Where is God In the Web?
Posted by Anna Belle on 15 Aug 2007 at 03:43 am | Tagged as: Web Reflections
“Where is God in the Web?” I asked the Rev. Luminous the other day. He’s a brilliant minister, who happens to have a good-sized geek-streak that he mostly ignores. He’s got other things to do – including constantly inspiring me. Not that he spends a lot of time on that directly. It just sort of happens when I go to church.
I could see him flinch. (“Sorry,” I thought.) Of course, I’d caught him unawares. But I wasn’t looking for a carefully crafted answer – just a bit of help.
His first response was to speak of the power imbalance in blogging. He’s been burned by this. For me this issue speaks right to my Collection Development Librarian heart. In my constructs, he’s talking about the paucity of editorial control, where anyone can be a self-proclaimed expert. The way I have it figured, the savvy web user has worked out new ways to determine authority and worthiness. It’s fascinating that he instantly thought of blogging, which for me is just one small part of the Web, albeit astonishingly rich.
Then he gave me a more academic answer, mentioning a book we’d had a sermon on a few years ago: Small Pieces Loosely Joined by David Weinberger. Although I’d read the book back then, I’d forgotten about it. I don’t recall Weinberger talking about God, but the way he holds up the Web is indeed part of my search.
And then Rev. Luminous really hit it for me. He mentioned the theory that (as I understand it) God is what happens between you and me. While Martin Buber’s I and Thou is somewhere between difficult and impossible for me to grasp, nonetheless this helps. The Thou of the Web. It’s stupendous.
And it was such a delightful moment in time. The Rev. Luminous: comfortable with God, but reacting to the word Web. Me: comfortable with the Web, but reacting to the word God.
Subscribe in a reader
Just a quick response – that’s why I am so fond of Wikis used where many might be inclined to use a blog. Integrating both is perhaps the best of all worlds, so a minister’s blog with other content around it using a wiki plug-in so that it may be edited and evolve.
So that is one of our design goals around moving to Drupal and CiviCRM. Looking forward to more on your experiences as we first move one of our regional volunteer coordinating sites to Drupal/CiviCRM, then look to migrate the church web presence.
Cheers de Mark
Mark Smith C3H IT Services Architect
Thanks, Mark. You are talking about the power imbalance in blogging? I guess maybe you are thinking a site like this one is better suited to a Wiki or Drupal? If so, you’re probably right. The only thing is I wouldn’t enjoy doing it as much, so then it isn’t as likely to get done.
That’s great that you’re moving sites over to Drupal and CiviCRM! Actually, I’m wondering if those of us interested in Drupal shouldn’t set up a Drupal site and share tips in it. Maybe if we each had our own test Drupal site with a blog, then we could set up News Aggregation on the Mama Drupal site, and have our thoughts and experiences captured there.
For me the answer to the question is the same as the answer to the question “Where is God when you’re using a tape measure?” or “Where is God when you’re thinking about whether you need to swing in and get gas or it can wait?”. If I’m ensconsed in the minutaue of anything and using all of my focus/analyze/weigh/judge circuits then I’m fully engaged in what I call the “daily mind”, and that isn’t a place that creates space for pondering.
At the same time, when I write a particularly satisfying piece of code or uncover an elegant solution to something I touch something else: the creative spirit, and those moments will pull me out for a brief moment, and are frequently accompanied by wonder at the Great Design, and those are transcendental moments.
I’d be worried about belittling such a “divine creator” as the Christian God, by comparing the results of human inspiration and achievement to his/her/its (I refuse to use a capital letter) capabilities. I’m not as much of a so-called “militant atheist” as I used to consider myself to be though, just an agnostic who believes that scientific knowledge and progress is good — as are some common sense aspects of morality that some religious people try to claim as entirely their own — but mere human understanding will never be able to unravel all of the mysteries of the universe we inhabit.
Speaking of the universe, I wonder how many Christians think that there is likely to be alien life “Out There”… I’ve asked a few evangelical American teenagers that question recently, and they seem to think that Earth is more special than it seems to be, amongst all the countless collections of galaxies and their stars. It ties in with my understanding of this world of “Great Design” we live in — yes, the conditions of our solar system are just right for life as we know it to thrive on this planet; but what about all the other permutations that could’ve happened, or are happening in parallel universes as I type this…?
Interesting blog entry. :)
John — Yes, yes. That transcendence. And I love your term “The Great Design.”
Trojer — I’m fascinated that you’re asking people about extraterrestrial life. My brother is an astrophysicist who studies these very things. Amazing guy, though I think he needs a good webmaster.
Here’s another angle on God and the Web. You can use the Web as a way to explain the saying that the church is the people, not the building. Just as a social networking site’s power is greater than the sum of its individual parts (members), so too with a church and its members.
Well said, Mark! This makes the web to God as church is to God?