Millions Predicted to Put Their Virtual Faith in the Web
Millions predicted to put their virtual faith in the Web. Churches provide information and services for those outside the flock. Catholic church names St. Isidore as patron saint of the Internet.
What are YOUR religious leanings? You may think you know based on your upbringing or the church you attend, but you may not know for sure until you use the Belief-O-Matic. I was raised and confirmed a Catholic, but according to this interactive web page at Beliefnet.com I have turned into a Liberal Quaker (or possibly an Orthodox Quaker — I scored 100% on each). Lowest on my list was, you guessed it, Catholicism. Go figure.
At least I know something about the Quakers. I was raised in Pennsylvania. What would I do if my score on the test showed my religious leaning was toward a faith I knew nothing about, like Islam?
The answer, virtually and occasionally spiritually, is on the ‘Net. Converting to Islam, as it turns out, is not as difficult as it sounds, if you’re sincere about it. Just go to How To Become A Muslim.
Categories of religions at Beliefnet.com on Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Paganism just to name a few make for fascinating reading. It’s a virtual cultural goldmine at your fingertips.
As many as 50 million people may rely solely upon the Internet for their faith-based experiences before the decade is over. Those are the results of a study conducted by an organization called Barna Research as reported on the CyberAtlas.com web site.
It’s taken some time, but the research organization predicts that people will be warming up to the idea of spiritual growth on the Web. Barna Research asked respondents about the likelihood that they would use the Internet to seek or engage in specific types of religious experiences. More than two-thirds said they probably would do it on a regular basis as the decade progresses.
“By the end of the decade we will have in excess of 10 percent of our population who rely upon the Internet for their entire spiritual experience,” George Barna, the director of the study is quoted. And what are religious seekers doing on-line?
According to Barna, they are listening to archived religious teaching, reading online devotionals as well as buying religious products and using services online.
If the Internet holds up to its comparisons to the invention of the printing press, spiritual pursuits may benefit as much as they did when the Christian Bible went into print and made personal worship available to the masses. The internet may make religious activities available to the millions who do not or do not want to belong to any organized church.
On the other hand, established faiths with brick and mortar foundations in the real world may also benefit from the ease of information retrieval from the Web. According to the survey, about 110,000 Protestant congregations are already on the Web and many more are expected to join in just the next 12 months.
The Web can be a rich resource for those seeking religious truth and spirituality. Even agnostics and atheists are sure to find information and guidance. No stone seems to be left unturned. There’s even a web site where you can participate in discovering intelligent life on other planets. By installing a special screensaver on your computer at SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) you can lend your computer to the astronomical task of compiling data from a radio telescope in Puerto Rico.
If a discovery is made while you’re “on-line” you’ll go down in history as one of the co-discoverers. Just make sure you leave your computer on when you go on vacation.
