When I read the article by Cheryl Anne Casey entitled Online Religion and Finding Faith on the Web: An Examination of Beliefnet.org I was struck by a few key sentences and basically couldn't focus on much else, one of these sentences being "God created a set of conditions from which life would emerge. Like it or not, the Internet is one of the most dramatic examples of something that is self-organized. That’s the point. God is the distributed, decentralized system" which was a quote by a woman named Sherry Turkle. I was actually taken aback by this comment!! It hit me how people are actually treating the internet like some sort of god! Yes, lower case "g". Lately, I've been feeling that religion is being more of a fad than a deeper-self choice. And what an easier way to pick what kind of god to worship than one that is right at your finger tips where you can pick and choose and explore different faith's and basically make a little spiritual collage of what you believe in, all in the house of the god of "www-dot".
But woah now, I am not saying that the internet is like the anti-christ. I love the internet. It is so handy. I am talking strictly in terms of religious uses, like beliefnet.org. Let's not go personifying the world wide web. Yes, the internet has really helped to tighten different types of communities in the sense that they can communicate with each other and church bodies can connect (and obviously in more ways than just religious reasons...), but please let us not forget what is on the other side of that screen sending out those emails, posting those bulletins, updating those web pages: real people!! People like you and me, not some sort of gadget god or godess.
Alright, now that you know what one sentence out of the entire reading said, I apologize for not really responding to much else. This little tid bit of the article just got my heart a-beatin'!!
Rant done.
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