Cultural evolution in action

Nick Corduan (nickc@IQUEST.NET)
Wed, 9 Aug 1995 11:52:02 -0500

Hi, All!

Snagged this message on another list and thought I'd pass it along. It's
pretty amazing stuff, a perfect example of cultural evolution in action --
proof of the way in which cultures adapt and/or change to meed current needs
and/or possibilities.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did . . .

(And feel free to distribute it to other lists you feel might be well-served.)


Original message follows:
-------------------------

> From:IN%"HISTEC-2@baylor.edu" 17-JUL-1995 10:09:07.97
> To:IN%"religion@harvarda.harvard.edu"
> CC:IN%"histec-2@baylor.edu"
> Subj:silly season: www confessional
>
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> Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 10:57:42 -0400 (EDT)
> From: "Charles L. Creegan" <ccreegan@uncecs.edu>
> Subject: silly season: www confessional
> To: religion@harvarda.harvard.edu
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> The following item is reprinted in its entirety from _Episcopal Life_
> July/August '95. Honest!
> ***
>
> The Diocese of Pittsburgh is leading the Roman Catholic Church and
> the Internet community into new territory with an "electronic
> confessional" that allows people to admit their sins and receive penance
> online.
> The ground-breaking service has been approved for a 180-day trial
> period by the Vatican as a bona fide alternative to in-person
> administration of the sacrament of reconciliation.
> The 24-hour interactive service, hosted at Carnegie-Mellon University,
> is reachable at the home page http://mea.culpa.cmu.edu on the World Wide
> Web.
> Monsignor Timothy Blessing, the diocese's on-line monitor for the
> service, said "The actual confession takes a little longer than it does
> in church because it takes longer to type for most people than to speak.
> A 14.4 modem certainly makes things go faster, but even without that,
> we're looking at no travel time and less likelihood of a long wait for
> the faithful," Blessing said.
> For those who have committed only venial sins, Blessing said a
> downloadable Windows-based point-and-click menu of offenses is under
> development but its release is uncertain pending review by a panel of
> ecclesiastical scholars in Rome.
> ***
>
> --
> Charles Creegan NC Wesleyan College ccreegan@uncecs.edu

Amazing, no? <g>

Nick---

--
Nick Corduan                 "...there is as much dignity in tilling
     at                       a field as in writing a poem."
(nickc@iquest.net)                           --Booker T. Washington