The internet continues to pound that stake through the heart of religion.

Courtesy of Alternet: 

While the burgeoning atheist movement loves throwing conferences and selling books, a huge chunk--possibly most--of its resources go toward the Internet. This isn’t borne out of laziness or a hostility to wearing pants so much as a belief that the Internet is uniquely positioned as the perfect tool for sharing arguments against religion with believers who are experiencing doubts. It’s searchable, it allows back-and-forth debate, and it makes proving your arguments through links much easier. Above all else, it’s private. An online search on atheism is much easier to hide than, say, a copy of The God Delusion on your nightstand. 

In recent months, this sense that the Internet is the key for atheist outreach has started to move from “hunch” to actual, evidence-based theory. Earlier this year, Allen Downey of the Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts examined the spike in people declaring they had no religion that started in the '90s and found that while there are many factors contributing to it--dropping familial pressure, increased levels of college education--increased Internet usage was likely a huge part of it, accounting for up to 25 percent of the decline in religious belief. While cautioning that correlation does not mean causation, Downey did go on to point out that since so many other factors were controlled for, it’s a safe bet to conclude that the access to varied thought and debate the Internet provides is persuading people to drop their religions. 

But in the past few months, that hypothesis grew even stronger when a major American religion basically had to admit that Internet arguments against their faith is putting them on their heels. The Church of Latter Day Saints has quietly released a series of essays, put together by church historians, addressing some of the less savory aspects of their history, such as the practice of polygamy or the ban on black members. The church sent out a memo in September telling church leaders to direct believers who have questions about their religion’s history to these essays, which they presented as a counter to “detractors” who “spread misinformation and doubt.”

The Mormon church made the case that the websites which were causing a crisis in faith among its followers were disseminating "disinformation" but in fact the converse was true, and the websites were providing historically accurate information that the church could no longer hide from its members.

The posts made on the Church of Latter Day Saints website were really an attempt to put into context embarrassing information that the church had denied was true for decades.

Having such recent historical facts working against, kind of makes the Mormon church the low hanging fruit, however information is being shared which also challenges the very foundations of Christianity, and which has resulted in some rather startling converts to Atheism.

It is no secret how I feel about all of this, and why I think the internet may be the best thing since...well it sure beats the hell out of sliced bread.

By the way Bill Maher had some good fun with this Joseph Smith story Friday night on Real Time, and it evolved into a rather interesting, and entertaining conversation about religion in general.
You know I sometimes feel badly for Andrew Sullivan. He is so right about somethings (Like Trig's birth) and so wrong about others.