Virtual Worship

I am a humanist atheist but I was watching Heaven and Earth on TV this morning where there was a feature about religions in cyberspace. I am a keen member of Second Life, which is one place being infiltrated by religions. What being in the virtual world of Second Life has taught me above all is that one suspends disbelief – we all know it is just pixels and data but while we are in it we sort of believe it’s real. The same is true of any other virtual reality, from Gran Torismo to Counterstrike.

I have come to realise, in a great revelation, that virtual reality existed long before computers – what are religions if they are not virtual reality? This obvious fact was completely missed by the people in the discussion.

So my view is that there are strong parallels between computer game addiction and religious fanaticism – possibly the same mental mechanism is at play in both. Except gameplayers admit it’s all just electronics whereas religion addicts never say ‘ deep down, we know it’s all myths’.