You might not agree with me when I say gaming is the most entertaining medium (although if you’re reading this, I think you might). What you can’t deny, however, is that it’s certainly the most ethereal.

Now, I’m not talking about the forthcoming onslaught of games with a strong Christian message, like the strategy title Left Behind: Eternal Forces, where players square off against the forces of Hell (like we haven’t seen that one before).

What I mean is this: Gaming is the only medium that can be considered “divine” because it is an exact mirror of life itself.

Break down every aspect of gaming. A game contains a world that has basic defining properties, like environment and physics, which govern it. It’s been created by someone (the developer) other than the entity that inhabits it (the player). The player is free to move about the world, but is confined by those basic limiting factors. However, he can still act as a creator himself, by acting out some sort of life cycle or battling an insidious force or creating a vast civilization.

All this is not unlike our perception of life. The world in which we live has laws governing its every property, more commonly known as physics. Regardless of your religious viewpoint, you cannot deny that you did not create the earth and galaxy and universe and everything contained therein (unless of course you’re a student of solipsism). Yet again, people are able to shape their own lives, the lives of those around them, and the world itself. It’s that immediate interaction and bond that’s created between player and character (plus, all the potential subsequent consequences) that makes gaming so much more fulfilling, poignant, and ultimately spiritual.

Even the language that’s used in the industry is indicative of a higher calling. Is it any coincidence that the greatest developers of all time (the Wright’s and Meier’s and Spector’s) are referred to as the “game gods?” How about the whole “god game” genre, most often promulgated by those aforementioned individuals?