Religion and Technology

Last Sunday as I watched the six o'clock news on One, they featured a segment about a new cell phone that was made for the Muslim faith. This new cell phone had an inbuilt compass system, which can point, towards Mecca, a service that will prove very useful for Muslims. This new development in the cell phone market has so far proved very popular in the Middle East allowing the owners to honor their religion in today’s modern day society. Technology however can also be considered disastrous on religion, for example the other day I was talking to a friend on msn who told me she was talking to God, so I was like ok well fair enough there’s nothing wrong with that. Until I learnt she was talking to “god” on the Internet, strange you might think but true, sure enough she sent me the link which I curiously uploaded to be welcome to the site called “Igod: Repenting made easy” (http://www.titane.ca/concordia/dfar251/igod/main.html). After entering the site and choosing a skin the site is uploaded with a simple window that claims that you are now chatting to God, personally I found this site just slightly offensive because even though I am not highly religious, the thought of some sad human being or computer program claiming to be God is pathetic. Therefore technology and religion is something that ahs to be approached with caution, the Mecca cell phone uses technology as an advantageous way of finding the general direction of Mecca, whereas the “Igod” site is blasphemy.