In a post-modern age, perhaps it matters less to us than previously whether or not our particular God exists. To be preoccupied with those issues that theologians are concerned with may in fact matter more to us than whether or not, in absolute terms, the existence of God can be proved.
The Internet can help with this discussion because it is there and because we use it and because, as I have tried to show in this preliminary discussion, certain parallels can be drawn between The Internet and God. I have tried to keep the argument light and not to overstate my case. I have also been careful to avoid suggesting that The Internet is any kind of substitute for religion. Certain analogies have been drawn here but we will continue to use The Internet in our own way whether or not these analogies are helpful. One conclusion of this examination, therefore, is that The Internet – because of its base in the ordinary, scientific world – may perhaps help us to take a more relaxed attitude to metaphysical matters. The Internet dispenses nicely with some of the paraphernalia of religion. This position could be summarised as, “The Internet may or may not throw light on God but comparison is intellectually enjoyable to me and I will continue to use The Internet in much the same way in any case.”
My own position is that I have found no better analogy for God's providence extending over everything on earth than that of The Internet. Indeed the analogy at times seems to me so startlingly appropriate that I am puzzled that more people do not talk about the Internet and God in the same breath! The reason for our reluctance to draw the parallel between God and The Internet may lie more in our nature than in God's nature. A God with a long beard sitting on a cloud may chime with our human requirements of a God even though the analogy of God with The Internet could be at least as close to God's true nature.
I have also argued here that The Internet provides us with a contemporary means of comprehending God that the mainstream religions sometimes fail to establish in our minds. I would not go so far as to describe The Internet as 'a new heaven and a new earth.' It is often nothing of the kind. But I would argue that The Internet's worldliness does not make it less divine. The Internet's place of worship is at the shrine of our computer screen and everywhere. And I do not consider it fanciful to suggest that, at our computer screen, earth and heaven conjoin. For God, if God exists, is like The Internet – both in us and beyond us.