Tuesday, 30 December 2014

Cyberspace as an Analogy for the Being of God?

Generally speaking, I don’t place much stock in analogies (which is not the same as recognising the use of analogical language), but I can’t help but wonder if cyberspace may function as an analogy for the being of God. The feasibility of this may depend on how one defines ‘cyberspace’:  the Collins English Dictionary appears to emphasise that cyberspace is data (and so possibly a digital object), whereas the Oxford English Dictionary sees cyberspace as a digital environment. But the term does seem to allow for an elusive, non-reified abstraction in which things (websites and the Internet, and, through them, humans and often cats) participate. ‘. . . and this we call God’?

Granted, there are some obvious flaws with the analogy (God is the source of all things, but cyberspace is not the source of websites or the Internet; cyberspace is generated by the presence of these things), but I’m wondering how far it can be pushed. And if it can, should it be pushed? What do you think?

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