Director of Ravaq-e Hikmat (Porch of Wisdom) Institute believes the difference between the virtual and the concrete external (objective) world is technical and that the virtual world is not a new world with a new set of rules and regulations. Therefore, if we can identify vice and virtue in the objective world, we can put into practice the rules pertaining to them in the virtual atmosphere.
Speaking to Int'l Quran News Agency (IQNA) reporter, Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani said that the virtual atmosphere is not different from the objective world. "Some individuals are trying to inculcate in the minds of the youths that virtual atmosphere has its own specific features and characteristics and that it is dissimilar and segregated from the objective world while it is not actually as such," he said.
"The virtual world is an atmosphere for communication between individuals who truly exist in the real world; in fact, the only difference between virtual communication and human beings' communications in the objective world is that the communication in the virtual world takes place in a non-objective atmosphere," he added.
Director of Ravaq-e Hikmat Institute went on saying that the virtual atmosphere is an expression of human traits and virtues which exist in the objective world and that it can, like our objective lives, be positive, lofty and progressive and it can also be negative, deviant and retrogressive.
Member of Supreme Council of Ahlul-Bayt World Assembly elaborated on the concept of "virtue" and "vice" saying that virtue and vice in the virtual atmosphere are not different from virtue and vice existing in the objective world. For example, if it is forbidden to watch something in the objective world, now it is forbidden to watch the same things in the virtual world by way of (video) chat or downloading movies from websites. "The fact that we come across tools and accessories in the virtual world other than those tools and accessories which exist in the real world does not cause the religious rules to change," he added.
Member of Academy of Human Sciences and Cultural Studies also explained on the kind of difference between virtual atmosphere and the objective world. "I believe the difference between the virtual world and the objective world is a kind of technical difference. The virtual atmosphere is not a new atmosphere with new rules and regulations. Therefore, if we can identify good and bad or virtue and vice in the objective world, we can put into practice the rules pertaining to them in the virtual atmosphere," he said.
Lecturer at the Kharij level of jurisprudence and legal theories further added that "vice" in the material world includes those things which God has prohibited and "virtue" refers to things which God has commanded us to do. When it comes to the virtual atmosphere, the concepts of vice and virtue are the same. Most of the things commanded by God are things that every wise individual knows and considers them as good and essential. Similarly, there are certain things that God has forbidden us to do. They are such things that every wise person considers as bad. Therefore, it is not difficult for human beings to discern between vice and virtue.
At the end, Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani said that the fact that we come across tools and accessories in the virtual world other than those in the real world does not cause the rules pertaining to the virtual atmosphere to change.
Office of Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi Tehran
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Related link: Int'l Quran News Agency (IQNA)