Internet Religions

So far, I've tried to discuss resources for real-world internets, their impact, and how religious faithful use the internet within their religion. Let's turn left. Since the incredible rise in popularity of the internet over the past 20 years, the internet has regularly been the medium of choice for innovative satirists and religiously chosen alike. This has led to the creation of a multitude of ironic irreligions (or maybe religions, we'll come back to that later) which have a 20th-century basis. The following are likely the most popular:

• There's very rarely a savvy internet user today who is unfamiliar with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Created and inspired by only Bobby Henderson's website, the Church of the FSM has touched many with His Noodly Appendage. Lampooning creationism, natural selection and popular religion in a multitude of hilarious ways, Pastafarianism has spread far and wide over the course of the net, as well as the real world. One can purchase the Icthys-fish-inspired logo on a sticker for mounting on one's bumper for the low price of only $5.49.
  
  
• Possibly one of the oldest internet religions is that of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, which started in 1990 on the Usenet newsgroup for Atheists. The primary dogma for the IPU seems to be that She is invisble, yet pink; let alone a mythological creature. The image at the right is not the IPU logo, but is, in fact, my favorite depiction of the Goddess.
  
  
• A smaller online religion, Matrixism claims to have its roots in a series of speeches given in 1911 by Abdul Baha, actual founder of the Bahá'í Faith. Its sacred texts are the films and associated matirals of The Matrix franchise by the Wachowski brothers. The organizations website claims to have attracted nearly 2000 members who follow The Path of the One.
  
  
• Jediism began in its most recent incarnation sometime in 2001. You can read all about it on one of the dozens of sites, such as The Church of Jediism or The Temple of the Jedi Order, made to honor the new phenomonon, mostly prominent in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Most notably seen through a series of e-mails urging people to come forward on their census polls, the religion has attracted tens of thousands of followers.
  
  
• The Church of the SubGenius started in the real world with the SubGenius Pamphlet #1 in 1979. Not truly an internet religion, it has however used the internet to find rebirth and spread its popularity sometime in the early '90s, also in newsgroups. Chaos-driven in nature, church member Paul Reubens allegedly featured a picture of "Bob" (pictured) in every episode of Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
  

So what can we draw from this? Should we discount these as atheistic jokes and not give them a second thought? I don't think so.

These groups return to atheists a level of community that is usually denied them by being an atheist. The Church (any denomonation) is vastly more than a religious establishment in most of the world, and in a great deal of America. The Church brings a community together, different than that of the workplace or school. An atheist has this denied to him, and must seek his community elsewhere. Socially speaking, these groups help provide a group and sense of unity for non-practitioners of major faiths. To help do that is the very reason why I became a minister. As community is such a vital element of the church, I don't see enough of a reason to label them as less than a religion.

Or, maybe its just because like to make atheistic jokes.

Judaism Online

Over 13 million people adhere to the 4000 year old religion of Judaism, and as you may have guessed, it's found its home on the internet as naturally as its other Islamic-Judeo-Christian counterparts have.

Jewish.com is a handy resource for those searching for news about Jews, Judaism, Israel, and more. They have a fantastic Ask-a-Rabbi section with detailed and informative F.A.Q.s about Judaism, Jewish practices, Jewish ethics, and more. BeingJewish.com provides an extensive articles about what it means to be a Jew today, and how to be a better one.

For those searching for a resource to learn or explore text-book Judaism, I'd recommend Torah.org, a fantastic site that lays down the Jewish Law with texts from the Talmud, and fantastic, well-written articles.

As I mentioned last month, because of the importance of community and the importance of the rabbi in modern Judaism, online ordination is extremely rare. However, at Conversion to Judaism, you can commit to the trials and tribulations of conversion, as an introduction to Judaism when no Rabbi is available. All the bliss, without the bris.

The internet has proven to be a valuable resource in the battle against anti-Semitism. As suggested by this article, a search for "anti-Semitism" in Facebook brings up over 350 results, many of which are put together just to stop anti-Semitism on Facebook. Anti Semitism Today is a global news resource site maintained by the World News Network. Their articles focus on the state of Israel, and current events in the Middle East.

On the level of internet community, the online dating service JDate, the world's largest Jewish singles community, has made headlines in recent years due to its success. Not to say that it is the only religious dating service; far from it (in fact Christian dating services have been making headlines as well, most recently because of instances of discrimination against homosexuals.) However, its cultural impact has been significant, including helping to inspire the play Jewtopia.

The World Wide Web has been as tremendous resource in fostering the intelligent discussion of religious differences, as many individuals or organization have used the internet to help promote an atmosphere of discussion and positive communication between Judaism and Christianity, as in this article.

Surprisingly, a vast compendium of resources on Jewish humor and jokes (this one's my favorite) about Judaism has been collected online. It even gets its own Wikipedia article. There are Christian humor sites as well, but most of them seem to focus on "clean" jokes. I suppose we either had to pick Christian Rock or Jewish Humor. Jewish Humor for $500, Alex.

Scientology Online

The Church of Scientology has made more than a few headlines in the recent years, and I don't want to just rehash the infamous Tom Cruise video (which was much more sincere than creepy) and call it a day.

A relatively new religion, founded in the 1950s, based on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, sci-fi author, it has captured the hearts, minds, and religious fervor of many a Hollywood celebrity. It has attained a cult-like reputation, primarily due to the fact that many of its tenets and structural systems are kept secret from the outside community, and due to its hierarchical nature, even its lower-"ranking" practitioners are not made privy to the beliefs and functions of the whole.

Based in Dianetics (don't ask, it's as complicated as the unity of the Holy Trinity is contradictory) and spreading largely through the use of "Free Stress Test" stands in malls in the 1990s, the Church of Scientology has become one of the most controversial religions in the world. With a very strong internet presence, a centralized website, they claim a membership of 8,000,000, but very little evidence is present to give a corroboration of that membership number.

There are an ever-growing number of websites designed and organized specifically to discount and rebuke the Church of Scientology. Operation Clambake, for example, presents a plethora of grievances against the organization, and more than a plethora of resources one can find to align themselves against the alleged evils of the religion. However, I suppose crazy begets crazy and we've recently seen a good deal of websites such as Lermanet.com, which seems to spout as much rhetoric as the religion's own site.

But the controversy doesn't end there. Recently, the Church of Scientology successfully petitioned Google to remove links to pages within Operation Clambake, under pretenses of copyright violation.

However, when it comes down to the brass tax (there's a subtle pun there) of it, Scientology is no different, legally from Christianity, or any other organized religion. Sure, it's secretive and reclusive, but so were early Christians. Not unlike the anti-Scientology rallies of the past few months, Christians were persecuted by the Romans for preaching peace. So, you dig a little bit into the Scientologist scripture and it's a little shaky? Take a look at the Bible. Talk about contradictions. At the end of the day, the only thing that makes Adam and Eve different from Xenu and the Galactic Confederacy is about 6,000 years.

So why do we make the distinction? Why does legacy contribute so much to choice of a religion? To take a moment to be cynical, people have been establishing off-shoot churches on a semi-regular basis since the beginning of churches. When a bunch of followers decide they don't like how things are being run up top, but still believe in (even a part of) the sacred texts or concepts, they break away. The Wesleyans broke from the Methodists, who broke from the Protestants, who broke from the Catholics, established by the early Christians, who broke from Judaism, which probably originates with the Canaanites.

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is what your faith does for you-- what you gain from your own spirituality, or from the community of your church or temple.

So judge the Scientologists not, lest ye be judged.

And we'll wait together to see if they're planning to take over the world (which'll probably end in 2012, anyway, so I wouldn't sweat it.)

Christianity Online

This week, I'll explore the largest religion in the world - Christianity. As of 2005, Christians make up a full third of the world's faithful, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. 80% of Americans call follow the call of Christ in one way or another, making this the most wide-spread religion in the world. It's not the oldest, and it's not the newest, but it is by far the most impactive.

Online growth by Christian communities has been staggering. Over the past decade, the number of small-to-medium sized Christian churches with their own website, designed to attract members or communicate with other churches has increased over 400%. That may seem obvious, given the growth of the internet in general, but some sources, like the Hartford Institute for Religious Research say that over half of all Christian churches have a website.

As far as Christians online go, they seem to be ahead of the internet curve. One of the largest Christian sites is that of the Christina magazine, Christianity Today. It seems to be a decent resource for Christians looking for resources to help them explore their faith, find advice for how their religion can help them live their lives, and find how to be a better Christian as a result.

For the Christian family that has everything, but really doesn't want the internet, there's Christianity Online, a Christian Internet Service Provider (ISP) which places a strong emphasis on its content filter, a service you can buy as a stand-alone as well.

At Catholic.org, readers can stay abreast on all the news and goings on within and without the Catholic church, or use their helpful online church locater, to find a church close by right away, in case of what I only imagine can be an emergency confession.

The people at GospelCom are using the internet as an ecumenical tool to bring churches together and provide a great Christian blog and link to great websites to help the individual user grow as a Christian.

Almost certainly because of the incredible spread of Christianity over the western world, there are very few centralized or highly-maintained introduction websites to Christianity, but hundreds of niche Christian sites, or snippet sites featuring quizzes asking you if you are a good person (odds are, you'll have to accept Christ as savior no matter how you score.)

Again, likely due to the demographic of Christians, Christianity is also the religion most likely to be the source of criticism by atheists online, such as at Debating Christianity. Predictably, this means that Christians are the most verbal critics of atheism online. In an example of turnabout being fair play, at Ex-Atheist.com, A.S.A. Jones discusses being a born again Christian after 20 years of atheism.

I'll be back in two weeks to talk about something a little more modern... till then, Happy Spring.

Online Ordination

They say that nowadays, you can do anything online. Check the weather, pay your bills, even buy your groceries from the magic box that sits on your desk, on your lap, or even in your pocket. But can you really become ordained to be a practicing minister or reverend? Absolutely. I know, because I've done it.

And why not? The First Amendment to the Constitution protects every citizen's right to establish and practice his own religion without interference by the government. Granted, it's still pretty hard to be recognized as the sole practitioner of your own religion (and expect the same tax exemptions, anyway). But more than a few groups have gotten together and provide free, online ordination so that you, too, can be leader of your very own church (or representative of a very lax church, to be specific).

Myself, I'm ordained as a minister in the Universal Life Church, as well as a member of the clergy for the Church of Spiritual Humanism. They both applaud siezing your right to a community based on a church, even if that church's only real deities are mathematics or the laws of physics.

While ordination in the Churches and monasteries of Universal Life (there are a dozen different ones, at least) is the most popular, you can become a minster in a Christian mission or become a Dudeist reverend. There are rabbinical programs as well, but much rarer, given the nature of the modern rabbi in a Jewish religious community.

Why do people do it? Well, firstly and probably most likely, for fun. Secondly, it's a great opportunity for a person of any faith to be able to over see weddings or other ceremonies, which some states, like New York, require registration for. For many others, the call to faith, or to ministry of whatever they believe, happened well into their growth as people, maybe disenfranchised with modern religious establishment, and the search a more inclusive atmosphere.

I know what you're thinking. It's probably something like, "Well, I wouldn't trust a doctor who bought his M.D. from a catalogue, so why should I trust this guy, who just clicked "OK"?" Well, the short answer is, I think, you should trust him about as much as you would trust any stranger. But you should acknowledge that he has as much right to his beliefs as the Pastor from the church across town. It's hard to be a full-time clergy member. But, it's easy to work a 9-5 job, and then be able to pass on some wisdom in whatever way you think best on the weekends, and if you choose to become ordained as a symbol for your choice to do that, more power to you.

So go out, or stay in, you can become ordained in your own faith, or lackthereof, start a church, oversee a wedding, buy a collar, and begin to have a title to preach what you believe. I did.

Buddhism online

Greetings, faithful (get it?) readers. This week, I'm going to explore some online resources for one of my favorite religions, Buddhism. I was fortunate enough to see the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso speak at Rutgers University, and found it hard not to be awed in his presence. I find myself drawn to the teachings of the Buddha because so much of what it means to be a Buddhist includes non-violence, introspection, respect, and self-discipline. Now, you could make that argument for nearly every other religion I'll be discussing here, but we'll get into that a little bit later.



At BuddaNet, they've put together a fantastic site designed to create a virtual meeting-place and forum of discussion. Based in Australia, and founded in 1992, the site is non-sectarian, meaning they try to cater to Buddhists of all schools and all nationalities. This site is a great resource to anybody looking to learn more about Buddhism, from any level of education about the religion. Their completely free, online e-book library is fantastic. They host books about Buddhism, classical texts, even children's resources. (I think The-One-Who-Saw is my favorite.) Another great aspect of this website is the entire section dedicated to audio recordings. You can listen to Buddhist chanting, songs, or even get audio-guided meditation instructions.

A site I would not recommend would be Buddhist-artwork.com. A very well-put together site, to be sure, and worth examining for the beautiful pieces they show there, but ultimately, it's for a cost, and exchange of money, and that sort of defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it? To be fair, I suppose you can draw bridges between functional Buddhism and its relationship with the practices of Hinduism which have many de facto correlations, and the fact that most Buddhists sects draw a connection between art and enlightenment (and I agree).

For those of you who wish to learn more about Buddhism in general, and maybe gain an insight into some of the Buddha's teachings, check out Urban Dharma, a great site about Buddhism in America, with great down-to-earth essays and meditations on things very accesable to the modern American people. One of the best lessons I learned here is that the best way one can explore Dharma (generally "duty," but in Buddhism, the work of teachings of the Buddha) as an American is to make one's art through the form and language of one's own culture, as so well expressed in the folk music, demonstrated here in Music in the Dharma.

Along those lines, for those of you not as familiar with the basic principles of Buddhism, one of the key ideas is (like in Hinduism, it's cousin) that of karma. At it’s purest, Karma is (any) action, and the results of those actions creating an intangible which we all carry with us. And though there are more grey areas in the practice of Buddhism, and achievement of liberation from the cycle of reincarnation (Nirvana, in Buddhism), the creation and maintenance of a website would pretty much fall under that category. Sorry BuddaNet, looks like you’ll have to wait until the next time you’re reborn, maybe as a video game, to break from samsara.

For a great description of Nirvana in Buddhism, the ever-dependable folks at How Stuff Works put together this article. There's more great material for Hindu exploration, but I'll get into that in a later entry. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back next week.