I think there’s a significant portion of people who turn to God because their lives are a mess or they’re just too painful. The theory being, if they can’t find comfort in this life, they will have a better one when they leave it. I get it; life is a bear sometimes and it’s a nice thought that suffering will end and you will be enveloped by eternal love if you just hew to Jesus. Really, I don’t have a problem with it at all. Generally, I only object when it pushes itself into my government. I am a firm believer in freedom of religion, and I am one of those atheists who believe that I am afforded freedom from religion as a corollary to that simple, effective concept.
It’s the 21st century, and COVID has been a major disruptor of regular society. People are afraid to gather in groups, and that’s poison for churches. There’s now a technical solution to the problem, though; there’s this new company named Gloo that is doing data mining for churches and looking online for people with troubled lives for churches to reach out to. It’s a little creepy, as the company says it has data on 245 million individuals. If people can’t go to church, say some users, the church can now come to them.
A good part of the internet is a bazaar to fleece people out of their money. It’s taken over the job televisions used to do. I do hope that this technology isn’t perverted to impoverish the vulnerable with false promises of salvation. But I may be hoping too much. Things turn to shit really quick.
The Illogical Seminary 