"The world is getting to be such a dangerous place, a man is lucky
to get out of it alive." – W. C. Fields
The author of that joke lived a long time ago, but the world is still a
dangerous place. You can lead a life that brings you down the path of death, or
a path that leads you toward life.
Let me see if an analogy from technology can help us. To re-phrase W.
C. Fields, "The Internet is getting to be such a dangerous place, a
computer is lucky to get out alive." The constant threat of a virus,
malware, can kill them.
It has been said many times in our wired world that the Internet has
created a global society - an environment where people from many different
countries and cultures connect as neighbors, conduct business and explore the
myriad ways in which humans live and work in the world. Thirty years ago, few
people would have thought it possible to sit in your house and have the world
readily available, traveling across the globe with just a few clicks of what
would become known as a "mouse."
However, although the advent of the 'Net has revolutionized the way we
live, work and do business, it has also brought to light some of the seamier
aspects of human life. Because nobody really "runs" or controls the
Internet, it is a wide-open smorgasbord of the sublime, the ridiculous and,
most disturbingly, the salacious and the downright scary. Little did we know
that little mouse would lead us down a rabbit hole of both wonder and
wickedness.
Like any big city, or even like the countries of the globe, the
Internet has some good and bad neighborhoods, each of which is known by its
"domain." For the nontechnical person, the domain is the dot-whatever
you type in when entering a Web address (.com, .net, .edu, .gov, etc.). The
domain is the realm and designation of the Web site's type and/or origin, and
different countries often have different domains (.us for U.S. government
sites, .ca for Canada, .ru for Russia and the like). Like different
neighborhoods, cities and countries, however, different domains can get
different reputations based on the character of the people who
"populate" them. Some domains are delightful, and some are downright
devilish.
I try to keep up with this stuff. I got caught once when a harmless
site for free wall paper and backgrounds got bought out by some pornography
group. That was just odd. On Facebook, you get caught by clicking on something
that appears relatively harmless and interesting, and suddenly there is a shot
of someone or something that you would not want.
The point is, it is dangerous out there for you and for your computer.
Such dangers for our computers have also led companies to help us in
protecting them. McAfee, a leading provider of Internet security for personal
computers, recently released its list of the most dangerous domains on the
Internet. The report was titled "Mapping the Mal Web"
("mal," of course, being shorthand for malicious, or the Spanish word
for "bad" - you get the point). Spending too much time clicking
around a dangerous domain can be bad for your computer - what with all the
viruses, malware and spyware out there.
Some domains are unavoidable and are rated bad because of sheer volume.
McAfee's number-one dangerous domain, for example, is the .com family of sites.
It is by far the most prevalent domain, so it is the most likely to mess up
your machine if you are not careful. Second is the .info (information) domain.
This one might seem to be misplaced, but it may be a classic example of the
adage, "Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it."
Rounding out the top five are the domains of three Third World countries: .vn
(Vietnam), .cm (Cameroon) and .am (Armenia). A good rule of thumb is that
places you would not think of as a vacation spot are probably places you should
avoid on the Internet, as well.
By contrast, the five safest domains are places you would probably like
to go. The safest is .travel (used by travel-industry sites), followed by .edu
(education), which is used by colleges and universities. The others are all
seemingly nice countries: .jp (Japan), .cat (Catalan - a region of Spain) and
.gg (Guernsey - an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy,
France, that is a possession of the United Kingdom).
In other words, the computer on the Internet is kind of like a human life,
which has plenty of dangerous paths down which to travel. Human life needs some
“anti-virus” and “mal-ware” protection for it.
It is not only your computer that can be affected by the disreputable
activity of a dangerous domain. Perhaps even more insidious is the effect it
can have on the person viewing what the domain is trying to push. Pornography
sites, gambling sites, get-rich-quick sites, certain chat rooms and
social-networking sites - all these are likely sources for both computer
viruses and sickness of the soul. Addictions to these soul-crushing images and
activities are a form of slavery to the real masters of the domain: evil, sin
and spiritual death.
This reflection on “domains” makes me think of Paul, in his discussion
of just two domains. We find it in Romans 6:12-23. We learn that Paul also had
a concern for dangerous domains, long before McAfee ever hit the scene. His
concern was for the realm or domain of sin and its ability to enslave us to its
power. He invites us to live in another domain, one that is life-giving. As we
learn with Paul, the point is not so much to “try,” but to abide “in Christ,”
thereby letting the fruit of such abiding come forth in our lives.
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