ARTICLE - Does the Internet Spell Doom For Organized Religion?

the full article can be viewed here:

http://www.alternet.org/belief/does-internet-spell-doom-organized-religion


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No --

http://www.templeofthejediorder.org/forum/General-Discussions/66052-From-a-corner-of-the-library-?limit=10&start=40#89106

'Doom' and 'change' are not synonyms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WhQ8bSvcHQ

One of the degree lessons I've been working on talked about how the Medieval Church saw the influx of other (banned) spiritual/religious material as it's doom...material that was generally Eastern in origin and expressed totally different ideas about what it means to be a good person and encouraging more freedom and flexibility in spirituality as opposed to the rigidity of established organised religions...

And their fears proved in a way to be right, as before people stuck rigidly to the rules of Christianity (and other religions) simply because they did not really realise that there was any other way of living if you wanted to be a good person and go to Heaven...

But although this was many hundreds of years ago, I believe that it is still happening today, and the internet does play a big part in that. I've drifted away from Christianity since coming here and exploring spirituality on a wider scale - it isn't Jediism that has done that, it's the way that I've been encouraged to open my mind and explore material that I might otherwise never have come across. The Tao Te Ching, for instance, has had a big influence on my spiritual mindset, but before coming here I didn't even know what it was or what Taoism was all about, and even if I had come here and heard about it, I would probably never have read it unless it had been readily and freely available online...

My feeling, though, is that doom is the wrong word...if losing members is 'doom' for a religion, then they haven't got their priorities straight. Religions should hope for everyone to find happiness and fulfilment, and if that means exploring other material on the internet and possibly leaving as a result of it, then they should not see that as failure or a symptom of doom.

I think that it all depends on how you view religion(s).

Often we view it as being institutional, hierarchical, organised religion; such as Catholicism, Islam, various schools of Buddhism, etc. In reality, however, religion is much more varied and encompasses a myriad of worldviews, practices, rituals, doctrines, etc.

Personally, I think that the internet is only a threat to those religions who wish to hide the truth from the general membership. Then, when people are exposed to this information it raises questions about the authenticity of their religion and often leads to a trial of their faith.

However, I don't think that the internet is the real problem. The internet is simply a product of modernity, which has helped to facilitate the rapid progress in technological advancements. In the past, religion(s) changed slowly, over a period of hundreds of years and often gave way to new and emerging religions. Much more recently, religion attempts to stay rigid and resists change, whereas the general membership is exposed to rapid change outside of religion and desires change from within it, resulting in crisis. Secularism is also another product of modernity, which marginalises organised religion, pushing it into the private sphere as opposed to the public one.

This freedom of information and the ability to organise online communities has facilitated the growth of new religious movements and alternative spiritualities that are not yet recognised by the general public. Traditional religion is fading away, but new religions born out of the modern era and that are heavily influenced by popular culture are certainly on the rise. Traditional religion was public, new religions tend to be private. People generally tend to focus on the former, rather than the latter.

A religion only is doomed when it fails to deliver (or all its followers get exterminated). You can advertise on buses all you want, if the product is rubbish, market forces will eventually favour the competition.

Darwinism at work....survival of the fittest....adapt and overcome or be left by the wayside....those that can't or won't adapt perish...those that can and do adapt thrive....

I dunno, those parking lots seem pretty full when I drive by on Sundays...and there are a lot of curches where I come from.

I liked the article except for one part:

"It is why Quiverfull moms home-school their kids with carefully screened textbooks."

Why do we think that the schools and text books are any more right than what a parent (religious or not) might teach their kid. History changes and propaganda still happens. What is historical truth and how could we ever know if we saw it?

Sorry, off topic.:blush:

I have nothing else to say except this:

Isn't it ironic that this article and discussion is about how religions/religious people hide certain ideas away from people, and that this original post is "hidden from guests"?

I think religions adapt to a changing climate along with their gods. As society advances, so do their deities. This can be observed considering older religions. The Vedic traditions claim to span hundreds of thousands of years. They express ideas interstellar and extradimensional relations more clearly than others, but examining the scriptures of most religions, cutting edge scientific theories can be applied to them. Here's an example of evolution in religious thought.



<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ub-EiT2u21A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

I'll figure out how to embed videos from youtube soon.
. . . anyway . . . yeah, these aren't new ideas, but they are being articulated in ways can be accessible to everybody with an open mind.

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