Technology and the belief of God

We were discussing an as yet unpublished paper (thus - no link) about technology and Religion and there always seems to be allot of qualified people offering the scientific and technical reasons why God 'cant exist' or religion isn't true.

Clearly, the three most common Web sites are porn, health and religious ones. Obviously, porn and health are not surprising, but religion as number three is.

That should be telling us something. People want their porn without going to seedy theaters and getting it in brown paper packages. People crave religion and spirituality without having it crammed down their throats in a Church, Synagogue, Mosque (or wherever).

Anonymity and having the user be the one in charge have driven the growth of the internet as well as the online porn and spirituality engines. Technology has allowed thousands - if not millions - of people to begin to develop sexually and spirituality outside of the traditional power structures or social norms.

So if the role of religion, organized or not, is to meet human need on a social or community level, then surely technology - which arguably has transformed the way groups of people communicate - has a role in religion and thus, society as a whole.

But Plato once said that, 'man does not discover anything - he merely exhumes what's fed into him' so I did a quick poll of my students, friends and colleagues in this space and asked them:

'What do you think was the science or technology invention that most damaged peoples ability to believe or understand religion?'

Below is the top 10 of my unscientific research - I checked around on the net and these 'inventions' seem to be supported but not necessarily in this order. Either way - I was a bit surprised.

1. Artificial Intelligence
2. Creation of a standardized and free education system
3. Literacy
4. The printed and freely available Bible
5. Availability of the Pill (the sexual revolution)
6. Transportation and mobility
7. Application of economic theory and the creation of the 'middle class'
8. The telescope
9. Mathematics that led to 'logic' theory
10. Psychiatry (discovery of the 'Self')

So where will religion and technology be in the mid-future?

Clearly - there will be no centralized church structures - mainstream religion will finally understand and embrace telecommuting, so to speak.

The definition of a religious place or center will have to be re-imagined and the concept - or even the believability - of a God in the context of a digital world and in terms of cause-and-effect science will remain 'untestable voodoo'.

But isn't that what most non-IT people think of IT? Try to explain 'usability' to an tax accountant and you know what I mean.

But in the end - geeks know that IT isn't voodoo - and maybe religion isn't either.

PS - kudos to Vonnegut - he beat the this sad little system of ours.

Tags: Vonnegut, Religion, social media, God, ...

Social Communications - Inter Mirifica

On this Xmas eve, I was having a skypecast with with some people from the Jesuit Communication Project (JCP). They stated, much to my realization, that Social Communications started with the religious organizations a long time ago.

Huh?

Inter Mirifica is the Second Vatican Council's Decree on the Media of Social Communications. It was approved by a vote of 1,960 to 164 of the bishops assembled, and promulgated on December 4, 1963 by Pope Paul VI. The title, taken from the first line of the document (as is customary with significant Catholic documents), is Latin for 'Among the Wonderful'.

The term Social Communication or Social Communications, apart from its more general use, has become the preferred term with agencies and consultants - but let's face it, all communication is social but not all communication is a 'socially benefit'.

Stowe Boyd has been writing allot on the social tools and social networking but I wonder what he thinks about how religion has been using these tools lately. My Jesuit friends are convinced that these new tools will bring about the social awareness that's been missing of late. And they say that they are leading the pack of the Web 2.0ers.

IdolChatter is a good example. It sits over in BlogHeaven which list religious blogs from all sides. IdolChatter twists and turns religion into today's news - and it is effective.

Why am I on this? As most of you know, I work for the UN and have been trying to get these people up to speed on the development and economic impact of social tools. Too many of the agencies focus on technology and forget that 'social' means 'people' - that people have to be integrated in the decision making. Examples abound but still been a very difficult sell.

Why?

Because they are still trying to use what they have. What we have to remember is that a large percentage of these organization - private and public - are still getting use to leveraging a simple website. It's a interesting situation. Web 2.0 is still a distant dream.

Tags: religion, stowe boyd, social media, jesuit, united nations