A Digital Easter Story

To me, one of the most powerful passages in the Bible is Genesis 1:26,27

Genesis 1:26. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

There are about a billion directions you could go with this. But on Easter, I believe the most important aspect is this. The fact that we were made in the image of God, merged with the actual output of our actions, illustrates just how far we have fallen.

And that distance is what makes Easter so amazing. We understand just a few of the implications of God coming to earth to be one of us.

As technology advances, we are approaching god-like abilities in what we’re capable of. Note that I didn’t say power because were infinitely distant from God’s power.

But our ability to influence our world has approached a god-like status in our little minds. Not so much physically, although we have fairly powerful techniques compared to history, but logically. By logically, I mean in the realm of logical simulations.

This logical god-likeness can be seen in the world of Second Life. By entering this ‘virtual world’ you can become whoever you like. You can build whatever you want. You can fly. There is no scarcity–you can buy or copy whatever you want. You can set the rules of any property you buy. You can sell and purchase and associate.

All of these activities are very limited, of course. But there is enough total control…enough reflection of the image of a little “g” god, that you can see just how humans would act if they were God. Because in a limited scope, they are.

And how did humanity fare when it tried live up to its image?

At first, second life was seen as a huge utopian self policing paradise. Everyone was free to live and let live. To be whoever they wanted to be. It was a grand, digital garden of Eden where all the little gods walked the earth as humans would like to think we were intended.

But then the trouble started. And basically, it was discovered that a garden of eden designed by humans largely consists of increasingly deviant sexual behavior and tricks accumulate mass amounts of wealth.

And thus, they had to start creating rules. No blackmail. No child pornography. No bestiality. A ban on gambling. A ban on banking.

Sounds a bit like a stone tablet from on high, doesn’t it?

And this does not take into account the growing number of local rules in the various areas of second life. Entering certain zones brings up a huge list of “acceptable use”. Enormous chunks of real estate are now unfly-able because owners have banned all but their friends.

While I’m sure the participants thought they got a small taste of what it means to be a god, the creators of Second Life are getting a real taste: Rule after rule after rule.

This was not the free world that was envisioned. Second life, and all the other virtual worlds out there, are doomed to ongoing failure under the crushing weight of the behavior of the participants.

And so, in a silly game for internet junkies, we see how we go from an image of God to creatures rendered irrelevant by hopeless shortcomings. Like sheep we want to go astray. We want to go our own way.

As our abilities in the real world increase, do we think it will be any different? Real life stakes are much higher. Can we see how we would treat a savior? Can we see why we need one so badly?