One of the points that we’ve raised at many points here is the aspect of seeing more than just another Bible reader or devotional application developed when it comes to exploring the ways in which immersive digital experiences can instigate spiritual transformations. An idea that we’ve had in this has to do with looking at putting us in God’s shoes towards creating, making decisions on justice and judgement – situations that mirror the lessons that we get offline but aren’t always given from the perspective of letting us learn from a first-person point of view.

This weekend, when doing some nominal reading around the web, there was a game that’s been recently made available for Nokia Symbian and MeeGo devices called Doodle God (it was already available for iOS and Android mobiles). The premise of the game is that you get various elements and need to create something new from it. Very much like the days 2 through 6 in Genesis 1 where God uses the elements and environmnet around to create what we’ve come to see as this earth heavens, you get elements and have to create new creatures.

Now, on Twitter, I put the question out there about this game (and similar), is simimply, does a game like this (or the SIMS, or Black and White, etc.) challenge rightly or wrongly the conversations that we do or don’t have about this aspect of the faith conversation. Yes, we are created in the image and likeness of God, but when we talk about having and skillfully using that likeness to create and destroy, are we teaching it from the 3rd person (“a good person recycles,” “do your part and conserve,” etc.)? Or, are some of those lessons coming from building out simulations using this digital tech that puts us in a view that is similar to God’s when He created the heavens and earth to these specificiations?

I just wonder, and not just because we don’t see these kinds of games more in the mix of how we teach this aspect of likeness and stewardship, but because we don’t see developers and organizations taking this digital canvas and creating these lesson moments… are we skillful enough to have this conversation? Or, like those who would not include Enoch into the cannon in part because of how it would open a challenge towards conversations of wealth, power, and intelligence, are we afraid of the challenge to faith? In either respect, life and faith are more than a game, shouldn’t the digital immersive experience enable that?