Today@Dal

Posted Saturday to the Huffington Post's website:

As the number of people identifying themselves as Christian goes into steep decline, there is one place where religious debate is booming: online.

Despite forecasts predicting declining congregations casting a shadow over the church, God is clogging comments on message boards and sparking debate on social networks.

When white smoke belched out of the Vatican chimney on Wednesday, pope-alicious topics trended on Twitter all evening. Twitter is obsessed with the Pope, even though much of the commentary is light-hearted joshing.

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Dr Christopher Helland, Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion at Dalhousie University, said the Internet might also influence which type of religion proves most popular and could actually change the shape of religious belief. His research shows that the Internet supports non-hierarchical forms of communication, “in many ways a different form of religion than what is practiced in most traditional churches,” Helland said.

"These are very much top down hierarchical institutions that are not necessarily allowing for multiple voices and the sharing of different perspectives."

He added: "In many places, those hierarchical, top-down forms of religion are seeing a decline in their membership and this appears to be a long term trend. However, that does not mean that people are no longer religious or spiritual."

Helland argues that religion will adapt to the online culture we live in. He said: "The wired generation will undoubtedly approach their religious beliefs and practices in a different way from people not part of that culture.”

Read the rest of this article at the Huffington Post.