History

In the last section, I argued that in theology, God has something to do with knowledge, enlightenment and truth – and that The Internet is now also a crucial provider of such understandings. In this section, I examine the religious tenet that God is integral to everything we do – God is Man – and therefore that God is inevitably to some extent The Internet too. And the more that The Internet becomes a part of our lives, the more that God can be seen as associated with it.

In the last section, I looked at how The Internet, as a natural medium for sharing information and emotions, can touch spiritual aspects of our lives by association with others. In this section, I examine how The Internet changes lives; something that most religions are in the market to do! The extent to which the Internet sweeps us up and carries us forward, engaging our hearts and minds in the way that the great religions proclaim that God should, is therefore the subject of this section.

The first thing to say about the nature of God is that our perception of God will not be what God is. The Internet to some extent shares this characteristic of not being what we take it for. It is not what we see on our screens. So the question, 'What is the Internet?' raises some of the same issues as the question, 'What is God?' Like God, it is exceedingly difficult to describe and encompass.

There is a story about Krishna as a child mischievously eating clay. Krishna's friends tell his foster mother, Yasoda. Krishna tries to convince her that he has not eaten clay by opening his mouth. Yasoda sees the whole universe in Krishna's mouth, including herself with Krishna on her knee! The Internet is akin to this. We switch on our computers and we see the whole universe; including ourselves with Krishna on our knee, so to speak.