Quick access to information available on the internet certainly contributes to better connectivity and easier communication. Does the internet affect religious beliefs of internet users and how? Those are the questions Paul McClure was researching.
A study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion has found evidence that the more people use the internet, the less likely they are to have a specific religious affiliation. Also, the study concluded that people who spend time on the internet decrease their believing in and practicing one religion exclusively. A researcher, Paul McClure, was inspired by the fact previous research suggested that the internet since the 1990s has contributed to an increase of people becoming religiously unaffiliated (a group otherwise known as “Nones,” which includes, but isn’t limited to, atheists and agnostics).
McClure speculates the internet has incidentally exposed people to all sorts of philosophical ideas and beliefs. That exposure, in turn, has guided us into becoming either religious “tinkerers” who pick and choose the bits we like or those who simply leave the religion box unchecked.
Research on the topic “American values, mental health, and using technology in the age of Trump”, which McClure helped work on, shows the following:
Regardless of religious tradition, most Americans report they never use the Internet to access religious or spiritual content(55%), another 23 percent said they do so at most once a month. Though some scholars have speculated that the Internet isolates like-minded individuals into self-segregating “echo chambers” and filters information based on prior search history, most respondents feel that technology exposes them to new perspectives. Regardless of religious affiliation, nearly 9 in 10 Americans agree or strongly agree that technology exposes them to new perspectives.
Gizmodo reports about McClure’s conclusions:
He found that a person’s greater internet use, even after accounting for factors like age, education, and political affiliation, was correlated with a higher likelihood they would endorse statements like, “All of the religions in the world are equally true,” and “All around the world, no matter what religion they call themselves, people worship the same God.” Being younger, identifying as a Democrat, and living in a larger city was also associated with being less religiously exclusive.
“I [also] found that increases in Internet use were associated with decreases in religious affiliation of any kind,” McClure told me in an email. “Of course, one can refuse to be affiliated with religion and still believe in God or a higher power of some sort, but there is obviously a lot of overlap between non-affiliation and atheism.”
While TV has specific influence on believers (TV-watching was associated with spending less time on religious activities like attending church in the study), the internet doesn’t have that effect. On the other side, effects that McClure explained are even better than simply not going to church. Development of critical and rational thinking is one of the better influences of the internet.
“I hope my research helps us think more about how technology changes us, not just how it helps or hurts us. We normally don’t ascribe to technology the power to change who we are, but that’s what this paper suggests,” McClure said.
Photo Credits: Pixabay
