The Shintonet

Check out this piece from UPI yesterday about the rise in practice of Shintoism in Japan.

"We see more people coming here," said a priest at the Meiji Shrine in the middle of Tokyo. "We see more weddings, more people bringing their babies for blessings, more requests for prayers to be rid of a curse or to prosper in business, more people taking part in festivals such as shichi-go-san," in which children of ages 7, 5 or 3 are feted.

There is some controversy over whether the rise of a modern, prosperous technological democracy sees a spike in secularization follow in its wake. Examples in favor: Europe and Australia. On the other hand: our great nation.

I know almost nothing about Japan's religious life in the 21st century. The article talks about how Shintoism, the ancient religion tied to the very land for millennia, is still recovering from the bad associations of World War II (the Allies mandated a break between church and state in 1945). But Shintoism is on the rise, and part of this is due to.. "a boost from the internet."

As a professor of mine used to say, "interesting if true." Me, I'm inclined to believe it. I've blogged about the popularity of the Hindu site Saranam.com, where you can order puja's from half a world away, and about pastors whose major outreach is through the 'net. In a story I wrote a few years ago, a source told me that the first dedicated discussion board on the proto-net - ever - was about religion (the religion was paganism).

As anyone of my generation will agree, there is nothing as gorgeously anarchistic, democratic or open market as the internet. It has been my particular fascination to watch how religion has fared here. The answer? Like a fish to water. As the piece on Saranam mentioned, there are now as many Google hits for "God" as there are for "sex."

Just as Gutenberg's Bible unleashed a terrifying but rejuvenating flood of information about religion into people' own hands, spawning heresies and revolts and interpretations galore, the internet is not quashing what people believe, but opening cracks that are letting it sprout in a million directions.

I am hugely optimistic about this. Call me crazy.

You can check out the site for Meiji shrine here.