Saturday, March 10, 2012

The New Religion: Saturday Morning Rant

For a long time now, I have felt that the internet has replaced the role of God; worshippers ask questions of it and sheep-like, they follow the Guidance, regardless of how silly it is. Now we put our trust in Cloud technology; up in the 'sky', the Cloud will take care of everything; don't worry!
How sweet that we materialise a deity in this way! And there are so many different religions... the Alpha Applers, whose places of worship are white and shiny and ultra-designed to reflect just how clever and smart they (we!) are, with the Jesus figure of the late Steve Jobs benignly designing our lives so that we can smugly pat ourselves on the back every time we buy a new product.
PC World: the jolly, orange, pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap warehouses, churches of cheaper-ness, big Catholic gathering places that accept everyone so long as they agree to the Terms and Conditions, even the Applers when they sneak in for a bit of comfort and colour.
Of course, hissing away insidiously underneath it all, often invisible but always feared, is the devil himself: internet pornography, keeping the whole thing going with its masked and sinister presence and tempting hideousness.
The human race has constructed a massive technological mirror of faith and belief; its hymns are three-minute-forty-five technology-dependent pop songs with the machinery of faith embedded into them, its evangelists are the enthusiasts who tell us we must have this and we must have that... without realising it, we are swept away on a sea of fervent commitment that we laugh at in other cultures but fail to see in ourselves.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

Interesting. You know, I don't believe in God, and neither, really, do I believe in the internet-in that I have no faith in it because, although I love all the things it can do, I think it is all going to collapse at some point, leaving lots of floundering addicts lying around. It is too much like magic for me to really trust!