Jamie at BeChurch has a thoughtful post about Education, Information and the Church. One of the many results of the transformation of information from a scarce commodity to something widely accessible is that people don't need pastors anymore to find out about faith.

People certainly can't claim that lack of information holds them back: but the fundamental problem is still motivation and intent, not information. It's been that way for a long time ...

Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (Mark.4.24-25)

9:48:40 PM #    comment []  trackback []

In case you missed it, Presidential candidate Howard Dean recently demonstrated his deep religious faith by naming his favorite New Testament book: Job, adding: "But I don't like the way it ends."

I guess you could take this an as indication that being religious still matters in American political life, though it would be nice if there was a little more substance to it.

9:29:40 PM #    comment []  trackback []

Tim Bray at ongoing is writing a series on Which new technologies will make it, and which will fail? His Technology Predictor Success Matrix is an attempt to figure out the key success factors for new technologies.
9:11:59 PM #    comment []  trackback []

Tim Bednar at e-Church.com reports on a recent Pew Internet and American Life study that finds One-Third Of Internet Users Look For Religous Information. There are some interesting factoids:

• African-Americans, particularly women, are more likely to look for information on-line
• Half use the Web to research outside their own faith
• Young adults (18- to 29-year-olds) are the least likely, and those aged 30-49 and 50-64 are "the most likely religious surfers."
• High-speed internet access doesn't make religious use of the Internet more likely

Maybe this is some indication that the Internet is moving past a novelty and into the mainstream of American life.

8:30:20 PM #    comment []  trackback []