There is a simple point that needs to be emphasised here. Human beings seem to need God more than God seems to need human beings. The more these poor forked creatures trace their origin to the apes, explore the ice caps, sent rockets into space and create transgenic potatoes, the more they seem to long for the all-embracing arms of a religious fountainhead. How else canthis proliferation of websites -- at last count it numbered some 600,000 -- exclusively devoted to the spiritual have occurred? The cynics are of course not convinced that such activity is evidence of true spirituality. Look at the empty houses of worship the world over -- evidence enough that religion is on the decline, they say. But, like the old MTV line goes, if you can't keep up, get out. Religion now flows out of the barrel of a mouse. Login to the celestial and discover your faith. Some sites offer to interpret horoscopes, others provide you with the soothing words of the Guru Granth Sahib; some transmit live prayers from Mecca five times a day, others make a fine art of Bible-thumping. And as the hymns resound, the temple bells chime and the muezzins call out into cyberspace, there is satisfaction to be gleaned from the fact that God's on the Internet and all's well with the world. What is exceptional about these virtual monuments of living faith is that there is a certain equality about them -- it'snot just the big daddies of mainstream religions of the world that can set up shop here. Every whacko and devil-dodger worth his or her salt can provide a cyber habitation and a name to their experiments in truth.

There is a problem, however. The digital God of the modern age is beginning increasingly take on the aspect of a Bill Gates, complete with tailored suit and spectacles. After all, in times when wealth is worship, a man who is worth a quarter of this country's GDP cannot but inspire the awe that is normally reserved for the Supreme Being. Given the monopolistic and messianic quality of the Gatesian enterprise it shouldn't be long before sites dedicated to this God makes their appearance too. Meanwhile, the world has just one prayer to make to the Almighty at this juncture: O Lord who art in cyberspace, hallowed be Thy name and, yes, please fix the Y2K problem before aeroplanes start falling out of the sky.