The Internet has become a hub of religious worship for millions of people around the world. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and people of other faiths turn regularly to Web sites to pray, meditate and gather in “virtual” houses of worship graphically designed to look like the real thing. Some sites offer rites from baptism to confession to conversion to Judaism.

The article, Linking Ancient and Modern focuses on how India’s Hindu have embraced the internet. Over 20 million live outside of the country, and websites such as Saranam connect them to temples. They buy prayers, (pujas, acts of devotional offerings) and locals go to priests to have their purchase carried out.

The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth goes one further. A buyer goes online and purchases a candle (and prayer) for 10 dollars each. During the Feast of the Annunciation, the buyer can go online  at a designated time to watch streamed video of a priest lighting the candle(s) and saying the prayer. The prayer purchaser also receives an email with the video to share with family and friends.

 For many cyber-worshipers, online religious life conducted at home or in an Internet cafe has replaced attendance at traditional churches, temples, mosques and synagogues. Some are coming to religion for the first time, in a setting they find as comfortable as their grandparents found a church pew, while millions of people reared on churchgoing are discovering new ways to worship.

“The first wave of religion online, in the 1990s, was mainly for nerds and young people and techies,” said Morten Hojsgaard, a Danish author who has written extensively about online religion. “But now it really is a mirror of society at large. This is providing a new forum for religious seekers.”

Hojsgaard said the number of Web pages dealing with God, religion and churches increased from 14 million in 1999 to 200 million in 2004. Religion now nearly rivals sex as a topic on the Internet: A search for “sex” on Google returns about 408 million hits, while a search for “God” yields 396 million.