Religious social media use is flourishing, as much in smaller, more conservative worship centers as in the megachurches, says Sarah Pulliam Bailey, online editor of Christianity Today.

Concern that social media media will detract from people gathering for worship together is vanishing, she says.

“You have to proceed with caution like anything else,” Baker says. “It’s not Facebook that causes those issues, it’s people.”

• Are social media changing religion?

A number of new Internet search engines created by Christian, Jewish or Muslim entities aim to filter out queries from Web users in a way that is more relevant to those users and keeps them from temptation, alcohol and pornography.

AFP highlights the Muslim imhalal.com, Christian seekfind.org, and Jewish Jewogle search engines.

In Australia the pornography industry and the Christian conservative lobby have united in opposition to a proposal to create a new domain name catering specifically for pornography on the internet.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – responsible for domain names and categories globally – has given conditional approval for a .xxx domain category. One argument is that an internet filter could easily be set to block all .xxx domains to help protect children.

However, an unlikely alliance has formed between the Australian pornography industry the Australian Christian Lobby in opposition to the new domain category. Sex industry lobby group the Eros Foundation is strongly opposed to the new domain, arguing that an .xxx domain would “ghettoise” the sex industry.

Meanwhile, Australian Christian Lobby spokesman Lyle Shelton says the group opposes the new domain because it sees it as further legitimising the pornography industry

The premise of the conference had been laid out earlier in the evening by Philip Clayton, a professor at Claremont School of Theology who talked about the role of Gutenberg’s printing press in the 15th century. By making the Bible more widely available, he said, it democratized religion and led directly to the Protestant Reformation.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Clayton said, “we are talking today about a transition equally as great.”

Bargewee, a practicing Muslim, soured on the Facebook phenomenon after getting embroiled in a controversy over Facebook groups denouncing Islam and other religions.

Computers registered to the Church of Scientology were used to remove criticism of the church from the Wikipedia page about it.

Confession websites have become popular places to post your sins — or to read about the transgressions of others.

Chief among them are GodTube.com, a video-sharing site for Christians, and MyChurch.org, a social networking realm.

Wherever the human imagination goes, so goes the spirit. Second Life is now also opening new windows on religious and spiritual expression. Theologians and philosophers may debate the authenticity of cyber religious life, but out on the Internet faith frontier, believers are too busy to listen.

Despite the fact that religion is always in the news, visits to religious websites in the U.S. are declining rapidly.

The Internet has become a hub of religious worship for millions of people around the world. For many cyber-worshipers, online religious life conducted at home or in an Internet cafe has replaced attendance at traditional churches, temples, mosques and synagogues.

It has been attacked many times in its short life, most notably by a former aide to Robert F Kennedy and the editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica. But now the online reference site Wikipedia has a new foe: evangelical Christians.

Teenagers’ use of the Internet for spiritual or religious experience grew by 200 percent between 1998 and 2001, according to a study by the Barna Research Group. Forty-six percent of teens expected to use the Internet to talk about what they believe.

The Internet domain name Hell.com failed to be bought via a live auction Friday, which organizers had hoped would bring bids of more than $1 million.

Churches use technology for outreach