Tavia's comments

This term during Theology we have looked at various means of religion that aren't the normal service. This has included websites such as the Ship of Fools and the Diocese of Oxford, we have also created our own website in which we have contributed blogs and many of us have written twitter posts. We have also looked at Second Life which is and online virtual world and how service can be experienced in this. We studied all of these to see how religion can be expressed in other ways which are widely available and easy to access. It was to show us how religion is not just and 45min service once a week in which you are pretending to be listening to and it can actually be something more. All the things we studied were something different and expressed relgion in a different way. Ship of Fools was a website which focused less on the meaning of religion and more of taking the mick out of it. The Diocese of Oxford website is almost the opposite of this and focuses on the meaning of religion and how it can help us. It opens up access to help and care as well as accesibility to church services for those who struggle to make the weekly service. It is also very useful for finding out information about weddings and other events. The blogs allowed us to contribute our own views on Theology via the internet and the twitter posts showed us how to say a lot in only a few words. Second life was very different from all the others as it wasjust like real life except it was all pretend. We also experienced an online service through Second Life.

Although Ship of Fools could be seen as offensive I don't believe it is as it adds humour into religion and allows it to not get boring it is also a good way to introduce religion as a fun and enjoyable experience  rather than a long slog and as long as it does not become offensive I think it is a suitable way to expand on religion.  The Diocese of Oxford is also a good way of expanding religion beyond the church as it is both helpful and useful. Blogs and twitter posts are also good for informing people about religion but somehow I don't think it can be expanded beyond that becaouse of the limits. However, personally I do not feel that Second Life is a good way to expand on religion as I believe it is not a proper way to contribute and is a lazy way. There is no personal contribution to the service and and you don't have to believe in it to participate.