Dynamic Secularization (eBook)

Preface 5
Contents 7
Chapter 1: Fragmentation: Online Evidence About Religious Innovation 9
1.1 Secularization of Religion 13
1.2 Parapsychology 19
1.3 A Virtual Religion 26
References 32
Chapter 2: Humanization: The Crash or Reboot of Social Psychology 34
2.1 Conservative Curmudgeonism 35
2.2 Religious Innovation 39
2.3 A Nineteenth-Century Science of the Mind 43
2.4 The Current Crisis 47
2.5 Subconscious Pathologies 51
2.6 Countercultures 54
References 60
Chapter 3: Paganization: The Virtual Revival of a Cult Online 65
3.1 Animal Welfare 71
3.2 Musical Variations 74
3.3 Virtual Scriptures 78
3.4 A Book of Faces 81
3.5 Repeating a Revisit 84
3.6 A Virtual Second Life 88
References 92
Chapter 4: Residualism: Online Survival of Rejected Religions 94
4.1 Children of God 97
4.2 The Shaking Quakers 106
4.3 Twilight of the Gods 111
4.4 Biorhythms: The Skeleton of Astrology 118
References 124
Chapter 5: Jediism: The Most Popular Online Virtual Religion 126
5.1 Origins of a Religious Movement 128
5.2 From Movies to Videos 134
5.3 Temple of the Jedi Order 136
5.4 The Jedi Church 142
5.5 The Virtual Force 148
References 153
Chapter 6: Pessimism: Critiques of Religion and Technology in the Fallout Games 155
6.1 Preludes and Fugues 158
6.2 Isomorphic Apocalypse 163
6.3 Virtual Scientography 167
6.4 Aleatoric Adventuring 170
6.5 Radioactive Beltway 173
6.6 Institutionalized Technology 176
6.7 The Wider Fallout 180
References 182
Chapter 7: Optimism: Religious Diversity in the WildStar Massively Multiplayer Online Game 184
7.1 Flying to Nexus 187
7.2 The Demography of Planet Nexus 192
7.3 Church of the Dominion 194
7.4 Paganism and Mechanism in the Dominion 195
7.5 Secularism of the Exiles 198
7.6 Nature and Technology in the Exiles 202
7.7 Technological World Building 205
References 210
Chapter 8: Transhumanism: An Online Network of Technoprogressive Quasi-Religions 211
8.1 The Birth of Superman 213
8.2 Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 217
8.3 The Terasem Movement 221
8.4 The Turing Church 226
8.5 Adaptive Radiation 232
References 236
Chapter 9: Transcendence: Virtual Artificial Intelligence 239
9.1 Robotics 245
9.2 Calibrating Personhood 250
9.3 Virtual Friends, Virtual Gods 254
9.4 The Argument from Design 260
References 267