Animosity towards religion (Score 1)

Joshua brings up a good point. I am a Christian (Episcopalian with strong Roman Catholic leanings) and I see nothing incompatible with my faith and hacking/programming/net-srufing or even science in general.

Religion is a way to live your life and a way to believe in something larger than ourselves. Attacks on "the institutions" and organized religion are getting out of control. The Net is no more a "threat" to organized religion than was the printing press. If anything, it allows religions to get their message out to more people because they are no longer restricted to personal contact to broadcast their messages.

I have some friends who are as much a hacker as myself who have strong personal faiths. That the recent movements towards a personal faith that each person decides individually is the best way to go. Organized religion provides a greater "community" of believers to interact, especially when they belive similarly.

I can't say it better than Joshua:

Many who call themselves hackers are not. Many who call themselves ``Christians'' are not. Let us not confuse the real with the false; a Christian does not commit violent acts, and a hacker does not destroy other people's filesystems. I do not like it when the media misrepresent the hacker as a person who likes to % rm -rf /*&*. Let's not do the same towards religion.

Cheers!

--Jason