Americans Blending Spiritual Ideas

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently published a survey regarding religious practice in America that found trends showing increasing diversity and the blending of views and practices regarding spiritual life. The results of the survey match what common sense would speculate. Over time Americans are increasingly open to a diverse mix of Christianity, Eastern concepts of re-incarnation and the spiritual value of yoga and meditation, New Age ideas, and the world of occult views regarding ghosts, Astrology, Tarot cards, and communicating with the dead.


Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths Full Report PDF

In the survey 24% of the public overall and 22% of Christians say they believe in reincarnation, and similar numbers (25% of the public overall, 23% of Christians) believe in astrology and acknowledge yoga as a spiritually worthwhile endeavor. More interesting is the trend the study found regarding mystical or enlightening experiences. Almost half (48%) of respondents said they have had a "moment of sudden religious insight or awakening," a substantial increase that reinforces the upward trend indicated by prior surveys, now more than twice the frequencies reported in the 60s and 70s. The experiences tend to occur with those NOT affiliated with a particular religion.

Skipping the discussion of entropy, these findings should surprise no one. The Internet, the explosion of cable television with international reach and 24/7 news feeds, and increasing world wide travel will continue to fuel the blending and mixing of the world's peoples, ideas, perspectives, religions, and languages. Naturally, this drives the xenophobes and Neanderthals crazy. Sure enough, after seeing a Washington Times piece discussing the survey, the righty blog Seeing Red had to bitch, steadfastly clinging to the mistaken yet hyperventilated notion that the USA was founded as a Judeo/Christian nation, citing the Declaration of Independence (?).

Judeo?

Jews did emigrate to early America starting virtually at once to escape European anti-Semitism, and they did play a role in the Revolutionary War, but we are talking very small numbers. Try to find references to Christ, Christianity, Jews or Judaism or the Torah in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, or the Constitution. Go for it. Religion is mentioned, of course, with that minor bit about separating church and state, and there's the no religious test clause in Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution.

The intent of the founding fathers could not be more clear, but let's not allow reality to interfere with our point of view. What always amazes me are remarks like this one in their post, "We’ll put our faith in traditional religious practices over "Eastern or New Age ideas, reincarnation, yoga as a spiritual practice..."

Eastern ideas and yoga are not traditional? They haven't heard of ... India? China?

On an unrelated note, Houston just elected openly lesbian and widely acknowledged gay rights activist Annise Parker as Mayor. I wonder if she would have won if voters knew she was a Zoroastrian priest in a previous incarnation.

Enabling the Holocaust - Constantine's Sword

(Pope Benedict XVI at Auschwitz) Once a Catholic priest, author James Carroll's faith in authority was broken by the Vietnam War. He left the church and began a rigorous study of the history of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, distinguishing an extraordinary story that deepens the understanding of the forces that made the seemingly incomprehensible Holocaust comprehensible.

(Constantine) Prior to 342, Christianity used many of the life affirming symbols including the fish, peacock, Chi-Rho, and other pagan like symbols. They didn't use the crucifix. That changed when Roman leader Constantine I had a vision of the cross on the eve of battle. The vision inspired him to victory, converted him to Christianity, and with his consolidation of power, cemented the establishment of the Catholic Church at the root of power. The Cross, the Roman instrument of execution, became the central image of the religion, and it had a byproduct, antisemitism and an increase in the emphasis of the false assertion that Jews were responsible for the execution of Christ. Many still believe this. Mel Gibson (who has been caught making anti-semitic statements) presents this view in his film The Passion of the Christ.

Skipping how this assertion was born (see the history of New Testament), it persisted, and the crusades made sure Jewish towns and villages were included on the list of those to be slaughtered and burned. Seeking to legitimize their new religion with conversions, Christians were outraged with the Jews, God's chosen insiders most ripe for inclusion into the new religion, that remained content with their given Judaism. Bad turned dramatically to worse when reformer Martin Luther poured fuel onto the "Jews killed Jesus" fire. A respectable high school education covers Luther's famous posting of the 95 Theses at a Wittenburg church in 1517, the development that gave birth to Protestantism. However, high school kids are not taught about Luther's rabid hatred of the Jews. Evidence exists that Luther initially had no hostile sentiments, but like his Christian predecessors of 50-200 AD, he grew outraged when Jews did not embrace his Protestantism. Furious, in 1543 Luther published On the Jews and their Lies. Consider the sentiments behind what happened in Rome 12 years later.

1. Jews are to own no real estate.
2. Jews are to attend no Christian university.
3. Jews are to hire no Christian servants.
4. Jews' mercantile roles are to be strictly regulated.
5. Jews taxes are to be increased.
6. Jews are no longer to ignore the ancient requirement to wear distinction clothing and badges.
7. Jews are to refuse to be addressed as "sir" by Christians.
8. Jews are to live on a single street, or in a distinctive quarter cut off from other sections of the town or city. This quarter is to have only one entrance.

Cum Nimis Absurdum Pope Paul IV, July 1555.

Rome created a ghetto for Jews in 1555, 400 years before the Nazis created the infamous ghetto in Warsaw. Why? What remains insufficiently distinguished is the profound role Christianity played in establishing the precedents necessary to enable the Holocaust. In 1933, Edith Stein, the brilliant German Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and became a nun, wrote Pope Pius XII a letter warning of the brutal anti-Semitism of the Nazis and the impending violence. All of her predictions came true (and then some). The Pope never responded to her letter. Stein fled Germany, but was arrested in the Netherlands and killed at Auschwitz in 1942.

In March 2000, Pope John Paul II made a truly momentous visit to Jerusalem, visiting the Wailing Wall and submitting a published letter into one of its crevices.

In May 2009, Pope Benedict XVI visited Israel and gave an address acknowledging the Holocaust where "Jews were exterminated under a godless regime." He said nothing about Christianity's culpability, Edith Stein, the silence of Pope Pius XII at the time, or the church's 1939 invitation to Hitler himself to see the seamless robe of Christ (falsely believed at the time to have been worn by Christ) at the Cathedral of Trier.

Hitler declined the invitation.

New Planets Spur Questions

With the latest in space technology, human beings are now in momentum discovering planets outside of their own solar system. Just recently the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher found 32 more planets bringing the total number to over 400 found so far. "We are on the road," said Stephen Udry of the Geneva Institute, "The end of the road is finding life and other planets like our own, but we have to go step by step."

It is only a matter time, for while human scientists don't know it yet, two of the planets they have found do in fact contain sentient life, the Behoovians and the Meldikons. When fully discovered, the existence of other civilizations on other planets will present the humans with all sorts of intriguing questions regarding their world views. While the implications may be minimal to the consciousness focused cosmologies of the Dharmic religions, it presents more perplexing questions for the more concrete assertions of the Abrahamic religions.

For example, the notion of the son of God dying for sins committed does not apply to the Behoovians, who stopped sinning after economists proved that it was too expensive. Meldikon sin mostly occurs as cheating in games, traffic violations, and romantic infidelity (Meldikons have romance in threes (fqt, qtf, and tfq) the latter being notoriously promiscuous with other fqt/qtf pairs). It is believed that the Meldikon God, Nazzerath, does not find Meldikon sin particularly disconcerting. While Nazzerath fathered several children, the divine offspring remained in the godspace and did not take physical form.

Though reluctant to appear critical of the God of another system, a Meldikon spokesman would acknowledge that the crucifixion was confusing, "We cannot see any changes in human sin, and if we did, we remain confused that other methods were not available to produce the desired results."

In addition to the killing of divine offspring, beliefs differ considerably regarding an impending Armageddon. While it may be an entirely appropriate outcome for humanity, in terms of themselves, Meldikons question the objectives of such an event and the benefits available from a post-apocalypse reality.

Behoovians reject an Armageddon outright, "We’re not interested."

Meldikons feel that eternal suffering vs. eternal paradise is an excessive bifurcation given the complexities of consciousness and conscience. Behoovian economists note that the maintenance of such extreme conditions for the quantities of human souls involved would exhaust the resources of even the most robust Overlords, "Since consciousness continually reacts and adapts, to maintain such suffering or bliss would require ongoing modification and enhancement to sustain the psychological states. When you consider that over time, you might have to change the way you change, and then change the way you change the way you change, the math is ridiculous."

Regarding the age of the universe, no sentient beings other than some humans accept the view that it is only a few thousand years old. A Behoovian stated, “We have a well documented history with literature, art, photographs, other media, and archeological evidence that dates back 480,000 years. Clearly we find the idea of a cosmos younger than that problematic."

Both readily acknowledge that the religions of earth may be symbolic and written metaphorically, such as the creation of the world in seven days, "Perhaps heaven and hell are spiritual states one enters in the course of life depending on one's actions, perspectives, and beliefs. If that's the case, though, their God could improve the ability of some humans to figure that out."