Cyber Theology

Theoretical reflections about the cyber space and providing an epistemological platform for a deep analysis and rethinking in this regard, despite all its importance and necessity, have so far received insufficient attention from our thinkers and researchers. Either there is no work in the field, and even if one is found, due to its weakness, it is considered nothing.

The book “Cyber Theology”, however, enjoys a distinct and unique position in the field of epistemological works of cyber space. Applying philosophical, theological and epistemological analyses of the opinions of Muslim thinkers and Western philosophers, the author has been able to analyze the main theological challenges of this space and to provide solutions for each problem.

Cyber theology, as the term suggests, deals with theological issues related to cyber space or virtual space. The cyber space is very important for the modern age of mankind, because in a sense, the modern human lives in the cyber world and the cyber world forms our biological world. One of the important features of cyber is the democratization of information; that is, information has become public and available to everyone. This is an important point, but this space has its own disadvantages. Therefore, in this work, an attempt has been made to categorize the disadvantages associated with this space, especially the epistemological and religious disadvantages, and to provide solutions for each of them. It is natural that the most important epistemological feature of the cyberspace is that “information” has replaced “knowledge”. “Knowledge” is a true and justified belief. In terms of epistemology in the cyber space, we do not deal with something called true and justified belief, but we are only dealing with information and data that are meaningful, and perhaps there is no opportunity to check their truth at all.

 

On the other hand, this space has high aesthetic appeal, because the pains and sufferings that exist in everyday life do not exist in this space, but at the same time, leisure is also taken away from humans, and it is natural that the maximum use of this space causes many problems for humans. The very fact that a person who is involved in this space, fails to fulfill his essential tasks and the meaning of life changes for him, is very important. Therefore, some thinkers have proposed the idea of “digital minimalism”, which refers to the minimal use of technology, virtual space and digital tools. It is natural that the problem of absurdity and meaninglessness in cyberspace is a serious danger that has grown in most countries, including our country, among young people. Among the philosophical and theoretical reasons, one is the fact that “knowledge” is replaced by “information”, and the second point is that being entertained by big data leads to the deprivation of human will.

In general, existential connection to the cyberspace is a serious problem of today’s human beings, and the consequences of this existential connection have made their way into other areas of human life. The author of the Cyber Theology, took this term from Islamic philosophy, which says: “The effect is in absolute poverty of existence to its cause, because the cause has created the effect”. In today’s society, this connection exists between the humans and virtual space, and humans cannot live without virtual space. In fact, humans are existentially connected to it.

This work has fully explained the effects of human life in the cyber age.