RELIGION ENTERS THE MODERN AGE WITH TWEETS ON THE WAILING WALL

August 1 2009

Jerusalem, Israel – Throughout the history of modern man we have sought to find a meaning for our existence. Some have pursued science, some philosophy and art, and others have pushed their own bodies to their limits to see what they are made of, but more often than not though the search for the meaning of life goes through the path
of religion. For thousands of years humanity has created and relied upon religion in one form or another as a base for understanding and navigating their existence and in both good and bad times that reliance has helped define the human experience.

In the pursuit of religion many have looked at new and preferably more efficient easy to get in contact with the creators. Whether it be human worship or prayer, one of the defining characteristics of religion has always been the quest to communicate with the ethereal realm. Now a new use of the ever popular Twitter service has
brought technology into prayer with the advent of Tweeted prayers. Started three weeks ago the new service has received thousands of tweets, which are then attached to the Wailing Wall, from people all across the globe showing many that religion can in fact evolve with the times.

“I'm swamped. I can't keep up with all the tweets. It started as a hobby, and I can't keep maintaining it by myself. But I'm determined to not lose even one prayer,” creator Anon Nil told The Associated Press. “There are an infinite number of uses for Twitter, and I thought 'What can I do that is new and creative and might benefit the people of Israel?”

With the rapid success Nil is finding himself overburdened with the task of keeping up with the prayers and the potential fallout should he not be able to deliver every single prayer to the wall. Already though the entrepreneur has plans on expanding his venture which he believes is one of the most significant advances in prayer history.

“The question obviously is whether he will be able to keep up with the influx of tweets. There are millions of Jews across the world who would like to communicate with God but aren’t able to travel to the wall. Many people pray every day and some even do it multiple times a day. If the promise is made to deliver these prayers then Nil has to follow through or risk angering God,” said Scrape TV Religion analyst Bertram Gas. “Jews do not take prayer lightly. Judaism is the oldest and most
venerable of religions with literally billions following the tenets set out by the Old Testament. It’s great that a 5000-year old religion is able to move so functionally into the modern age but like everything on the web, even more so in the Twitter-verse, follow-through is really important and could ultimately be the service’s undoing and the undoing of Nil’s immortal being.”

Twitter has a poor reputation for abandoned accounts with approximately 40 per cent of users abandoning the site shortly after joining. Traditionally God has had poor response time to prayers which may turn more impatient followers away from the service.

“I mean ideally what would be best would to give God a Twitter account for Himself.
That cuts out the middle man and limits the possibility of something being lost in translation. It would allow for a level of quality control that prayer has traditionally not had. I mean you have it all right there in writing for both Him and for yourself,” continued Gas. “Of course then you would have a virtual rush of deities and other religious entities looking to get on the web bandwagon. Of course that might happen anyway. It might not be long until we see Buddha on Facebook or the Sun with a YouTube account. This could just be the start of a whole new way of worshipping.

Officially Twitter officials do not take any responsibility for prayers that go unanswered.

Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent

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