God in the Web
Internet, without any doubt, gravitates towards the infinity. What is the place of the infinity itself, for instance God, when found in such a net? Of course, we do not deal here with a person of God, or any deity, but with the word "God", as a way to describe the infinity and absolute – or a longing towards them. Does the frequency of the word "God" in Internet reflex such a longing? Not absolutely. According to the Google, "God" (named some 31,600,000 times at May 14, 2002 and 32,300,000 at May 20, 2002) was there second even to the "man" (69,300,000 and 71,200,000), not to speak about the "sex" (70,900,000 and 82,600,000), or any harder "work" (96,200,000 and 98,800,000).
Those results concern only English, only one language, but the most present on the Web. There are important results in other languages, too. Dieu, in French, was found 1,500,000 times; Deus in Portuguese (and Latin) made some 1,450,000 apparitions; Dios in Spanish was present 1,890,000 times. All those languages are spoken by much more people than the Italian, but the Italian form, Dio, was present 2,410,000 times.
Of course, we don't know now how many times there was not the God in Italian, but a part of something in Croatian or Bosnian, namely: dio.
There is an other problem with Slavic languages, which have taken their term for the unique deity not from deva, but from bhaga.
Bog, for instance, was there 784.000 times, but I spend a plenty of time to find something different from a "bog plant" (not to mention some other meanings of the word bog in English). When the search was limited only on Croatian sites, even the number was limited to 18.400.
Similar difficulties wait in other Slavic languages. In those who call Him Boh or Buh the researcher has to exclude German words spelled in identical way, but with different meaning.
Similar mess waits us if we try some other Lord's attribute. I tried to find the word "Svemoćni", i. e. Almighty - and the first term was a certain "svemoćni lonac", the almighty pot. Somebody can believe in it, but that credence is beyond the religion.
Not to forget: those were some results concerning only the central term of one faith, the faith in God of Abraham/Ibrahim, same to Jews, Christians and Muslims. And we dealt only with few languages. In Internet there is much, much more. Specially on the WWW.
According to Google, our oracle, on May 20 solely in English language Faith and Practice were offered on 39,850 websites, and Religion and Spirituality on 40,893 websites.
Anyway, the thirst for God (spirituality, absolute, transcendence…), which pervades the everyday human life, tries to dig its wells through the Web too. It is a commonplace now to point to the WWW as the way to the future.
For example, one editor, introducing his book on Catholicism on the WEB, calls it "potentially the most revolutionary medium for communication to appear in our time."
Much is made of this idea too as applied specifically to religion. New York's Time magazine in its issue called "Jesus online" takes as theme, "How the Internet is shaping our views of faith and religion." With considerable exuberance the writer elaborates on this:
"The faithful are rushing online to commune, debate, and share. Almost overnight the World Wide Web has become a high-speed spiritual bazaar that is altering the character of the Internet and could even change our ideas about God." ("God and Cyberspace," Time, Dec. 16, 1996).
There is no great religion which has not discovered the propulsive force of Internet. "Pope John Paul is putting his faith in the Internet" – stated Reuters recently.
Therefore the Internet becomes the hugest source of information about the faith and/or religion, and of other notions concerning the spirituality.
"If you are interested in anything from Adventists to Zoroastrians, you can find it online and in detail and from the horses mouth", says Mark Kellner, author of God on the Internet, a resource guide for online spiritual resources. (Mark A. Kellner, God on the Internet Your Complete Guide to Enhancing Your Spiritual Life via the Internet & Online Services (IDG Books Worldwide, 1996) ISBN: -1-56884-843-9; Quotation taken from Spiritual Surfers site.)
It is the second time that a revolution communications has transformed spirituality: "Johann Gutenberg's invention of the movable-type printing process enabled Martin Luther to circulate his ideas and trigger the Protestant Reformation. Yet the ability to distribute ideas on paper to the masses now seems quaint compared with the Internet. (Zaleski)
Sites on the internet provide an attractive new means for solidifying an existing community around church, synagogue, or temple. Such groups also find in the internet the potential for adding to their membership. At the same time with the World Wide Web as a virtual pulpit, new churches, no matter how small, can have a voice. One writer describes the effect of teaching the tenets of religious groups on the internet as "updating the goal of Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation--to make every man a priest--by making every priest a potential publisher." (Gregory Jordan, "Evangelists Find Growing Audience on Internet," New York Times (Oct. 7. 1996).
Once more technology gives a hand to the less hierarchical religions to be more propulsive. It is visible from the ratio between the number of websites of the established religions and those of the religions seeking conversions to enforce their ranks. "...[T]he proportion of Buddhist Web sites is higher than the percentage of Buddhists in the U.S. population, a reflection of the disproportionately large interest in Eastern religions among computer- savvy intellectuals. And the proportion of Protestant to Catholic sites is far greater that the Protestant- Catholic ratio in the American population...[Less] hierarchical religions are more likely to thrive in this egalitarian medium of instant communication. (Gregory Jordan, "Evangelists Find Growing Audience on Internet," New York Times (Oct. 7, 1996).
The technology gives the voice to the dissidents among the hierarchical religions too. Good example is the virtual diocese created by the French bishop, Jacques Gaillot. Deprived of his home see by the pope John Paul II, because of his controversial views, he was left with only a titular diocese, a long-defunct spot in the desert, named Partenia. When he created his new virtual diocese on the Internet he graced it with a map showing where Partenia was in the past and naming his Website after it.
On this site he pursues the conventional activities of a bishop, with pastoral letters, religious news and related documents. He also pleads for service to the poor citing the Gospel in support of his priorities.
He even offers an electronic catechism. But first he describes the history of the catechism. It is a book, he says, which asks questions which are not ours, in order to give answers taken from dogma. But people today look not for dogma but for meaning, for meaning that fits our experience. Hence, in this e-catechism, he says, the questions come from the people. Thus while taking a revolutionary step into the new, the bishop anchors himself in history to provide continuity. These are the ways in which the imaginative bishop buffers us against "future shock."
But the hierarchy in the great religions did not miss to realize the same opportunity given by the Internet. Good example is the Catholic Church, present in the Internet on many of its levels, specially in the last ten or twelve years. The fisherman of souls did not miss that new Net, offered by technology.
There are a lot of examples.
On the national level, in Italian example, in Rome was held, on February 28th and March 1st, the first forum of webmasters of some forty websites owned by the Catholic Church in Italy. The purpose was the better co-ordination, under the patronage of the National office for the social communications of the Italian bishop conference.
On the universal level the Vatican Curia, particularly the Congregation for the priests, organizes every month, from Rome and other nine towns in the world, courses for the permanent education of priests. Those courses can be seen in the real time on Italian catholic television, and in teleconference on the website of the Congregation, www.clerus.org, where is possible to pick up texts in five languages. The texts are send by e-mail on some 10.000 addresses of bishops and priests allover the world who asked it on the same website.
The Pope John Paul II published on January 24 the Message for the for 36th World Communications Day, Sunday 12 May 2002, with the title "Internet - a New Forum for proclaiming the Gospel". As the supreme magisterial authority of the Catholic church, the Pope stated, among other:
But the history of evangelisation is not just a matter of geographic expansion, for the Church has also had to cross many cultural thresholds, each of which called for fresh energy and imagination in proclaiming the one gospel of Jesus Christ. The age of the great discoveries, the Renaissance and the invention of printing, the industrial revolution and the birth of the modern world: these too were threshold moments which demanded new forms of evangelisation. Now, with the communications and information revolution in full swing, the Church stands unmistakably at another decisive gateway. It is fitting therefore that on this World Communications Day 2002 we should reflect on the subject: 'Internet: a new forum for proclaiming the gospel'.
2. The internet is certainly a new 'forum' understood in the ancient Roman sense of that public space where politics and business were transacted, where religious duties were fulfilled, where much of the social life of the city took place, and where the best and the worst of human nature was on display. It was a crowded and bustling urban space, which both reflected the surrounding culture and created a culture of its own. This is no less true of cyberspace, which is as it were a new frontier opening up at the beginning of this new millennium. Like the new frontiers of other times, this one too is full of the interplay of danger and promise, and not without the sense of adventure which marked other great periods of change. For the Church the new world of cyberspace is a summons to the great adventure of using its potential to proclaim the gospel message. This challenge is at the heart of what it means at the beginning of the millennium to follow the Lord's command to 'put out into the deep': duc in altum (Luke 5:4)!
3. The Church approaches this new medium with realism and confidence. Like other communications media, it is a means, not an end in itself. The internet can offer magnificent opportunities for evangelisation if used with competence and a clear awareness of its strengths and weaknesses. Above all, by providing information and stirring interest it makes possible an initial encounter with the Christian message, especially among the young who increasingly turn to the world of cyberspace as a window on the world. It is important, therefore, that the Christian community think of very practical ways of helping those who first make contact through the internet to move from the virtual world of cyberspace to the real world of Christian community."
It took several years for this indirect answer of the top of the Catholic hierarchy to the challenge made several years ago by a nun. Angela Ann Zukowski stated 1996: "Whether the bishops are asking themselves. can we control the use of the Catholic terms in the Web, we are aware that the answer is: 'No'. Cyberspace has no borders and no authority… We have to decide are we going to be sentinels against the demons in the cyberspace, or we are going to transform ourselves in artists of a new culture which is to be born."
A hunger for transcendent and transcendental must be present in the beings aware of the own mortality. So it was more than natural that the Internet was filled with such content, in a predictable proportion we illustrated in the very beginning of this presentation. That hunger is present - but not predominant - as well as in other areas of social communication. Due to the nature of the Internet - there is an enormous concurrence of such a good. It is impossible to close the door to the concurrence in offering the religious or any other spiritual content. Only way is trying to overwhelm the others. And that makes of the Internet very interesting market of ideas, particularly in the spiritual sphere.
On that market we have to discern among those who offer data for the purpose of conversion, and those who offer them for the purpose of knowledge. Of course, it is difficult to find or one or other in its pure state.
Eve when the purpose is purely a conversion, there are two kinds of approach. Some groups quietly invite new converts, appeal to disaffected members to return, or instruct the mildly interested inquirer. They set forth their history to back up their claims. Others take a more aggressive stance. They rise up to prove one another wrong. And it is on the authority of their roots, their grounding in history, that antagonists too argue their claim to orthodoxy. In doing so they engage in sometimes heated and even hateful reprisals, leading us to say the religious wars are here again. Thus the religious struggles live on." (Bradley 1997)
Of course, such attitudes is not limited to religious websites, as shown on September 11th, and in reactions to that crime.
You are not going to find everything you really want or need, but I did found some contents I never imagined.
Indexes of indexes
http://www.bu.edu/sth/library/resources.html
http://www.wlu.ca/~wwwrandc/internet_links.html - not up to date
Indexes
http://www.academicinfo.net/religindex.html