Faith at Altitude

Religion and spirituality in the shadow of Pikes Peak

Thursday, April 05, 2007

The Passion of the Pixels?

As it turns out, some people believe virtual worlds need salvation, too.

I just read a fascinating story from USA Today's religion writer, Kathy Lynn Grossman, about faith in the online world Second Life.

Yes, it's true: Second Life -- an entirely made-up online realm populated by about 5.3 million "avatars" -- has found religion. If your own personal avatar takes a walk through Second Life, it'll find churches, mosques and even a few wild-eyed zealots.

"This week," Grossman writes, "Second Life will feature Easter events and Passover celebrations, as well as the usual meditation meet-ups, Muslim prayers and legions of gatherings for spiritual freelancers."

There's even a virtual re-enactment of the life of Jesus, which comes complete with virtual T-shirt souvenirs.

Granted, faith is still on the fringe in Second Life. According to Grossman, only about 1,000 of the site's 451,000 weekly visiting avatars go to church or synagogue. But as Second Life grows, religiosity in it seems to be growing, as well. It'll be interesting to see what develops.

2 Comments:

Blogger Zen said...

Interesting.

Can I get a massage from Mike Jones too?

6:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Paul or someone,

Can you all enlighten us as to what is happening at Amazing Double Grace these days? There is quite a national audience for this and I wasn't able to find anything in the Gazette or the Post today.

Did all the CS print journalists sleep in yesterday?:)

What did Bishop O'Neill have to say? How many were at both places? Were there supporters from other congregations again at Shove, or did they only attend their own home congregations?

6:26 AM  

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