Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 329

4th International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences and Humanities (ICCESSH 2019)

The Impact of Communication Technology on

Religion

Fangyuan Zhao
School of Marxism
Wuhan University of Science and Technology
Wuhan, China

Abstract—As a special social ideology, religion is one of the

social cultures. In the long history of mankind, it has been II. THE CHANGE OF COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
playing a pivotal role. Religion is also expanding with the AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE
development of human communication technology, and the The history of human communication has roughly gone
two influence each other. Specific technology makes specific
through four stages: oral communication, writing
communication possible, and specific communication leads to
specific social and cultural forms. The development of
communication, printing communication, and electronic
communication technology has gone from simple to complex, communication. Communication technology in each
and from the period of oral communication, to the period of historical stage has a profound impact on the development of
print media, and then to the period of electronic media and the religion.
period of digital media. With the development of
communication technology, religion has experienced its A. Oral Communication Is an Era of Spontaneous Growth
formation, privilege era, popularity, secularization, and of Religion
pluralism era. People can see that every change in In primitive society, people have not yet formed a
communication technology has led to religious change. Based
relatively mature written language system that can be used in
on a thorough study, this paper clarifies the relationship
between communication technology and religion, which
a certain range. Religious information is mainly transmitted
influences and restricts each other. It also provides a through voice symbols (such as chanting, and playing simple
theoretical basis and beneficial exploration for religious instruments) between wizards and members of the common
governance in China. clan, body symbols (such as, expressions, gestures, dances
and other ritual acts), and image symbols (such as makeup,
Keywords—communication technology; communication clothing, Totems and simple hieroglyphic). The most
media; religion developed communication symbol is the oral language, but it
is also just named for things, because of emotion uprising,
I. INTRODUCTION with a great intuitive, situational and casual nature. It was the
only advanced available communication form at that time,
Since the 21st century, with the rapid development of but also restricted the level of thinking of primitive human
media technology, people have experienced new life styles beings, thus restricting the level of people's concept of God.
and space-time experiences, and new developments have
taken place in the field of religious communication. The As these means of communication are non-reusable and
energy interaction and complementarity between new media long-term preservation, they greatly limit the scope of
and old media bring a brand-new development trend to religious dissemination and the accumulation and
religious communication. However, the development of improvement of religious concepts and practices. Primitive
communication technology has brought positive and religious worship cannot break through the level of clan
negative effects to religion. It is of great practical worship, and is confined to clan tribes. With the increase of
significance and theoretical value to study the influence of clan tribe members, the dissemination scope will be
the change of communication technology on religion. expanded. With the decrease of clan tribe members, the
spread scope will be narrowed. The clan prosperity will bring
Different communication technologies produce different the worship prosperity, and the clan destroy will bring the
carriers, which are the material and cultural media worship destroy. This is a form of spontaneous
undertaking religious doctrines, the form of dependence on communication that follows the laws of nature.
which religions can be disseminated, and different carriers
have different effects on the expression, preservation and B. The Stage of Writing Communication Is the Privileged
acceptance of religious doctrines. Era of Religion
After entering the class society, due to the division of
mental and physical labor, written language and words have
become increasingly perfect and systematic through the

Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). 2024
 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 329

processing of mental workers, and have been the most is a wonderful flower in the history of printing, and it plays
advanced means of communication for more than 2000 years. an important role in the history of human cultural exchanges.
Writing language is a highly abstract symbolic system. Its
unification and universality in the broad social scope is an Movable-type printing was first invented in China. After
indispensable condition for the emergence of artificial the improvement, Europe took the lead in using metal
religion. Because of the spread of written language, people's movable-type printing, which was used extensively to spread
concept of God gradually gets rid of the natural worship religion. Around 1450 A.D., Mainz Gutenberg, a German,
based on animism, and they have formed a highly abstract invented metal movable-type printing, which enabled
ideological system of deity. Religion has gradually evolved mankind to enter the era of printing communication. The first
from polytheism to monotheism and main theism. The batch of Gutenberg's metal movable-type printing was 200
universal use of written language makes it possible for world Bibles. The Bible, the source of religious beliefs in Europe,
religions to come into being. The founders of worldwide was printed in batches, and became a book in the hands of
religions such as Buddhism, Christianity and Islam did not street citizens. It gradually became a habit and right to read,
write books and put forward their ideas in oral preaching. If think and judge on the basis of everyone's own ability and
their disciples had not made the records, sorted out and mind. This should be regarded as one of the prerequisites of
religious reform movement in the 16th century. The main
processed their sermons to form classics, their ideas would
not have been preserved, or spread to the world step by step. content of this important event which affects the process of
However, writing language has many limitations. It cannot world history is "justification by faith", that is, to take the
be produced in batches, and writing materials are very Bible as the supreme criterion of belief, and to abandon the
expensive and difficult to obtain. Therefore, owning and intermediary of clergy and communicate directly with God.
reading written religious books has been the privilege of a It is obviously inconceivable for the ordinary people who
very small number of people in society for a long time, and cannot even get the Bible to be justified by faith without the
these people include the nobles and missionaries. Religious mass printing of classics and the emergence of this form of
information of the general believers can only be obtained printing communication.
from the oral dissemination of privileged classes. This factor After more than five centuries of development, the
was one of the objective reasons for the emergence and long- printing communication of religion has proved its lasting and
term maintenance of the hierarchy in medieval Europe. far-reaching influence. Even today, printed books are still the
In a sense, whoever has the means of spreading belief in basic tool for religious propaganda. It has the advantages of
truth has the truth of belief. Ordinary civilians have no accurate expression, repeated use, convenient retrieval, low
chance to explore "pure apocalypse" because they cannot cost, easy preservation and mass production, and it is
read the Bible, so they have to listen to what the priests say. irreplaceable. But in terms of timeliness, it does not have too
If they want to get close to God, to be saved, to go to heaven, many advantages. It takes a long time for newspapers and
they have to resort to huge religious groups. magazines to reach a certain range of readers, no matter how
fast they are edited. It cannot convey the dynamic and vivid
personality power of the communicator through image and
C. The Stage of Printing Communication Is the Era of language to the audience (religious people), thus losing the
Popularization of Religious Beliefs special religious experience brought by the situational effect
The invention of printing has influenced the whole to the audience. It is also limited by the reader's reading
process of human civilization, and has epoch-making ability and various artificial or natural spatial barriers.
significance in the history of human culture. It improves
productivity, liberates countless copywriters, shortens the D. Electronic Communication Is an Era of Pluralism and
publishing cycle, speeds up the dissemination of knowledge Secularization of Religious Beliefs
and information, reduces the cost of book production, and
enlarges the breadth and depth of information exchange. Since the 1920s, another revolution in communication
Therefore, the application of printing has produced technology has taken place. The invention and
enormous economic benefits. As far as social benefits are popularization of movies, radio broadcasting and television
concerned, it enables books bearing rich ancient cultures to marks the arrival of the era of electronic communication.
be published and preserved, and makes the cultural blood of This has greatly changed human life, and has had
human beings breathe and continue to this day. A large unprecedented impact on world religions.
number of books and materials break through the After the emergence of electronic media, it was used for
geographical restrictions and closely link people of different missionary purposes by the church. The American church
skin colors and languages, which greatly promote the took the lead in applying this new communication
exchange and integration of human culture. Although the technology to missionary work. As early as the 1940s, the
inventor of engraving printing and the date of its birth are famous missionary Charles Fuller hosted religious programs
still controversial, the original engraving printing has a close on radio. He called his audience "friends of the radio
relationship with Buddhism from the perspective of existing kingdom". Like in church, he asked them to take out the
physical objects. Monasteries and Buddhists used the Bible, listened to his sermons, and encouraged them to write
popular engraving printing as a tool to propagate Buddhism to him regularly to share their beliefs. The first person to
early. The production and dissemination of Buddhist classics preach on television was Fulton Sin, the Roman Catholic
priest. In 1952, he began to host Mass on television religious

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 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 329

programs. In the 1990s, religion communication in western ideological belief, but also a religion believer's social and
countries has become so dependent on electronic media that cultural identity and way of life. It is a very sensitive social
it can hardly move forward. Since the 1980s, the rapid problem. Therefore, if the mass communication ignores the
development of the Internet has affected all aspects of life. religious concept of the audience in its operation, it cannot
The Internet has also penetrated into religion, which has had give full play to its role, and even cause unnecessary disputes.
a profound impact on religion. People live in the Internet age, In the past few years, Rushdie, a British writer, wrote Satan's
so it has more profound practical significance. Psalms. He was sentenced to death by Khomeini according
to the Islamic Code, and was offered a reward for arrest. He
The Internet has opened another door for the spread and is believed to have insulted Muslims' religious feelings. He
development of religion. Religion has crossed the boundaries still lives in seclusion. Although he has declared his religion
among family, society, country and belief. Under the to be Islamic, he is still not forgiven.
comprehensive effect of many competitive advantages, such
as convenience, rapidity, strong interaction and low cost, Secondly, the development of religion and mass
online religion have developed rapidly. For this reason, some communication is unbalanced and asymmetric. All religions
western scholars point out that in the era after the advent of use the mass media to expand their influence, but this does
television, the Internet has provided the most powerful not mean that if they have advanced means of
"marketing tools" for churches. At present, any kind of communication and have done a lot of propaganda, their
network platform based on the Internet has become a tool for organizations will certainly grow proportionally and
religious communication and development. While the correspondingly. Apart from being influenced by other
Internet greatly promotes the development of religion, factors, the development of religion mainly follows its own
various kinds of false and ugly phenomena in the society logic. Nowadays, Western countries such as Europe and
under the banner of religion, such as terrorism, religious America should have the most advanced means of
extremism, network fraud, cults, etc., also use the Internet communication in the world. Religious organizations in
tide to fish in troubled waters, which has threatened the these countries spend a lot of manpower and material
healthy and orderly development of religion, and challenged resources in their mission plans, institutions and equipment
the bottom line of human values. to the whole world, especially the third world. But
Christianity is not the fastest growing religion in all of these
In traditional religions, religious believers should carry countries. The traditional religions in the backward countries
out religious activities. Collective religious activities of of the third world, even some primitive tribal religions, do
religious believers should generally be held in registered not have or seldom have advanced communication
places of religious activities, organized by places of religious technology, but grow up latently in the developed countries.
activities or religious organizations, presided over by
religious clergymen or other persons conforming to the Thirdly, religion influences the effect of mass
provisions of this religion, and carried out in accordance with communication. In some countries and regions of the world,
the doctrine and religious rules. Due to traditional habits, the influence of religious forces is deep-rooted. In order to
religious believers have religious life in their own homes, achieve good results, mass communication has to rely on the
and carry out activities such as worship of Buddha, chanting influence of religion. In this regard, there is nothing more
sutras, burning incense, worship, prayer, lecture, preaching, telling than the fact that politicians in some countries use the
mass, baptism, abstinence, fasting, evening master and power of religious leaders to propagate themselves in the
retrospect, mainly involving family members. These media during their campaigns. During the reign of former
activities are also normal religious activities. Traditional Iranian King Balevi, he used various means of
religious activities are limited by objective conditions such communication to propagate his "white revolution"
as place, personnel, and time. The emergence of network (westernization) program. As it was contrary to the
religion greatly facilitates the development of religious prevailing Islamic fundamentalism belief in the country, the
activities such as religious organizations and believers' propaganda effect was largely offset, which caused
religious participation, exchange and sharing. widespread discontent and resentment. The exiled religious
leader Khomeini called on the people to boycott the rule of
III. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMMUNICATION Balevi by radio, and the blood flowed into the river at all
TECHNOLOGY AND RELIGION costs. Finally, he ousted Balevi from power. In these
important historical events, the enlargement and reduction of
Although communication technology has a tremendous the communication effect are closely related to the religious
impact on the development of modern religion, it does not beliefs of the people of that country. Although every country
mean that religion is only a purely dependent variable. in the world has religion, the extent to which religious
Communication technology is a purely independent variable organizations use electronic media varies from country to
factor. As a relatively independent social system, religion has country. The degree of social and economic development,
its own law of occurrence and development, and its the level of scientific and technological development and
occurrence and development also have a certain impact on popularization, the restrictions of laws and regulations on
other social systems, including the communication system. religious communication in different countries, and the
This is mainly manifested in the following aspects: traditional practices of different religions and denominations
First, religion has a restrictive effect on the behavior and in missionary areas will all affect the degree of religious
content of mass communication. Religion is not only an communication.

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IV. CONCLUSION
This article has a general understanding of the religious
changes caused by the changes in communication technology.
As a unique spiritual activity and ideology of human beings,
religion plays an important role in human development. It is
difficult to examine, grasp and analyze this prospect
comprehensively. The emergence and development, change
and transformation of religion are closely related to
communication technology, which resonates with and
interacts with religious civilization. Especially, since the 21st
century, the media has become the most important factor to
change the religious pattern, which has a profound impact on
the survival and development of religion in content and form.
According to the specific national conditions of China,
how to predict and grasp the influence of communication
technology on religion, improve the level of government
decision-making, and safeguard national security and
national unity is of great practical significance. Because of
the author's limited academic level, this paper only discusses
the impact of communication technology on religion from a
macro perspective, and its research needs to be deepened,
which needs to be discussed in the future.

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