Many religious groups now offer interactive digital venues to augment conventional services, but COVID-19 is unique in that it offers spirituality in an immersive 3D setting via virtual reality (VR) technology.
Garret Bernal and his family were reportedly absent from a recent Sunday service due to their quarantine for COVID-19 exposure, according to the NZ Herald. So he put on a virtual reality headset and attempted to pray in the metaverse.
As a pastor’s representative walked him and others through computer-generated imagery of Biblical passages that came to life, he was quickly transported to a three-dimensional virtual environment of pastures, cliffs, and rivers.
DJ Soto, a pastor in Fredericksburg, Virginia, has espoused the benefits of virtual reality and sees it as a step forward in human self-realization. According to him, the metaverse is the future of churchgoing, since “it reaches those who can’t physically go to church” owing to COVID-19 or other factors.
Can you imagine going to any holy place in VR? Comment below.
