Possibilities and Limits of Religion in the Cyberspace of Digital Media
The authors of this paper study possibilities and limits of religion in the cyberspace of digital media, especially in the World of Warcraft videogame. Basing on various research cases, they claim that videogames can saturate religious needs of the hypermodern human. Nevertheless, they cannot substi...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Society for Spirituality Studies
2017-06-01
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| Series: | Spirituality Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.spirituality-studies.org/dp-volume3-issue1-spring2017/#2 |
| Summary: | The authors of this paper study possibilities and limits of religion in the cyberspace of digital media, especially in the World of Warcraft videogame. Basing on various research cases, they claim that videogames can saturate religious needs of the hypermodern human. Nevertheless, they cannot substitute them totally, since there is the humans’ body, a barrier between virtual and traditional religion. In the first case (the so-called external limitation), the body is irreplaceable in religious ritual such as Baptising in Christian religion or Mindfulness of Breathing (ānāpānasati) in Buddhism. In the second case (the so-called internal limitation), when the body (or its nerve centre) is linked to technologies, the boundary lies in the depth and validity of spiritual experience. The authors state that even if positive cyber-spiritual experience could be reached, it would still be necessary to plant it into broader moral and cognitive frames. Only in such case it could represent a positive stimulus for the spiritual journey. |
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| ISSN: | 1339-9578 1339-9578 |