General Religion and Spirituality
These are websites or sections of websites that specialize in religion and spirituality. The resources they provide and the links they suggest vary greatly in quality.
This site has a specific and limited purpose. It provides information about the size and location of faith groups (number of adherents, meeting units, and countries).
But the site has a doorway to more. On the home page, select the box "Suggested LINKS for finding out more about faith groups". That opens a list of useful resources.
Start with the "site map" on the opening page, although that can be difficult with the busy layout of the page. This website includes a great variety of information, such as addresses for churches, mosques and temples worldwide, the Arabic text of the Qur’an, marriage and divorce practices in various religions. The site has significant gaps and limitations, and its search engine produces inconsistent results.
There are many sites like this on the Web. Check them out to keep up with trends and to observe what is available at the global fast-food buffet of popular consumer-oriented religion and spirituality.
http://dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/
This site is part of the Global Directory Project, maintained by thousands of volunteers. Its purpose is to identify all useful Web links to a subject. To find a piece of information usually involves moving through several layers of websites. The sheer scale of the project can be a deterrent to searches; but patience is often rewarded. This is not a site for introductory information.
www.highindex.com/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality
The site, HighIndex.com, describes itself as "the world’s fastest growing collection of high-quality websites." The religion and spirituality section provides many useful links. For example, select "Christianity" and there are suggestions for "Christianity for Seekers", "Evangelism", and an extensive "Webmaster resources" section that provides links to advice on developing and using religious websites.
The purpose of this site is "to promote a multidisciplinary view of the religious, spiritual and esoteric phenomena." It also has a section on science. It is less trendy and consumer oriented than BeliefNet, and is more interested in the paranormal. The search engine produces adequate responses to a wider range of questions than BeliefNet.
This site has about 5,000 full text articles about religion that can be accessed directly. It is designed to assist teachers, scholars and general "seekers" who are interested in exploring religious issues. The aim is to represent many different points of view, but all from the perspective of sound scholarship. While the present orientation is primarily Christian, the aim is to eventually include material for all the world's major religions.
This site advertises that it has "everything on religion".
It has information, commentary, links, and discussion forums. The resources on
each religion are extensive, and easy to navigate, starting with the list of
religions at the bottom of the home page.
This is a useful site for introductory information about specific
religions; the links are to popularly written websites and sometimes to
encyclopedia articles. The "RQ News Home" link provides current coverage of
religion in public media. NOTE: In mid 2005 the site as listed here was not accessible, but many of its sub-sites were functioning. So, for example, an Internet search for "UFO Religion" would identify a site with "religionquest.com in the address.
The site’s mission is "To promote religious tolerance and freedom. To describe religious faiths in all their diversity. To describe controversial topics from all points of view."
There are links to sites about specific religions, to sites about religion and society, and to specific topics about religion. The focus throughout is on tolerance, peace and mutual understanding. There are many links to organizations that work collaboratively.
The site is maintained by the Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance. It has more ads than most of the sites referred to in this Guide.
This website interprets tolerance in a way that usually makes conservative Christianity the major form of intolerance in the world. For example, in the section on Christianity there is significant emphasis on the displeasure of Jews and Muslims over Christian attempts to convert them to Christianity. In the section on Islam there is no parallel discussion of the concerns of Christians, animists and Hindus regarding Muslim expansion through conversion or its legal restrictions of the rights of other religious communities.