The Christian Worldview

GUEST: PATRICK MILLER, pastor and co-author, How to Prepare for the MetaverseWhen Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, one of the most valuable and powerful companies in the world, makes a recent announcement that they are changing their name to “Meta”, one is led to ask “Now, what is that all about?”What it’s about is a coming technology that will change life as we know it—the metaverse.What exactly is the metaverse? It’s hard to explain because it contrasts so much with reality but basically the metaverse is an online world that you enter through virtual reality glasses or headsets and where the experiences are only limited by your imagination.For example, you can customize your own home to have a view of the Pacific Ocean. Or, you choose whatever identity you’d like—male, female, human, animal, space alien. Want to go out to meet with friends in London in real time (without flying on a plane to get there)? You may sit at the table as an avatar (a cartoon-like version of yourself) while your friend is there as a life-like hologram.This may all sound crazy, foolish, and unnecessary, but there’s something far deeper at work here—man’s futile attempt to cast off God and the reality He established and identify as one chooses (rather than how God has designed) and live a virtual world man controls (rather than God).Patrick Miller, podcast host and pastor of digital ministries at The Crossing, a church in Missouri, recently co-authored a column for The Gospel Coalition titled How to Prepare for the Metaverse. He joins us on The Christian Worldview for a look into the not-too-distant future and what Christians need to know about the metaverse.