. That's it. He has generally avoided touching on his character's religions, and they few instances where that has occurred have simply been a case of "that's their background" nothing more.