The vast majority of content related to religion and the online world are centered on western religions, most notably Christianity. This article focuses on the affects of cyberspace on several religions, including Christianity, as well as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, Animism, and some forms of Buddhism. It studies the scope of the migration of these religions to the online environment, and the things that hinder their migration.
There are many religions that are wary to allow worship in an online environment. Some ancient Japanese religions have not seen enthusiastic participation from their followers in cyberspace, and some point to that as proof that religion and technology do not mix well. Others take the view that, these same religions are mostly practiced by older believers and the younger more “Internet-savvy” do not affiliate themselves as much with the traditional religions. Another good point that this article makes is that people who live in an area where they belong to a religious minority are more likely to embrace online worship of their religion because they may lack the sense of familiar religious community in their offline environment.
I believe that this article does a great job of arguing the benefits as well as detriments to online religion. In most cases it works well and its followers have a place to worship and communicate together. Though there are a few cases where a religion is hindered by embracing this technologically advanced form of worship, I believe that most religions are capable of finding a way to make it work well for their followers without harming their moral values. The author seems to agree with this point when he says, “In short, contrary to 1990s prophesies of its imminent demise through the emergence of CMC (and related) technologies, religion appears to be here to stay. It is not only surviving but thriving in our "post-post-modern" world, both offline and in the venues provided by CMC.”
Ess, C. (2007). Cross-cultural perspectives on religion and computer-mediated communication. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(3), article 9. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/ess.html
Including contributions by:
-Christopher
2 comments:
Well, it was only a matter of time before religion went “Cyber”. My wife’s church wanted me to help them create an online donation site for their improvement fund. Let’s face it…religion is big business.
I think online bible studies would be a good thing. I think for some people online worship would be fine, and for some not. It depends how well they can focus and what they can take away from it. Doing online bible studies would have similiar benefits to what we are doing with online classes. You would get to share thoughts and views and expand your horizon!
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