Interesting, in light of our many discussions about the Shroud of Turin. The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, the Senior Religion Editor at The Huffington Post writes in an article, Ask Not What Religion on the Internet Can Do for You…:
As the Religion Editor at The Huffington Post, I often ask audiences: "How many of you use the Internet in your religious practice?" Often people keep their hand down, surprised anyone would sully their religious practice with the web. Then I ask how many of them have ever looked up a Bible passage, a prayer, researched a religious figure or watched a guided meditation or prayer — all of the hands go up.
Religion is one of the hottest areas of the Internet because religion is one of the most intense and contested arenas of human relations and ideas. There are many people who are taking information from the Internet that is shaping their religious thought and perception. But all that glitters on the Internet is not gold. The web has only the ethics that people bring to it and provides the perfect vehicle for those who wish to spread misinformation, ridicule, provoke or incite people of a different culture or belief. Take one example: Right now if you type in Jew into the Google search, an Aryan nation site comes up on the first page.
Most parishes, dioceses and churches have their own web-sites these days, but they’re of varying quality. Often manned by volunteers, young enthusiasts on the move, they can sometimes get terribly dated when there’s no-one else to take over when the webmaster moves on. One cathedral parish I checked out had little else on it except its celebrated choir. But they’re slowly getting more professional.
The Catholic Encyclopedia is a wealth of authoritative iniformation with extensive discussion on most topics. Vatican sites, various saints; Wiki is often a good first start for further checking out. Also type a few keywords of a Bible text that you vaguely remember, into your search engine , and you’ll usually drop onto specific references with extensive discussion on it. One interesting site I found gave several versions of the original Greek New Testament, together with their various translations, verse by verse. But there’s a lot of chaff out there amongst the grains of wheat. I wouldn’t be without a good search engine.