EGods by William Sims Bainbridge: Guarding the Future or the Past?

The article examines the relevant theme of “virtualization” of culture and religion, which is actively developing in the transhumanism. One of the concepts of the “digital future” is being developed by William Sims Bainbridge in his book ЕGods: Faith versus Fantasy in Computer Gaming; it is the main source of the analysis of digital utopia per se and the role of religion in it. The religious hypothesis of Bainbridge is considered, according to which the past of religion appears in the form of games and fantasies; therefore, the religious dimension in modern video and computer games is a prototype of the future “new religion”. In the article, conclusions are drawn that modern utopia represents development in the spirit of the apocalypse, first, transforming it into a secular form and, second, offering a “lite” option that can now interest culture not only as an idea, but also as a business project. Therefore, the article identifies the conceptual conditions fulfilling which gives this utopia a chance to influence the development of culture. It is shown that these conditions are related to the methodological approach for the exclusion of a whole range of phenomena - in relation to both religious and gaming experience. It is substantiated that precisely the conceptually “excluded” turns out to be the most important and specific both for the experience of a computer game and for religion -this is one of the important conclusions that can be drawn from Bainbridge’s arguments. It is shown that the concept, promising a radical renewal, in its essence acts as a variant of the old utopias; the “new religion” exploits the cognitive resources of the “techno-magic”; the intentions that bring to life the idea of virtualization are based on the rejection of the authentic. The active development of the new utopia is not caused by the needs of renewal, but by the intentions of returning to the “proven” versions of the past culture.

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