Abstract
Through history, religion has been as much a battleground as a paradise. Therefore, despite the high level of mutual tolerance exhibited by university scholars of religious studies, one chapter of this book needed to explore hostility. It recounts an invasion, a strategic attack against a despised alien culture, conducted as a scouting expedition into a virtual world based on it. The sattva for the avatar is an infant girl, who died in 1870 at the age of one, and was the daughter of two aggressive missionaries who wrote extensively about the world tour they took in 1879–1880. Thus, this chapter has two themes: (1) how it is possible to revive symbolically a person who died in early childhood and thus left little information about personal characteristics, and (2) how it may sometimes be necessary to embrace rather than shun religious conflict. The MMO is Perfect World, a Chinese fantasy gameworld containing much Taoist culture. The infant girl’s Baptist clergyman father despised Taoism, as her mother despised Chinese culture in its treatment of women, both of them publishing books about their experiences that were highly critical of Asian societies. Thus, her avatar is a vehicle for exploration of religious conflict.
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Notes
William Sims Bainbridge, eGods: Faith Versus Fantasy in Computer Gaming (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013) p. 59.
William Folwell Bainbridge, Self-Giving (Boston: D. Lothrop, 1883), p. 262.
Lucy Seaman Bainbridge, Round the World Letters (Boston: Lothrop, 1882), p. 304.
Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, A Theory of Religion (New York: Toronto/Lang, 1987).
Stevan Harrell, “The Concept of Soul in Chinese Folk Religion.” The Journal of Asian Studies, 1979, 38(3): 519–528.
William Folwell Bainbridge, Around the World Tour of Christian Missions: A Universal Survey (New York: Blackall, 1882), p. 169.
James Legge, The Texts of Taoism, volume 39 in The Sacred Books of China (Oxford: Clarendon, 1891);
Paul Carus, Lao-Tze’s Tao-Teh-King (Chicago: Open Court, 1898); of course the author of the main text was Lao-Tse, but Legge and Carus did more than merely edit and translate, also adding commentaries.
Yu-Lan Fung, “Why China Has No Science: An Interpretation of the History and Consequences of Chinese Philosophy.” International Journal of Ethics, 1922, 32(3): 237–263;
Hwa Yol Jung, “Confucianism and Existentialism: Intersubjectivity as the Way of Man.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 1969, 30(2): 186–202.
Gilbert P. Reid, “Revolution as Taught by Taoism.” International Journal of Ethics, 1925, 35(3): 289–295, p. 290.
King Shu Liu, “The Origin of Taoism.” The Monist, 1917, 27(3): 376–389; Reid, “Revolution as Taught by Taoism,” pp. 289–295;
Shu-Ching Lee, “Intelligentsia of China.” American Journal of Sociology, 1947, 52(6): 489–497
Terry Kleeman, “Tianshi Dao,” in The Encyclopedia of Taoism, edited by Fabrizio Pregadio (London: Routledge, 2008), pp. 981–986.
John Hinnells (ed.), The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion (London: Routledge, 2010).
Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).
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© 2014 William Sims Bainbridge
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Bainbridge, W.S. (2014). Combatting Heresy (Perfect World). In: An Information Technology Surrogate for Religion: The Veneration of Deceased Family in Online Games. Contemporary Religion and Popular Culture. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137490599_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137490599_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50438-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49059-9
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