Keep religion in the RL

Many monotheistic religions believe in an omnipotent and ever-present God. One place where most people don’t believe to find God, though, is on the Internet.

With the ever-expanding Internet, society continues to move into the digital world and build a comfort level within it.

Recently, a growth in digital exclamations of faith and God-based posts has caught the attention of the Vatican and caused some angst within the upper echelons of the Church.

The argument is that using the Internet as a way of connecting with God has the power to eliminate the significance of religious institutions such as churches and synagogues.In the world where we live, God is becoming a more and more difficult concept to define for any given individual.

That being said, posting religious-based content on social media has the potential to be a very positive element of faith or a detrimental component to its downfall.

On one level, feeling comfortable with posting ideas of faith online allows for better accessibility to one’s own connection to God. Humans continually strive to develop a relationship with a higher power, and the easy access of the Internet can create new avenues through which to feel these spiritual connections.

Posting faith-based ideas and principles allows those views to manifest in a more tangible, understandable form for those who, to that point, may have been lost to it.

On the other hand, the use of digital media to demonstrate our religions poses a possible threat to our community-based interpretation of religion.

While faith is most often considered a very personal thing, elements of religion are best experienced as a member of a community and therefore benefitting from a large group setting.

Such elements include services at a church, synagogue, mosque or other institution. If we allow our entire spiritual identity to develop over the Internet, we offer up the possibility that we will no longer feel the need to be drawn together by common views to those that share them, which will effectively eliminate the value of structured religion.

Using a computer as a way to hide from the community and to make religion a “loner” activity can be extremely detrimental not only to the concept of a community, but also to the individuals who are intentionally isolating themselves.

Conversely, having the opportunity to put God in understandable terms is a necessary part of connecting with God on any level and therefore becomes valuable. One can reach the healthiest version of religion by combining personal faith and the sense of community that comes with it.

Posting on Facebook the awes of God after a rousing service at a local church or synagogue can add a whole new flavor to the spiritual connection that an individual can form.

It is when that posting begins to replace the need for connection to a community that it ceases to be beneficial or healthy.

­— azoot@indiana.edu