Replacement

About fifteen years ago, I taught a small subject in the seminary. When I talked about the changes that are taking place in the field of communication and it's technology and how they are changing social life, I would bring up an imaginary picture. I would list an ordinary town of ours fifty years ago and the trade, industry, and services there. Then, I would list the trade, industry, and services that exist in the same town today. I would draw a picture of a situation where a large percentage of the labor force has shifted to the field related to media and communication and their technology. I would argue that as the Internet and new /social media become more popular, the growth in the fields of labor and capital would become enormous in that direction.

Today, various types of counseling techniques in the field of psychology, various types of holistic treatment systems, lifestyle changing programs, self-helps, motivational speeches, various types of communication that people engage in today through social media, print and new media doing all the above things - if we analyze all these things around us, we can see that a large segment of them are replacements or alternatives to religion.

What used to be done by ten people in the religious field is now being done by ten thousand people. My humble observation is that religion and spirituality are losing their centralized nature and are becoming more popular and decentralized.