Apellic1’s Weblog

In the article “Technopagans: May the Astral Plane be Reborn in Cyberspace” by Erik Davis the new transition from reality to virutal reality is discussed among testimonial accounts of pagans who have converted to the internet. The author, als known as Pesce is a pagan himself, and discusses his experiences with The Craft online. Paganism, a belief so strongly rooted in the earth, and elements, and the connection with nature, would by thought to refuse the use of the internet as sacred space. In fact, many pagans welcome the notion of an extenstion of the community into cyberspace. As Pesce states, “Both cyberspace and magical space are purely manifest in the imagination. Both spaces are entirely constructed by your thoughts and beliefs.” He takes the stance that because faith itself is constructed in the mind, it should make no difference whethere you’re in the woods or at a computer, your conscious will act the same, and therefore your magic. Davis discusses how most modern Pagans are solitary worshippers and no longer work within a coven or pagan community; the internet is a way for these solitary pagans to connect with others and trade workings and learn from eachother. The internet is also a way to keep a person’s pagan identity amongst other pagans and out of everyday interactions with others who may not be as understanding. Because of the Pagan perspective in history, the internet has become a sort of underground connection among others who practice the craft. “Without the sacred there is no differentiation in space; everything is flat and gray. If we are about to enter cyberspace, the first thing we have to do is plant the divine in it.”

In rituals there are certain accurances that must take place; honoring deities and steps which work towards a desired change. In games there are steps to be followed in order to be able to complete the game (win, conquor, etc); but there is no desired change. In rituals there is an acknowledgment of a higher being, the one who controls the outcome of the ritual or who has pased down these guidelines. However, in a game, the player doesn’t take into account who the programmer is or feel the need to pay s/he respect at all. The argument made to connect ritual to game playing is pretty weak. It seems that the key points which are being compared could be found similar in stories, sports, and other cultural groupings if the concept is swayed enough towards the intended answer.

The idea of magic circle , where the player is inside the game and the laws of reality (morals, consequences, etc) are lifted. This allows players to kill, speed in vehicles, have magic powers, or whatever the game entails that would normally seem impossible in real life. Because of the physical freedom allowed in the “magic cirlce,” it can be metaphorically compared to the churches and temples and any sacred space. The freedom to enact in forbidden behavior in the game’s “magic circle” is the similar to these sacred places becuase they are considered “safe places.” Their safe place to worship, connect with deities, etc, which was considered “forbidden behavior” in the past.

I was reading an article about how Second Life can be used to test economic models with.  This got me wondering about if there were any, or how it could be done, to  use virtual reality to test religious theories or idea.  With the virtual e-churches, pastors could maybe test out a sermon and recieve feed back before preaching to their chapel in reality, but in what other ways can virtual reality be used as a “test run” for religion?

This game seemed to have more faults as a religious tool than positives.  First off, I assume that this game is directed more towards Christians than any other religious affiliation because of the use of “the hand of God” as the controller, though my opinions can be used across the religious board.  The concept of being able to play God seems blasphemous, not to mention the mundane tasks that “God” has to go through (such as gathering wood).  It seems like God is positioned as a human with power and authority, it would seem that a god’s role is to take care of the people’s faith and emotion and eternal soul, not whether they have enough wood to build his temple.  Which brings me to another forced construction that God has to play; it seems egotistical that the first job you have as God is to help your worshipers build a temple for you.  The whole concept of playing God is a statement that implies humans know what the position entails and think they’re mighty enough to take a whack at it.  Now, that being said, there is a positive to being able to play God.  It may help some see where their place lies in his eyes and understand exactly how much power a god has.  As well as understand the devotion a god may expect (depending on religion of course) and the “other issues” that take up his time, not just a prayer for a new car.  That being said,with all my discouraging criticism, the game seems like a lot of fun, a game to lose time in.  On a side note, possibly we could use every other Wednesday (that you’re trying to fill) to play a game the entire class.  Everyone could just take turns giving it a try and we can explore them more.  I find  it more critical when we see how religion is being interpreted in these games and discuss that, as oppose to each of us just reading individual examples and trying to give a generalized theme, that way we can all have a hand in the process as oppose to just the generalizations.  

“CHANT (CHinese ANcient Texts): A Comprehensive Dattabase of all Ancient Chinese Texts up to 600 AD” article written by Che Wah Ho describes the transfer of text from centuries of Chinese history into an electronic  database.  The Institiute of Chinese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong began the project in 1988 of pre-220 AD traditional Chinese texts.  Since then, many more ancient texts have been added to span from 1500 BC to 600 AD.  The CHANT Database is divided into five components to allow easy navigation through the texts: (1) pre-220 AD (the Pre-Han and Han period ) traditional texts, (2) 220 – 581 AD (the Weijin period) traditional texts, (3) excavated texts on wood/bamboo strips and silk (Jianbo), (4) excavated oracular inscriptions on tortoise shells and bones (Jiaguwen), (5) traditional as well as excavated bronze inscriptions (Jinwen).  This database was designed in order to allow free and easy access to traditional Chinese texts throughout the world.  It could be used as a record of history as well as a educational tool for coming generations.   The problems that they encountered in the transfering of texts slowed to production slightly.  The transferring of excavated materials were time consuming and required particular tools which we of minimal disposal.  Also, with texts so old, the language had varied since its original publishing.  Words such as hai (jeopardize) was though to have been rou (covets its meat), which can change the entire meaning of a message.  Because of the various amount of material, and various versions, there was difficulty in finding a database which could sufficiently hold that much information.  This caused many transfers of the texts to various database in order to compensate for the volume. By transferring such information into an electronic database provides easy access and organization of China’s historical text.  And because the database could be a more frequently used encyclopedia, it maintains the original artifacts from too much handling.  Because it is an unaltered collection of texts, the  spread of the information is able to accessed and understood around the world, with no biased perspective by either  a modern native or outsider to the culture.