More New Zealanders are defining their spiritual journey online with traffic to
religion sites up on this time last year, according to Hitwise, New Zealand's
leading Internet competitive intelligence company.
So, why the increase in virtual religion?
Add the hundreds of Christian sites ranging from Catholic and Anglican to
Russian Orthodox, Lutheran and Quaker to a similar number of non-Christian
and non-belief sites including Baha'i, Buddhim, Gnostic, Hinduism, Islam,
Judaism, New Age, paganism, Satanism, Scientology, Sikhism, Spiritism,
Spiritualism, Taoism, Theosophy, and Zoroastrianism - and you have a snapshot
of religion today.
And don't forget The Raelian Revolution - claimed to be 'The world's largest
UFO-related organisation'.
According to Tessa Court, SVP of Hitwise, "given the range of choice and
information, there's little wonder that congregations are aging and attendances
at church services are down, with young people using the Internet to define
their spiritual journey and beliefs without having to set foot in a
church."
So, what religions have the largest online congregations?
New Zealand's most popular religion sites include Parachute Music, Anglican
Diocese of Dunedin, Radio Rhema and the Stupa Information Page (FYI a stupa
is an ancient Buddhist shrine dedicated to the historic Buddha Shakyamuni).
Internationally, most domestic traffic is directed to The Church of Jesus
Christ of the Latter Day Saints, Gospel Communications Network an alliance of
Christian organizations dedicated to spreading the Gospel over the world wide
web and Belief Net which provides chat rooms, discussion and resources for a
range of religions, beliefs and spiritualities.
So, how long does the online spiritual journey take and where does it take you?
Hitwise statistics show that the average session duration for religion sites is
6 minutes and 15 seconds, and with only 14% of traffic to religion sites
directed at domestic services, New Zealanders are looking for answers overseas
which could signify the fact that religion and spiritualism have moved beyond
the local parish.
So, who are the most committed believers?
Last week a massive 8.8% of visitors to The Churches' Agency on Social Issues
left with the intention of returning by adding this site to their
"favorites". The next most bookmarked sites were NZMuslim.net (8%),
CYG Online (3.5%), and Parachute Music (3%).
So, what do virtual parishioners do when they leave their favorite site?
Check out other sites continuing to search for answers.....
..4% of traffic to www.parachutemusic.com went on the spread the gospel though
www.soulpurpose.co.nz
..3% of traffic to www.eastercamp.org.nz clicked through to the World Vision
site to find out the latest news about humanitarian projects
..3.9% of traffic to www.christianbookstore.com.nz went on to join the campaign
for tougher sentencing and punishment for serious crimes in New Zealand at
safe-nz.com.nz
So, what are some of the more interesting religious sites?
Recent world unrest has seen the rise of sites dedicated to promoting human
rites, as well as information about Islam for non-Muslims.
"Sites like islamcity.com and religioustolerance.org provide the
opportunity for people of all religions to explore faiths other than their own,
while promoting the belief that everyone should be able to follow their own
religious practices freely, even though others may view them as false,"
said Ms Court.