Abstract:

This article aims to determine the relationship between digitalization and belief movements that are expressed as apostasy or religious conversion, and to read these movements through the concepts created by digitalization. Technologies emerging with digitalization have had an impact on individuals' emotions, thoughts and behaviors as well as their belief worlds. Research has shown that apostasy and religious conversion movements, which began with modernization, have differentiated and gained momentum in the digital age. This situation has created the necessity of re-reading belief change movements through digitalization concepts. In terms of the impact of digitalization on individuals, there are communication, psychology, sociology, and theology-based studies in the literature. In these studies, the influence of modernism on religious life that started with the industrial revolution was focused on, and digitalization was considered as a sub-heading in these studies. However, the problems in religious life that started with modernization have gained a different dimension with digitalization. Belief movements also have an important place here. The concepts created by digitalization have been used in communication, sociology, and psychology-based studies on digitalization to understand society and the individual. Similar reading should also be done through belief movements, because in the process of digitalization, while humans were initially in the subject position, over time, they have been positioned as both subject and object. Thus, the digital has determined its own mass, including objects and almost all of humanity. Therefore, in the digital age, it is necessary to re-read belief movements through the concepts created by digitalization in order to better define them and to better examine the underlying reasons. At this point, in our study, these belief-based movements have been read through the concepts created by digitalization and a new concept called "belief nomadism" has been attempted to define some of these movements. The first part of the study focused on the meaning and concepts generated by digitization. Then, the belief problem that changed or emerged with digitization was addressed. The belief problem, known as "belief migration" and a part of the phenomenon of religious conversion, was defined as "belief nomadism". The relationship between belief nomadism and digitization was discussed, and how digital nomadic behavior emerged in beliefs was explained. Additionally, the difference between belief nomadism and leaving a religion or converting to a new one was highlighted. Later, the possible causes of the digital age belief movement referred to as belief nomadism were explored, and the cognitive and emotional aspects of faith were discussed. The impact of the traumas caused by digitization on a person's selfhood and how it affects the emotional dimension of faith and belief nomadism was analyzed. In this regard, the phenomenological pattern based on qualitative methods was used in our study, and the hermeneutic phenomenology model was chosen as the model. Furthermore, the data based on the literature were analyzed using the descriptive analysis method. As a result, it was evaluated that the intense movements of leaving religion or converting to a new one in the digital age turned into a nomadic behavior in some individuals. It was mentioned that this behavior could be observed in individuals who strongly feel and imitate the effects of digitization on faith. The inability of an incomplete faith to respond to epistemological and axiological problems brought about by digitization was considered as the main reason for this behavior. To prevent these problems from leading to the "belief nomadism" problem, it was concluded that the cognitive aspect of faith in an individual should be based on a solid foundation. Additionally, the changing of individual and societal values and measures of happiness caused by digitization was considered another reason for nomadic behavior. It was found that creating the emotional dimension of faith in an individual could alleviate this problem to some extent.

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