Discussion, news and information about religion on the internet - associated with Gary R. Bunt's Good Web Guide to World Religions. This site is part of virtuallyislamic.com. Feedback: blog at virtuallyislamic.com
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Associated Press, Jehovah's Witnesses learn Arabic in outreach to Muslims"Some Jehovah's Witnesses, known for their door-to-door efforts to bring people to their spiritual beliefs, have been learning Arabic as part of an effort to convert Muslims."
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Orthodox Church seeks virtual saint: "'What is the internet?' Father Andrey asked. 'It is a typically monastic pursuit. I am totally hidden from the public, it is quite impersonal - but at the same time I can take part in various discussion forums.'
"He believes the thousands of Russian Orthodox internet users could only benefit from a patron saint dedicated to them."
"He believes the thousands of Russian Orthodox internet users could only benefit from a patron saint dedicated to them."
Times Online - Comment, Christians bear witness to the fallout from war discussion of the work of the Christian Peacemaker Teams
USNews.com: People pray for everything, from the divine to the selfish and profane (12/20/04): "The importance of prayer in all religions through many millenniums has been well established. U.S. News teamed up with Beliefnet , the leading multifaith Internet site on religion, to create an online survey about how these prayers are focused. "
Monday, December 06, 2004
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Holocaust group puts 3 million lost lives online | Tech News on ZDNet more details on this story, including links to the Yad Vashem database, which is extremely quick and easy to use.
WorldWide Religious News/Washington Times, 'Hanukkah Song' strikes sour note on Jewish ears November 28, 2004 "Although the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights does not begin until sundown December 7, Binyamin Jolkovsky, 35, of www.jewishworldreview.com is spearheading an effort to depose a pop song composed in 1996 by "Saturday Night Live" comedy idol Adam Sandler."
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
profindpages.com, $28,000 "Holy Toast" turning bread into wine!: "A ten year old cheese sandwich has just fetched $28,000 on the internet auction site eBay, for apparently bearing a likeness of the Virgin Mary."
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Prayer Breakfast Draws Strong Tech Turnout (washingtonpost.com) [subscription site]: "The personal testimonials -- and a turnout that has doubled since the first such breakfast three years ago -- reflect the growing number of technology executives who believe that their Christianity should be part of their work as well as their private lives. "
Monday, November 15, 2004
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Fascinating news from New Orleans, accompanied by photos and a history of 'St Expedite':
Wired News: Patron Saint of the Nerds: "'People who are computer experts or who work with computers do say Expedite is their patron saint,' said the Rev. Michael Amesse, pastor of Our Lady of Guadeloupe Chapel in New Orleans, the only American church with a statue of the saint.
"'I don't know why they say Expedite is the computer saint. St. Isidore is the saint of technology and the internet. Yet these people insist on praying to Expedite. Like all things that concern this saint, it is a mystery.'"
Wired News: Patron Saint of the Nerds: "'People who are computer experts or who work with computers do say Expedite is their patron saint,' said the Rev. Michael Amesse, pastor of Our Lady of Guadeloupe Chapel in New Orleans, the only American church with a statue of the saint.
"'I don't know why they say Expedite is the computer saint. St. Isidore is the saint of technology and the internet. Yet these people insist on praying to Expedite. Like all things that concern this saint, it is a mystery.'"
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
BBC NEWS | Wales | Mid Wales | First Welsh bible goes online, 10 Sept 04: "A version of the first Welsh language bible has appeared online 400 years after the death of the bishop who first translated it.
"William Morgan's book is claimed to be the most important ever published in Welsh as it reinforced the language's status.
"The National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth, has added its 1,110 pages to its website."
"William Morgan's book is claimed to be the most important ever published in Welsh as it reinforced the language's status.
"The National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth, has added its 1,110 pages to its website."
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
CNS STORY: Syria's Christian churches face political, religious challenges " ... the evolving Syrian culture -- complete with Internet, cell phones and satellite TV -- is changing the way young people relate to the church and traditional values, several sources said."
Monday, November 01, 2004
Monday, October 18, 2004
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Monday, July 26, 2004
Forum 18 Archive, CHINA: Government blocks religious websites: "Chinese web-users are denied access to a range of religious sites based abroad, Forum 18 News Service has found after a two-month survey of how far the Chinese government's Golden Shield firewall, used to censor the internet, affects access to religious websites. Sites blocked include those related to the persecution of Christians and other religious faiths, the Dalai Lama, the Falun Gong religious movement, the Muslim Uygurs of Xinjiang and a number of Catholic sites, including the website of the Hong Kong diocese and the Divine Word Missionaries in Taiwan."
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Salon.com Technology | Thou shalt not steal: "Christian teens are just as eager to file-swap copyrighted music as any other youngsters. But if the word of God gets spread, would Jesus give a damn?"
Monday, June 28, 2004
Friday, June 11, 2004
Gay Spirituality & Culture blog -- with a comprehensive series of links to related spirituality pages.
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | China creates web vigilante site: "The Chinese authorities have begun a new website for people to report on what officials describe as illegal or unhealthy information on the internet"
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Thursday, June 03, 2004
The Daily Star - Arts & Culture - Keeper of The Word shares a few: on the role of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, and its application of the internet
Monday, May 24, 2004
Friday, May 21, 2004
Thursday, May 20, 2004
CNN.com - Cyber church reacts to 'Satan' visit - May 19, 2004 "Britain's first three-dimensional cyber church has been forced to tighten security after a slew of abusive visitors ranted from the pulpit and swore in the aisles."
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Monday, May 17, 2004
The Daily Star - Lebanon News - 'The Passion' gets a new twist on Al-Manar: "Al-Manar Television has triggered yet another storm of controversy by broadcasting trailers mimicking Mel Gibson's contentious film, 'The Passion of the Christ,' with coalition soldiers compared to the Romans and Jews in the movie, and the Iraqis' suffering to that of Jesus."
Sunday, May 16, 2004
more on the First Church of Cyberspace (expect a struggle for this title -- see my book 'The Good Web Guide to World Religions'! The New York Times > National > Religion Journal: Services at the First Church of Cyberspace [subscription site]
Guardian Unlimited | Online | Nanny knows best "Considerate to a fault, the Chinese authorities have closed down more than 8,600 unlicensed internet cafes in the past three months to ensure the "healthy development" of the nation's impressionable young minds."
ABCNEWS.com : People Seek Haven From Too Much Data: "For the past 20 years Levy, a self-confessed e-mail addict, has sought balance between these disparate worlds. It has led him to meditation, aikido and, with his rabbi wife, a disciplined practice of Judaism. 'Because we observe Shabbat — the Sabbath — it means we don't work during that time, and I'm not on the computer,' he says. 'And as soon as the Sabbath is over, I run upstairs and go see what's happened in the last 24 or 25 hours.'"
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Wired News: Dropping the Bomb on Google: "In March, during a casual Web search, the 26-year-old real-estate investor accidentally found that Jew Watch, an anti-Semitic site, was the top Google result."
Yahoo! News - Internet Church Marries Christianity And Technology
"For those Internet junkies who embrace faith but just can't pull themselves away from their computers to attend church, fret no more. The United Kingdom's Ship of Fools--a Web site that dubs itself "The Magazine Of Christian Unrest"--has launched its Church of Fools, a Web-based place of worship that could go a long way toward assuaging modern Christian guilt."
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Monday, April 26, 2004
MEMRI: Liberal Muslim Scholar: The Term 'Jihad' is Misunderstood by Islamist Clerics "In an article in the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, former dean of the Faculty of Islamic Law at the University of Qatar, stated that modern Islamic Fatwas (religious legal opinions) distort the meaning of Jihad to justify an aggressive ideology."
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Newsday.com - God talk is everywhere
"An online poll on Beliefnet.com, answered by about 12,000 people, found that 62 percent were reading the Bible more often after seeing "The Passion.""
"An online poll on Beliefnet.com, answered by about 12,000 people, found that 62 percent were reading the Bible more often after seeing "The Passion.""
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Haaretz - Israel News - Digging for the roots of an age-old scourge discussion on what has been dubbed the "new anti-Semitism"
Aljazeera.Net - Palestinians love Mel Gibson's film
I'm sure that Mr Gibson is delighted in this news, although he won't be so pleased to learn that the film has been widely pirated in Gaza and the West Bank.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Monday, March 29, 2004
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Friday, March 19, 2004
BBC NEWS | Technology | Bookies suffer online onslaught not a religious issue (necessarily - depending on whether divine intervention is part of a betting strategy), but an interesting technical one
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
The Register, EC seeks to stamp out Net child porn, racism and spam lofty ideals here, but how are they going to achieve these aims?
World Religions found this interesting one in my travels. It's a class blog from the World Religions course a St Andrews. I'm going to be integrating blog into my teaching next session too. Seems to work well.
Saturday, March 13, 2004
Friday, March 12, 2004
Friday, March 05, 2004
Two stories about i-church and the new web pastor vacancy:
BBC NEWS | UK | Church plans parish in cyberspace
BBC NEWS | UK | Church plans parish in cyberspace
Guardian Unlimited | Online | Church of England to set up 'internet parish' "The purpose of the internet church or 'i-church', according to its website, "is to provide a Christian community for those who wish to explore Christian discipleship but who are not able, or do not wish, to join a local congregation"."
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Sunday, February 29, 2004
BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Politicians monitor the 'bloggers' an interesting article on how blogging can bridge the 'divide' in Northern Ireland. It also contains a micro-list of relevant links.
Friday, February 27, 2004
Reporters sans frontières - China: "Reporters Without Borders today condemned the latest Chinese effort to gag the Internet by means of directives to portals that have discussion groups. As a result of the directives, many news groups have closed since 23 February and filtering of online messages has been stepped up. Verisign's decision to assign China a DNS root server is also worrying for the Web's future."
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Hollywood moment for ancient language about the Aramaic used in Gibson's film - the story has a tech edge: "'The word we use for 'television' is 'surqolo',' Dr Kiraz explained. 'It's made up from the words for 'vision' and 'voice'.'"
the Wired Press - The Passion of The Christ: The Second Coming? satiral swipe at Mr Gibson's familiarity with sequels, with net reference.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Infoshop News - Anonymous Blog Cracks Window Into Hasidic Community: "Yeedel, as we'll call him, writes an anonymous weblog (or 'blog'), a kind of online diary, under the pen name Hasidic Rebel. His comments, first posted in February, range from musings about the Hasidic lifestyle to stinging indictments of the community. "
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Reuters, China arrests Internet essayist "Chinese police have formally arrested a civil servant, whose Internet essays are critical of the government, for subversion in a case that has provoked widespread criticism of China's human rights record."
Saturday, February 14, 2004
Aljazeera.Net - New US channel raises Palestinian ire: "Farid Abu Dhuhair is Professor of Journalism and Mass communication at the Najah University in Nablus. He believes the very idea of launching al-Hurra station stems from a misunderstanding.
"Al-Hurra, it is claimed will 'tell us' Israel is not killing Palestinians
“The Americans think that we hate them because we don’t receive accurate information about the reality of American politics. This is not true.
"'America’s image is ugly because American policies and actions are ugly. America can’t act the way it is acting and expect Arabs and Muslims to love her.”
something of a pre-emtive critique of al-Hurra, found on al-Jazeera ...
Friday, February 13, 2004
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
ArabicNews.com, Al-Oroush links negotiations to approval of Amazigh as an official language, 2 Feb 2004 This is not an area I have previously addressed in this blog; an initial google of the subject revealed a number of online networks associated with Amazigh, including an online forum Amazigh.net and the AmazighOnline website, which claims to be a portal to the Amazigh world.
Yahoo, Open Source Gaining Traction in Asia this fits in with what I feel will be a significant development during the coming years, regarding accessability to technology (also discussed elsewhere in this blog).
Sunday, February 01, 2004
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
