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Over 30 million computer users have discovered that cyberspace allows them to leap over barriers of time, place, and social status to connect with people who share common interests. But is this artificial reality promoting practices far removed from Biblical truth? Various computer experts explore the promises and threats of our growing dependence on global cyberspace.
A strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, from the author of the critically-acclaimed Interior States. • "At times personal, at times philosophical, with a bracing mixture of openness and skepticism, it speaks thoughtfully and articulately to the most crucial issues awaiting our future." —Phillip Lopate “[A] truly fantastic book.”—Ezra Klein For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our understanding. The rise of science and Descartes's division of mind from world made materialism our ruling paradigm, in the process asking whether our own consciousness—i.e., souls—might be illusions. Now the inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, and the spread of digital metaphors for self-understanding, the core questions of existence—identity, knowledge, the very nature and purpose of life itself—urgently require rethinking. Meghan O'Gieblyn tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual reach, essayistic verve, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her own personal experience as a formerly religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and she serves as the best possible guide to navigating the territory we are all entering.
Ohh ! Gods Are Online.. is a surreal novel co-authored by two writers who have never met. The story was neither contrived nor planned; it was allowed to flow. What if the Gods were living in the midst of mankind? What if the Gods were as confused about life’s meaning as humans? What if the Gods were addicted to social media? Ohh ! Gods Are Online.. probes life’s questions as Christ, Krishna, Nick, Buddy Roy and all the bigger and smaller Gods get chatting online.
Picasso's artistic inspiration takes hold of young Emma's faith imagination in this beautifully illustrated debut picture book about how we all see God differently. “This urge to draw something beyond spectacular would not leave my side. ‘What should I draw?’ I thought. I sat quietly, listening to my mind and heart. That's when I heard their whisper and I decided to draw God.” Emma tries again and again and again to draw God, but her classmates can’t see God in any of her drawings. Emma finally realizes that she doesn’t need their approval. “I knew I had drawn God. God knew I had drawn God, and maybe Picasso knew, too. That finally felt like enough.” But when Emma returns to school on the following Monday, something beyond spectacular happens. Drawing God is a story for children to discover what inspires their very own faith imagination and to realize the contagious faith that lives powerfully within them. Celebrate World Drawing God Day on November 7th. Visit www.drawing-god.com.
Religion Online provides new insights about religiosity in a contemporary context, offering a comprehensive look at the intersection of digital media, faith communities, and practices of all sorts. Recent research on Apple users, video games, virtual worlds, artificial intelligence, digital music, and sports as religion supports the idea that media and religion, once considered separate entities, are in many cases the same thing. New media and religious practice can no longer be detached; this two-volume set discusses how religionists are embracing the Internet amidst cultural shifts of secularization, autonomous religious worship, millennials' affinity for new media, and the rise of fundamentalism in the global south. While other works describe case studies, this book explains how new media are interwoven into the very fabric of religious belief, behavior, and community. Chapters break down the past, present, and projected future of the use of digital media in relation to faith traditions of many varieties, extending from mainline Christianity to new religious movements. The book also examines the impacts of digital media on beliefs and practices around the world. In exploring these subjects, it calls on the study of culture, namely anthropology, to conceptualize a technological period as significant as the industrial revolution.
The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faith How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people—as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn’t easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort—by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others—helps to explain the enduring power of faith. Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more. A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits—but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.
Exploring Religious Community Online is the first comprehensive study of the development and implications of online communities for religious groups. This book investigates religious community online by examining how Christian communities have adopted internet technologies, and looks at how these online practices pose new challenges to offline religious community and culture.
A grand alternate history, science fiction adventure from multiple New York Times best-selling author Eric Flint, creator of the Ring of Fire alternate history series, the Jao Empire series, and the Boundary series, and multiple Hugo award winner and science fiction legend Mike Resnick. Russ Tabor is one of the top security specialists in the galaxy. Much against his will, he finds himself assigned to provide protection for Rupert Medawar Narayan Shenoy—“Lord Shenoy,” as he likes to style himself—who is probably the human race’s most brilliant savant. Shenoy has become convinced that the race of ancient aliens known as the Old Ones possessed powers unknown to any modern intelligent species. He believes they had harnessed forces which may well have been actual magic, giving the Old Ones the stature of gods. Off Russ and Shenoy go to find the secret. Meanwhile, Occo, a member of the alien race known as the Nac Zhe Anglan, returns to her religious creed’s home cloister to find that it has been completely destroyed—and by means which suggest that the Old Ones were the perpetrators. Yet the Old Ones, those ancient and inimical gods of the galaxy, were thought to have perished eons before. Occo is not a savant of any kind. She is a shaman castigant, a warrior of her creed. Her purpose now is to seek revenge, not to uncover the secrets of the Old Ones. But she cannot do the one without first doing the other. So, she and her familiar Bresk set ought to track down those long-gone deities. Now human adventures and an alien shaman are on a collision course with the truth: despite their many differences, only if they unite their forces do they stand any chance of surviving the coming encounter with the gods of Sagittarius. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About Eric Flint's groundbreaking Ring of Fire series: “This alternate history series is . . . a landmark…”—Booklist “ . . . reads like a technothriller set in the age of the Medicis . . . ”—Publishers Weekly About Eric Flint's best-selling Jao Empire series coauthored with K.D. Wentworth and David Carrico: “The action is fast and furious . . . a trimphant story . . . ”—The Midwest Book Review “Building to an exhilarating conclusion, this book cries out for a sequel.”—Publishers Weekly About Eric Flint's Boundary series, coauthored with Ryk E. Spoor: “. . . fast-paced sci-fi espionage thriller . . . light in tone and hard on science . . .” —Publishers Weekly on Boundary “The whole crew from Flint and Spoor's Boundary are back . . . Tensions run high throughout the Ceres mission . . . a fine choice for any collection.” —Publishers Weekly on Threshold “[P]aleontology, engineering, and space flight, puzzles in linguistics, biology, physics, and evolution further the story, as well as wacky humor, academic rivalries, and even some sweet romances.” —School Library Journal on Boundary
This is the first book to bring together many aspects of the interplay between religion, media and culture from around the world in a single comprehensive study. Leading international scholars provide the most up-to-date findings in their fields, and in a readable and accessible way.Some of the topics covered include religion in the media age, popular broadcasting, communication theology, popular piety, film and religion, myth and ritual in cyberspace, music and religion, communication ethics, and the nature of truth in media saturated cultures.The result is not only a wide-ranging resource for scholars and students, but also a unique introduction to this increasingly important phenomenon of modern life.