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Internet and Religion

The Hammer

[REDACTED]
Premium Member
I'd like to explore the theme of the intersection of religion and the internet; how these two are being utilized together to help practitioners and their faith, as well as discussing what part the internet has to play in the deepening secular and religious divide. The rise of internet technologies and the proliferation of social media platforms to connect individuals globally, has had profound impacts on the way religion is both encountered and sought after in the Information Age. This increase in ready access to differing religious texts, ideas and answers, as well as increasing scientific awareness, has led to some seeing a society that is trending in the direction of being secularized completely. Yet, at the same time "some 90 percent [of congregations], according to previous research — use email and websites for outreach, and more than a third have both an Internet and Facebook presence." (McClure, Jan 2018) Leaving one to wonder if the internet is actually a religious boon, not a curse.

Demonstrating the benefit of religion and internet, it is estimated that some 28 million Americans have used the internet to get religious and spiritual information, as well as connect with others of their faith community. This has been done through a variety of means to include emails, prayer requests, reading religious literature, video church services and more. A key finding from Pew shows that of these online religious observers, "81%... describe their religious faith as “very strong,” compared to 61% of the general public." (Pew, 2010, Cyberfaith). So of those that do use the internet as a place to reinforce their religious views, they feel strongly about these views. We also find that among these religious internet natives that "15%... say their use of the Internet has made them feel more committed to their faith... And 62%... say that the availability of material on the Internet encourages religious tolerance." (Pew, 2010, Cyberfaith).

From this, it appears that the internet can strengthen people's faith and increase tolerance. Although, one thing that seems to be getting missed by modern demographic surveys, is that "internet use may [actually] decrease the likelihood of a person... believing that only one religion is true"(Goodrich, Jan 2018, Using the Internet). This is in part due to the proliferation of religious material, and the ease of access, leading to an increase in those who have syncretic faiths. It's these syncretization that I think gets missed in the overall larger trends of who is religious or secular. Sociologist and researcher Paul McClure thinks that this is "because many of us spend so much time online, we’re more likely to understand our religious participation as free agents who can tinker with a plurality of religious ideas — even different, conflicting religions. " (Goodrich, Jan 2018, Using the Internet) I think this will lead to a new growth of online religious organizations, or at the very least those that get started as online endeavors, before moving to a physical location. Another finding from Pew, supporting the fact that Religious communities are being supported by the internet as opposed to degraded by it is that "64%.... believe [it] provides easier access to religious study and educational materials than they can otherwise find offline," (Pew, 2010, Cyberfaith) while "nearly half (44%) believe that the Internet provides easier access to prayer and other devotional materials than they can otherwise find offline." (Pew, 2010, Cyberfaith)

So, while we are seeing that Internet resources and connection have become invaluable to some religious practitioners, we still find that "53% of [practitioners] fear that the Internet makes it too easy for fringe groups to promote themselves in ways that can harm people." (Pew, 2010, Cyberfaith) These fringe groups and other extremist or zealous groups, help to strengthen the Secular/Religious divide, because as much as these small groups pick up a few members here and there, their overall messages tend to push many others away. Possibly into even shunning religion as a whole, due to lumping all believers as these zealous types. This is because as much as tolerance and diversity can be brought to the table, "the Internet may corral people into like-minded groups, similar to how Google customizes search results and advertisements based on prior search history," (Goodrich, Jan 2018, Using the Internet) leading to the creation of echo-chambers of non conflicting views that allow extremism to foment.

Due to the extremism that has been allowed to flourish in some corners of the internet, "distrust of religious institutions [is] a significant factor in Gen Z’s unprecedentedly low levels of religious belief and practice," (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age) even lower than "banks, the medical system and public schools, and only slightly more than they trusted online and print media." (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age). As I see this, it is leading to a majority of Gen Z to identify themselves as Atheist or Agnostic, or to possibly be more questioning of the faith that they grew up in. "And it shows: The percentage of Gen Z that identifies as atheist is double that of the U.S. adult population." (Barna, 2018) We can also find that "Nearly half of teens, on par with Millennials, say “I need factual evidence to support my beliefs” (46%)—which helps to explain their uneasiness with the relationship between science and the Bible." (Barna, 2018) There it is! The secular and religious divide, out in the open.

People, especially the younger generations, are driving the deepening of the Secular and Religious divide. As digital natives, they are both utilizing religion to express some forms of their Spirituality devoutly, or they distrust religion all together. "The idea of belief as a continuous variable measured in degrees of certainty is being replaced by the idea of belief as a binary function of zero or one, or “all in” versus “all out.”" (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age) This all or nothing attitude, is also the same attitude that drives the Us vs Them mentality that we see play out every day in politics and religion. "The key driver in this process is the sheer amount of incoming information, reliable and unreliable, that we have to process." (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age) With all this information that we have to process, we have become much more scrupulous in the way approach everything else, online and off. This also opens us up to misinformation, if it confirms our preconceived worldviews. "What these responses have in common is an evacuation of the middle ground between certainty and disbelief." (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age)

We are in the middle of a global cultural shift, for those that are connected to the internet, from analog to digital. We are allowing our views to be turned into an all or nothing, this or that. "In digital reproduction, everything deemed noise is eliminated entirely, leaving only signal. In analog reproduction, noise cannot be eliminated, only minimized, by foregrounding the signal and consigning noise to the background", (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age) because of this shift from analog to digital we are desperately missing the context, or noise, behind the things we encounter. Our mental "filter systems we are developing to cope with the relentless flow of incoming information are transforming how we believe. To eliminate the noise of unreliable information, we are developing habits of skepticism and trust that, as a by-product, also eliminate the nuance of qualified belief and degrees of certainty." (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age).

In conclusion we see that not only has the internet made some more religious and devout than others. It has also consequently driven the deeping of the secular religious divide, due to our inability to process the amount of incoming information. Causing us to paradoxically doubt more easily while also trusting more easily at the same time. Do we dare continue down the road of binary thinking? "A digital world with no room for analog faith is a world in which reasoned debate between people holding different beliefs is ultimately impossible." (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age).
 

The Hammer

[REDACTED]
Premium Member
Links for the curious:

Terry Goodrich, January 2018, Using the Internet May Prompt Religious ‘Tinkering’ Rather than Belief in Only One Religion,

Using the Internet May Prompt Religious ‘Tinkering’ Rather than Belief in Only One Religion

Elena Larsen, 2010, CyberFaith: How Americans Pursue Religion Online,

CyberFaith: How Americans Pursue Religion Online

Eli Gottlieb, March 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age,

Analog Faith in a Digital Age

Barna, 2018, Atheism Doubles Among Gen Z,

Atheism Doubles Among Generation Z - Barna Group
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
There's too much in the OP to do a point-by-point discussion for me. But it's certainly true that there's a lot out there which people can find. When I was growing up, kids tended to follow along with their parents because that's all they knew. Now it's trivial to find so much that it's impossible to explore it all.

And that has the consequences noted in the OP where people feel free to explore what they truly believe or don't believe and to put together what works for them. Also, more and more not believing has less and less consequences in many places. Not so long ago being an "out" atheist was identified with being an evil communist. So people are freer to admit that.

Also, there's so much going on in the world today that the stability of the past is being shaken and shattered. So that leads to more questioning and contributes to the trends noted.
 

vulcanlogician

Well-Known Member
We are in the middle of a global cultural shift, for those that are connected to the internet, from analog to digital. We are allowing our views to be turned into an all or nothing, this or that. "In digital reproduction, everything deemed noise is eliminated entirely, leaving only signal. In analog reproduction, noise cannot be eliminated, only minimized, by foregrounding the signal and consigning noise to the background", (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age) because of this shift from analog to digital we are desperately missing the context, or noise, behind the things we encounter. Our mental "filter systems we are developing to cope with the relentless flow of incoming information are transforming how we believe. To eliminate the noise of unreliable information, we are developing habits of skepticism and trust that, as a by-product, also eliminate the nuance of qualified belief and degrees of certainty." (Gottlieb, Mar 2021, Analog Faith in a Digital Age).

I think the issue with general division and extreme "internet" beliefs are to be considered as their own phenomenon. It impacts religion, but it's it's own phenomenon.

As far as the internet and religion: I think people have come a long way in the past five years. As sun rise mentioned, not so long ago there was a real stigma attached to atheism. Not only that, there was a greater sense of smug superiority from believers. That is much rarer these days. I would advise people not to worry about the "growing popularity of secularism." It wasn't very long ago that the shoe was on the other foot. Times change. Who knows? The pendulum might swing back. Religious people should use it as a learning experience since they're getting a dose of what it feels like to be a minority.

I think atheist and religious people have grown in the past few years. The environment is divided and hostile, yes. But I think turbulent times can work themselves out. It's happened countless times in history.
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
In my experience since I live in a functionally secular country, where religion is way down on the list of problems, I as a non-believer tend to end up with other non-believers online and we have our fringe groups ourselves.
 

Ella S.

Dispassionate Goth
Entire religions like Discordianism, Dudeism, and Jediism rely deeply on the internet, including some currents of polytheistic Satanism (although Demonolatry has existed since before Christianity)
 
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