``The Internet and religion are contradictory,'' said Stewart Hoover, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado and co-author of the survey. ``The Internet is technical, commercial, rational, demands conscious attention and its entertainments are thought to be violent and materialistic. Religion is thought to be the opposite: emotional, spiritual, authentic, deeply meaningful, steeped in values.
``Religious use of the Internet, such as we've seen here, crosses such boundaries.''
The Pew survey found that:
• 38 percent have sent and received e-mail with spiritual content.
• 35 percent have sent or received online greeting cards related to religious holidays.
• 17 percent have looked for information about where to attend religious services.
• 11 percent have downloaded or listened to religious music online.
The popularity of these types of activities means that people are using the Internet for ``personal religious'' activities, Hoover says, which could change the nature of institutional American religion.
In what Hoover describes as a sort of religious survival of the fittest, denominations that take advantage of the Internet may benefit through online recruiting and evangelism.
The survey also found that religious Internet users are more interested in supplementing their traditional faith than seeking a completely new spiritual realm online.
``The early expectation was that the Internet would be used in anti-institutional ways,'' said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Project. ``While there's some of that going on, it's much more the case that devout people who are happy with the traditional church experience are using the Internet to augment it.''
By Nerissa Pacio
Mercury News