Preface	5
	Contents	7
	Chapter 1: Fragmentation: Online Evidence About Religious Innovation	9
	1.1 Secularization of Religion	13
	1.2 Parapsychology	19
	1.3 A Virtual Religion	26
	References	32
	Chapter 2: Humanization: The Crash or Reboot of Social Psychology	34
	2.1 Conservative Curmudgeonism	35
	2.2 Religious Innovation	39
	2.3 A Nineteenth-Century Science of the Mind	43
	2.4 The Current Crisis	47
	2.5 Subconscious Pathologies	51
	2.6 Countercultures	54
	References	60
	Chapter 3: Paganization: The Virtual Revival of a Cult Online	65
	3.1 Animal Welfare	71
	3.2 Musical Variations	74
	3.3 Virtual Scriptures	78
	3.4 A Book of Faces	81
	3.5 Repeating a Revisit	84
	3.6 A Virtual Second Life	88
	References	92
	Chapter 4: Residualism: Online Survival of Rejected Religions	94
	4.1 Children of God	97
	4.2 The Shaking Quakers	106
	4.3 Twilight of the Gods	111
	4.4 Biorhythms: The Skeleton of Astrology	118
	References	124
	Chapter 5: Jediism: The Most Popular Online Virtual Religion	126
	5.1 Origins of a Religious Movement	128
	5.2 From Movies to Videos	134
	5.3 Temple of the Jedi Order	136
	5.4 The Jedi Church	142
	5.5 The Virtual Force	148
	References	153
	Chapter 6: Pessimism: Critiques of Religion and Technology in the Fallout Games	155
	6.1 Preludes and Fugues	158
	6.2 Isomorphic Apocalypse	163
	6.3 Virtual Scientography	167
	6.4 Aleatoric Adventuring	170
	6.5 Radioactive Beltway	173
	6.6 Institutionalized Technology	176
	6.7 The Wider Fallout	180
	References	182
	Chapter 7: Optimism: Religious Diversity in the WildStar Massively Multiplayer Online Game	184
	7.1 Flying to Nexus	187
	7.2 The Demography of Planet Nexus	192
	7.3 Church of the Dominion	194
	7.4 Paganism and Mechanism in the Dominion	195
	7.5 Secularism of the Exiles	198
	7.6 Nature and Technology in the Exiles	202
	7.7 Technological World Building	205
	References	210
	Chapter 8: Transhumanism: An Online Network of Technoprogressive Quasi-Religions	211
	8.1 The Birth of Superman	213
	8.2 Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies	217
	8.3 The Terasem Movement	221
	8.4 The Turing Church	226
	8.5 Adaptive Radiation	232
	References	236
	Chapter 9: Transcendence: Virtual Artificial Intelligence	239
	9.1 Robotics	245
	9.2 Calibrating Personhood	250
	9.3 Virtual Friends, Virtual Gods	254
	9.4 The Argument from Design	260
	References	267