Good news from America!

[AshtonBlack]

What happens when faith meets technology:
The Church of Google

[Xamonas Chegwé]

What happens when faith meets technology:
The Church of Google

[charlou]

Of course 'technology' isn't responsible for how people think. As Seraph pointed out, the 'internet' is value neutral. To think technology is responsible for how people think is putting the cart before the horse. It's people's thinking that shapes technology.

Technology, and in this specific case, the internet, is simply the vehicle by which people's thinking can be altered. Think of it as being analogous to a comprehensive library (not too difficult to imagine ), it's the contents of the library and how people use it that matters, not the structure itself housing the content. With the internet, though, cross referencing and moving beyond one's initial inquiries/field of interest is far more likely than any visit to a library to find specific information. The tangents and distractions are everywhere and unavoidable on the internet.

Humans are generally inclined to be curious, to explore new things, and even if the exploration is tempered by confirmation bias (a form of 'skepticism' which hampers clear and objective thinking), new leads (links) are still being followed, information and new ideas are still being pursued, taken on board and becoming part of peoples' overall mental database (however subconscious) from which they continually reconfigure and revise their view of things, however subtle or obvious, however gradual or rapid that process may be.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I can see I've done a poor job of putting my point across. There's only one thing to do at a time like this.

http://rctigerland.com.au/rctigerland/i ... 5B1%5D.jpg[/imgc]

[charlou]

I agree with you re the value of using the internet, Gawd. It's our use of the internet that makes it valuable ... as a tool, I guess.



What's the tank about?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I agree with you re the value of using the internet, Gawd. It's our use of the internet that makes it valuable ... as a tool, I guess.

I see a creep of technology into places where woo has held sway for hundreds of years, and it's slowly but surely breaking up the woo. It gives me hope.

What's the tank about?

That's my brilliant counter argument.

[charlou]

I agree with you re the value of using the internet, Gawd. It's our use of the internet that makes it valuable ... as a tool, I guess.

I see a creep of technology into places where woo has held sway for hundreds of years, and it's slowly but surely breaking up the woo. It gives me hope.

Yes, me too. Only time will tell ...

What's the tank about?

That's my brilliant counter argument.

Here's mine

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I agree with you re the value of using the internet, Gawd. It's our use of the internet that makes it valuable ... as a tool, I guess.

I see a creep of technology into places where woo has held sway for hundreds of years, and it's slowly but surely breaking up the woo. It gives me hope.

Yes, me too. Only time will tell ...

What's the tank about?

That's my brilliant counter argument.

Here's mine

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

You win.

[Hermit]

I can see I've done a poor job of putting my point across.

So have I. What I probably ought to have said is that many fundamentalists seem to be able to avail themselves to all kinds of technology without that technology affecting their troglodyte views at all. Look at all those fundie websites, for instance. Also, I dare say that the "pilots" who park aeroplanes in skyscrapers were keenly aware of modern technology.

Having said that, I agree with you: knowledge leads to enlightenment. In regard to religiosity it is subversive.

[charlou]

What's the tank about?

That's my brilliant counter argument.

Here's mine

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

You win.

Tits trump tanks!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Tits trump tanks!

Tank tops.

http://www.ninjadude.com/images/Jennife ... Pokies.jpg[/imgc]

(Nice turrets! )

[charlou]

Having said that, I agree with you: knowledge leads to enlightenment. In regard to religiosity it is subversive.

Yes, I think so ...

I know that eventually information, personal experience and my own gradual increasing enlightenment led to my move from a faith-based mindset (drummed into me under threat and coercion during my formative years and causing me to ignore or overrule any doubts and skepticism I was naturally inclined to feel), to agnosticism and then on to complete rejection of faith and all notions based in faith and lies.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I am inclined to agree with arguments that technological advances have an eroding effect on established religions, forcing them to change or break - and once a religion changes, it weakens itself, it splits itself into fundies and reformers, each with different doctrines and often as opposed to each other as they are to outside forces.

What I have also noticed however, is the exponential growth in non-religious woo recently: UFO conspiracies, ley-lines, crystal healing, reflexology, meditation, tantric sex, ghost-hunters, homeopathy and a million other forms of bollocks are replacing traditional religions every bit as fast as rationality and skepticism - just go look at the way that 'New Age' sections in bookshops take up more and more shelf-space year on year. How many of the increasing numbers of people that claim to follow 'no organised religion' are true atheists/rationalists/free-thinkers and how many just follow a pick'n'mix bag of bonkers woo instead?

Woo is not being destroyed by technology, it is evolving, and who can say which memes will survive?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

XC, IMHO the very use of technology by the wooists is helping finish them off. That is my point, in fine. People who sit in front of computers and rove the world are not only exposed to different ideas than they'd get from the pulpit, they also have to try and reconcile the woo with the fact that they have computerized coffee-pots and microchips in their corn chips.

[Trolldor]

Technology is irrelevant to belief.