This was written by my friend Matt when he was bored one day in a class in college

Heathen mystic William Blake once wrote: “The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.” Though his heart and his intentions may have been impure, Blake’s statement reflects an emotion not uncommon in the true orthodox believer – the experience of divinity in the majesty of God’s creation. But such an emotion can be invoked not only by the magnificence of nature, but also by the creations of man. As God created the natural world, so too did he create man in his own image. It would stand to reason that the works of men, though imperfect in their reflection of the God’s glory, could, much like the natural world, be a source of inspiration for the experience of divinity.

Did Michelangelo not, in his endeavors in Julius’s church, transmit through his brush the will of the Almighty? And surely the confrontation with the substance of the Creator’s magnificent design must be as genuine and important a spiritual experience as that of prayer, divination and participation in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Through the experience of the works of God and those of his humble servants, we come to know Him and rejoice in His presence; we feel His touch as did Michelangelo’s Adam at the moment of Creation, if only in our finger-tips.

What, then, could be a more perfect spiritual vehicle than that most treasured of man’s creations, Halo: Combat Evolved? As God moved over the face of the waters, he did sow the Earth and its multitudes with his glorious seed, and this seed filled the heart of fallen Adam; and through the generations, this kernel of divinity was passed from mother to son and so on until, hidden from the storms of the world by the engineers and designers and programmers at Bungie studios, did it burst forth into full bloom, as though adorning Eden’s Garden - the magnificent Chrysanthemum of God’s design. It is this vague reference to the pure divinity of God that hundreds of thousands of believers come to know each day on Xbox Live as they traverse the hallowed halls of Midship and Foundation; they feel the presence of the Almighty as if in a church, for in a church they truly are. In the pure blue skies of Lockout they see, transmuted by the pious code of Bungie graphic-designers, the loving face of the Lord. But the Ring-World is but a microcosm of the world of common men; and in it, too, lie the temptations that face all believers. What pious Christian has not, Judas-like with RL in hand, considered the betrayal of his fellow Chief? But such transgressions risk not only negative feedback, but, as a violation of God’s plan, threaten damnation and the eternal Lake of Fire. Be wary, Chief, for the eyes of God are on you always.