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Studies have been done if it is viable to use Minecraft to Aid Religion.
Researchers at a Scottish institution are examining whether a well known video game may assist young individuals with some disabilities to engage with their faith and religion - The spiritual Loop.
They have decided to use Minecraft as a medium to aid the persons with disability in their valiant effort to help with religion.
“Video games are very inclusive, even for people with disabilities, who may not otherwise be able to access typical social settings.”
The Spiritual Loop
The Spiritual Loop is a project led by Professors Gordon Morison and Gianna Cassidy of Glasgow Caledonian University.
They have received a total of £40,000 in funding from the Centre for Theological Inquiry (CTI) at Princeton University, USA.
The CTI needs a way to integrate severely disabled people into the spiritual life of their religious congregation.
This happens often because these people are not able to go to church or have other activities with their friends.
Researchers at GCU want to change the game Minecraft so that people will be able to find spiritual guidance without going to a traditional setting.
They aim to achieve this with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
The first phase of the project is to see how the AI will be delivered in the game.
The foundation of the AI will come from academics at CTI.
Afterwards they will administer the proper studies to see if Minecraft to Aid Religion is a viable study.
Minecraft
Minecraft is a sandbox game which allows the player to do about almost anything desired.
The player can break blocks, build things with them.
There are animals to hunt and items to find.
To make the game more interesting, you need to protect yourself from monsters at night time.
Minecraft is a popular game all over the world, even in Scotland.
Rather than your casual gameplay, and PvP the game has already been used for various research and studies.
In the previous research, it has been used to help further improve AI, and now they are using Minecraft to Aid Religion.
This proves to show on how dynamic Minecraft can be in helping the world advancing through technology.
Aside from that, the Spiritual Loop aims to help improve the way religion is being looked at and aids in with spirituality and faith.
It has been said by researchers that Minecraft will help change religion for the better.
“We expect this project will be helpful both intellectually and practically, as it provides different ways of thinking about how best to use digital media in constructive and meaningful ways to engage people with disabilities in their own spiritual lives."
Minecraft as a Medium
Using Minecraft to Aid Religion will take some time and concrete evidence before it will be disbursed.
The six-month project is a partnership between Dr Erin Rafferty of the CTI and Professor William Storrar from the University of Strathclyde, with Maria Insa Iglesias, a PhD student at GCU.
Dr. David Morison, a project advisor for the project, said it would look at whether machine intelligence might be used to improve pastoral methods and strategies.
“The use of video games has extended to education, giving users the ability to be creative to complete tasks towards a goal and interact socially."
Minecraft is a building game for PCs that allows users to construct their own worlds and interact with other people online.
It's played by both kids and adults of all ages.
The game may be expanded upon and customized to fulfill various demands thanks to its open source nature.
“We have already created our own Minecraft server using CraftBukkit, a modification of Minecraft’s server software, which means participants of the project can interact freely with the environment we have created for them."
The developers already generated their own map and hosting.
They have also already started integrating the use of AI to work like actual leader of a real-world congregation.
Soon, it can be finally decided if Minecraft to Aid Religion would be a good strategy.
With the assistance of Minecraft and Faith leaders, this research might prove to be valuable to aid young individuals to get in touch with their spirituality.
