SL attraction to non-believers

Please do not use this thread to debate the existence of God. I am genuinely interested in hearing your opinions as to the makeup of SL.

According to The Harris Poll only 9% of Americans do not believe in God. http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=408

According to a Fox News Poll only 5% of Americans do not believe in God. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,99945,00.html

According to a ReligiousTollerance.org only 4% do not believe in God.http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_poll3.htm

What I am interested in is why SL attracts a disproportionate amount of people who do not believe in God? Or at a minimum the nationwide statistics vs. forum posters is way off. Why is that? What is it about posting on an SL forum attracts a huge amount of people who do not believe in God?

Please give your theories below because it is a mystery to me.

That's an interesting question Billy.

Perhaps as atheists tend to turn to science rather than religion in forming their worldview they are more in tune with technological developements and more likely to embrace a virtual world. SL is also born of a concept born in a science fiction novel and many of it's residents seem to be attracted to it for that reason (at least partially) and in my experience the majority of scifi fans are atheists.

This is just off the top of my head, I really have no idea.

Has anyone done a poll of SL religious beliefs? Or are have you come to this conclusion from anecdotal evidence?

I tried to search for a poll... but the word "god" is three letters and as such unsearchable.

Someone should make one and see. Nothing complicated, since we're just trying to find out who does and who doesn't... not which one(s) you believe in.

Do you believe in a higher power?
-Y
-N

Easy enough?

I don't know about atheism; I would say most of the forum posters are agnostic.

As far as Second Life goes ... I'm sure many people in the game consider themselves Christian or at least Christian-ish. They just don't run around preaching to people, y'know? (Not implying that you are)

Having faith in your faith and rejoicing in God and stuff is great, but it's really not what Second Life is about. I know there have been church services held, however. (Virtual church services! Who'da thunk)

Again: Second Life is what you make of it and don't forget that most online games include orcs and goblins and such; they are not about worshipping Jesus (and neither is this game). That's why I think you'll find less of a vocal Christian community here.

Billy - I think that people don't necessarily distinguish in their definition of god when responding only to the question "Do you believe in a god", so it could be assumed by some of those answering the poll that the [poll] is referencing "their concept" of god, which is in fact believing in god. One can be buddhist, islamic or even druid and answer yes to the question, if they interprept the word god to mean higher power.

In other words, their "god" could be a spiritual essence, higher power, gaia or many others as opposed to the "christian concept of god" alone.

I think that if you polled people in the forum and simply asked them if they believed in a higher power as opposed to asking if they believe in god as defined by christianity that you would see a similar statistic with about 5% of the posters who profess total atheism.

Another difference is that the polls you reference are directed toward americans and Second Life is an international community.

Last but not least, many people who are ambivalent about god might not bother to respond to a poll about whether they believe in god or not. It's just not enough of an issue for them to respond and that would also skew the statistics.


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Yes, if any thread ever needed a poll this one does. However I feel that just asking people if they believe in a higher power is a bit vague as I think that there are many who feel that there is something of that nature but would hesitate to call it a god and who might object to being lumped in with organized religion. Perhaps a poll with options for all the major religions plus 'other religion', 'vague undefined higher power','agnostic', and 'atheist'.

Please no more pie options.

Well technically, SL isn't "about" anything. Today I happened to fly by a club and a girl working there was giving a lap dance. That happens a lot in SL, but its no more what SL is about than church services. Maybe the reason people aren't talking about their religion in the forums is for the same reason people aren't talking about how many lap dances they gave this week - its nobody's business.

I found this poll
Do you believe in God?
12-07-2004


http://forums.secondlife.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=98

In his book "The Masks of God," Joseph Campbell postulates that belief fills a human need to imagine something better and more compelling beyond their normal experience. Religion fills that need for many people, but not for everyone. He goes on to say that he thinks that many artists, authors, and other creative types fill that need through their own creativity. Rather than accept the ready-made culturaly accepted mythos that historically fills the need for the majority, they invent their own mythos through exercising their creative drive. I tend to agree. I think you might find a higher percentage of non-believers in SL because it appeals to the creative type of person who's more likely to fill that need in non-traditional ways.

I forgot about that poll, but I would be curious to see the results of a poll that has the categories that Akuma mentions in his post.

The forums are a completely different game than SL - they just share the same name and, I believe, has only about 10-20% of the same players.

Most of the people playing the SL forums are vocal and opinionated. They are just itchin' for a fight, regardless of the topic.

If you applied the question to politics/taxes/sexuality, you would probably find the same about of signal to noise ratio that you see regarding religion.

Frankly, this forum is not the place for discussions of those topics, because we all end up getting covered in mud. And, by association, so does the rest of the SL community. All SL needs is a bunch of people basing their opinions of the entirety of SL on 30 or 40 forums denizens that like to opine (myself included).

So we get questions like yours that say that a disproportionate amount of SL players do not believe in God. What the hell does one's religion have to do with a video game? If you are so almighty concerned about this, I suggest learning to get along with folks who don't think like you, or go to the Christian Gamer's Alliance.

Personally, I believe in something, but it's none of your goddamn business.

EDIT:

And what Chip said...

I'm a girl Rose, just so you know.

Great, another controversy!

This is the off-topic forum and so it seems to me to be a perfectly appropriate place to discuss religion, or politics. I know that there are many forums on the internet where one can go to discuss these things in particular but I believe that the sl forums offer a certain sense of community between people with a wide divergence of opinion who might not have otherwise come together or thought to discuss some of the topics that come up here had they gone to a more specific forum.

I don't believe that there is a disparity between non believers in the real world as compared to the forums... I believe many here are labeled as non believers because they don't believe in the same way or because they don't use a fairytale to back up their beliefs.

I believe in my way which makes it no less compelling than anyone elses way.

Oops ... sorry Akuma.


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well, maybe because people with the curiosity to want to create and explore a new world full of posibilities are more likely to question antiquated, bigoted, psuedo-historical mostly non-scensical documents that are so riddled with inconsistancies that the same religion is so vastly different from one group to the next to the point where each version of the religion spawns sects that want to literally kill the other sects...yeah...

but that is just RELIGION, God is a whole other thing, God doesn't create religion, man does, and man is flawed therefore religion is flawed. I would say a majority of s/l residents have a spiritual connection to a creator, perhaps something we might consider God, perhaps we understand God more than the masses as we have a world that emulates a world created by a divine being....

I would agree, except that then all of SL gets painted with the opinions expressed there. This thread is a perfect example of that.

*Takes screenshot of this thread then proceeds to texture hundreds of huge prims with it.*

I recall there being one several months ago which was overwhelmingly non-believers. I don't remember the name of it and admit that I didn't try to look it up. It is also my own perception from reading the majority of religious related threads.

I agree Rose and that is why I didn't distiguish that it had to be a Christian or whatever kind of God. The polls have to do with some kind of God which the overwhelming majority of people believe in. It is my personal experience that the SL forum posters do not reflect society that belief. hus my interest in the question posed.

I didn't post a poll bc I figured ppl are sick of polls... lol

I will if y'all want me to. Can you post a poll after a thread has been created? I have never created a poll.

oooo... good job Roseann... I voted in this one and it is the one I remembered.

59.12% of respondents answered the question "Do you believe in God?" No.

That seems to be pretty much along the line that I believe is still true.