The Change Mariner

Religious Use of the Internet Climbs

San Jose Mercury News:

Jimmy Chu sent a mass e-mail to his Bible study group asking for help setting up for Easter services. He posts the group's prayer requests on his Weblog, downloads hymns from his church's Web site and listens to Sunday sermons online.

Chu, 23, who lives in Mountain View, is one of the almost 82 million Americans who use the Internet for religious or spiritual purposes.
That's 64 percent of the 128 million Internet users in the United States, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a Washington, D.C., think tank that studies the social impact of the Internet.

"The Internet and religion are contradictory,'' said Stewart Hoover, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado and co-author of the survey. "The Internet is technical, commercial, rational, demands conscious attention and its entertainments are thought to be violent and materialistic. Religion is thought to be the opposite: emotional, spiritual, authentic, deeply meaningful, steeped in values.

"Religious use of the Internet, such as we've seen here, crosses such boundaries.''

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