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The Internet is My Religion
Jim Gilliam’s The Internet is My Religion chronicles the years leading up to his founding of NationBuilder, from his Christian fundamentalist upbringing, through his experience on the frontlines of the internet revolution, to his being saved—literally—by people connected through the internet. Intimate and thought-provoking, The Internet is My Religion is an exploration of life, a narrative of personal turmoil, and a testament to the power of a connected humanity.
www.internetismyreligion.com
www.internetismyreligion.com
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2015
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194 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
August 4, 2019
You’re probably going to think a free memoir isn’t much—not interesting, not well-written, not worth bothering with. I picked it up at a conference not knowing it was a memoir, actually. It sat around my house cluttering things until I decided to throw it out—but not until I glanced through it first.
Well, much later the same day it is all revolving in my head, leaving me feeling wonder, awe, thunderstruck surprise, joy, awe again. This is one helluva story, a creation story. a bildungsroman, an odyssey. And our hero—yes, emphatically, hero—emerges an adult, a moral adult caring about his fellow humans. His fellow humans care about him as well.
He is not bitter, or cynical, or any one of the things that lesser people may experience along the dark and scary road that can be our lives. His life surely trumps that of most of us, simply in terms of size: he is 6’9” and was down to 145 pounds at the height of his death-defying illness.
Since he tell us of his illness in the first pages, I am not giving away the story. No. That honor is still reserved for him because the bad things that happen are not really, ever, the story. It is what we did after that. And what Jim Gilliam did was to grab every bit of life he had left and use it.
By then he had discovered that God was not to be found in some cold pile of cathedral rocks somewhere or in the thundering denunciations of false prophets on TV but within all of us, most especially when we are together, caring for one another. He calls that search and finding connection a holy experience, and he is not wrong.
Gilliam is a technologist, and as such, one would expect his skills would not lie in writing. But this book, even if he had help, is beautifully done, full of moment, real insight, propulsion, and discovery. In a way, it is the tale of every man, though not every man has gotten there yet.
He will describe the moment he discovers falseness in the lessons taught him by his religious teachers, the moment the world begins to unravel around his family, the moment he discovers he must, no matter what, follow his own path to understanding.
What is so appealing about this journey is that Gilliam is guileless. He is not trying to teach us anything. He is explaining his journey, what he saw, and tells us what he thinks about what he saw. It is utterly fascinating because he has so much understanding of the events in his life.
Gilliam’s father and mother both were math majors and computer scientists of sorts in the computer field's early days. For business reasons his father lost an opportunity to develop one of the first software programs for personal computers at IBM and consequently turned to fundamentalist religion.
Gilliam grew up steeped in the language and an understanding of what computers could do, but was restricted from taking full advantage by the religiosity of his parents. He himself was very good at thinking like a scientist and took advanced classes while in high school so that he could enter college as a sophomore.
The hill separating him from his intellectual development became steeper just as he was finishing high school. I am not going to spoil the story arc. At no point did this 180-page small format paperback every become weighted down with intent or causation. We just have the clean progression of one boy into man into—that word again—hero.
His understanding that there is something godly in human connection, in striving together for good, is exactly what people discover in moments of human happiness and fulfillment. While he rejected the morality in which he was raised, as I did, I wonder if somehow it wasn’t good preparation for recognizing morality when he saw it, finally.
Personally, I can’t think of a more absorbing, unputdownable story. Get it if you can. It is a wonderful, thought-provoking personal history.
Well, much later the same day it is all revolving in my head, leaving me feeling wonder, awe, thunderstruck surprise, joy, awe again. This is one helluva story, a creation story. a bildungsroman, an odyssey. And our hero—yes, emphatically, hero—emerges an adult, a moral adult caring about his fellow humans. His fellow humans care about him as well.
He is not bitter, or cynical, or any one of the things that lesser people may experience along the dark and scary road that can be our lives. His life surely trumps that of most of us, simply in terms of size: he is 6’9” and was down to 145 pounds at the height of his death-defying illness.
Since he tell us of his illness in the first pages, I am not giving away the story. No. That honor is still reserved for him because the bad things that happen are not really, ever, the story. It is what we did after that. And what Jim Gilliam did was to grab every bit of life he had left and use it.
By then he had discovered that God was not to be found in some cold pile of cathedral rocks somewhere or in the thundering denunciations of false prophets on TV but within all of us, most especially when we are together, caring for one another. He calls that search and finding connection a holy experience, and he is not wrong.
Gilliam is a technologist, and as such, one would expect his skills would not lie in writing. But this book, even if he had help, is beautifully done, full of moment, real insight, propulsion, and discovery. In a way, it is the tale of every man, though not every man has gotten there yet.
He will describe the moment he discovers falseness in the lessons taught him by his religious teachers, the moment the world begins to unravel around his family, the moment he discovers he must, no matter what, follow his own path to understanding.
What is so appealing about this journey is that Gilliam is guileless. He is not trying to teach us anything. He is explaining his journey, what he saw, and tells us what he thinks about what he saw. It is utterly fascinating because he has so much understanding of the events in his life.
Gilliam’s father and mother both were math majors and computer scientists of sorts in the computer field's early days. For business reasons his father lost an opportunity to develop one of the first software programs for personal computers at IBM and consequently turned to fundamentalist religion.
Gilliam grew up steeped in the language and an understanding of what computers could do, but was restricted from taking full advantage by the religiosity of his parents. He himself was very good at thinking like a scientist and took advanced classes while in high school so that he could enter college as a sophomore.
The hill separating him from his intellectual development became steeper just as he was finishing high school. I am not going to spoil the story arc. At no point did this 180-page small format paperback every become weighted down with intent or causation. We just have the clean progression of one boy into man into—that word again—hero.
His understanding that there is something godly in human connection, in striving together for good, is exactly what people discover in moments of human happiness and fulfillment. While he rejected the morality in which he was raised, as I did, I wonder if somehow it wasn’t good preparation for recognizing morality when he saw it, finally.
Personally, I can’t think of a more absorbing, unputdownable story. Get it if you can. It is a wonderful, thought-provoking personal history.
August 12, 2016
Gilliam gets, vividly, that none of us can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. He doesn't quite make the connection that, close as he and his family came to disaster over and over, the padding that caught him wasn't just altruism but also wealth, whiteness, maleness, and heterosexuality.
The story about his sister being victimized by a bail scam was particularly sickening. Gilliam somehow misses that people without a wealthy sibling willing to swoop in and save them would be trapped forever. He just gets them out of town as quickly as money can buy, he doesn't try to fight the scammer or look into the other victims. (To be fair, he still identified as a conservative at the time---it was probably already a shock to his system.) And then his sister quit cold turkey, unlike other unworthy addicts... no, Gilliam hasn't quite let go of the fantasy of deserved success. It's hard to do, especially if it has worked so well for you.
The story about his sister being victimized by a bail scam was particularly sickening. Gilliam somehow misses that people without a wealthy sibling willing to swoop in and save them would be trapped forever. He just gets them out of town as quickly as money can buy, he doesn't try to fight the scammer or look into the other victims. (To be fair, he still identified as a conservative at the time---it was probably already a shock to his system.) And then his sister quit cold turkey, unlike other unworthy addicts... no, Gilliam hasn't quite let go of the fantasy of deserved success. It's hard to do, especially if it has worked so well for you.
October 31, 2015
Great life story
Also the Internet is very cool. It seems like a great back story to the founding of nation builder. It's always nice to hear about kids growing up fundementalist and make it out ok.
Also the Internet is very cool. It seems like a great back story to the founding of nation builder. It's always nice to hear about kids growing up fundementalist and make it out ok.
Read
September 25, 2016Hearing Jim's life story, and specifically how computers and the nascent internet shaped it, was fascinating. Anyone who is at all interested in the power that exists through technology should read this book.
July 23, 2019
Got this book for free while working at Meetup because the ending resounds so much with Meetup's mission of using the internet to connect people. Because by empowering people to manifest their destiny(?) by connecting to each other, we are essentially the largest force in the world, or in Gilliam's words, God.
The message is interesting, as is Gilliam's tumultuous life, but the book and its focus on technology and religion (my two least favorite things, as a crotchety reject of new things) was not. I was riveted to finish a 500 page book in between picking this up and finishing it, so this book was clearly not a compelling read to me.
The message is interesting, as is Gilliam's tumultuous life, but the book and its focus on technology and religion (my two least favorite things, as a crotchety reject of new things) was not. I was riveted to finish a 500 page book in between picking this up and finishing it, so this book was clearly not a compelling read to me.
October 25, 2015
Very good. Its been a while that I read a book in one session straight. Gilliam is founder of NationBuilder, but don't expect a business book. This is a very personal account of overcoming christian fundamentalism, 2x cancer, lung-transplantation etc.
April 14, 2019
Dang.
May 29, 2019
Very readable.
October 3, 2015
So so writing in an autobiography of Jim Gilliam's thrill ride of a life. Beating cancer, (yea) Getting a Lung transplant and being at the right place at the right time for the internet revolution and saving his sister's life from the predations of drugs. Going from hard core evangelical to atheist to some blend of secular humanism. The internet really is his religion. If you are looking for something more profound than that testimony, then you'll be disappointed. I was hoping he'd have more about how Nationbuilder came together, his out of the box community organizer platform that is unique in that they sell to anybody regardless of political affiliation. I kind of get it from his speech on human connection but not how he actually brought a team together to do it. Not much business insight here either. Most of his decisions sound like dumb luck or intuition.
May 23, 2017
This book had me enthralled for the few short days it took to read it. It was easy to read even while it was frequently difficult to digest. Jim's descriptions of how the Internet developed, the behind-the-scenes looks at the businesses behind it all, these were fascinating and easy for the tech-illiterate to understand. I found camaraderie in his fundamentalist upbringing, familiarity in his thoughts and beliefs during that time in his life.
His descriptions of losing that faith but in doing so finding peace and freedom echoed my own experiences so closely that at times I felt like jumping up and cheering.
What a gift to the world Jim Gilliam is and what an inspiration he has been to me to get up and do something with this one life I have.
His descriptions of losing that faith but in doing so finding peace and freedom echoed my own experiences so closely that at times I felt like jumping up and cheering.
What a gift to the world Jim Gilliam is and what an inspiration he has been to me to get up and do something with this one life I have.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 2, 2016
I got this book in the mail yesterday at my office and I finished it this afternoon.
Here's what's interesting about this guy's story: he's had a stunning combination of huge advantages and giant setbacks. He comes from a well off family with access to the very best in technological resources, but man has his luck with health been terrible. Yet he's persevered and had a bunch of giant successes.
He has lots of money (one can intuit) but he also just keeps getting pummeled by his own innards.
For those of you who grew up in the Bible belt (as I did), but of the story of former evangelical who saw the light (secularly) will be familiar, but what's unique is how curiously important the internet itself was to his particular salvation.
Here's what's interesting about this guy's story: he's had a stunning combination of huge advantages and giant setbacks. He comes from a well off family with access to the very best in technological resources, but man has his luck with health been terrible. Yet he's persevered and had a bunch of giant successes.
He has lots of money (one can intuit) but he also just keeps getting pummeled by his own innards.
For those of you who grew up in the Bible belt (as I did), but of the story of former evangelical who saw the light (secularly) will be familiar, but what's unique is how curiously important the internet itself was to his particular salvation.
March 21, 2018
Very quick read, in part thanks to the actual length, but in greater part thanks to Gilliam's style and prose. Entirely engulfing, once you start, you don't want to put it down. It's more or less a memoir/high-level autobiography, and the lesson isn't dissimilar from what many religions preach - God is present when people are connected.
How he arrived at his conclusion is quite the ride, and the striking part is Gilliam's self-awareness. There definitely rings true a bit of "bleeding heart liberal," but even in those passages, Gilliam shows that he is in touch with how his thoughts and actions are perceived to the outside world.
Overall, very good, quick read that reinforces the notion of human connectivity as the basis for true happiness in this world.
How he arrived at his conclusion is quite the ride, and the striking part is Gilliam's self-awareness. There definitely rings true a bit of "bleeding heart liberal," but even in those passages, Gilliam shows that he is in touch with how his thoughts and actions are perceived to the outside world.
Overall, very good, quick read that reinforces the notion of human connectivity as the basis for true happiness in this world.
January 13, 2016
While a quick read due to its concise length and format, this book managed to be simultaneously intriguing, heartbreaking, uplifting, redeeming and profound. I recommend it to everyone, especially those with interest in the transcendence of millennial culture and its oft-criticized connection, nay adherence, to the social evolution of technological advancements.
December 20, 2018
This was a book of self discovery at the time of the age of the internet. It's fascinating to see history interweave with this person's life, and how this person's life interweaves with history. I am kinda anxious when I read anything that has to do with Health and Doctors and stuff and usually shy away so aside from that, its a powerful book for motivation to do more in this world.
December 30, 2015
What a pleasant surprise! Although Gilliam's story was quite emotional, the writing was accessible and entertaining. Non-fiction can be a little iffy for me, but I would highly recommend this!
5 Stars - Poignant, funny, introspective
5 Stars - Poignant, funny, introspective
November 18, 2016
Really fun read. Free-flowing, amusing, and lighthearted despite serious challenges in life, Mr. Gilliam (CEO of NationBuilder) presents a wonderful account of how he got to where he is in the world.
December 22, 2016
Motivating and riveting memoir. The author has a special story and even turned down attractive publishing deals to share his story for free on the internet. After reading this book, you'll understand why.
October 15, 2015
I read this in one sitting.
December 10, 2015
Really inspiring story
December 20, 2015
What a story! I would have thought this was fiction if I didn't know better. Incredibly inspiring.
January 11, 2016
Fantastic. Please read.
February 5, 2016
Super inspirational, though often harrowing, memoir and a positive look on how the Internet connects us and how those connections change us. Read most of this in one sitting.
June 17, 2017
Quick read, 189 pages in a few hours. Nice memoir. Don't have much to say about this book.
October 4, 2018
It shows that being a good IT guy does not make you a good writer / story teller
May 8, 2019
3 stars because it’s so readable and a fascinating story. But his conclusions are seriously off base. He died in 2018 at 41.
March 13, 2022
I picked this book up out of a book purge nearby and never expected to cry as many times as I did over it. A raw account of one computer coder's life in the 90's-00's, through computers, Christianity, cancer, 9/11, activism, to the final breakthrough of truly finding 'God', Gilliam hits on many key points that made me realize alot, not only about religion and the internet in our country, but what internet and religion has influenced for myself as well.
March 9, 2020
A truthful and heart-breaking story. Author fought with cancer, won two times and lost the third. His belief transformed from Christian fundamentalism to believing in the internet, the connectivity of humanity is authentic and thought-provoking. Very sad.
This is a free book, but also an invaluable memoir.
There’s no price tag
Picked it up from apartment building library.
This is a free book, but also an invaluable memoir.
There’s no price tag
Picked it up from apartment building library.
January 3, 2020
A memoir that felt very close to my own experiences in living and growing up with the internet. A testimonial to hope.
August 9, 2020
Must read no matter who you are or where you are in life.
February 25, 2024
Without a doubt, an inspiring story. I appreciated the down-to-earth approach to his storytelling, I just would have loved to get a more in depth look of some of those experiences.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews