Summary
Title: Give Me That Online Religion
Author: Barbara Brasher
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813534364
Pro:
• Discusses the important convergence of religion and technology
• Explores how religion might change in the future
Con:
• Doesn't address atheism online
Description:
• Discusses how the technology of the internet might affect religion, and vice-versa
• Argues that a religious reformation might be in the works because of the internet
• Explores how people's religious behavior has been influenced by online religious communities
Book Review
According to the Barna Research Group, within this decade as many as 50 million people may rely solely on the World Wide Web to meet their religious needs. Brasher herself says that she has found more than 1 million online religion Web sites, stating that “virtual temples and churches dot the landscape of cyberspace almost as much as online flower shops and virtual bookstores do.”
The first thing we must remember is that technology changes religion, and revolutionary technology almost invariably makes revolutionary changes in religion. The most obvious example of this occurred with the development of the printing press in Europe. With that, Bibles became easier and cheaper to own, leading to vernacular translations and ultimately the Protestant Reformation. This revitalized Christianity and was fundamental to the further development of Western culture, but at the cost of millions of lives in the subsequent wars and persecutions.
Are we at the cusp of something similar? Hopefully nothing quite so violent; Brasher even makes a case for the idea that religion online may lead to greater religious tolerance.
When religion is in virtual “cyber-space,” it cannot so easily serve the goals of preserving parochial and tribal identities, something often at the root of religious conflict:
- “The impact the computer is having on human identity has serious complications for traditional religion. The computer introduces to human experience: cyberspace, virtual communities and a host of other computer-reliant phenomena that fall outside of our inherited religious ideas and stories. For religiously inclined or committed people, a computer-informed, globally networked world view can make some inherited religious traditions appear insufficiently comprehensive and therefore less credible, less persuasive and (at the most practical level) less useful.”
On the other hand, tradition can have a mitigating factor against extremism, and online religion can easily be religion without tradition or roots or guidance. There is also the question of interpersonal contact and how that is lost with online religious communities. We need human contact and relationships in order to develop as healthy, mature individuals. Absence of physical touch and personal communication can cause psychological dysfunction and disease in both animal and human subjects.
But how will religion itself be affected? Although technology can revitalize religion, it can also harm it. Traditionally, religion is most authoritative at the limits of human control and sovereignty. But technology usually expands human control and sovereignty. Thus, religion’s basis of power and authority becomes smaller and smaller. Could the internet contribute to this?
Another aspect to consider is the reason why so many people are moving online for religious information and community in the first place. It is, I think, a by-product of other social forces which have also affected the way people work and live - the cultural drive compelling people to get more done in a more efficient manner and in a shorter period of time.
The internet, with its quick communication potential and nearly limitless expanse of information, helps contribute to this. People can download email from work, shop at an online store, sip instant cappuccino and open a page for a virtual, online religious shrine - all at the same time. There is now no need to take time out of one’s daily routine for reflection, usually one of things which can make religious practice valuable.
