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Digital Devotion, the Rise of Cyber Spiritualism

The internet will soon provide users new religious code.

Author: Crippled Chris Cutter

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It’s a little known fact that Johannes Gutenberg could barely pay his rent. After inventing movable type (in Europe) in 1450 AD, Gutenberg went bankrupt putting the Holy Bible into print. He was ‘let go’ by his investor when he could not repay the small business loan he secured for the enterprise. Making 180 bibles, simultaneously, on one press took twelve or more craftsmen over one year – they averaged 180 presses of one type set (six pages in 180 bibles) every four days.

Before the project began Gutenberg had to create 100,000 pieces of lead type and buy a huge quantity of paper and vellum. The completed bibles sold for 30 florins each and the demand was sufficient to sell the entire stock upon completion with some commercial success – minus lawyer fees.

New Technology always breeds new humanities
The transistor radio did more to spread Christianity in Africa in the 1960’s and 70’s than two thousand years of Catholic missionaries. In most cases the messages brought enlightenment, theological cohesion, and eventually revolution. What new religions will the internet foster?

There are two new religions growing online today
Don’t laugh, but the new Jedi Knight religion and Matrixism are gaining popularity everyday because of the connectivity of the internet, and because they appeal to a younger, faster, more mobile generation. Both of these new belief systems were recently born in Hollywood, and both are now propagated in discussions on WonderCafe.ca, and other exciting new theological forums online. But how do they differ from traditional faith based worship? What do these new religions actually offer their online membership?

Why do we even need Religion?
There has to be some moral code to help us understand the world; we all must realize that if there were no religion, this planet would become the darkest dungeon and all of us the most unfortunate creatures. We’ve just got to have something, and many would-be parishioners are now on a spiritual pilgrimage to the internet.

Don't give me that Old Time Religion
Buddhism was founded in the fourth or fifth century B.C. in northern India by a man called Siddhartha Gautama, the son of a warrior prince. Hinduism is by far the oldest religion, originating around 1500 BC, but Christianity has been around for over two thousand years, and Islam is almost fifteen hundred years old. All of these faiths were spread by the pen and the sword, and now we must ask ourselves isn’t it time for something new, something fresh?

The Jedi Knights
A few years ago in England, a very popular email campaign invited British citizens to declare themselves as members of the Jedi Religion when they filled out the 2001 UK census. According to UK census literature, if 10 000 people indicated they were of a particular faith then that religion would be officially recognized by future data collectors and have its very own number code in forthcoming census documents. It worked. History has now recorded that 390,000 Jedi Knights live in the United Kingdom, and that makes it Britain’s fourth largest religion.

According to their sacred movies, Jedi's practice an ancient religion accessing cosmic energy known as ‘The Force', the essence of the universe that binds everything together. Yes one’s knowledge and mastery of The Force brings great powers over all living things, and even some machines. To some people Star Wars is just a film. But for others it's a philosophy, a way of life. Through meditation, Jedi warriors try to find their own inner strength and realize their own individual destinies.

Matrixism – The Path of the One

A Pathist or a Matrixist believes we are all prisoners living in a cell that we cannot see, smell or touch. The key to open the door to perception is often thought to be LSD or psilocybin mushrooms; according to their geocities website, it is necessary is for one to recognize psychedelics as a valid method of spiritual practice.

The Rise of Cyber Spiritualism

Online dating sites abound with claims of being “spiritual but not religious”. Western society’s interest in reincarnation and Native American spirits has never been higher. Plain, simple, undefined ‘spirituality’ is really hot these days. The warm and fuzzy aura that surrounds a ‘spiritual person’ is very fashionable, and that appeals to the instant messenger, mobile phone generation in the west. Many western students now instinctively accord a sense of “spiritual wisdom” to ancient traditions. Self-help aisles in bookstores address a “spiritual void” many perceive in their lives.

It’s significant to note however, that when asked, most acolytes would be hard pressed to come up with what exactly it means to be spiritual. Many young people will explain the notion by referencing a more (or less) progressive version of their parent’s faith, perhaps incorporating a subset of fresh ideas, symbols, and rituals. Some might define it as a syncretic mix of multiple faiths; others may think of it as a non-denominational mystical feeling and reverence for a force larger than themselves, such as nature.

The fertile young minds of the internet generation are just waiting for a new moral code to unite them in a realistic belief structure, online.

About Author

Chris Cutter liberated this idea from a discussion that was started by a http://www.wondercafe.ca member named Roberrific entitled 'Does the Internet help or hurt Religion?'
http://www.wondercafe.ca/discussion_view.php?loadedFrom=Index&type=discussion&tid=5473&recview=1&curpage=1

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Digital Devotion, the Rise of Cyber Spiritualism