Religion may not survive the Internet

[cleanhippie]

As we head into a new year, the guardians of traditional religion are ramping up efforts to keep their flocks—or, in crass economic terms, to retain market share. Some Christians have turned to soul searching while others have turned to marketing. Last fall, the LDS church spent millions on billboards, bus banners, and Facebook ads touting “I’m a Mormon.” In Canada, the Catholic Church has launched a “Come Home” marketing campaign. The Southern Baptists Convention voted to rebrand themselves. A hipster mega-church in Seattle combines smart advertising with sales force training for members and a strategy the Catholics have emphasized for centuries: competitive breeding.

--snip--

In all of the frenzy, few seem to give any recognition to the player that I see as the primary hero, or, if you prefer, culprit—and I’m not talking about science populizer and atheist superstar Neil deGrasse Tyson. Then again, maybe Iam talking about Tyson in a sense, because in his various viral guises—as a talk show host and tweeter and as the face on scores of smartass Facebook memes—Tyson is an incarnation of the biggest threat that organized religion has ever faced: the internet.

A traditional religion, one built on “right belief,” requires a closed information system. That is why the Catholic Church put an official seal of approval on some ancient texts and banned or burned others. It is why some Bible-believing Christians are forbidden to marry nonbelievers. It is why Quiverfull moms home school their kids from carefully screened text books. It is why, when you get sucked into conversations with your fundamentalist uncle George from Florida, you sometimes wonder if he has some superpower that allows him to magically close down all avenues into his mind. (He does!)

Religions have spent eons honing defenses that keep outside information away from insiders. The innermost ring wall is a set of certainties and associated emotions like anxiety and disgust and righteous indignation that block curiosity. The outer wall is a set of behaviors aimed at insulating believers from contradictory evidence and from heretics who are potential transmitters of dangerous ideas. These behaviors range from memorizing sacred texts to wearing distinctive undergarments to killing infidels. Such defenses worked beautifully during humanity’s infancy. But they weren’t really designed for the current information age.

Tech-savvy mega-churches may have twitter missionaries, and Calvinist cuties may make viral videos about how Jesus worship isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship, but that doesn’t change the facts: the free flow of information is really, really bad for the product they are selling. Here are five kinds of web content that are like, well, like electrolysis on religion’s hairy toes.

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/16/religion_may_not_survive_the_internet/

[Shadowflash]

1. Nah.

You can give some religious people facts and reality all day long and they will just ignore it. It's actually amazing to see.

[cleanhippie]

2. If the statistics are to be believed, then that is not entirely true.

The facts ARE, slowly but surely, getting through.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/09/us-usa-religion-unaffiliated-idUKBRE89813G20121009

[rrneck]

3. The internet is great for shopping.

We can shop for everything we want. We can shop for stuff, ideas and relationships without leaving a chair. If you want to believe something, which is to say if you want to emotionally invest in it, all you have to do is click a link. And unlike most of human history, you will never have to sacrifice in any meaningful way for your faith. You will never be expected to fight or die for what you believe.

Religion has been reduced to just another form of entertainment like Facebook or porn.

[cleanhippie]

5. Religion has been reduced to just another form of entertainment like Facebook

BOOM! There it is. I think you may be exactly right.

[rug]

4. Considering the poor quality of religion bashing on the internet, he's being optimistic.

[dimbear]

6. Support groups for exiters: the best of the bunch.

There is life after whatever, Mormonism, Catholicism, Islam. Just go to the support groups and you're immediately exposed to a welcome and the feeling that you should have left sooner.

Stories from people who made it out into the light are the key to breaking free.

[Silent3]

7. Religion will morph largely into cat worship

[dimbear]

8. It's strange how things go in circles, ain't it. The Egyptians had cat worship down pat

3000 years ago. The old ancient wisdom doesn't go away.

On edit: a more reasonable passion, all things considered, is the practice of arctolatry. Mostly an Amerind and Eskimo practice, the worship of bears.