Jesuit academic Antonio Spadaro has suggested that Second Life would be an excellent place to go do missionary work. (Really!) Although it’s supposed to be a humor column, the latest Alt Text actually makes some excellent points about the weirdness that is Ministering to the Avatars:

However, some sins seem to be sins even if you’re just pretending. Most of these have to do with sex. If I log in to Second Life as Clorgo Codpiece and pretend to shoot up with my friend Sexxula Bodyoil, I don’t think I’m actually doing heroin from a religious point of view.

But if we pretend to engage in all sorts of unlikely and disturbing sexual acts with each other, apparently we’re actually committing adultery?

I guess this is something that will become more prevalent as the border between real and virtual continues to blur, but it’d be nice if a bunch of Second Lifers went all Streets of Ashkelon on the first missionary who wandered through.

Incidentally, at the time of this posting, the article has 12 comments which have already fallen into the Standard Distribution of Comments on Humorous Articles About Religion:

1. I am a staunch believer in this, the Only True Path, and how dare you make fun of The Way.


2. I believe in this particular religion but realize that the author was joking and Commenter #1 needs to get a grip.


3. The author makes some good points, but only because he is not intimately familiar with the teachings of this particular religion, so I will post a number of excerpts showing where he went wrong.


4. All religion is superstition, you intellectually bankrupt sheep.

Comments 5 through 1,000,000 will be, “I agree with Commenter X, and Commenter Y is a big dumb weasel.” and 1,000,001 will be a representation of Godwin’s Law.

Huh. I guess I have at least one certainty about religion after all.