Interesting thought on the relationship between religion and the internet

[cleanhippie]

[immoderate]

1. Oh.

--imm

[GliderGuider]

2. It's doing that to all the authoritarian, hierarchic structures of our culture.

Authoritarian structures rely in the one-way transmission of information. Peer-2-peer data flow is inherently disruptive to such systems, whether they are religious, political, economic or any other top-down power system.

The Internet is a structurally anarchistic institution.

[cleanhippie]

3. You are, of course, 100% correct.

Nailed it.

[deacon_sephiroth]

6. Well said

I always keep the Declaration of the Independance of Cyberspace handy.

(a good read if you never have)

You can just about replace the word "Government" with "Religion" and it works about the same.

[GliderGuider]

7. I loves me some John Perry Barlow!

Saw him speak a couple of times, and he blew me away. He's a deep anarchist in every good sense of the word!!

I hadn't seen that manifesto before. Thanks!

Edited to add: The interweb apparently promotes short attention spans. Of course I'd seen that before - when it was republished by A. Nonny Mouse. I hadn't realized it was by JPB. Shows you what a dedicated anarchist I am, eh?

[FarCenter]

4. That's far too simplified - there is the phenomena of highly-connected nodes and scale-free networks

Also assortativity, See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assortativity

Admittedly, the net makes it easier to start a cult.

[deacon_sephiroth]

5. yes but most of the cults on the internet just worship pokemon, Edward Cullen or the green ranger.NT

[FarCenter]

8. Yes, the internet is ideal for the propagation of fantasy