7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

(From Matthew 7:7-8 KJV)

“‘What would a perfect search engine look like?’ we asked [Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google]. ‘It would be the mind of God. Larry [Page] says it would know exactly what you want and give you back exactly what you need.’”

(Found at The Church of Google)

I’ve written before about the possibility that maybe all religions really are is search engine technologies. And I just can’t escape that as a useful metaphor; I keep coming back to it. Admittedly, it’s counter to what most people say a religion is, that religions give us answeres. But I’m more interested in the idea that religions don’t so much give us answers as they do help us to articulate our questions, and provide us with the trail of clues left by others who asked these same questions. This shift emphasizes religion as the search for truth, rather than the truth itself - that is to say that the truth is in the searching. [More on this topic soon…]