Religions of the World
The sites listed here are examples of accessible introductory information with links to specialized information and resources. For more detailed information about religions, use the links suggested in the "Academic and Research" section of this guide, or enter specific terms into search engines.
Introductions and Surveys of Religions
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/world_religions/
This is a general guide to religions of the world, describing basic history, beliefs, scriptures, and practices with some links to similar resources that provide greater depth.
http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/religionet/er/default.htm
This site offers introductory material on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. It is maintained by Paul Flesher at the University of Wyoming.
Buddhism
www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/index.htm
This website provides short introductions to various aspects of Buddhism, sponsored by the Buddha Dharma Education Association. It is easy to access selections from Buddhist scriptures, survey pilgrimage sites or learn about the diverse expressions of Buddhism. It would be helpful if all religions had websites of this quality for this purpose.
www.tricycle.com/p_buddhist-basics.html
This is a brief introduction to Buddhism at the website of Tricycle, the Buddhist Review. It also introduces several forms of Buddhist meditation.
Christianity
http://geneva.rutgers.edu/src/christianity
This website is titled, "What is Christianity?" The author is Charles Hedrick, an elder in the Presbyterian Church USA. He wrote it to provide an explanation of Christianity for non-Christians on the Internet, in the tradition of the BBC radio talks that C.S. Lewis gave which became the book Mere Christianity.
This website, "Exploring Christianity", is maintained by Dick Tripp, an Anglican in New Zealand. Like many Christian websites that emphasize apologetics, this site is primarily about Christian beliefs. There is nearly nothing here about practices and community.
www.religioustolerance.org/chr_cb.htm
This site presents a wide spectrum of Christian beliefs, it surveys Church history, and it quotes a variety of Christian opinions on many issues.
This is a way of searching the Web for Christian resources using Google. The home page opens to a list of Christian sites and search engines. Most of these sites are for Christians; search for an introduction to Christianity that might be an entry portal for people of other faiths, and there is nothing.
Hinduism
www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/9410/hindu1.html
This is an article introducing Hinduism. There are many like it on the Web for all religions. "Geocities" is a Yahoo site where individuals post their own websites. The information may be accurate and helpful, but it is essentially a personal posting.
This site has links for spirituality, comparative religion, shopping, astrology and much more. For an introduction to Hinduism, go to the "Quick Intro" section at the bottom left of the home page and select "Hindu Dharma" or "Hindu FAQ". For more detailed information, use the links in the middle of the home page for "Dharma and Philosophy" or "Interfaith Relations".
This is a busy, commercially oriented site. Two-thirds of the way down the home page is an index, the "Hindu Universe Resource Center". When these links are opened some basic information appears in the center of the page and further links appear along the left margin in small fonts.
This site has a sequence of introductory lessons about Hinduism as well as articles about other faiths from a Hindu perspective.
Islam
This site is for recent Muslim converts and those interested in Islam. The home page offers links to comparisons to other religions and answers to critics of Islam.
www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/4229/ctigoodlinks.html
This is a page of links to other Muslim websites, ranging from the introductory to the specialized. Like other "geocities" sites, this is someone’s personal website.
This site is intended for non-Muslims who wish to understand Islam. Some pages, especially the home page, look as though they are incompletely loaded. But follow the links at the top of the page and the information is useful.
This site has information about Islam adapted to Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc. It is possible to examine what Muslims regard as the crucial issues that face adherents of those religions as they try to understand Islam. The resources on this site are the postings of individual Muslims on the Web; they vary considerably in quality and tone.
Judaism
This is the "Conversion to Judaism Homepage". It provides information about Judaism and suggests steps that a potential convert should take as they consider this decision.
This site, titled "Judaism 101", is maintained by Tracey Rich. In its total of about 200 pages it surveys ideas, people, places, deeds, and lifecycle. It suggests further links.
This site serves many interests of the Jewish community, so there is much beside religion here. On the left side of the home page, in a box titled "Community", is an "Ask a Rabbi" link. That leads to hundreds of specific questions, topically organized, that have been answered by rabbis. This is a window into conversations about life and faith.
Spirituality
There are thousands of sites representing many understandings of spirituality. The following are examples of the variety available.
"Inner Explorations" is a site combining Christian mysticism and metaphysics, Eastern forms of meditation, Jungian psychology, and a search for an ecologically sustainable lifestyle.
www.meta-religion.com/Spiritualism/spiritualism.htm
This is an example of how complex the search for spirituality is on the Web. Select "Spirituality" on the "Meta-religion" home page and the page that opens is titled "Spiritualism", which is not exactly the same thing. The subdivisions of that page are, "Channeling", "Shamanism", "UFO Spirituality", "Wicca", and "Other Spirituality". Search other sites on the Web for "spirituality" and the results might mostly be mysticism.
The "World Prayers" archive attempts to be representative of all faiths and spiritual practices without preference to any one. "The purpose of this website is to gather the great prayers written by the spiritual visionaries of our planet into an online database representing all life affirming traditions."