In uncertain times, many people turn to spirituality for comfort. And the Internet is one way people share and discuss their beliefs with others from a different faith, from a different hemisphere.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans who attend religious services weekly use the Internet for personal religious or spiritual purposes, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That's 82 million people who go online to read religious news, exchange e-greeting cards related to religious holidays and send and receive e-mail with spiritual content.
"There has been much speculation about the impact of the Internet on religion, particularly as increasing numbers of Americans have been turning to sources other than their own traditions and clergy," said professor Stewart Hoover of the University of Colorado at Boulder, the lead author of the Pew Internet Project report.
"The survey provides clear evidence that the majority of the online faithful are there for personal spiritual reasons, including seeking outside their own traditions," Hoover added. "But they are also deeply grounded in those traditions, and this Internet activity supplements their ties to traditional institutions, rather than moving them away from church."
The report, "Faith Online," says that those who use the Internet for religious or spiritual purposes are more likely to be women, white, middle-age, college-educated and relatively well-to-do. In addition, they are somewhat more active as Internet users than the rest of the Internet population.
For the study, Pew questioned 1,358 Internet users by telephone from Nov. 18 to Dec. 14, 2003.
According to comScore Media Metrix, the most popular sites in the religion category for the month of February (the most recent statistics available) are Christian-based Gospelcom.net, multifaith Beliefnet.com and the Latter-Day Saints' LDS.org.
While Gospelcom.net and LDS.org lay out the groundwork for their followers' beliefs, Beliefnet.com offers a 20-question Belief-O-Matic survey aimed at helping visitors determine where their belief system falls among the major religions.
The sites do more, of course -- they offer news and commentary as well as helpful resources.
But religious curiosity doesn't end there. Since 9/11, Muslim-based sites have seen an increase in visitors who say they are from the U.S. In some cases they are asking Islamic scholars for clarifications about the religion's views toward violence, the use of the word "jihad" and other issues.
One of the leading sites is IslamOnline.net, which seeks to spread a positive view of the religion among non-Muslims while answering Muslims' requests for religious rulings, through its "Fatwa Corner," from Islamic legal scholars around the world citing the Koran in their replies.
It's not just anecdotal evidence that shows more people are exploring the Internet to make religious connections.
The Pew study concluded that 64 percent of America's 128 million Internet users relied on the Net for some sort of religious discourse. That figure is up from 30 percent of the Internet population in November-December 2002 who answered yes to the Pew's broad question, "Do you ever get religious or spiritual information online?"
"Most of the online faithful describe themselves as spiritual and religious," said professor Lynn Schofield Clark of the University of Colorado at Boulder and co-author of the report, "and that is a perfect characterization of their use of the Internet. They probe for information and network with others in order to enrich their spiritual lives."