The greater the use of the Internet, the less religiosity

Religion has been present in the day to day of the human being since several thousand years before the birth of civilizations. The different forms of religiosity are based on rituals and symbols, and these elements are already present in caveman times, and even in Neanderthals.

However, despite the fact that for millennia we have lived in a more or less similar way, in the last decades our species has been rocked by a series of technological and cultural revolutions that have transformed the entire society. And, as the great material changes also generate changes in ideas, religiosity has been transformed. In fact, a recent study indicates that something as common as the use of Internet is linked to less belief in religion.

• Related article: "Types of religion (and their differences in beliefs and ideas)"

More love for the Internet, less religious feeling

Religiosity is something very complex, and throughout the different human societies there are great differences not only with regard to the majority religions, but also in the degree of religiosity. While atheism and agnosticism were somewhat marginal decades ago, today they are increasingly common in Western societies, especially in those countries considered "first world" where there is a solid welfare state and extreme poverty is relatively small.

However, beyond the place where you live and the social class to which you belong, there are other factors related to believing more or less in a religion, and it seems that the use of the Internet is one of they. Paul K. McLure, the study's author, based the research on data obtained from a national survey of the United States. United States of America, the Baylor Religion Survey, which collected information from some 1,700 adult residents in that country. Among the items in this questionnaire, included questions about the level of religiosity and faith, and the habitual use (or not) of the Internet.

Despite the fact that the use of this virtual tool was associated with less contact with religion, this link had nuances. For example, it had nothing to do with the frequency with which one participates in punctual activities of a religious, such as weddings or baptisms, but with the intensity of religious beliefs (or absence of they).

In addition, those who spent more hours connected to the network of networks were less likely to maintain that a single religion was true and the rest were not. In other words, they tended to treat all religions more equally, as if they were the same. Curiously, the same was not the case with the time spent watching television.

What is this about?

It should be noted that this research has found correlations, and not a relationship that necessarily has to be cause-effect. It may be that more Internet browsing reduces the intensity of religiosity, but it may also be that less religious people surf more (despite the fact that the study isolated the influence of social class, race, educational level, political ideology and other elements important). However, McLure believes there are reasons to believe that the Internet has had an impact on the way we view religion.

Tendency to isolation

Frequent use of the Internet can lead to a certain isolation and to adopting a lifestyle apart from others at times when you are not working. Taking into account that religion is almost always based on shared rituals, this can affect beliefs: not habitually expose yourself to these customs in the family or in the community weakens the importance that religiosity has for a person.

However, as we have seen, these people are no longer absent from important religious events; in any case, they would not go to those of lesser importance: family prayers and other frequent rituals.

Bias towards rational thought

Another of the characteristics of the Internet is that it contains a practically infinite amount of information. Although today we do not give it much importance, it is something exceptional that without anyone's help we are able to access all kinds of content that allow us to learn about all subjects relatively autonomously.

This makes those questions that apparently had no answer before, giving free rein to speculations based on mysticism and the magical thinking, today they can be answered in a matter of a few minutes thanks to search engines like Google. Let us think, for example, of the possibility of understanding how the evolution of species works, going beyond the caricature of "we came from the monkey". If there is no mystery, the feeling that "there is something more" diminishes.

Religions remain firm

Although the use of the Internet is becoming more widespread, and although the proportion of the non-believing population is increasing, there is no doubt that religions continue to enjoy very good health. Our technology-related habits are unlikely to just make them disappear.