Almost every major religion is represented on the Web, as are some sects of which you may never have heard. Organizations and individuals have various reasons for creating religious home pages. Some of them read as hard-core attempts at recruitment, others as defenses against perceived barbarians at the gate, and still others as expressions of religious exploration or spiritual bliss.
My Alta Vista search for "religion" yielded roughly 200,000 matches. After a few weeks of ecclesiastical Web surfing I hit on a few informative sites. With the exception of online religious libraries and art galleries, most of them rely on very simple graphics and concentrate more on text than on visual presentation.
I found a few good jumping-off points for Web pilgrims. These sites offer listings of world religions and, for the most part, links to home pages dedicated to the various sects.
The Religion Page provides an overview of religious issues and excellent links on Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Similarly, Religion Sites furnishes links to pages on Buddhism, Mormonism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, New Age schools of thought and most of the main-line Christian churches.
Another useful reference page is World Religions. If you are interested in learning at least a little about a lot of different religious disciplines from Atheism to Zoroastrianism, this page has it. Unfortunately, the page is more list than links, but it's not a bad place for the budding ascetic to work on his or her vocabulary.
Eastern Religions
Some of the most aesthetically pleasing sites are among the sites devoted to Eastern religions. My favorite is Sanatana Dharma's Electronic Ashram where Asia's ancient spiritual path awaits the browser. Five-armed elephant-faced Son of Nandi declares "Jai Ganesha" on the Ashram's welcome page in lively colors. As well as information about Hinduism, this site affords an opportunity to visit Hindu temples, monasteries and academies online.
Cyber Buddhism is alive and well in all of its various forms, from news of the progress of Tibetan Buddhism and His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet to online Zen gardens and temples. One of my favorites is Nomius - Zen Garden a colorful page that allows you to test your philosophical mettle with Zen koans—questions to ponder as a means of gaining mystical understanding. Also just an icon away are Zen images, Zen stories, and some really cool Zen garden sounds that can be downloaded in wav format.
Another truly eye-pleasing Buddhist site is the Lotus Buddhist Art Gallery, an online gallery of paintings and statues from the Dharma cultures. The pages feature new and ancient pieces accompanied by short explanations of each work that detail the object's religious significance. Also available at this site are stories, reflection and an online shop.
Judaism
If your spiritual yearning leads you more toward Judaism, a fulfilling first stop might be Virtual Jerusalem: The Internet City With a 3,000 Year Tradition. The site offers a wealth of information on Judaism and Jewish communities of the world, as well as breaking news from Israel. Of course, another good source for links and information on the various Judaic movements is the Judaism FAQ Page.
Even the traditionally technology-shy Orthodox Jews are represented on the Web. A FAQ page lends a solid explanation of Orthodox Judaism. And on a page entitled Or Chadash a Michigan-based group has posted a sort of manifesto geared toward reforming Orthodox Judaism.
Islam
Hungry for Islamic teachings? Check out the USC Muslim Students Association Islamic Server. This sharp Web site presents the fundamentals of Islam and Islamic society. An interesting section of this page is entitled, "What is NOT Islam"—an explanation of why the Nation of Islam and three other groups abuse the word "Islam." Also available at this site is an English translation of the Qur'an, Islam's primary text, as well as links to other Islamic sites.
Azhar Mosque of the Internet is a curious site that among other things, accepts prayer requests, contemplates Islamic terrorism and makes available poetry for children.
Christianity/Catholicism
Christians of all denominations are well represented on the Web. Virtual Christianity provides links to a variety of evangelical Christian Web pages.
The WWW Bible Gateway offers a word search/concordance function for five English translations of the Bible used by different Christian denominations: New American Standard Bible (NASB), Revised Standard Version (RSV), King James Version (KSV), Darby and YLT. Anyone who has ever struggled through a Christian theology class would not be hesitant to sing the praises of this function!
Roman Catholics have a dizzying number of Web pages. The Catholic sites include a wide variety of pages, from simple pages on which parishes list their Mass times to detailed pages from religious orders and Catholic colleges. A comprehensive Web index is Catholic Resources of the Net, an unofficial guide to all things Catholic. The Official Holy See Vatican Web Site, a yellow, gray and white site which features photos of Pope John Paul II, is temporarily out of service while the Vatican Information Services (VIS) labor to create a "complete database of the documents of the Church" that will facilitate research under a search engine.
Fear not Papalphiles, VIS is still providing daily and weekly updates in a choice of three languages at the site, and there are a number of unofficial pope homepages. Pope John Paul II: The Vicar of Christ imparts a fairly detailed biography of the present pope as well as some muddy black-and-white photos. The ultimate site for the pope fans is Chris Miller's Unofficial Pope Home Page. This site provides links to a gallery of pope pictures, the 1994 Time magazine Man of the Year article, and much of the pope's writings, encyclicals, and speeches.
Hands down, one of the most unique Christian Web site is Trek for Christ. Its main graphic—a black field of stars with a yellow and red exploding star behind a white cross and the words "Trek for Christ" emblazoned in brilliant blue across the screen in the Star Trek font—made me laugh the first time I saw it. But the group is quite serious in its mission. It is the home page of an organization that has combined its love of Star Trek (the television shows and movies) and its mission to be witnesses for Christ to Trekker friends who the page says may be brainwashed by the secular humanist, evolutionist and new age philosophies expressed in Star Trek.
New Age
If your ethereal tastes would be better satisfied with a more New Age-flavored page, here are three noteworthy sites to experience:
The Facets of Religion, is a catch-all resource page for New Pagans, Wicca (witches) and other purveyors of magic. The Shamanism General Overview FAQ Page, a resource page that offers the hopeful cyber Shaman a wealth of information and book recommendations on Celtic, Asian, African and Native American Shamanism. My favorite New Age page is Spirit-WWW. Endowed with lots of shadowy gold and silver graphics, it provides a laundry list of New Age thought and healing techniques. This site also includes a section for spiritual Web chat. You can choose to chat in any of five chat rooms adorned with photos of locations believed powerful in New Age traditions: Stonehenge, Machu Pichu, Uluru, Giza, Mt. Shasta and Ganges. I've visited the chat rooms at Mt. Shasta and Stonehenge and the people there say things like, "Greetings, live in light!" Corny, but oddly comforting at the end of the day.
Blessings on your journey!