A Virtual Reality Check

Just
a few weeks ago, the Oculus
Rift started shipping out its Kickstarter units. These virtual reality (VR)
headsets have been anticipated for years, especially since Facebook bought
the parent company in 2014. At the risk of using a tired word, this new
technology will likely become disruptive. So it behooves Christians to ready
their minds for this revolution. How should we think about virtual reality?

Like
any technology, virtual (or augmented) reality devices offer incredible
benefits, yet pose dangerous risks if used wrongly – that is, without concern
for real reality, other people, or holiness to the glory of God. In a fallen
world, there are always tradeoffs, and since fallen image bearers will be the
agents utilizing these headsets, as well as creating the digital content,
platforms and experiences, there will be opportunities for both good and evil.

The good that VR
devices offer is most apparent in the area of connection and communication. Mark
Zuckerberg, announcing Facebook’s purchase of Oculus VR, pointed in this
direction: “This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present,
you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life.
Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire
experiences and adventures…Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game,
studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or
consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your
home.” Facetime is great – but what if I could feel like I was actually in the
room with you? What if I could immerse myself in the world of those who had
suffered, as the
New York Times did with its video “Displaced,” about
three young girls forced from their homes by war? New York Times Magazine
Editor Jake Silverstein suggests, “What is clear…is that connecting to
characters, to individuals, is one of the real unique qualities of virtual
reality.” This technology can be used to increase our empathy, our knowledge of
the past and the present, and our relationships with loved ones far away.

As Zuckerberg
mentions, it seems virtual reality will also become a staple of education,
entertainment, gaming, and medicine, not to mention news media information
delivery, home buying, travel experiences, research, military training and
battle, and whatever else the creativity of man can come up with. Virtual
reality devices, then, are one more expression of our obedience to the cultural
mandates to subdue and exercise dominion over the earth God created (Genesis
1:28).

Yet these
devices must be used with care – not only because of the
motion sickness they sometimes cause, but even more because of the
spiritual threats they can pose to the unprepared. We will soon be able to
communicate in new ways, to be sure. But at what cost? Ironically, the same
technologies that connect can also isolate us from relationships. If you are
concerned that the members of your family are all staring at their screens
instead of engaging one another in conversation, how much more when they are all
wearing their VR goggles immersing themselves in their own reality? A
television can keep us from true communication, to be sure, but at least
everyone often watches the same thing together. Perhaps the technology will
advance to enable multiple goggles to share an experience, but it seems more
likely at the current time to detract from family cohesiveness rather than
contribute toward it.

Along these
lines, the use of VR devices for video gaming will only amplify the struggle
for those who are already inclined to idolize this hobby to the expense of their
family and real reality. A husband who is addicted to an online universe on a
screen for hours on end today will tomorrow be able to put on his goggles and
be even more disengaged from his wife and children. Not all will succumb to
this temptation, but it will be present.

One of the clear
possibilities for temptation is in the area of sexuality. The New York Post has
termed our day “the
Golden Age of masturbation.” VR devices will present all manner of
opportunities to experience virtual sex, enjoying by yourself (or with an
illicit partner) what God has created to be enjoyed with your spouse, and only
with your spouse. Are our youth prepared for Satan’s attacks through this new
tool?

More
foundational than even relationships and sexuality are the effects of virtual
reality on core aspects of our humanity. As these devices become more
accessible, real reality may become less appealing, and the temptation to avoid
or escape the difficulties of this life will beset us. The 2009 movie
“Surrogates,” starring Bruce Willis, is a dystopian vision of how virtual
reality can enable us to shut out the real reality of embodied life, living in
the here and now in a particular place around particular people. Gnosticism is
alive and well in 2016, and the desire to escape our finitude and our bodies is
palpable. This is not to say that every desire to do the impossible is wrong. For
someone to travel virtually to a place that they will never be able to see
actually, or for someone who is wheelchair bound to be able to experience
riding a roller coaster, is a rich blessing of human ingenuity and labor. Yet
are we aware of the ways in which our technologies can lead us to forget that
we are “frail children of dust, and feeble as frail”? That our Savior in the
body could only be at one place at one time? That an embodied state is of the
essence of our humanity, now and in the age to come?

As with all
technologies, we must exercise self-control and sobriety. Paul’s words in I
Corinthians 6:12 apply well: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things
are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by
anything.” May the Lord grant us wisdom to use virtual reality for His glory.