Locating Religion

This week in class we discussed ‘online religion’ and this provoked (yet again) some debate over whether the internet can be noted as a sacred place and further more if online rituals are significant or not. Cheong’s (2010) article about the relationship between religion and twitter is also reflective of this argument. Cheong includes that religious organisations started using social networking to ‘encourage the extension of presence beyond the church walls’(Cheong 2010 ). If you take this point of view, then it isn’t really a matter of whether online religion is sacred or not, it’s more about whether it is necessary, and the answer to that is yes. 

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Social networking is not a new fad and many other organisations have been clued on to how powerful it is for quite some time. One of these organisations is the Global Atheist Foundation. This foundation completely utilises every kind of social network to spread their beliefs. If religious organisations want to counteract the spread of atheism and want to truly spread the word of god as far as possible, there doesn’t seem to be any other choice in this day and age- they must embrace the internet. Afterall, is there a defined temporal or spatial aspect to religion? Kim Knott’s book, ‘The location of religion’ examines this question. Knott describes her purpose as trying to create ‘a new perspective on the relationship between religion and the physical, social and cultural areas in which it is situated’ (Knott 2005, p1).

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Sources

Cheong, P. 2010. Faith Tweets: Ambient Religious Communication and Microblogging Rituals. M/C Journal 13.2. Accessed on 15/04/12. Accessed at: <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/223>.

Knott, K. 2005. The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis. Equinox Publishing:London.