Subscribe Feed (RSS)What is Second Life and why should it matter to Mormons
March 16th, 2007 by Richard K Miller | Filed under Cool Sites, Mormon, Online missionary work.If you're new here, read more about the More Good Foundation. We help members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) share their beliefs on the Internet. Learn more about what Mormons believe or talk with Mormons at LDS.net.
Second Life is a virtual world where you can connect with thousands of people. You create an “avatar” to represent yourself, then walk (or fly!) around the virtual world, exploring, learning, and meeting people. USA Today has an article on the basics of Second Life. Part of what makes Second Life so important is simply that so many people are involved — currently 4.6 million. You can buy and sell land and other objects, and trade Linden dollars (the “pretend” money) for U.S. dollars. Today alone over $1.5 million U.S. dollars were transacted in Second Life!
Dell, IBM, Adidas, and Nissan have opened offices in Second Life, Reuters has opened a news bureau, and Sweden has opened an embassy. Several political candidates are campaigning there. Jeff Barr, an Amazon.com employee, has given presentations in Second Life (check out his pictures.)
For members of the Church, Second Life may be among the next frontiers for sharing the Gospel. At any time, thousands of people — each avatar representing a real person — roam the worlds of Second Life. Church members with disabilities could serve proselytizing missions in Second Life, and we can all be member missionaries.
Here is a report from Jeremiah on Mormon activity in Second Life:
We know of about 50 people who are LDS, but there are probably many more. We are trying to provide a place for members of the Church to gather. A handful of us have gotten together and created groups for various LDS interests. We’ve got group leaders from Seattle, SLC, Orem, Provo, Washington DC, England, and Denmark right now.
We bought our own island. We are moving the LDS visitors center, School of the Prophets, Family History Center, and Chapel all to that island, as well as our personal residences. We even have a foundation flat for a temple like Nauvoo before it was rebuilt and there has been some discussion about building one, either exterior only or possibly an open house style design.
We are hoping to increase participation from members of the church. We are hoping to have others become involved as well, by either adding their names to the groups, contributing content, showing up, etc. Second Life allows streaming media so we could play General Conference archives. We are hoping that the island will become well known and that many people who go Second Life to explore will be able to easily find it and learn about the Gospel.
To try it out, visit SecondLife.com. Why not make a friend and see if you can discuss the Church with someone?
(Our Second Life avatar is named “Moregood Martinek”. Maybe we’ll see you there.)
[...] someone in Second Life about the [...]
I’m a big techie but some things I don’t get. Exploring a virtual world is one. It seems like a waste of this life to be walking around in Second Life.
Even with the premise of spreading the Good News, there has to be hundreds of better ways to do this. Imagine the impact that would result if all those people were out doing their home teaching / visiting teaching, missionary exchanges or working to fulfill some other calling!
[...] of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) on the Internet. Learn more about what Mormons believe.Second Life is the online virtual world where thousands of people connect and millions of dollars are [...]
It kind of gives me the eebie-jeebies to think of engaging in a virtual world. As much of a fan as I am of the internet and of sharing the gospel in creative ways, the idea of encouraging people to go to a place that by definitino isn’t real seems antithetical to the gospel. But maybe I’m missing something…..????
I’m not so sure it is such a bad idea.
If people are able to start relationships and get married due to online applications then I believe that Second Life would be a good place to introduce people to the gospel.
However Matt brings up a good point, if you are neglecting church callings to spending time in second life then you probably are not being as productive as you could be as far as church responsibilities . But I don’t see a problem doing this for your leisure time, since it would be both fun and productive.
The have embassys, in spain they use second life to promote a city, it depends how you use it: if you walk around with your avatar teaching? thats not a good idea use that time to call or email youre real friends, but if you set up virtual visitors center thtas a lot different, we must be smart how we use it, theres a real life so lets not try to mix the things.