The internet seems so secular and it is frustrating

[Bulbasaur05]

Everywhere I am on the internet I am faced anti-Christian/anti-Catholic bigotry and when I stand up for the Faith I am met with shaming and invalidation.

It isn’t just 1 or 2 websites, it seems like 90 percent of the internet is like that.

Where can I socialize on the internet and spend my time in a similar way, but it not be bigoted/secular?

Where can I go on the internet where it’s inversely proportionately Catholic/Christian?

 

[QuestLove]

Where can I go on the internet where it’s inversely proportionately Catholic/Christian?

Nowhere, unfortunately…
Just be very discriminating with the sites that you visit.
The internet can be very useful/educational as well…I, for one, use it a lot in my teaching and it is great. But when it comes to social networking, it can be a lot of bad things. For example, I rarely use twitter much anymore because I find a large amount of the content to be racist and sexist.

I tend to tailor my networking to sites which are uplifting…(after all, that’s how I found this site, even though I am not catholic). Just create some bookmarks with your favourites and ignore the rest.

 

[surritter]

I think 90% is quite low!

But if it bothers you to see all the junk out there, you can stay in Catholic-friendly areas of the web, such as these forums. There’s also www.gloria.tv which is kind of like a Catholic version of YouTube.

 

[One_point]

How right you are! I wonder if the whole world is like this? we have too many enemies. atheists and secular people, anti-Catholic religions, too much misinformation. it makes me sometimes just want to give up. nobody likes isolation. I was thinking yesterday Christ sorrowful mysteries, can you imagine how alone he felt? he had mobs around him, accusers and not one single friend. the friends could not be near to him. can you imagine being that alone and defenseless? no one to say, stop lying. Jesus did not do that. I sometimes suffer extreme loneliness and yeteday was one and I thought of how jesus was truly truly lonely, truly alone. realiz, to fully experience his agonany, he must have “confined” himself to the purely human consciences and not allowed himself the power of divinity. when he cried, my God why do you forske me? he was crying to God for pity, for mercy, he had reached his wits end. he ws feeling true human weakness, true darkness, as a human, he desperately needed consolation, assurance, evidence of love, but he had none. so rejected, so unloved, from his point of view. How much our Lord suffered! He had a broken heart, completely dreanched. I wonder if our church is about to go through such a period? the dark clouds are forming, we have been marked. but we are not Jesus! so weak and feeble and untrustworthy are we. whatever shall we do? God help us!!!

 

[Estevao]

This world isn’t our home, so it’s good to get used to this. Seek the kingdom first.

If you are going to interact with internet atheists and their laughable arguments (most internet atheists are utterly unaware of more erudite atheists of generations past, but operate with the “arguments” of modern day comedians, memes and pop atheists), I think you should do it knowing that lots of undecided people might be reading the conversation (lurkers, as they’re called). People usually are too prideful to admit that they’re wrong in any kind of conversation - at best you’ll find that they might say they’ll think about what you’ve said, but this is rare. It’s the same thing with academic debates you can watch on youtube, the two sides are never going to change their position, and the goal is just to sway the audience.

 

[Isca]

This world isn’t our home, so it’s good to get used to this. Seek the kingdom first.

If you are going to interact with internet atheists and their laughable arguments (most internet atheists are utterly unaware of more erudite atheists of generations past, but operate with the “arguments” of modern day comedians, memes and pop atheists), I think you should do it knowing that lots of undecided people might be reading the conversation (lurkers, as they’re called). People usually are too prideful to admit that they’re wrong in any kind of conversation - at best you’ll find that they might say they’ll think about what you’ve said, but this is rare. It’s the same thing with academic debates you can watch on youtube, the two sides are never going to change their position, and the goal is just to sway the audience.

Good post. I also post on secular sites and find that the best thing to do is a) let people know that you are a Catholic without making a meal of it and b) then be a supportive, kind presence on that forum. It may help to remove some misconceptions about ‘religious’ people being bigots, intolerant, etc.

 

[PrayerShark]

I’m confused to your bewilderment why the internet would be anything but secular. Since when was it supposed to be the prime platform for proselytising the faith? Someone needs a reality check.

 

[Joe_5859]

Where can I go on the internet where it’s inversely proportionately Catholic/Christian?

Right here!

In all seriousness, the internet is largely what you make of it. Yes, there is a lot of garbage out there. But you don’t have to go to those places. And even if you do go to some of those places (like YouTube, etc.), just don’t read the comments and avoid that which is not edifying.

 

[Bulbasaur05]

I’m confused to your bewilderment why the internet would be anything but secular. Since when was it supposed to be the prime platform for proselytising the faith? Someone needs a reality check.

??? I don’t think I said anything about proselytizing, but if you are just putting words in my mouth, I don’t want them there.

 

[Bulbasaur05]

This world isn’t our home, so it’s good to get used to this. Seek the kingdom first.

If you are going to interact with internet atheists and their laughable arguments (most internet atheists are utterly unaware of more erudite atheists of generations past, but operate with the “arguments” of modern day comedians, memes and pop atheists), I think you should do it knowing that lots of undecided people might be reading the conversation (lurkers, as they’re called). People usually are too prideful to admit that they’re wrong in any kind of conversation - at best you’ll find that they might say they’ll think about what you’ve said, but this is rare. It’s the same thing with academic debates you can watch on youtube, the two sides are never going to change their position, and the goal is just to sway the audience.

Thanks, I found this insightful.

 

[Pat_Albertson]

Well, it seems to me like Catholic Answer Forums is one good place. Maybe people would like to start a list. Perhaps a sticky in this section of CAF about favorite Catholic or religious sites would hit the spot.

 

[Lion_IRC]

Everywhere I am on the internet I am faced anti-Christian/anti-Catholic bigotry and when I stand up for the Faith I am met with shaming and invalidation.

It isn’t just 1 or 2 websites, it seems like 90 percent of the internet is like that.

Where can I socialize on the internet and spend my time in a similar way, but it not be bigoted/secular?

Where can I go on the internet where it’s inversely proportionately Catholic/Christian?

Of course there are thousands of sheltered, (but popular) Christian internet communities where you can have fellowship and social connects. And the moderators of those places will keep the standards of behaviour quite pleasant.

BUT…
I think the internet forums which are over-populated with anti-theists is where people with a strong Christian faith and voice are needed MOST!

 

[randomusername]

Just don’t bring up religion and then ignore religious arguments when they do show up. On most forums the subject will only ever come up once in a while in the off-topic section but it’ll always happen in it’s own thread that you don’t have to read. On Youtube you’ll see the occasional religious argument but just stay out of it and skip over it. Don’t watch videos by people like TheAmazingAtheist or Thunderf00t because those guys are serious *******s who selectively pick the dumbest Christian statements and arguments and use them as “proof” that all Christians are stupid and that there’s no proof. Their videos have a lot of followers from anti-theists(not to be confused with normal atheists who just don’t believe, these guys go around starting religious fights everywhere) who like to cherry-pick bits from the Bible and twist them to infinity and call it proof against Christianity. So yeah just avoid every religious thread on a non-Christian/Catholic site or you will be mocked and insulted and don’t go on the channels of militant anti-theists and you’ll be fine.

Of course there are thousands of sheltered, (but popular) Christian internet communities where you can have fellowship and social connects. And the moderators of those places will keep the standards of behaviour quite pleasant.

BUT…
I think the internet forums which are over-populated with anti-theists is where people with a strong Christian faith and voice are needed MOST!

The anti-theists would ignore your arguments and just mock you. The normal atheists might try and engage you in a proper discussion but they’ll be drowned out by anti-theists who always want to but in to mock you and it’ll ruin any good discussion you were having.

 

[PrayerShark]

??? I don’t think I said anything about proselytising, but if you are just putting words in my mouth, I don’t want them there.

I find it hard to believe that one would encounter an endless barrage of anti-religious dialogue unless such a person goes looking for it. I don’t deny it’s existence, but it doesn’t make up the majority of the content on the web as people want to believe.

 

[therese14]

Use Google.com and associated sites only. For browsing, I recommend you to use mozilla browser, it has google as a default search engine.

mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

It’s very very clean. Try to look up the names of the saints in the Google search engine, and you’ll find wholesome read everytime

 

[oldcatholicguy]

I find it hard to believe that one would encounter an endless barrage of anti-religious dialogue unless such a person goes looking for it. I don’t deny it’s existence, but it doesn’t make up the majority of the content on the web as people want to believe.

“Goes looking for it”? You mean like reading the comment section at the end of an article about the Holy Father, the Church, or religion in general on the Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC websites? Or are you referring to how some nosey people actually do pay attention to the chat in MMOs and frequently run across ignorant (as in poorly formed/informed, not as in “stupid”) anti-religious rants and comments?

 

[randomusername]

Use Google.com and associated sites only. For browsing, I recommend you to use mozilla browser, it has google as a default search engine.

mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

It’s very very clean. Try to look up the names of the saints in the Google search engine, and you’ll find wholesome read everytime

Umm…what? The browser won’t change how many anti-religious posts you see. And using sites only related to Google means you have to get off this site and any news sites you may read and other forums you go on

 

[Path_Finder]

The internet really has everything, if one doesn’t want to read anti-Christian posts for example, I won’t read the comments at Huffington Post. They can still run good news stories.

I think one is looking at the wrong websites if they just think the internet is secular.

Why not read frontpagemag.com, wnd.com, lifenews.com, lifesitenews.com and so on. Drudge Report.

 

[Bulbasaur05]

I find it hard to believe that one would encounter an endless barrage of anti-religious dialogue unless such a person goes looking for it. I don’t deny it’s existence, but it doesn’t make up the majority of the content on the web as people want to believe.

No it’s everywhere. There are literally anti-religion “science” threads on some forums where they post pretty awful sacrilegious things, or stuff that is completely a lie about Christianity.

 

[randomusername]

No it’s everywhere. There are literally anti-religion “science” threads on some forums where they post pretty awful sacrilegious things, or stuff that is completely a lie about Christianity.

You don’t have to read them. And unless it’s an atheists/science forum, it’ll be in an off-topic or science section that you can just avoid. And even if you want to go into those sections, just don’t read any threads that sound like they’ll have anti-religious stuff in them.