“Ready Player One: The Pretend World of Virtual Reality”

By Richard Allen – April 11, 2022

“Ready Player One” is the 2018 dystopian film directed by Steven Spielberg, which portrays the world in 2045 as an uninhabitable barren landscape. The natural world has been ruined by Man-Made Pollution and Overpopulation caused by prosperous Western Societies who’ve plundered the earth’s natural resources so they can drive their SUV’s. At the same time, technology has continued to progress to a point where many people prefer to live online in a Virtual World, called Oasis. If you listen to our modern day prophets of doom and gloom, we are facing this very dystopian future. Even with evidence to the contrary, State Controlled Media peddles this scary narrative daily to naïve teens and adults.

Strange as it might seem, with all of the connectivity that technology in cyberspace has brought us, as a society we appear to be moving toward private realities of our own thoughts and experiences, rather than toward a global community. The explosion of New Tech and Virtual Reality is happening faster than we can assimilate. And to make things more bizarre, people are opting out of our Real World to live in the fantasy world of a new Metaverse in alarming numbers. The Metaverse by definition is: “A virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.” The idea of community, neighbors and actual friends is being shunned for the Virtual World of imaginary friends, avatar images, acquaintances and surrealistic experiences. And the other real people who go online in the Metaverse with us offer an Avatar of themselves, an image of “whom they want us to see,” not who they actually are!

I say all of this because there is an enemy of our souls, the Devil himself, who has always used images and appearances to draw people away from God and His reality, to live in the pretend world of their imagination. Consider this verse as it explains the evil one’s modus operandi – as his own servants seek to deceive mankind:

“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan makes himself appear as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

It’s pretty obvious that Satan uses appearances to represent himself deceptively, and to seduce the naive into following him. This whole realm of images and idols has been a temptation to man since the Fall of Adam and Eve:

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” (Genesis 3:6-7)

It’s hard to miss, but Adam and Eve didn’t really become wise and God-like. Instead, their eyes – which were already prone to looking at the outward physical world, betrayed them and plunged them and their children further into deception. The story of the whole Old Testament is the sad story of man looking for God in all the wrong places. They looked to: Images, idols, towers, statues of various other creatures, trees and other elements from the created world, finally making an idol out of their own Jewish Religion, “for they worshiped the creation, not the creator” (Romans 1:25). When the Apostle John warns believers to “love not the world,” he goes on to describe mankind’s sin and rebellion by linking it all to the things that we see:

“Love not the world, or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father isn’t in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world.” (1 John 2:15-16)

Which brings me to my main point: The Virtual World now offers all the images, idols, desires of the eyes as a part of its allure. In fact, many young adults are shunning the real world for a world of icons and images. And with the next generation of Virtual Reality promising to fully integrate all of the senses into the Metaverse, you have a recipe for world-wide idolatry and voyeurism on a level that would make Sodom and Gomora blush! Yes, you heard me right, without getting sensual or graphic – the new Virtual World will be a place of anonymous hook-ups and unbridled sensuality of every stripe that will addict and enslave many. People who have given up on the real world and seek to escape all of its troubles – will be able to don their new Avatar persona and live in debauchery in the secrecy of their own minds – hooking into a virtual reality of their own making. Yet sadly, they’ll still be lonely and isolated.

I’ll even go one step further – They will believe they’re mini-gods in a universe of their own making! But in reality, they’ll be slaves to the Metaverse and the Big-Tech Oligarchs that control that world! Just imagine, a whole generation void of human interaction and compassion – being conditioned and controlled by the Virtual (i.e. False) World of the Metaverse. In an online article on health and wellness, writer Tom Huddleston Jr. warns:

“There’s a potency about being immersed in a world that is different than observing and interacting…through a flat screen monitor,” and “Once you’re actually embodied in a space, even though you can’t be physically touched, we can be exposed to things that take on a level of realism that could be psychologically assaulting.”

“You are what other people think about you in adolescence,” he says. “And the idea of being able to fictionalize your identity and receive very different feedback, can really mess with a teenager’s identity.”

And in the same article, Mitch Prinstein, Chief Science Officer, American Psychological Association says:

“This (the Metaverse) is creating more loneliness. This is creating far more body image concerns [and] exposure to dangerous content that’s related to suicidality.” https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/31/psychologists-metaverse-could-be-a-problem-for-kids-mental-health.html

So, to state it without the medical jargon, our teens are not connected, but are being immersed through their senses into a fictional world that is creating more loneliness, dependency and identity issues. I want to make the point that all of this visual idolatry has been in the works for many years! And since the development of motion pictures (1920-30’s) and television (1950-60’s) have exponentially evolved into a personal pretend-world. In this world you can experience: Adventure, Drama, Romance and Violence in the privacy of your own home, and soon you’ll be able to physically and mentally experience these very things in a way no-one thought possible! While some see this as the next giant leap in entertainment, those who have witnessed what the New World Order has done to control CYBER INFORMATION over the past 20 years, are well aware that universal connectedness to the Metaverse will ultimately be used to “CONTROL THE MASSES” in a One-World Government!

If we think that TV, Movies and Music are shaping the moral and religious values of our young adults, just think of the control Big-Tech Oligarchs will provide to the State when everyone is being programmed into the consciousness of the New World Order. Entire populations can and are being programmed to believe that hetero-sexual behavior is bad because it brings about pro-creation, resulting in more people! Offer them perverse “homosexuality” or neutered “transgendered” lifestyles, and if needed -- give them sexual gratification online in the Metaverse!

They also claim that Man-Made-Climate-Change is killing Mother Earth. How easy it will be to instruct a whole generation into aborting, not only pre-born children, but THE AGED AND INFIRM IN STATE-RUN FACILITIES – AS WELL AS THE CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS (who are mostly Christians). Once they decide that they have to help balance the environment (or some other nice sounding euphemism), a whole generation of mind-numbed robots will obediently terminate the lives of millions, no questions asked! They’ll all shout: “We had to get the environment back in balance!” For us as Christians, we have the promises of scripture that Man will not bring about the end of this world, but God in His judgment will burn the world with fervent heat” (2 Peter 3:10). I actually had a Christian friend who, several years ago, told me that: “The oceans are rising because of Man-Made-Climate Change and soon all inhabitable land will be under water, drowning most of mankind.” I responded to him: “That’s strange, God says that He will never again destroy the earth with water.” Whom should we believe?

And think of the religious implications, either to cause men and women to worship the state-sanctioned images (all with a killer soundtrack and special effects), or to identify and eradicate the haters among us – yes – those horrible Christians who won’t participate, and who are against the New World Order and all of the good they’re doing. They’ll be easily manipulated into “Global Purges” of those who worship any another god than the State!

All of these scenarios are not only possible, but Big-Tech has shown us that they are very doable. We’ve all been amazed at the coordinated “Mob Violence,” incited by the directives from Social Media – while they censor others whose content doesn’t meet the New World Order “Community Guidelines.” And while all of the above outcomes all reverberate with Apocalyptic themes, let me remind everyone that “no one knows the times the Father has set for His purpose.” And while there are many scary things on the horizon, we are commanded to “watch and pray, for we don’t know what hour the Son will return,” but return He will!

As I close, I’m reminded that for every technological discovery that promised to do good – there have been unintended consequences. With the first Communications Satellite, Telstar, we were all excited about the exploration and conquering of Space. Little did we know but with the skies being filled with Communications Satellites – the World actually got smaller. Electronic communications beamed off Telstar connected us into a “global community” where we all have awareness of each other like never before. Social Media, that promised to connect us, has brought isolation and loneliness to a new level never thought possible before. And our Virtual Reality, and its sister technology: Augmented Reality (AR) promise to give us more freedom. I fear that it may well be used to stifle our freedom and control us as slaves to the New World Order. Now is the time to ask the questions and to have our Legislators seek to put in “safeguards” to prevent Tyranny on a grand scale.

Just so you don’t think I’m a “Luddite,” that is a person opposed to new technology or modern innovations in machinery, I believe that technology can be used as a tool to improve the lives of our fellow man. This new assault with Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality is a threat not from technology, but to re-order life’s purpose, meaning and experience by entering into an unholy union with Big-Tech. May God deliver His children from the power, dominion and control of the New World Order, and keep us humbly focused on serving Him and our fellow man. Soli Deo Gloria!