Future of Religions

I spent today attending the first part of a two-day conference called "The Future of Religions/Religions of the Future" in Extropia's Central Nexus region of Second Life. It had a pretty good turnout with religious studies faculty from around the world attending.


The conference is divided into two parts. The speakers today focused on the way in which various world religions are/can be studied and experienced in Second Life. Speakers addressed the ways in which various religions are using online connectivity and how students of religion can gain greater experience of world religions through Second Life offerings. While the presentation for any kind of conference like this is slow (since they're using typing, not mics) there were new projects from several colleges that seem like they have possibilities for my comparative religion classes.

Tomorrow's part of the conference looks like it will cover religions of the future, online religion, transhumanist religion, etc. I'm not sure or not whether I'll stop by or not. The only presentation scheduled that interests me is one on how religion online can move past static websites and bulletin boards to virtual environments, but that talk is going to happen right in the middle of two meetings I've already scheduled at my office.