ARCHIE MODEQUILLO Religion in the Age of High Technology

EDITOR:

Technology can also bring people closer to God. The internet itself can be used to promote religious consciousness. Social media, for example, is a most convenient platform where people convey their religious beliefs.

Every day Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter carry posts related to God. There are even posts that appear as if they’re directly addressed to God, either in supplication or gratitude. People take to social media to communicate with God.

Those without internet savvy ask: Since when did social media become a reliable avenue to reach God? What is the merit of a social media post as a prayer? Again, these questions do not have categorical answers.

The reliance on technology as a pathway to God, specifically among the young generation, may just be different – and not necessarily bad. Many kids today have not even seen a physical Bible, but they have a Bible app on their phones. They may not have read the story of Noah but they’ve watched it in the movies.

It shall not be overlooked that movies and television are two of the greatest forms of technology. And these are very effective ways of conveying the tenets of the Biblical. Many “nones” have been touched and converted by Bible stories coming alive in movies and on TV.

Yes, technology affects religion, but not always in a bad way. Any tool can only be as good or as bad as the one using it. Radio, television, and the internet are technologies that make it possible for the sick and elderly to still be able to hear Mass or their pastors’ sermons.

The effect of technology on religion can be either good or bad – or neither good nor bad. The matter is not in technology itself – but how technology is used.