That Mark Zuckerberg sure is ambitious.

As noted by CNBC.com, Zuckerberg, appearing recently at a Facebook event in Chicago, compared the social media platform he founded to church, going as far as to suggest that Facebook could actually replace church in several key respects.

“A church doesn’t just come together,” Zuckerberg noted. “It has a pastor who cares for the well-being of their congregation, makes sure they have food and shelter. A little league team has a coach who motivates the kids and helps them hit better. Leaders set the culture, inspire us, give us a safety net, and look out for us.”

“People who go to church are more likely to volunteer and give to charity — not just because they’re religious, but because they’re part of a community.”

So, to Zuckerberg, apparently, the role of faith, including a Christian orientation, is just not terribly influential when it comes to the decision to give of themselves to others.

“If we can do this,” he continued, “it will not only turn around the whole decline in community membership we’ve seen for decades, it will start to strengthen our social fabric and bring the world closer together.”

It is frightening the degree to which Zuckerberg sees Facebook and church as being essentially interchangeable. But it speaks to the fear that many have had about social media sites since their inception; that they are part of a grand effort to enhance secular “groupthink” and, in the process, see to the diminishment of spirituality and the moral focus that is typically a standard accompaniment to it.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large