Week 7 Reflection of Cheong - Online Religion

Cheong’s article discussed three argument which I disagree thus feel the need to reflect. Cheong stated that faith based tweets and mobile mediated prayers help to build a sense of closeness which I cannot agree in full. It is true to say that these modern day outlets of expression do give instant gratification and as Cheong justifies this use of modern media as it, “preserves self-awareness of sanctified moments during normal, everyday activities.” However despite the internet’s benefit to access to global community in seconds, the fact is that physical interaction is not occurring which de-humanises the whole experience. I understand Cheong’s argument that religious experience and embodiment can be achieved quicker, which I would never dispute as a bad thing. However, I dislike the notion that it creates a “closeness.”   What’s being lost by this practice is communication and personal interaction which is a skill I feel is being lost in this age of technology where speech is being drowned out by constant taping.

What positives I have to say on the piece is that Cheong is correct in saying that this practice of instant tweet/facebook/blogs allows for followers to express their identity and reaffirm their belief not just to their social network but to themselves. Furthermore I agree that the process of blogging religious thought would take more concentration thus more commitment then just merely sitting and listening to a service. Religious blogging gets people to really think “why” they believe what they do which is excellent for self-awareness.

Cheong PH. 2010. Faith Tweets: Ambient Religious Communication and Microblogging rituals. M/C Journal: A Journal of Media and Culture.

Reflection Piece Week 5.

In this reflective piece two excerpts will be discussed from "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception." Firtstly, the piece speaks of an idea from Immanual Kant which sums, "While the mechanism is to all appearances planned by those who serve up the data of experience, that is, by the culture industry, it is in fact forced upon the latter by the power of society, which remains irrational, however we may try to rationalise it; and this inescapable force is processed by commercial agencies so that they give an artificial impression of being in command." This quote was pulled from the article as it could be argue to demonstrate a parallel of the religious themes circling in Australian secular media. Lets take the article from Week 2, "Renegotiating religious imaginations through transformations of "banal religion" in Supernatural, Peterson speaks of how society may be rejecting religious ideologies, however by placing them into undertones in pop-media (4.2). The irrational is now rational in the context of a marketed irrational framework of Supernatural.  Australian society is lead to believe we live in a secular culture however what is occurring is the cultural industry is marketing religious themes to us through outlets like popular media.

Secondly this quote, "The triumph of advertising in the culture industry is that consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them," can be applied to the theme of religion with the example of Hillsong or maybe even the everyday church as the social capital or networking that grows from such industry my compel people to attend even if they may not fully engrossed in the faith itself.   

References: Adorno, T. Horkeimer, M. 1944, "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception," Dialectic of Enligthmentment URL: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1944/culture-industry.htmPetersen, L.N. 2010, "Renegotiating religious imaginations through transformations of "banal religion" in Supernatural," Department of Film and Media Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, Volume 4.

Answer:

Out of chance I discovered this article in, The NewYork Times, "Without Gods: Alain de Botton's 'Religion for Athesist,'" by David Brooks, 16.03.12.

What's discussed is how moralistic ideals, community awareness and well-being is sprung through religious groups. The article pretty much describes how Atheists in their singular may be missing out on discovering such attributes that are found within spiritual groups. The Author de Botton suggests that Athiests should adopt 

 "religion’s pedagogy, to mimic the rituals, habits and teaching techniques that churches, mosques and synagogues perfected over centuries. "

Essentially the author, de Botton, is describing the known benefits of social/spiritual capital which the theorist Bourdieu conceptualized. What is proposed is maybe the "ritual" of a secular feast should take place where ideals, ethics and a spirit of community can be discussed and put into practice. 

Article available at: URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/books/review/alain-de-bottons-religion-for-atheists.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&ref=books 

Check out: Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (1972)

So what's an Atheist supposed to do?

Here is my product of our collective poetry writing in class the other day:

I watched the mountains as the plane ascended.Smaller, smaller and yet bigger, bigger.The ground is coming faster and faster as l'm falling and falling.The feeling of freedom and release overwhelms me.From society and the world I am free.  

I wish to confess that I found this task really hard and especially sitting here and trying to formulate something stimulating to say. This poem was describing the liberation I felt when I went skydiving last July in Queenstown, New Zealand. I could quite easily describe this as some kind of religious experience as I realized how insignificant I really am. As an Atheist I quite often envy people who are religious as I assume feeling a pure embodiment of your faith in the everyday must be just as freeing as skydiving. It makes me question where can Atheists find their spiritual support? their spiritual capital? I like to think I find mine in my future. I envision to have a future free of capitalism and hate and filled with organics and compassion. I just struggle though with the irony that in order for me to obtain this future, my paradise, I need to play the game of society. I feel its unfair that in order for people to hear the words I have to say about peace and justice, I need to study Religion but society feels it unnecessary to study such a freelance unpractical topic, so society takes away the funding and doesnt allow myself or others to study to the extent that we wish. Now if I had a faith I'd probably cope with this struggle better but I dont, so what's an Atheist supposed to do? 

 

I found this quite amusing. It was published by the Facebook group Atheists Vs Religion. I feel it's a great hypothesis and demonstrates one of the many endless possibilities of the creation of the universe. Truth is, nothing can be discredited and all thoughts should respected all the same. 

Religibook?

Facebook, as we all know, is a forum for social networking thus its no surprise that religious imagery and text would surface on such space. 


This image has been circulating my facebook feed for a few weeks now with many of it's "sharers" as I shall call them, posting with comments of reasurence.
Another great example of viral facebook trend was this beautiful rap, "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus."

Facebook also allows for a space for open etic debate like the Atheists Vs. Religion page. It is here that theist and atheist of both administrators and spetators can prepose theological questions which are then in turn responed to by a diverse international view.