There’s a fascinating post over at Terra Nova today, positing that religions might qualify as virtual worlds. It raises some interesting points, and is certainly thought provoking, but I don’t think I’m quite convinced.

Certainly, there are similarities, but I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say that because two things tap into the same human desire for easy success according to clearly defined rules of progress, that they must be the same kind of thing. Even if we allow that a religion is false, and thus has a “fictional history” and attendant cast of fictional characters, and that it offers a sense of achievement and reward for otherwise meaningless actions, it still lacks what is, in my mind, the fundamental defining characteristic of a virtual world, which is, well, a virtual world.

believers do not inhabit, or have access to, some other virtual realm, reserved for people of faith. They operate entirely within the same world as the rest of us. They may interpret that world differently, even incorrectly, but if you argue that being wrong is the same as being in a virtual world, then we have to describe everyone as being in one at all times.