TruthBook Religious News Blog

Everybody’s A Little Bit Jew-ish

by Joshua Hammerman
Special To The Jewish Week

For ages we’ve been obsessed with the question, “Who is a Jew?” Perhaps we need to be asking instead, “Who isn’t?”

A team of geneticists has uncovered explicit evidence of mass conversions of Sephardic Jews to Catholicism in 15th- and 16th-century Spain and Portugal. The study, based on an analysis of Y-chromosomes and reported first in the American Journal of Human Genetics, indicates that 20 percent of the population of the Iberian Peninsula has Sephardic Jewish ancestry. That’s about 10 million people. While anti-Semitism remains pervasive and the Jewish population microscopic, there is a deep fascination with all things Jewish. “We’ve gone from a period of pillaging the Jews and then suppressing and ignoring their patrimony to a period of rising
curiosity and fascination [about them],” said Anna Maria Lopez, the director of Toledo’s Sephardic Museum in a New York Times interview.

So while there are almost no Jews left in Spain, a residue remains, literally in their DNA. Everyone’s a little bit Jew-ish, even if almost no one is a Jew.

The suffix “ish,” indicating approximation, is increasingly popular among today’s youth, according to the language forum, “Wordreference.com.” Kids are constantly tossing it about: A movie is “creepish,” he looks “Europeanish,” the dress is “greenish” and the meeting begins at “five-ish.” In an age where fluidity is the norm, and everything, from the national debt to Arlen Specter’s party affiliation, is a moving target, we all need to learn how to go with the flow. Fortunately, we Jews are uniquely prepared to do just that: We already have “ish” in our name.

The Pew Foundation’s latest survey on the American religious landscape, called, “Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.,” notes that Americans change religions almost as often as they change their underwear, with over half abandoning their childhood faith-group, usually before the age of 24.
Meanwhile, Synagogue 3000’s latest survey indicates that American Jews are foregoing secular and ethnic identification in favor of a more “spiritually oriented” — and therefore more fluid — self-definition. The survey notes that the presence of Christian, or formerly Christian, members in many Jewish households has led to a greater comfort level with spiritual ideas and language. While there are some forms of spirituality that are innately Jewish, the category lends itself to a blurring of boundaries between faiths. In the S3K report, Rabbi Rachel Cowan states that spirituality “helps me see that I’m not the whole story here, that I’m just part of something much bigger.” Bigger even than Jewish peoplehood.

Please click "external source" for this entire, very interesting article.

Labels: genetics, Jewish, Joshua Hammerman, pew Religious Landscape Survey

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Five must-read books to for health and happiness.

Five must-read books to for health and happiness.
May 25, 12:44 PM

The definition of overwhelmed? Standing in front of the self-help section at your local big box bookstore. How do you sort through all that clutter to find the best of the best? Here are five recommendations to get you started. From the practical to the spiritual, each ends up with the same core conclusions:

1. We each have a remarkable inner navigation system to guide us to our own happiness.
2. The most powerful change tools available to us are our thoughts and our imagination.

These are books to change your life.

Note: Please go to "external source" to access this list of great books for your journey. And while you're at it, don't forget The Urantia Book!

Labels: Chris Trout, happiness, health, spirituality, The Urantia Book

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Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day — bivouac of the dead: hallowed, haunted Gettysburg

May 24, 3:57 PM

Memorial Day was first celebrated in 1868 as way of honoring the Civil War dead on both sides of this country’s bloody and painful war of brother against brother. Union and Confederate dead lie in common ground in our national cemeteries and remind us of the cost of war, and the cost of the union of this country.

Memorializing, or keeping memory of our war dead in a sacred way, is a deeply spiritual practice and one that shows us the true spirituality of humanity apart from any particular brand of religion. A special day of remembrance sprang up organically when some southern women decided to decorate the graves of the Civil War dead, Confederate and Union, on a day set aside for this. Originally the day was called Decoration Day because of this, and it so inspired the nation that it became the national holiday we now know as Memorial Day.

Please click on "external source" to read this poignant article about Memorial Day and its meaning

Labels: MaryEllen O'Brien, Memorial Day, peace, spirituality, war

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Faith-based weight loss

By Lynn Arave

Deseret News
Published: Friday, May 22, 2009

Losing weight is one of the greatest challenges many Americans face today. Billions of dollars are spent on weight-loss programs and yet obesity rates are still soaring. The National Institute of Health found that more than 90 percent of all fat-loss and fitness programs fail.

So, what's the solution?

The Rev. Ron Williams, 47, a resident of Utah since 1990 is the pastor of Midvale's Back to the Foundation Church. He is also a world champion bodybuilder and professor of nutrition and exercise physiology. He says the solution is a faith-based weight-loss program.

The Rev. Williams believes that "soul wounds" are one of the major obstacles to achieving fat loss. Soul wounds are trauma to the soul; personal tragedies — such as belittlement, neglect, abandonment, or verbal or physical abuse.

"Being overweight is not necessarily a sin," the Rev. Williams said, "But it can interfere with your purpose. It will not hinder you from going to heaven," though he notes, it may help you get there a little sooner.

"Having a fat-loss program is only half the solution to achieve permanent fat loss and a balanced health life," he said. "I have found that combining faith and fat loss helps people break the terrible bonds of being overweight and the hurt and shame of traumas that have been inflicted on them."

This is just a portion of the first of a two-page article. Please click on "external source" to access the entire article

Labels: faith, Lynn Arave, obesity, Rev. Ron Williams, spirituality, trauma, weight loss

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Spiritual Medicine: Bridging the Gap Between Religion and Psychology

By Gale Bataille and Bill Berkowitz
May 22, 2009

Activists and advocates have launched an initiative to further the understanding of the role of religion and spirituality in mental health. Conferences next month will bring clergy and mental health workers together to break new ground.
The wall at the Quaker-founded York Retreat, founded in 1796. Image courtesy imago

Historically, religion and mental health issues have had an uneasy relationship—and it goes both ways: people with mental illness have long faced stigma in religious communities, and mental health professionals have, for the most part, been suspicious of religion.

Mental health professionals are often trained to bracket out a patient’s religion in the name of professional boundaries, and have been encouraged to consider religion in the context of a medical model that can view spiritual beliefs as potential psychiatric symptoms. As psychologist David Lukoff explains:

This tendency, representing a form of cultural insensitivity, can be traced back to the roots of psychoanalysis as well as behaviorism and cognitive therapy. Freud saw religion as “a universal obsessional neurosis,” Skinner ignored religious experience, and Ellis viewed religion as equivalent to irrational thinking and emotional disturbance. Similarly, spiritual experiences have been viewed as evidence of psychopathology.

But the understanding of the role of religion and spirituality in mental health is changing. The California Mental Health and Spirituality Initiative (which grew out of a grassroots movement founded by activist and advocate Jay Mahler and other consumers, family members, and service providers) was established in June 2008 at the Center for Multicultural Development at the California Institute for Mental Health to advocate for the “inclusion of spirituality as a potential resource in mental health recovery and wellness.”

In advance of two upcoming California Conferences on Mental Health and Spirituality I had the opportunity to interview the initiative’s Director, the Rev. Laura Mancuso, along with Jay Mahler.

Please click on "external source" to read the entire interview.

Labels: Bill Berkowitz, Gale Bataille, Jay Mahler, mental health, religion, Rev. Laura Mancuso, spirituality

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Can Positive Thoughts Help Heal Another Person?

The Science Of Spirituality
Can Positive Thoughts Help Heal Another Person?

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

All Things Considered, May 21, 2009 · Ninety percent of Americans say they pray — for their health, or their love life or their final exams. But does prayer do any good?

For decades, scientists have tried to test the power of prayer and positive thinking, with mixed results. Now some scientists are fording new — and controversial — territory.

This is one of a five-part series currently running on National Public Radio (All Things Considered). This article can also be run as audio from the link below. It is well-worth the time it takes, and nice to know that such intensive research is being done on spirituality. This site has all the previous presentations as well.

Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: All Things Considered, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, healing, NPR radio, positive thinking, prayer, spirituality

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Friday, May 22, 2009

Book Review: " Fingerprints of God"

NPR reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty uses journalism’s tools to explore the intersection of spirituality and science.
By Gregory M. Lamb | May 19, 2009 edition

Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality By Barbara Bradley Hagerty Riverheard Books 323 pp., $33.50

Using the reporting and explanatory skills of a talented veteran journalist, Barbara Bradley Hagerty has written a compelling account of her quest to answer an age-old question: Is this all there is?

The result is Fingerprints of God, a book that sails the roiling waters between religion and science and is unlikely to make quick friends among either evangelical Christians or those in the scientific community who conclude that God cannot exist. But for readers who consider themselves to be spiritual seekers, Hagerty treads some fascinating territory.

Rather than dismissing science as the enemy of spirituality, she engages with it, seeking out scientific pioneers, the outliers who are doing intriguing work on the nature of the brain and consciousness. She also talks with ordinary people who’ve had extraordinary personal encounters, such as near-death or out-of-body experiences, that have changed their views of themselves, reality, and on the existence of an afterlife.

Hagerty, the religion correspondent for National Public Radio, comes to a less-than-startling conclusion: Science can neither prove nor disprove these great questions. But she also sees hints of a “paradigm shift” in science now under way – akin, perhaps, to the early 20th century when the work of Einstein and others took a quantum leap away from a universe based solely on 18th-century Newtonian physics.

“Hard science does not mean petrified science,” Hagerty posits. “The paradigm to exclude a divine intelligence, or ‘Other,’ or ‘God,’ to reduce all things to matter, has reigned triumphant for some four hundred years, since the dawn of the Age of Reason,” she continues. “Today, a small yet growing number of scientists are trying to chip away at the paradigm, suspecting that its feet are made of clay.”

Please click on "external source" for complete article.

Labels: Barbara Bradley Hagerty, God, Gregory M. Lamb, religion, science, spirituality

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Gallup first: more Americans now “pro-life” than “pro-choice”

May 15th, 2009
Posted by: Ed Stoddard

America may have a president and Congress that support abortion rights, but a new Gallup poll suggests that for the first time such a stance is not the majority view.

Gallup said on Friday that a new poll, conducted May 7 to 10, found “51 percent of Americans calling themselves ‘pro-life’ on the issue of abortion and 42 percent ‘pro-choice.’ This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.”

“The new results, obtained from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, represent a significant shift from a year ago, when 50 percent were pro-choice and 44 percent pro-life. Prior to now, the highest percentage identifying as pro-life was 46 percent, in both August 2001 and May 2002.”

Please click on "external source" for the complete article

Labels: abortion, Democratic Party, Ed Stoddard, FaithWorld, Gallup, pro-choice, pro-life, republican party, Values and Beliefs survey

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'God Is Back' tracks a religious surge in an age of science

By Hanna Rosin

New York Times
Posted: 05/14/2009

Not that long ago, great minds predicted a future with little or no religion.

Science would make us highly skeptical of miracles. Psychiatry would direct all of our awe and wonder inward. Changing roles for women would weaken the patriarchal structure that props up clerics. Whatever script for modernity one followed, it had God playing a bit role.

It didn't happen that way. Modernity arrived and improvised new starring roles for God. The Americans led the way by becoming both "the quintessentially modern country" and a very devout one, write John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge in their new book, "God Is Back," and most of the world has followed that model.

In rich countries and poorer ones, democratic and undemocratic, primarily Islamic and primarily Christian — everywhere, basically, except Europe — devotion to God is robust.

This is a review of the book "God is Back." Please click on "external source" for the complete article.

Labels: Adrian Wooldridge, God, Hanna Rosin, John Micklethwait, religion

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Friday, May 15, 2009

Spirituality Protects Against Depression Better Than Church Attendance

Spirituality Protects Against Depression Better Than Church Attendance

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2008) —

Those who worship a higher power often do so in different ways. Whether they are active in their religious community, or prefer to simply pray or meditate, new research out of Temple University suggests that a person's religiousness – also called religiosity – can offer insight into their risk for depression.

Lead researcher Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., characterized the religiosity of 918 study participants in terms of three domains of religiosity: religious service attendance, which refers to being involved with a church; religious well-being, which refers to the quality of a person's relationship with a higher power; and existential well-being, which refers to a person's sense of meaning and their purpose in life.

Please click on "external source" to access the complete article.

Labels: depression, Joanna Maselko, mental health, religiosity, worship

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8 Ways Faith Can Heal

Wednesday May 13, 2009

In February "Time" Magazine published some fascinating articles on the "biology of belief": how faith can heal us. Folks who attend church services on Sunday have a lower risk of dying in any one year than the guys who sleep in, read the paper, and skip all holy activities. "Spirituality predicts for better disease control," says Dr. Gail Ironson, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Miami who studies HIV and religious belief.

Okay. So how? What exactly happens in a brain when a person sings "Alleluia!" that makes her more resilient to illness than the nonbeliever? Here are 8 ways faith can heal.

Please click on "external source" to raed the list of eight ways that faith can heal. This is an interesting and hopeful article.

Labels: biology, faith, Gail Ironson, health, spirituality

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Survey: Definition of Spiritual Maturity Vague

May 12, 2009
Survey: Definition of Spiritual Maturity Vague

By Peter Elliott

...when it comes how such spiritual maturity is defined, a new survey indicates it might just be anyone’s best guess.

A study released this week by The Barna Group and Living on the Edge indicates a startling level of ambiguity on what spiritual maturity looks like, including among pastors.

A heavy emphasis for self-identified Christians was based on following rules spelled out in the Bible. Eighty-one percent articulated this view, but conversely, half of the respondents had no clear idea how their church defined spiritual maturity. The confusion over church perception extends to two-fifths of born-again Christians who have openly professed Jesus as their Savior.

Similarly, many respondents only cited one way they live out spiritual maturity - for example, having a relationship with Jesus or applying the Bible - but largely failed to make substantive connections between expressions of faith.

Please click on "external source" to access the entire article.

Labels: Barna Group, Bible, Living on the Edge, Peter Elliott, spirtual maturity

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Buddhist monks create sacred mandala, share religion of 'loving kindness'

Originally published May 09, 2009
By Ron Cassie
News-Post Staff

Burgundy- and saffron-robed monks offered deep chants and prayers while they created a colorful sand mandala last week. And some 250 professors, students and townspeople crammed Scarborough Library at Shepherd University to glimpse their sacred art.

Of all of the Tantric Buddhist artistic traditions, the 1,200-year-old sand painting remains one of the most intriguing and exquisite. Tibetans refer to it as the "architecture of enlightenment."

Tenzin Phentsok explained the mandala symbols: the Lotus Flower, representing spiritual purity and divine origination; the Eight-Spoked Wheel, representing the Eight-Fold Path; and the Knot of Eternity acknowledging the interdependent nature of existence. All are meditations on aspects of Tibetan Buddhism.

In accordance with tradition, the mandala was destroyed to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists. A parade from the library followed the monks several blocks up to Town Run stream where the sand was poured into the water.

"Our blessed sand and prayers are released into a flowing body of water so that they will eventually be carried into the oceans and to the other continents around world," Phentsok said. "It is a very powerful healing practice."

All 10 of the monks who visited Shepherd University last week as part of a four-day residency program are from India. "All originally from Tibetan families," Phentsok said.

"I think the people of the United States are freedom lovers, people who love freedom and democracy and live with more openness to new things," Phentsok said. "That's why I believe the Tibetan culture is embraced here, it is very much based on openness, as well as love, compassion and wisdom."

Phentsok said the traveling group's mission is to bring more peace and happiness to the world.

"As sentient beings we all want to be free from suffering," he said. "All happiness involves inner values, not materialistic things, which provide not even a single moment of recurring joy and happiness."

Please click on "external source" to view the mandala and read the entire article.

Labels: Buddhism, global peace, kindness, mandala, Ron Cassie

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Friday, May 08, 2009

President to proclaim National (but private) Day of Prayer

May 7, 2009

Though President Barack Obama insists that prayer is a private act, he will follow in the footsteps of previous presidents today, signing a proclamation to declare the National Day of Prayer then moving on to other business of the day. At the same time, the president has asked a federal court in Wisconsin to dismiss an attempt to abolish the special occasion.

In a lawsuit filed during the Bush Administration, the Freedom From Religion Foundation claims the day violates the separation of church and state. It asks the judge to declare the law unconstitutional and to order presidents and governors to stop issuing prayer proclamations such as the one expected from Obama today.

The National Day of Prayer became law in 1952 under President Harry Truman following a six-week crusade in the nation’s capital led by Rev. Billy Graham. Members of the House and Senate introduced a joint resolution for an annual National Day of Prayer, "on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals."

But the idea was not new. It had been proposed and rejected several times. In an 1808 letter to Rev. Samuel Miller, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it."

This is a short excerpt from the article, which can be accessed by clicking on "external source."

Labels: Freedom From Religion Foundation, National Day of Prayer, prayer, President Obama

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More From Francis Collins on God and Evolution

May 5, 2009

The scientific blogosphere, as well as the Washington, D.C., rumor mill, are buzzing this week about geneticist Francis Collins's latest project: a new foundation and Web site created "to engage America's escalating culture war between science and faith."

The new venture is funded by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research exploring the interface of science and religion.

—Jocelyn Kaiser

Please click on "external source" for a link to Dr Collins' website, Biologos.

Labels: faith, Francis Collins, Jocelyn Kaiser, science, Templeton Foundation

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First-Ever Gallup Student Poll Shows That One-Third of America's Young People Are Struggling or Suffering

Gallup, America's Promise Alliance and the American Association of School Administrators incorporate youth voice into national dialogue on dropout prevention and college readiness

WASHINGTON, May 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A poll released today by Gallup and America's Promise Alliance shows that more than one-third of students surveyed in grades 5-12 are struggling or suffering, and half (50 percent) are not hopeful, as quantified by Gallup researchers. The findings mark the beginning of what will quickly become the largest-ever survey of American children, and will help school systems and communities benchmark progress and determine solutions to the dropout crisis. Currently, one in three American students does not graduate from high school.

For this initiative, Gallup measured three key metrics -- hope, engagement and well-being -- that research has shown have a meaningful impact on educational outcomes and more importantly, can be improved through deliberate action by educators, school administrators, community leaders and others. Questions focused on:

* Hope -- the ideas and energy students have for the future;
* Engagement -- the level of student involvement in and enthusiasm for school; and
* Well-being -- how students think about and experience their lives.

Findings from the poll include:

* Nearly two in three students in grades 5-12 surveyed (63 percent) are thriving; more than one-third are struggling or suffering. Struggling and suffering students evaluate life in negative terms, struggle to meet daily demands in life and lack some of the resources needed to succeed.
* Half of those surveyed (50 percent) reported answers indicating they are not hopeful, with one-third (33 percent) indicating that they are stuck, while 17 percent feel discouraged.
* More than nine in 10 (94 percent) of those surveyed say they will graduate. Those who are close to their parents/guardians, or who have a caring adult in their life are more likely to believe they will graduate.
* More than eight in 10 (86 percent) believe they will find a good job awaiting them after graduation.
* Eight in 10 (80 percent) said they smiled or laughed at school yesterday, while seven in 10 (70 percent) said they learned or did something interesting at school. Just half (52 percent) said they were treated with respect all day.

This is a lengthy article with much more information. Please click on "external source" to access the complete article.

Labels: America's Promise Alliance, dropouts, Gallup Poll, middle school students, suffering

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Israel: pope to urge universal religious freedom

The pope will speak not only human rights and freedom of religion, but will denounce forgetfullness in the face of the horrors of the Holocaust.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Look for Pope Benedict XVI to emphasize interreligious cooperation when he visits the Holy Land, May 8-15, says Reverend James Massa, director of the U.S. Bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Father Massa has studied the thought of Pope Benedict and did his doctoral dissertation on the pope’s earlier theological writings on the ecclesiology of communion before he was elected Pope Benedict. Father Massa noted themes to expect from the papal visit in Media Talk, a backgrounder found on the Media Relations site of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"In all that takes place in these days of pilgrimage, Pope Benedict XVI will invite the followers of all religions to ‘stand together in defending and promoting life and religious freedom everywhere,’” Father Massa said, quoting the pope from his 2008 visit to Washington. He recalled Pope Benedict’s meeting with Jewish and other non-Christian religious groups. During that meeting, Father Massa recalled, the pope said that generous engagement in interreligious dialogue and “countless small acts of love, understanding and compassion” make it possible for us all to be “instruments of peace for the whole human family.”

Please click on "external source" for complete article.

Labels: Holy Land, interfaith, Israel, James Massa, Pope Benedict XVI, religious freedom

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New Web Site Aims to Change the Way Americans Talk about Religion and Spirituality

First-of-its-kind site Patheos.com launches today to provide an open forum to explore, experience and engage in religious and spiritual beliefs and discussion

DENVER, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Web site designed to meet the growing online demand for credible, engaging information on religion and spirituality will launch today. Patheos.com (www.Patheos.com) aims to be the premier online destination for engaging in the global dialogue about religion and spirituality, and to explore and experience the world's beliefs. According to the Pew Internet Project, nearly 82 million Americans use the Web for faith-related reasons, pointing to the need for a credible and comprehensive online religious and spiritual destination.

Husband-and-wife entrepreneurs, parents and 20-year Web technology veterans, Leo and Cathie Brunnick were inspired to develop Patheos in 2008 when they married and were unable to find a credible, comprehensive online resource to provide guidance when blending two families from different religious backgrounds.

"With the launch of Patheos, we hope to provide access to a resource unlike any other on the Web, dedicated to providing religious and spiritual information and most importantly, constructive and meaningful dialogue," said Leo Brunnick, Patheos co-founder and CEO. "We've seen too much disrespectful, unconstructive dialogue about a topic that's important to many Americans. It's time to change the way we talk about religion, and Patheos can be the catalyst to help create this positive change."

In addition to the Public Square, Patheos visitors will find a unique variety of resources and applications...

Patheos is open to all visitors and does not support, endorse or promote any one religion, but strives to engage those of all beliefs and elevate the level of dialogue in the U.S. around important spiritual and religious topics.

To find out much more about Patheos.com, its founders and its features, please click on "external source"

Labels: Patheos.com, religion, spirituality, websites

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Catholics lead the exodus

MARK E. RONDEAU, Staff Writer
Posted: 05/04/2009 03:00:24 AM EDT

Monday, May 4
The departure of U.S.-born Roman Catholics from their church is a major factor in the rise of those not affiliated with any religion, as documented by the American Religious Identification Survey, which was released in March.

This crisis exploded into the news in early 2002, after the second of the ARIS surveys in 2001. In Vermont, those identifying as Catholic were 37 percent of adults in the 1990 survey, 38 percent in the 2001 survey and then down to 26 percent in 2008, Silk noted, providing the number for 2001, which wasn't included in the published survey.

A follow-up Pew survey published on April 27 focusing on religious switching asked former Catholics why they had left the faith. This survey offered respondents both a list of reasons to choose from and asked them to explain why they left in their own words. The most chosen response by the religiously unaffiliated from the list was just gradually drifted away from the religion, 71 percent; stopped believing the religion's teachings, 65 percent; "spiritual needs not being met, 43 percent. Other common choices by religiously unaffiliated former Catholics included unhappiness with church teachings on abortion and homosexuality, 56 percent; unhappiness with the treatment of women, 39 percent; and the clergy sexual abuse scandal, 27 percent.

However, there was a difference when religiously unaffiliated Catholics explained their reasons for leaving in their own words. The top reason, at 54 percent of those responding, was disagreement with religious and moral beliefs. While 42 respondents gave reasons for leaving that fell into the broad category of religious institutions, practices and people, only 2 percent of religiously unaffiliated former Catholics listed the clergy sexual abuse crisis as a reason for leaving.

Similarly, 3 percent of former Catholics who had become Protestants listed the clergy sexual abuse crisis as their reason for leaving the Catholic Church. Drifting away from the faith was given by only 4 percent of unaffiliated former Catholics when giving reasons for leaving in their own words.

Labels: ARIS, Catholicism, church, Mark E. Rondeau, priest sex scandal

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Francis Collins: A Scientific Basis for God

May 04, 2009 04:32 PM ET |
Dan Gilgoff | Permanent Link | Print

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Is there a scientific basis for the existence of God? Many believers think so, even as they often dismiss science because they think it's incompatible with their religious beliefs. A recent Gallup Poll, for instance, found that 45 percent of Americans reject evolution, believing that human beings were created more or less in our present form within the past 10,000 years. Despite objections from scientists, many believers argue that there's scientific evidence
for such "Young Earth" creationism.

Francis Collins, director of the human genome project, is an atheist turned Christian who sees a scientific basis for God that not only embraces modern science
but actually relies on it. Collins has just launched a new website and a foundation called biologos, which "emphasizes the compatibility of Christian faith with what science has discovered about the origins of the universe and life."

Unless Christians—evangelicals, in particular—learn to integrate modern science with their religious faith, Collins believes, they are either stuck clinging to untruths about scientific ideas like evolution or, once they do accept evolution, are in danger of having to abandon their faith out of the mistaken belief that evolution and Christianity are incompatible.

Collins was raised without religion. He began questioning his atheism during medical school, when he witnessed patients who were near death but who were deeply comforted by their religious faith. Collins became a Christian in his 20s. "I believe in the literal rising of the body of Christ," he says today. "It's the cornerstone of my Christian faith."

In this very interesting article, Francis Collins' talking points for God's existence are enumerated...please click on "external link" for the complete article.

Labels: atheism, Dan Gilgoff, Francis Collins, God, human genome project, science

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Do frequent churchgoers support torture?

by Michael Paulson May 3, 2009 09:05 PM

The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life last week reported a finding that at first blush is stunning: the more often one attends religious services, the more likely one is to say that the use of torture against suspected terrorists is at least sometimes justified. And white evangelical Protestants are the most likely subgroup to offer at least some support for torture, while those who are not affiliated with a religious denomination are the least likely.

This is just the first paragraph from this interestiung article. Please click on "exernal source" to access the complete article, including the entire survey graphic and other comments.

Labels: evangelicals, Michael Paulson, protestants, torture

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Majority of American Adults Believe Strong Faith and Individual Initiative Are Key to Weathering Economic Storm

New Nationwide Survey Reveals Personal Actions Are More Effective than Government Stimulus

HUNTINGTON, Ind., May 4 /Christian Newswire/ --

As our nation's economic crisis persists and families are brought to the brink with layoffs and foreclosures, more than two-thirds (70%) of U.S. adults believe that strong faith is one of the most important elements in helping a person persevere through the current downturn, and most (61%) believe their personal actions play a more vital role in helping to turn around the economy than the government stimulus plan.

These are just some of the results from a new, nationwide survey conducted during the height of the economic stimulus debate by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Our Sunday Visitor, one of country's largest Catholic publishing companies.

"A great frustration during a time of national crisis can be the sense of impotence, the inability of the individual to make a difference. And yet, looking beyond today's latest installment of dire news, most Americans believe they know what it takes to weather this crisis and that we can even benefit from it, one choice at a time," said Fr. Joseph Langford, author of the new book, Mother Teresa's Secret Fire. "In times like these, it's instructive to recall the message of Mother Teresa, who showed the world that the individual, clinging to the Creator, can endure enormous change and actually become a luminous force during the darkest of times."

Even after her death in 1997, Mother Teresa has continued to be a symbol of the human heart transformed by God's love--and a heart that transformed others. Secret Fire shows us how we all have the same opportunity to be touched and transformed by God, and empowered to share that gift with those around us, making our ordinary lives an extraordinary legacy of goodness.

This article contains an explanation of Mother Teresa's "Secret Fire," as well as more details of the survey. Please click on "external source" to access the complete article.

Labels: crisis, economics, faith, goodness, Harris Interactive, Mother Theresa, Our Sunday Visitor

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Why so many Americans switch religions

A new Pew survey suggests that many Catholics leave their church because of doctrine, whereas Protestants tend to leave because of life changes such as marriage.

By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the April 27, 2009 edition

America is a country on the move in innumerable ways, and religion is no exception. Half of Americans have changed their religious denomination at least once in their lives – many several times – and 28 percent have switched faiths altogether (for example, from Christianity to Judaism). Amid this fluidity, the number of "unaffiliated" adults has grown to 16 percent of the population.

What is behind such extraordinary "churn" in US religious life? As a follow-up to its pathbreaking 2007 survey of the American religious landscape, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released a new survey Monday – "Faith in Flux" – that explores in depth the patterns and reasons for such remarkable change.

Most people who switch their allegiance during their lifetime, the survey finds, leave their childhood faith while they are still young, before the age of 24. Yet the opportunities for attracting them to another religion appear to continue for some time.

The reasons for leaving differ according to the origin and destination of the convert. Roman Catholics, for instance, tend to leave because they don't accept certain church teachings. Those Protestants who switch denominations do so more often in response to life changes such as relocation or marriage, or because of dislikes about institutions or practices.

While 56 percent of US adults remain in their childhood faith, 16 percent left, joined another house of worship at least once, and then returned to their original fold.

Of those raised Protestant, 80 percent remain so, with 52 percent still in their childhood denomination. Twenty-eight percent have moved to another Protestant following, 13 percent are now unaffiliated, 3 percent have become Catholic, and 4 percent joined other faiths.

Of those raised Catholic, 68 percent remain in the faith, 15 percent are now Protestant, 14 percent unaffiliated, and 3 percent in other faiths.

As several polls have shown, the "unaffiliated" is the fastest growing group in the past two decades. Yet the Pew survey shows this group to be very diverse, and often serving as a way station for many still seeking a religion.

While about 40 percent in this group say they don't believe in God, another 40 percent say religion is somewhat important in their lives, and roughly one-third say they just haven't found the right religion yet.

Please click on "external source" to access the complete article, which provides the survey results in more detail.

Labels: America, faith, Faith in Flux, Jane Lampman, Pew Religion and Public Life Survey, religion

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Double Helix: Religion Requires Memory; Memory-Killing Drugs Inspire Big Questions

Double Helix: Religion Requires Memory; Memory-Killing Drugs Inspire Big Questions
By Arri Eisen
May 1, 2009

A host of experimental new drugs interfere with the process of creating memory, promising to help combat sufferers, addicts and others. But if memory is required for the creation of ethics (and religion) and indeed in the formation of who we are, what effect might these drugs have on our identities?
Magic bullet?

Surely you remember Total Recall, the hugely successful 1990 film starring California’s current governor and based on the great Philip K. Dick short story?

But what just happened when you tried to remember whether you remember it?

What if I could block that memory, or insert another one in its place (as happens in the story)?

Todd Sacktor at SUNY Downstate Medical Center is working on the most recent example of a drug that might have been plucked directly from science fiction. When he injects the drug into rats who have learned (that is, retained the memory) not to walk on a surface that gives them a mild shock, they turn right around and walk on it again.

Ethics=Memory?

I teach a class on bioethics to college students. We start the course with the simple question: What are we? Are we are genes? Our memories? A combination? It seems to me we are, in large part, our memories. Not just our individual memories, but also our cultural memories, and our species’ memories. In fact, one whole theory of the evolution of consciousness, by the engaging eccentric Julian Jaynes, posits memory as the initial font of consciousness and even of primitive religion.

Jaynes imagines a primitive tribe sitting around a fire. They have strong memories of warnings from their former leader, who recently died. It is dark, but the leader’s ideas—build a fire, stay together—still have power beyond his death. He is keeping them safe without his being present. Thus soweth the seeds of awareness and the power of things we cannot see or understand.

Whether you agree with Jaynes’ theories (which I’ve greatly simplified) or not, it’s clear that ethics—and its ritualized partner, religion—are significantly shaped and driven by memory: memories of how to do things, why we do or should do things, how those before us did them, how we felt when we did or did not do them.

This is a small excerpt from a longer article, which may be accessed by clicking on "external source."

Labels: ethics, Julian Jaynes, memories, religion, Todd Sacktor

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Back to the Bible focuses on relationship with God, not religion

Back to the Bible focuses on relationship with God, not religion

BY ERIN ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star
Monday, Apr 27, 2009 - 12:17:20 am CDT

Years before Newsweek magazine proclaimed the decline and fall of Christian America, Woodrow Kroll worried about the skyrocketing number of self-professed Christians who owned but rarely, if ever, read the Bible.

So in 2004, Kroll, president of Back to the Bible, the Lincoln-headquartered international Bible ministry program, established the Center for Bible Engagement, an organization dedicated to studying, understanding and solving what he calls “the plague of Bible illiteracy in America.”

Countering that illiteracy is the main focus of Back to the Bible as it marks its 70th anniversary, said Tami Weissert, vice president of media and communications for Back to the Bible. The organization has never been about church attendance, tithing or even “religion.” It’s always been about helping people develop “a personal relationship with God,” she said.

Back to the Bible got its start in 1939 when a young preacher from Oklahoma walked into Lincoln’s KFOR radio station and spent his last $65 for a week’s worth of air time. Thomas Epp believed he could help people work through the confusion and conflict of the world by spreading God’s Word through short devotionals.

Churches need to change their strategy from teaching content to teaching people why they need and how to have a personal relationship with God, according to a new Center for Bible Engagement report. Back to the Bible plans to help with that through its own programs such as Powered by 4 emails and 411God cell calls, and by working with ministers across the globe.

This interesting article also contains results of a survey regarding Bible literacy and engagement. Please click on "external source" for complete article.

Labels: Bible, Center for Bible Engagement, Christianity, Erin Anderson, Woodrow Kroll

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This is your brain on religion

David Ian Miller
Monday, April 27, 2009

Want to build a better brain? Ramp up your spiritual practice, says Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania. Meditation and prayer can improve your physical, intellectual, and emotional well-being and may even slow the brain's aging process.

Newberg, who is also the director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, is the author of four books, including the recently released "How God Changes Your Brain," which discusses the results of brain scans that he and his team conducted on more than 100 meditating or praying people. The research shows that the physical and emotional benefits of spiritual observances dramatically accrue over years of practice, but even recent converts exhibit healthier brains -- in one study Newburg's team scanned the brains of people who had never meditated before, then taught them simple meditative methods. After eight weeks of meditating 12 minutes a day, an evaluation showed considerable improvement in memory scores and a measurable decrease in anxiety and anger.

Atheists can feel free to jump right in here as Newburg's research indicates that faith in a divine being isn't required to benefit from meditation. But pessimists may be out of luck -- faith in a positive outcome is necessary for the best results.

The remainder of this article consists of an interview with the author about his research. Please click on "external source" to access the complete article.

Labels: Andrew Newberg, David Ian Miller, meditation, neuroscience, prayer

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Young Americans Losing Their Religion

New Research Finds Number Who Claim No Church Has Risen Sharply
By DAN HARRIS
May 6, 2009

New research shows young Americans are dramatically less likely to go to church -- or to participate in any form of organized religion -- than their parents and grandparents.

"It's a huge change," says Harvard University professor Robert Putnam, who conducted the research.

Historically, the percentage of Americans who said they had no religious affiliation (pollsters refer to this group as the "nones") has been very small -- hovering between 5 percent and 10 percent. However, Putnam says the percentage of "nones" has now skyrocketed to between 30 percent and 40 percent among younger Americans.

Putnam calls this a "stunning development." He gave reporters a first glimpse of his data Tuesday at a conference on religion organized by the Pew Forum on Faith in Public Life.

The research will be included in a forthcoming book, called "American Grace."

This trend started in the 1990s and continues through today. It includes people in both Generation X and Y.

While these young "nones" may not belong to a church, they are not necessarily atheists.

"Many of them are people who would otherwise be in church," Putnam said. "They have the same attitidues and values as people who are in church, but they grew up in a period in which being religious meant being politically conservative, especially on social issues."

Putnam says that in the past two decades, many young people began to view organized religion as a source of "intolerance and rigidity and doctrinaire political views," and therefore stopped going to church.

This movement away from organized religion, says Putnam, may have enormous consequences for American culture and politics for years to come.

"That is the future of America," he says. "Their views and their habits religiously are going to persist and have a huge effect on the future."

This data is likely to reinvigorate an already heated debate about whether America is, or will continue to be, a "Christian nation." A recent Newsweek cover article, entitled "The End of Christian America" provoked responses from religious thinkers all over the spectrum.

This is the first of a two-page article. Click "external source" for complete article

Labels: Christianity, Dan Harris, religion, teenagers

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Friday, May 01, 2009

Q & A: Francis Collins

The former director of the Human Genome Project hopes to show compatibility between Christianity and science.
By Daniel Burke, Religion News Service
4/30/2009

A year after stepping down as director of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Francis Collins is embarking on a new venture, one that may be even harder than deciphering DNA.

Collin's new BioLogos Foundation, which launched on April 28, aims to be a bridge in the debate over science and religion and provide some answers to life's most difficult questions.

Please click on "external source" to read the answers to the following questions asked of Dr Collins

What led you to this new project?

Where does the name BioLogos come from?

What kind of answers will the Web site give?

What's the goal for this Web site and foundation?

Can you give an example of the kinds of questions the Web site will be addressing?

Is your target audience fellow evangelicals?

Is the site interactive in the sense that people can pose questions that will be answered?

What about other BioLogos projects?

Labels: Daniel Burke, Francis Collins, religion, science

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Study: Prayer Leads to Good Health

Monday, April 27, 2009

By: Phil Brennan

Writing in his new book, "How God Changes Your Brain," Andrew Newberg, reports the results of brain scans that he and his team conducted on more than 100 meditating or praying people.

Newberg, director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, says his research shows that the physical and emotional benefits of spiritual observances “dramatically accrue over years of practice, but even recent converts exhibit healthier brains,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s David Ian Miller.

In one of Newberg’s studies his team did brain scans on people who had never meditated before and went on to teach them simple meditative methods, Miller writes. After a mere eight weeks of just 12 minutes a day of meditation, there was a considerable improvement in memory scores and a measurable decrease in anxiety and anger.

Newberg’s study echoes a 1999 study, "Scientific Research of Prayer: Can the Power of Prayer Be Proven?" by researcher Debra Williams.

Williams looked at more than 4,000 participants over the age of 65. She learned that those who pray and attend religious services on a weekly basis, especially those between the ages of 65 and 74, had lower blood pressure than their counterparts who did not pray or attend religious services, according to Jet magazine.

Moreover, they found that the more religious a person, particularly those who prayed or studied the Bible weekly, the lower the blood pressure. These people, the study showed were 40 percent less likely to have high diastolic pressure or diastolic hypertension than those who did not attend religious services, pray, or study the Bible.

Labels: Andrew Newberg, Center for Spirituality and the Mind, Debra Williams, health, meditation, neurotheology, Phil Brennan, prayer

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Survey: Half of U.S. adults have switched religions

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

About half of all Americans have switched religions at least once, according to the most in-depth survey on the topic, released Monday.

And that may still be "a conservative estimate," says Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Pew's new survey is based on re-contacting 2,800 people from its U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,000 people, released last year. Pew estimated at the time that about 44% of Americans have changed religions. It now says between 47% and 59% have, if you count the millions who once switched but have returned to their childhood faith.

The Flux questionaire was conducted in English and Spanish between Oct. 3 and Nov 7. The findings are focused on Catholics, Protestants and the unaffiliated. There were too few converts to or from Mormonism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and other religions to analyze their views, researchers said.

Both the original Religious Landscape Survey, and the new survey are snapshots in time, so it's not possible to tell whether America has always been a bubbling chemistry lab of religious change. But this is the first to spell out the switches in such detail, establishing a baseline to measure future changes, and potential problems.

Please click on "external link" for the entire article. This is only a small snapshot of the information contained in it.

Labels: Cathy Lynn Grossman, Flux, Luis Lugo, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, pew Religious Landscape Survey, religion

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