Helix fossil religion

If status as a ‘world religion’ is defined by sheer numbers, we have a new player on the block- the Church of the Helix Fossil. By some, uh, estimates, its size is even greater than that of Judaism.

The Helix fossil is an item from the Pokémon games which can be turned into a useable Pokémon. So how did a Pokémon game item become a religious icon? Well, it started with a video game experiment called Twitch Plays Pokémon. On the website, Pokémon red streams live; users can input a command to click a button on the game boy advance console. All uses collectively control a single character. When you have 40,000+ users at any given time, figuring out which command is used can be a little difficult. In anarchism mode, the first command is the one that’s clicked. In democracy mode, the command with the most consensus is clicked. Needless to say, this hive-mind video game play has resulted in the release of several Pokemon, a lot of scanning the menu, and very slow progress throughout the game. If you don’t know what Pokémon is, look here.

In the general chaos of the game play, ‘Red’, the character, spent a lot of time looking at his helix fossil which was unable to do anything. The internet reasoned that this was because the helix fossil was a deity giving him guidance. When red caught the Pokémon Pidgy and raised it to a Pidgeot, the internet reasoned that Pidgeot was a heroic savior figure dubbed bird Jesus. And when evolving Pokémon Eevee to Flarion instead of Varpareon thwarted game play, the internet became convinced that Flarion was a false prophet and agent of the Dome Fossil (the helix fossil’s foil). A good history of these developments can be found here and here.

Memes of bird Jesus, the Helix Fossil, and the false prophet went viral. The fossil was eventually resurrected in the game play, and Flarion was released. The helix fossil religion developed an entire cosmology, church, and mythos. A ‘religious war’ was waged, where the helix fossil represented anarchy mode in the game, and the false prophet Flarion and the dome fossil represented democracy mode. Twitch beat the game, and participants are now petitioning to make March 1st National Helix Day.

Of course, the religions of Twitch Plays Pokémon are funny and it’s likely that nobody takes them seriously. But unlike Pastafarianism, they are not solely a satirical critique of organized religion. Rather, they are a system of shared symbols surrounding a game community. They create a motivation to continue playing the game. If this sounds like Clifford Geertz’s scholarly/serious definition of religion, it’s by no accident. Not only are these ‘pseudoreligions’ mimicking ‘real world religions’, they are functioning in the same way among participants of the game. The players of Twitch Plays Pokemon are hybridizing comedy and religious functionality to enhance community.

If Twitch is the first crowdsourced attempt at playing video games, then its religions- if we temporarily use the term seriously- may be the first consciously crowdsourced religions. Emile Durkheim, a founder of sociology and religious studies, is famous for arguing that (at least some) religions originated out of communities making something a totem to represent their group which they then worshipped. His theory hasn’t gained widespread acceptance, but it seems to be an accurate description for online crowdsourced religion. The Helix fossil is a totem for the participants in Twitch Plays Pokemon. Since then it’s taken on a life of its own.

All religions are crowdsourced to an extent. They are also generally taken more seriously by followers, and don’t involve Pokémon. We talk a lot about how the internet modifies religion, but Twitch Plays Pokemon suggests that the internet has the power to create religion as well.