Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Is the Internet Undermining Fundamentalism?

In a January 12th commentary at Alternet, Valerie Tarico argues that the free flow of information granted by the Internet threatens traditional religion. In "Does the Internet Spell Doom for Organized Religion?" ,Tarico points to supportive online communities for apostates, online science videos and articles, collections of silly beliefs, and catalogues of religious horrors as some of the online forces challenging traditional religion.

One particular passage impressed me so much that I wanted to share it. Fundamentalism has to block out information and outside influences in order to thrive.
"A traditional religion, one built on “right belief,” requires a closed information system. That is why the Catholic Church put an official seal of approval on some ancient texts and banned or burned others. It is why some Bible-believing Christians  are forbidden to marry nonbelievers. It is why  Quiverfull moms home-school their kids with carefully screened textbooks. It is why, when you get sucked into conversations with your fundamentalist Uncle George from Florida, you sometimes wonder if he has some superpower that allows him to magically close down all avenues into his mind. (He does!)

Religions have spent eons honing defenses that keep outside information away from insiders. The innermost ring wall is a set of certainties and associated emotions like anxiety and disgust and righteous indignation that block curiosity. The outer wall is a set of behaviors aimed at insulating believers from contradictory evidence and from heretics who are potential transmitters of dangerous ideas. These behaviors range from memorizing sacred texts to wearing  distinctive undergarments to killing infidels. Such defenses worked beautifully during humanity’s infancy. But they weren’t really designed for the current information age.


Tech-savvy mega-churches may have Twitter missionaries, and Calvinist cuties may make viral videos about how Jesus worship isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship, but that doesn’t change the facts: the free flow of information is really, really bad for the product they are selling."
In other words, fundamentalism feeds on ignorance and insularity. Fortunately, the Internet is undermining both.

The internet's threat to fundamentalism came up previously in a 2011 talk by Christian apologist Josh McDowell. Addressing an audience in Asheville, NC, McDowell lamented that the information available through the internet has led to widespread skepticism, having leveled the playing field for different belief systems. McDowell's strategy for confronting this new reality was for parents to model their Christian faith and prepare themselves to answer their children's questions about religion. Still, what if the ocean of online information about science, history, and alternative faiths provides more satisfying and sound answers?

The wealth of online information will not undermine all people's fundamentalism, however. Fundamentalists are adept at screening out information and viewpoints that they disapprove of, so it is a simple matter for them to avoid Internet content that would challenge their beliefs. Willful ignorance persists, even in the computer age.

Fortunately, there will always be fundamentalists whose curiosity exceeds their insularity, and fundamentalists' students and children who do not share their willful ignorance. For these people, the internet offers enough information to make them reexamine their assumptions. That may bode well for the future.

14 comments:

  1. I have mixed thoughts about the notion that the internet is making it more difficult to be insular. On the one hand, I recognize that is a reasonable assumption, but -- on the other hand -- I just don't see the evidence for it.

    Or perhaps more precisely, for every person on the net I can reasonably say is widening his or her knowledge and views of the world, I meet at least two and possibly more people who are using the filtering power of the net to maintain or actually increase their insularity.

    I mostly base those observations on my acquaintance with people on a religious forum I frequent. It now seems to me that the internet can do both -- it can either be a door that opens onto a wider world, or it can be a door that closes off the way to a wider world. And which one of those it becomes is up to wishes of individual users.

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    1. That's an interesting point, although it makes me wonder, the kind of people who would use the internet in such a way that their insularity would actually increase. In the absence of the internet, how much would those people be sampling a variety of ideas? My guess is that they would live in a bubble no matter what.

      You do make a good point that it won't work for everyone, but I think the internet will bring new ideas to a whole swath of people that wouldn't really have access that different information otherwise.

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    2. Good point! I agree with you that people who seek insularity through the net would probably seek it even without the net.

      I've been thinking about this since my first response to Ahab's post and I don't think I should have ignored how the net makes it easier for someone who is questioning, searching for information to access new and different information. So maybe one of the net's major contributions is that it facilitates the inquiries of people who are already inclined to inquire -- even if does allow others to become more insular.

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    3. Paul and Hausdorff -- I'm inclined to believe that people who want to be insular will find ways to remain insular. The Internet makes this MUCH more of a challenge in modern times, but fundamentalists do find ways to stay in their bubbles.

      For curious and analytical minds, however, the online world is a blessing. Many lives are better informed and richer because of the information available online.

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  2. I think it does and I think it is a good thing!

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    1. Doug -- When used properly, the Internet can be a fantastic boon.

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  3. A traditional religion requires a closed information system--boy, doesn't that just say it all!

    Also, per you previous post. I didn't know about the New Jersey court case. It will be interesting to hear the result.

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    1. Donna -- I've seen it time and time again with fundamentalists -- they deliberately shut out information that challenges their beliefs. I've met fundamentalists who flatly refused to read about non-Christian religions or Biblical criticism because they feared it would shake their faith.

      Frankly, if someone's faith is so fragile that it can be shattered by facts and divergent opinions, what good was it to begin with?

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  4. Seriously, McDowell said that? come on, if something's not true, and its proven not to be true on the internet, that's a good thing!

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    1. Lana -- Welcome! I don't think factual truth carries much weight with die-hard fundamentalists, sadly. But it does carry weight with the curious and reasonable, who take time to seek it out.

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  5. I'm not sure if the internet will cause the end of fundamentalism, as some of the other commenters also suggest. However, I do think that the internet makes it much easier for those who are having doubts to discover the real truth. And to that, I say Amen brother!

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    1. Wise Fool -- Amen indeed! I'm sure that countless minds have been opened by the easy access to information that the Internet provides.

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