Is the internet killing religion?
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I suppose one could make this very simple and say sometimes good people do bad things and bad people do good things. Since we have never known world without religion and will not for many centuries, if ever, it impossible to objectively measure its presence or absence.
However, with regard to babies or very young children, they will poke out a sibling's eye or push anything off the table and break it. Not intentionally in every case, but in many cases. The point being children are interested in self to the exclusion of everything else. So it follows, I think, that while religion won't guarantee everyone to be good all the time, it asks people to try. I can't imagine how the mass of people would behave without this foundation of even trying.
Another good example - I went to Unity for a while. They almost always talked about light and love, higher consciousness etc. and seldom about sin and "wrong." They never spoke with denigration about any other religion but strongly implied one did not need a list of sins as most of Christianity has. Many many younger adults took this to mean "do whatever you personally feel is right" where the older people raised in "traditional" Christianity had a very different interpretation.
Ultimately, I don't know what the answer is. I have said this in other philosophy/religion posts - often it seems we exchange one set of problems for another. People of earlier times were taught sex after marriage, especially women (purity/virginity etc.) Now people live together (when I was kid it was called "living in sin".) and reproduce, moving from partner to partner. Still a great many are unhappy, personally and sexually. I think looser moral codes benefit the attractive more, they may flit from flower to flower without nearly as much social disapproval…..And while not directly related to the subject at hand, money and attractiveness argue against polygamy since if a few men had all the women, many men would have none, causing social unrest........the much larger point being philosophy and religion at its best seeks to understand human behavior and hopefully modify it for a larger societal goal.
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I do not think that the internet itself is responsible for declining faith around the world.
As they say, "knowledge is power", and I think this is the true driving force behind the change. More and more people are continuing to tertiary education, literature that openly advocates atheism is no longer taboo and there are an ever increasing number of people who openly criticize religion.
As others have mentioned, this process began long ago, well before the internet. That's not to say the internet has not played a major role in this—the very nature of the internet has surely accelerated this process.
I agree
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Religion is a thing of trust..
Of how you are brought up!
That's something you initially do before learning about PCs, Internet and such stuff.
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One thing I can say is, I see religious people get more religious using the internet lol. But on the side note, before I know my way around the internet, everyone around me is very religious that I thought I was weird and I never really voice out my opinions that I know may offend them. After knowing about the internet, I found out there were a lot of people who have the same views as I do ;D. It also helped me change a lot of perspective about my beliefs and what was thought to me at school and churches. :))
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that's the total opposite. internet permit nut jobs ( islamist) to spread their shit though the world. that's why in my country government now is able to track any website and anyone who connects to the hundreds of website that turn poor kids into terrorists and want them to go into Syria to become Jihadist. That didn't existed before internet: terrorism was way more difficult : you couldn't recruits as much as now. Here guys with no connection to terrorist group, solely on the base of internet, committed murders against jews because they were brainwashed with islamist stupidities. Before internet that wasnt possible, you had to be part of a terrorist organization.
But others crazy things like scientology also greatly improved. Also retarded theories are spread over the net way more than real knowledge : like Hiv is a myth that doesnt exist and so on.. the reason is simple : People with low IQ will tend to watch youtube which is the greatest place ever for all kind of crap. It's always easier to watch a video than reading books after books..
Now of course I'm in a country where religion basically doesnt exist anymore, our school is atheist and to us, even americans are look really really "strange " (to be polite) to us with all their "god this , god that".. Religion here come with the millions of poorly educated north african and middle eastern guys, and these immigrants use the internet to spread their craziness among native low IQ guys from here.That's also a reason why homophobia has greatly increased as a result of islamists invading our country. So no, Internet help the raise of islam in europe and europe will be islamist within 50 years. as a general rule the OP should always says about what part of the world he's talking about, because it might be true ( I dont know) that in some asian countries or in south america, internet help people to think by themselves and concurs to their emancipation, but in other part of the world where people are already emancipated from religion, the opposite is happening. -
One thing I can say is, I see religious people get more religious using the internet lol. But on the side note, before I know my way around the internet, everyone around me is very religious that I thought I was weird and I never really voice out my opinions that I know may offend them. After knowing about the internet, I found out there were a lot of people who have the same views as I do ;D. It also helped me change a lot of perspective about my beliefs and what was thought to me at school and churches. :))
Good for you!
::)
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I would think so. The internet gives us all the information we've ever thought of at our fingertips. I used to be religious as I was raised in a religious family, but I always had my silent opinions and doubts. Once I was using the internet regularly, I spoke with many people with different views and opinions, and it changed me entirely. My life would have turned out completely different if it weren't for the Internet. I'd probably still be going to church and praying, too. I'm content now. I'd definitely say that the Internet is having a huge impact on religion, but I wouldn't believe it's the only thing that is responsible. Times have changed.
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Is the internet killing religion? I certainly hope so, as I view religion as both deleterious to the mind and the pocketbook.
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Is the internet killing religion? I certainly hope so, as I view religion as both deleterious to the mind and the pocketbook.
Why do you think so?
:cheesy2:
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In my view internet or ease of access to information refines religion and redefines its boundaries and applicability….
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The internet is basically a surfeit of junk information. One can find information on it to reinforce or challenge any belief system. Generally, the loudest and most strident voices gain traction on a medium such as this. The internet is rarely a resource for reasoned, logical, rational discussion of deeply held and respectful beliefs, it is generally a shouting match between those of dogmatic persuasion. Essentially, people turn to the internet to establish and reinforce, not overturn their strongly held prejudices.
However, in terms of morality systems of Abrahamic faiths, the internet certainly has damaged or been a huge challenge to those
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Skepticism did not just magically appear recently. There have always been skeptics, as long as religion has existed.
But there's no denying the fact that, starting from the dawn of modern international communication, skepticism has increased dramatically. And, certainly, with my generation (Gen X/"Millennials"), who have grown up with very globally-oriented perspectives no doubt thanks to the internet which allows them to freely and openly communicate with literally anyone from anywhere around the world, we have been exposed to a wide diversity of different worldviews (and thereby religions and belief systems) simply as a matter of fact. This has allowed us to see the rest of the world without a religious superiority complex, something that every single generation before us has struggled to do. Simply being exposed to the fact that there are other religions that have actual human followers who are not really any different than us aside from surface-level cultural differences, being made aware of the existence of other belief systems, has led many, many more of today's youth to understand the logical truth that none of them can really be any more "correct" than any other, and thus, instantly debunking the validity of the claims of most religions.
It's hard to believe something that has no basis in reality when you realize that billions of other people believe entirely different things for the exact same reason.
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**Personal faith is the key!!
:love:**
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Two diametrically opposed viewpoints cannot be both correct at the same time. Different beliefs may be sincerely held, but when they contradict each other, only one can be right.
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