TruthBook Religious News Blog

Experts try to unlock mysteries of happiness

2008-10-08T09:47:00.004-06:00

You can't buy it, experts say. Pursuing goals, not goods is a key to true satisfaction

By Bonnie Miller Rubin and Jeremy Manier | Chicago Tribune reporters
October 5, 2008

Americans have seen their retirement savings shrivel, home equity evaporate and job security vanish. The only numbers zooming upward seem to be gas and food prices.

It may look like there's nothing to smile about, but that shouldn't stop us, said Ed Diener, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who has been studying happiness for more than a quarter-century. Here's what he wants you to know: That disappearing 401(k) balance? It's no more a barometer of sadness than winning the lottery guarantees life satisfaction. It's all a matter of perspective.

Diener is co-author, with his son, Robert Biswas-Diener, of the new book "Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth." He is part of the positive psychology movement that started about two decades ago and bypasses the Freud model of disease and dysfunction, focusing instead on emotional hardiness.

In their view, psychological wealth includes relationships, spirituality ("not necessarily religion . . . but the feeling you are connected to something larger than yourself"), physical health and a sense of engagement.

What separates those with psychological wealth from miserable peers is their ability to adjust. "That means controlling what is controllable, . . . diversifying your stocks, then returning to the areas of your life that are going well, such as friends and family," he said. "It means making a conscious decision to be resilient."

It takes strong character to find happiness in the face of adversity, but scientists often have found that aspect too vague a topic to study. Understanding how the brain processes raw feelings of desire and pleasure is far easier. Most creatures seek pleasure in some way. Pleasure motivates us to seek food, sex and a multitude of things that ensure the survival of an individual or species.

"We have no precise sense of what willpower means in the brain, or why some people are better at it than others," said Todd Braver, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis.

Braver's team is studying how the brain area called the prefrontal cortex is involved in long-term decision-making. They want to understand how the anticipation of a reward far off in the future�such as the increased satisfaction of a fulfilling but low-paying job�can sometimes overrule the enticement of short-term pleasure.

Whether in the gold markets of Dubai or the Australian outback, the scientists have learned happiness goes beyond genes and circumstances. We require enough material wealth to be self-sufficient, the psychologists believe, but the levels of contentment do not dramatically increase after our needs are met. While there is a spike after a major acquisition�like a new car�the euphoria over leather seats doesn't last.

The same is true with setbacks: Watching one's nest egg dwindle is enough to pull anyone into a deep hole, but a year later, people typically rebound.Some people find happiness in escaping the seesaw of fleeting gains and losses. Steven Biedermann, 45, an investment banker, was living the good life in a Gold Coast condo with all the requisite perks�but he longed for meaning, not bigger bonuses.

Then came the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "That was the match that lit up a bundle of kindling that had been piling up for years," he said. The next fall, Biedermann sold everything and joined the Peace Corps. He headed to Kiribati in the Central Pacific, swapping the condo for a small stick hut and swanky restaurants for fish and rice. He grew closer to his Christian faith.

Upon his return, he was hired to manage the Chicago Public Schools investment portfolio�a way to make use of his skills, but with a loftier purpose. Though he earns less than he did his first year after graduating from DePaul University in 1986, Biedermann said he's fulfilled. "It's about serving others, not being served. That's where my happiness comes from."

Teens have 'feel-good' type of faith

2008-10-08T09:43:00.001-06:00

By Carrie A. Moore
Deseret News
Saturday, Oct. 04, 2008

The majority of American teens have embraced an informal, "feel good" view of God and religion that not only emphasizes personal happiness as the central goal of life but has become something of a new religion in and of itself.

That is according to researchers examining teens over an 11-year time span as part of the National Study of Youth and Religion. In explaining the study's findings on Friday, Holli M.H. Eaton of Azusa Pacific University told members of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists that the "feel good" view of faith has five identifiable characteristics and has been dubbed "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism."

Its "tenets" are as follows:

* There is a God who created human life and watches over human beings.

* God wants people to be kind, caring and good.

* The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about one's self.

* God doesn't need to be involved in one's life except when needed to solve a problem -- "kind of a heavenly butler."

* Good people go to heaven when they die.

Beyond these generalizations, teens in general "can't verbalize the basics of their faith," Eaton said, noting there are exceptions but that the majority are unable to do so.

"When you ask about grace, they automatically think you're talking about 'Will and Grace,"' a TV sitcom that is popular with teens and young adults. "When you talk about honor (in religious terms), they think of honors classes at school."

When hundreds of teens were interviewed at length about the principles of their faith, none mentioned self-discipline, "but feeling happy was mentioned more than 2,000 times," Eaton said.

"Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a new religion in researchers' view. It's taking over in kids' lives."

The study, conducted by sociologist Christian Smith, began in 2000 based out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith addressed students and faculty at Brigham Young University earlier this year to share his findings, which also include data showing that LDS teens are the most highly religious by denomination of all the groups in the study, with 71 percent saying they attend a religious service at least once a week.

While Latter-day Saint teens see their faith as central to their lives, the majority of American teens see it as highly dispensable, Eaton said. "It's the first thing many teens are willing to let go when there are competing demands in their lives," she said. "Nearly all American youth are profoundly individualistic, and they think that 'what I think is right is right for everybody."'

She said most share the view that "it's okay to be somewhat religious, but it's important not to be too religious. They don't want to talk about specific beliefs. That's too religious," she said.

"Most teens say they pray, but it's usually when they want something. Very few read the Bible and even fewer engage in other religious practices."

Marilyn S. Wright, a psychologist at Pepperdine University, said the vast majority of teens are "incredibly inarticulate" about their own faith, even as they mature into young adults. The initial survey of more than 3,300 teens in 2000 has been followed by subsequent phases of questioning for 10 percent of those studied, and age doesn't change the ability to express their feelings about faith, she said.

Yet teens whose parents put religion at the center of their lives differ from the overall survey group in significant ways, mirroring the religious attitudes and practices of their parents, she said -- something that is encouraging to parents who often believe peer influence is more powerful.

She said LDS teens are "more involved in youth groups for more years and are more likely to claim to be youth leaders in their groups" than other teens. The survey also showed LDS teens are "the most Bible-believing and the least likely to believe in the occult."

Religion makes people helpful and generous -- under certain conditions: UBC researchers

2008-10-08T09:37:00.001-06:00

Lorraine Chan

University of British Columbia

Belief in God encourages people to be helpful, honest and generous, but only under certain psychological conditions, according to University of British Columbia researchers who analyzed the past three decades of social science research.

Religious people are more likely than the non-religious to engage in prosocial behaviour � acts that benefit others at a personal cost � when it enhances the individual's reputation or when religious thoughts are freshly activated in the person's mind, say UBC social psychologists Ara Norenzayan and Azim Shariff

Their paper "The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality" appears in the October 3, 2008 issue of the journal Science.

The two-part paper first reviews data from anthropology, sociology, psychology and economics. Norenzayan and Shariff then go on to explore how religion, by encouraging cooperation, became a factor in making possible the rise of large and stable societies made of genetically unrelated individuals.

To date, says Norenzayan, the public debate whether religion fosters cooperation and trust has largely been driven by opinion and anecdote.

"We wanted to look at the hard scientific evidence," says Norenzayan, an associate professor in the Dept. of Psychology.

The investigators found complementary results across the disciplines:

* Empirical data within anthropology suggests there is more cooperation among religious societies than the non-religious, especially when group survival is under threat
* Economic experiments indicate that religiosity increases levels of trust among participants
* Psychology experiments show that thoughts of an omniscient, morally concerned God reduce levels of cheating and selfish behaviour

"This type of religiously-motivated 'virtuous' behaviour has likely played a vital social role throughout history," says Shariff, a Psychology PhD student.

Shariff adds, "One reason we now have large, cooperative societies may be that some aspects of religion � such as outsourcing costly social policing duties to all-powerful Gods � made societies work more cooperatively in the past."

Across cultures and through time, observe the authors, the notion of an all-powerful, morally concerned "Big God" usually begat "Big groups" �large-scale, stable societies that successfully passed on their cultural beliefs.

The study also points out that in today's world religion has no monopoly on kind and generous behaviour. In many findings, non-believers acted as prosocially as believers. The last several hundred years has seen the rise of non-religious institutional mechanisms that include effective policing, courts and social surveillance.

"Some of the most cooperative modern societies are also the most secular," says Norenzayan. "People have found other ways to be cooperative � without God."

Poll: Americans wary of churches pushing politics

2008-10-02T09:14:00.000-06:00

NASHVILLE, Tenn.�Americans strongly believe churches should tread lightly when it comes to political activity.

According to a survey released by LifeWay Research, Americans believe churches should not campaign for or endorse political candidates and pastors should only endorse candidates as private citizens outside of a church service.

When asked for their level of agreement with the statement �I believe it is appropriate for churches to publicly endorse candidates for public office,� 59 percent said they strongly disagree. Sixteen percent somewhat disagree.

When it comes to how churches use their resources, Americans believe overwhelmingly that churches should not use those resources to campaign for candidates for public office.

When asked to respond to the statement �I believe it is appropriate for churches to use their resources to campaign for candidates for public office,� 85 percent disagree, including 73 percent who disagree strongly.

Regarding whether churches should lose tax-exempt status for publicly endorsing candidates, a slim majority agree and differences appear along many of the same lines.

Thirty-eight percent strongly agree and 14 percent somewhat agree �that churches who publicly endorse candidates for public office should lose their tax exemption.� Twenty-five percent strongly disagree, 17 percent somewhat disagree and 6 percent are not sure.

�Americans overwhelmingly want pastors to stick to faith and not political endorsements,� Stetzer says. �However, they are less certain that they want the government to strip them of their tax exemption. Americans don�t want churches in politics, but they are not as certain they want the government in the churches.�

When the question centers on pastors rather than churches, Americans are slightly more open to endorsement of candidates, but not during a church service.

Although more than half believe it is appropriate for pastors to endorse candidates for public office outside of the church, only 13 percent believe it is acceptable for pastors to endorse candidates during a church service.

The telephone survey was conducted in June 2008 among 1,208 adults randomly selected throughout the country in proportion to population. Weighting is used to adjust for non-response controlling for region, age, race, religion and gender. The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the margin of error does not exceed +2.9 percent.

To view the entire report in addition to charts, visit www.lifewayresearch.com.

How religion got deep into politics

2008-10-02T09:07:00.001-06:00

How religion got deep into politics

By John Shulson | The Virginia Gazette
October 1, 2008

WILLIAMSBURG -- Bruton Parish Episcopal Church recently launched its fall series, �The Influence of Religion on Presidential Politics,� with an overflow crowd in Lewis Hall to hear Dan Roberts speak on �America�s Vacant Public Square.�

Roberts, a true Renaissance man, is a professor of history at the University of Richmond. He�s also a Presbyterian minister, a Bronze Star Medal recipient and a jazz pianist. Roberts created the syndicated Public Radio series, �A Moment in Time,� which plays to 2 million listeners eager to resist �this growing epidemic of ignorance about the [historical] past.�

The radio program was inspired by a survey in which 78% of college seniors from 55 top universities could identify Bevis and Butthead, while only 33% could connect the dots between George Washington and Yorktown. Roberts set about to make history relevant in short radio bursts.

His thoughts concerning religion and politics date back to the founding days of our country and its disenchantment with the Church of England.

Assuredly, �Church and state were tightly locked,� he told his Bruton Parish audience, �but distrust also existed.� He recalled that the Founding Fathers rejected sectarian religion in government. �The state would not be the people�s moral salvation, and it wouldn�t seek to manage people�s lives.�

Instead, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution addressed religion in non-specific terms. �We could have created a Christian republic, but we looked west toward something new,� he said.

However, the seeds of a growing religious movement within the state were sown when the Constitution was ratified. �Evangelicals said they wanted a Bill of Rights and freedom of religion and bartered with James Madison to achieve this.�

As America began to grow into a diverse republic, the Great Awakening saw a growth in evangelical churches. Later, the immigration of many Catholics and Jews tended to undermine Protestant dominations, he said.

Roberts said presidential candidates realize �it�s dangerous to play the religious card. Candidates try to avoid making it an issue... in order not to offendcategories of people.�

Since candidates need to be careful not to make overt appeals, Roberts said, politicians resort to code language such as �family values.� He explained that �family values� can mean one thing to a couple with a child in Virginia and quite another to two men who adopt a child in Chicago.

Of the need to tread lightly in the use of religion, Roberts illustrated three candidates who traversed political minefields: Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Richard Nixon.

Even though Jefferson was accused of being a deist and the father of a child born to a slave, he refused to respond to allegations and chose to ignore the subject of religion. He decided instead to hit hard on John Adams� position on war.

Lincoln didn�t conform to orthodox religious folks. He reacted against sectarian rivalry and even used reason and ridicule to counter aspects of the Bible. However, Lincoln eventually grew into a form of Unitarian religion, using it not in debates but in other ways. He used biblical language in fighting slavery. He could speak the religious language of the voters he needed. The result was that his humor and his personal demeanor propelled him to office even though the people didn�t share his religious beliefs.

It was Nixon, Roberts said, who started �pious presidential pandering� to play to the religious. He explained that Nixon, a Quaker, occasionally went to church, preferring to hold Sunday services in the White House. However, Nixon tended to stay away from the subject of religion.

Instead, he used overt religiosity as a code.

�Nixon�s strategy was to win the Southern white vote. Many in the South were racists and religious. He realized a direct racist appeal couldn�t be done. But he did appeal to them through the use of code phrases familiar to Southern whites such as �states� rights� and �law and order.��

In drawing his extensively prepared comments to a close, Roberts returned to his theme of a town square.

�The vacant public square is under attack. Many voters calculate to use religion to determine who they�ll vote for. It�s now factored into the strategy. The fate of the public square hangs in the balance.�

New Site Combines Spiritual and Medical Guidance

2008-10-02T09:01:00.001-06:00

Monday, September 29, 2008

By: Sylvia Booth Hubbard

Doctors and patients looking to augment traditional medical care with a dose of spiritual healing can turn to a new Web-based resource that offers a mix of advice, references and even actual prayers.

The site�s founders say the site offers much needed support, especially in a place as spiritual as the U.S. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 94 percent of Americans believe in a higher power. When Americans become ill, 75 percent want their doctor to include spiritual aspects into their medical treatment. And nearly half want their doctors to pray, not just for them, but with them. Some 43 percent of doctors admit they pray for their patients privately.

Spirit-Health Connections provides:

# Links to recently published articles on health and spirituality.

# Prayers of support for health providers of all faiths, including Christian prayers from several denominations appropriate in the death of a child, and Buddhist prayers for the sick.

# �Ask an Expert� section which allows readers to email questions on spirituality and health that will be answered by experts.

# A calendar of events lists lectures and conferences across the nation along with contact information.

# Links to centers and universities worldwide that study health and religion

# Excerpts from books for medical professionals, spiritual advisors, and researchers that explore spirituality and health.

# A media section which features video and audio files that can be downloaded free of charge.

Although some scientists say there is no rational explanation for how prayer works, others counter with the fact that aspirin was used effectively for hundreds of years before science figured out how it works. .

Megachurches push for greater spirituality

2008-09-30T08:39:00.001-06:00

CATHY LYNN GROSSMAN
September 27, 2008

After decades of soaring growth, the phenomenon of Protestant megachurches � behemoths of belief where 2,000 to 20,000 or more people attend weekend worship � may be stalled.

And Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., the granddaddy of "seeker-sensitive" megachurches geared to attract the spiritually curious, is on a mission to rev the engines.

On paper, megachurches look like a trend still on the rise. Their total number rose from 600 in 2000 to more than 1,250 in 2005, says sociologist Scott Thumma of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Hartford, Conn.

On Outreach magazine's 2008 list of the largest 100, even the smallest says more than 7,000 people attend. But some of the biggest, including Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, with 43,500, showed slight declines.

Experts see more troubling concerns than slowing growth: no measurable inroads on overall church attendance and signs that many churchgoers are spectators, not driving toward a deeper faith.

"You can create a church that's big, but is still not transforming people. Without transformation, the Christian message is not advanced," says Ed Stetzer, head of Lifeway Research in Nashville, Tenn., which did the Outreach study.

The unchurched remain untouched. While the number of people who say they attend at least once a week hovers around 30 percent year after year, the number who say they "never" go to church climbs.

The tally of "nevers" varies from 16 percent in Gallup surveys to 22 percent in the General Social Survey, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, to 32 percent in an Ellison Research survey this year. The new "nevers" come from the pool of people who once attended monthly or a few times a year.

Many slide away from church to find other answers to their spiritual quest or another church where the preaching or music or family programs better suit their style.

The study, now being marketed to churches nationwide as a self-assessment tool, found many who attend church are not progressing from beginner believers to become "fully centered in Christ" � deep in Bible study, prayer and service.

In response, founder and senior pastor Bill Hybels has changed his sermons to more directly challenge worshipers at every level. Willow has launched a slate of dozens of Wednesday mini-classes focusing on spiritual growth, coached and mentored by the church.

Willow is still "seeker-obsessed," says Hybels. "But today's seekers are different" than years ago.

Today, he says, "I don't think anyone is wandering around looking for a mild dose of God. They want to know: 'What would a life centered on Christ look like in my life? What would that feel like? How do I go about it?' "

Near-death experiences, guardian angel research projects connected?

2008-09-30T08:30:00.002-06:00

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

by Steve Hammons

This month, news coverage of two research studies related to near-death experiences and belief in guardian angels provoked surprise, skepticism, and for some people, curiosity about transcendent and anomalous phenomena.

Are there cosmic connections between the two research project results?

The Human Consciousness Project at the University of Southampton in the UK began the biggest research study to date of near-death experiences (NDEs) among heart attack survivors who have been resuscitated.

The Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion also released results of a survey that found more than half of those polled believed they have been helped by a guardian angel during their lives.

There is an obvious link between NDEs and angels.

For those who suspect there may be some truth in both of these phenomena, the connections between them take only a small leap of faith, or even of scientific logic.

If, when we pass on, we go from this existence to some other place, then this afterlife or other dimension is probably associated with the dimension from which angels conduct their activities.

DIMENSIONS AND HEAVENLY WORMHOLES

Some physicists now tell us that the Universe may have many dimensions, including several we may not be able to easily perceive.

The Universe may be a "multi-verse" where layers or interfaces of different realities exist in ways that are both separate and connected.

People who report NDEs often describe going through a tunnel-like experience. This tunnel is often described as consisting of warm and beautiful light � a deeply loving and compassionate light.

In some cases, at the end of this tunnel, they may meet loved ones who had previously passed on. Or, they may encounter other beings.

Dr. Sam Parnia, head researcher of the University of Southampton project, was quoted in the UK newspaper The Telegraph as noting, "What people experience during this period of cardiac arrest provides a unique window of understanding into what we are all likely to experience during the dying process."

These NDE accounts seem to indicate a pathway from our daily reality to another dimension or another kind of reality.

One in five of those respondents identified themselves as not being religious.

Why do so many people have this belief? Wishful thinking? A psychological security blanket? Or, is it something more?

If it is true that they (we) do go to another dimension of reality, what kinds of activities are undertaken there? Are the daily lives of family members and friends back on Earth simply forgotten and left behind? Or, are missions and projects undertaken that have some important meaning?

CONSCIOUSNESS BEYOND DEATH

The NDE study at Southampton University, led by Dr. Parnia, is called the AWARE study, referring to "AWAreness during REsuscitation."

Parnia has done previous research on patient consciousness while experiencing clinical death.

The research will be conducted in the UK and the United States and will involve 25 hospitals. Researchers will look at 1,500 patients who had heart attacks that resulted in cessation of heartbeat and brain activity.

Parnia was quoted in The Telegraph newspaper as saying, "If you can demonstrate that consciousness continues after the brain switches off, it allows for the possibility that the consciousness is a separate entity."

The Telegraph article also quoted Parnia as explaining, "Contrary to popular perception, death is not a specific moment. It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning � a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death."

According to Parnia, "During a cardiac arrest, all three criteria of death are present. There then follows a period of time, which may last from a few seconds to an hour or more, in which emergency medical efforts may succeed in restarting the heart and reversing the dying process."

Some recent scientific studies reportedly have found that 10 percent to 20 percent of people experiencing clinical death also claim to have had consciousness and vivid, very interesting experiences during the period between death and resuscitation.

AN ENCHANTED WORLD

The Baylor survey included a wide range of religious topics, not just guardian angel encounters. Christopher Bader was the director of poll. The survey queried 1,700 people.

The response that generated the most interest, however, was the agreement by those polled with the following statement:

"I was protected from harm by a guardian angel."

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed agreed with this statement.

This general response was consistent across educational levels, geographic region and religious denominations.

Bader was quoted in TIME magazine as saying, "If you ask whether people believe in guardian angels, a lot of people will say, 'sure.' But this is different. It's experiential. It means that lots of Americans are having these lived supernatural experiences."

The number of people saying they believed they were protected by an angels was "the big shocker," Bader said.

The TIME article also quoted Randall Balmer, chairman of the religion department at Barnard College in New York. He said the Baylor survey reflects the fact that "Americans live in an enchanted world" and that "There is much broader uncharted range of religious experience among the populace than we expect."

According to an ABC News article on the Baylor poll, Rodney Stark, a professor of social sciences and co-director for studies of religion at Baylor, said, "While I knew there were a lot of people who had such [beliefs in angels], I wasn't prepared for the frequency of it."

NOTE TO READERS: For more information, please visit the Joint Recon Study Group site and have a look around.

Religion and Politics: Combustible Combination Influences Voters' Choices

2008-09-29T09:41:00.001-06:00

September 25, 2008 �

Americans who regularly attend worship services tend to hold more conservative religious views, so if they decide to be similarly dedicated to voting in November, their votes could tip the presidential election to John McCain.

But if Barack Obama can rouse the more lackadaisical Christians among us, they may swing the election in his favor, based on historical trends.

Those were some of the links between religion and politics highlighted by Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, who spoke Monday evening at a University of Virginia Center for Politics event.

Lugo presented findings from the Pew Forum's recent U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, which was based on interviews with more than 35,000 American adults.

The survey found strong correlations between Americans' degree of religiosity, as measured by church attendance, and voting patterns in the 2004 election. Survey respondents were asked to describe how often they attended church: more than weekly, weekly, monthly, a few times a year, or seldom to never. Those who attend church more than weekly chose Bush over Kerry by 64 percent to 35 percent, while 58 percent of weekly churchgoers voted for Bush.

In a nearly symmetrical reversal of those preferences, those who seldom attend church favored Kerry by 62 percent to 35 percent. The preference for Bush declined steadily in correlation with attending church less often.

This so-called "God gap" is more accurately described as a church attendance gap, Lugo said, and the Obama campaign is absolutely determined to close this gap.

Political preferences can also be broken down by religious affiliation, Lugo said. White evangelical Protestants, who make up nearly a quarter of the American electorate, voted for Bush at a 78 percent clip in 2004. In contrast, even higher percentages of Jews and black Protestants favored the Democratic candidates in 2000 and 2004.

But despite all the efforts of Obama to appeal to Christians, surveys show that he has made no progress appealing to self-described white "evangelical" voters. About 71 percent of them back the McCain-Palin ticket, according to a Pew survey conducted Sept. 9-14 � up from 61 percent in June, and about the same proportion as supported Bush in 2000, said Lugo.

Catholics make up nearly 20 percent of the electorate, and they have become a key swing vote in American politics, Lugo said. Gore won the overall Catholic vote by 3 percentage points in 2000, but Kerry lost that bloc by 5 points in 2004.

While about two-thirds of Hispanic Catholics favored both Gore and Kerry, white Catholic voters were much more evenly divided, with Bush garnering 52 percent of their vote in 2000 and 56 percent in 2004. How these white Catholics vote will be critical to the upcoming election, Lugo predicted.

Religion has always been important in American public life, with attitudes only shifting gradually, and over decades. From 2000 through 2008, a steady 70 to 72 percent of Americans agree with the proposition: "It's important to me that a president have strong religious beliefs." In the 1950s, Americans were much more open to electing an atheist or someone without strong religious convictions, Lugo said.

The increase in pro-religion sentiments in the past 50 years was spurred in part by facing the "godless" enemy of communism in the Cold War, said Charles Mathewes, a professor of religious studies. If Americans continue to face a significant threat from fundamentalist Muslim terrorists for the next 30 to 40 years, he wondered, will the importance of religion in public life wane?

As for this year's election, the "fundamentals" of an unpopular Republican president, a tanking economy and a derided war appear to favor the Democrats, Lugo said. But current polls show a very tight presidential race.

"In this election, everything is against the Republicans," Lugo said. "To be honest, I'm just surprised it's so close. ... I guess there's a lot of underlying discomfort in closing the deal with Obama."

� By Brevy Cannon

AZERBAIJAN: Religious freedom survey, September 2008

2008-09-29T09:25:00.002-06:00

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

This is the first few paragraphs of a lengthy article presenting details of a survey analysis of religious freedom in Azerbaijan, one the former Soviet Socialist Republics. We present it here to encourage readers to realize what a gift we have in this country with our level of religious freedom, and how damaging a history of Godless philosophy can affect generations of God-seekers and religious expression.
Please click on "external link" for the complete article

In its survey analysis of religious freedom in Azerbaijan, Forum 18 News Service has found continuing violations of freedom of thought, conscience and belief. The state attempts to control or limit the majority Muslim and minority religious communities, including imposing strict censorship, violating its international human rights commitments. The situation in the Nakhichevan exclave is worse than the rest of the country. Officials often claim that Azerbaijan is a state of religious tolerance � a view promoted by government-favoured groups � but the state promotes intolerance of some minorities and has not introduced the genuine religious freedom necessary for genuine religious tolerance to flourish. Many officials are convinced that ethnic Azeris should not be non-Muslims, and act on this conviction. In practice, many violations of the human rights of both Muslims and non-Muslims � such as the detention of Baptist prisoner of conscience Hamid Shabanov and a ban on Muslims praying outside mosques - are based on unwritten understandings and even violations of the written law.

Ahead of the Universal Periodic Review of Azerbaijan by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in February 2009, Forum 18 News Service has found tight official controls over religious communities and unwritten restrictions on peaceful religious activity.

Azerbaijan's government claims to be secular, officially recognizing no state religion. State-sanctioned Islam, Russian Orthodox Christianity, and Judaism are considered "traditional" and so their official bodies receive preferential treatment, such as being allowed a public voice and avoiding official harassment. Despite this preferred status, all three "traditional" religions are subordinate to government control and scrutiny, especially Islam.

The state appears to be fundamentally hostile to freedom of thought, conscience and belief, state policy apparently being to control faiths it regards as a potential challenge (especially Islam), to limit or co-opt faiths it sees as useful (Judaism, Russian Orthodoxy, Lutheranism and Catholicism) and to actively restrict faiths that it dislikes (some Protestant Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses). Faiths with a small following who function unobtrusively, such as Molokans (an early Russian Protestant group), Georgian Orthodox, Hare Krishna and Baha'is, have mainly tended to be able to operate without much hostile government attention.

Freedom of thought, conscience and belief acts as a litmus test of the state of the rule of law and human rights in any society. So violations of religious freedom are linked with violations of such human rights as freedom of speech and association, freedom of the media, etc., as well as with similar violations in other areas of society and politics. Since 1993, Azerbaijan has been ruled by the Aliev family, first by Heidar Aliev (President from 1993 to 2003), then by his son Ilham Aliev (President since 2003). New presidential elections are scheduled for 15 October 2008, and the authorities are trying to ensure Ilham Aliev's victory. Despite massive oil wealth and a booming economy in the capital Baku, much of the population remains in poverty. Corruption is said by many observers to be widespread. The long-running dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, remains unresolved and is a source of continuing tension, religious minorities having sometimes been accused of being "Armenian spies."

Much of Azerbaijan's population of more than 8 million would identify themselves as Muslim by tradition. Although most of these are of Shia background, there is also a large Sunni Muslim minority. The state has been hostile to Muslim scholarship advocating genuine religious freedom, and seeing pluralist democracy as totally compatible with Islam. All Muslim communities are compelled by the Religion Law to be under the control of the state-favoured Caucasian Muslim Board.

Government control of the majority religious community and harassment of minority communities violates Azerbaijan's international human rights commitments, such as those it undertook as a member of the Council of Europe and participating State in the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). This appears, from Forum 18's observation of officials' responses, to stem from a fear of social change they cannot control, and a dislike of pluralism.

The situation in Nakhichevan [Nax�ivan], an exclave between Armenia, Iran, and Turkey separated from the rest of Azerbaijan is considerably worse that the rest of the country. There has long been a de facto ban on religious activity by non-Muslim communities in Nakhichevan. Baha'is, a small Adventist congregation and a Hare Krishna community have been banned. "Of course our people would like to be able to meet" a Baha'i told Forum 18. Muslim communities too are under strict control by the Nakhichevan authorities. "There is no democracy, no free media and no human rights in Nakhichevan," Professor Ali Abasov of the International Religious Liberty Association told Forum 18. Asked why, he responded with a grim laugh: "The authorities don't want it," insisting that the Nakhichevan authorities are doing what the authorities in the rest of Azerbaijan would like to do.

Officials often claim that Azerbaijan is a country of religious tolerance � a view sedulously promoted by government-favoured groups such as the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Jewish communities (Mountain, Georgian and Ashkenazi Jewish). At the time of the 2002 visit of Pope John Paul II, Catholics also promoted this view. Land was subsequent granted in Baku for a new Catholic church to be built. Orthodoxy's worldwide leader, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, repeated the same message during his high-profile visit in 2003. Social relations between the more visible religious communities are generally good, but the government � through such devices as sometimes broadcasting hostile TV film footage after police raids - promotes intolerance of some minorities.

Azerbaijan has continued many of the Soviet period's mechanisms of control, and has not introduced the genuine religious freedom which is an essential pre-condition for genuine religious tolerance to flourish. Many officials are therefore convinced that ethnic Azeris should not be non-Muslims, and act on this conviction.

For example, during an autumn 2007 police raid on a Protestant church in Sumgait [Sumqayit], north of Baku, some 30 church members were detained. Police pressured them to renounce their faith, calling in the local imam. "The imam held up a copy of the Koran and police tried to force church members to pass underneath it and deny their faith," one Protestant told Forum 18. It is illegal for police to force individuals to renounce their faith.

National and local officials of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations have repeatedly alleged that Protestant Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses have violated the law by holding "illegal meetings", and that their communities should be closed down. Such claims encourage the belief among officials and the public that such groups are a threat to society.

Faiths unite for peace

2008-09-29T09:18:00.002-06:00

by Millie Willis

Most of the news we hear out of the Middle East usually describes the violence among Israelis, Palestinians and Muslims. We seldom hear about, and often are unaware of, the heroic efforts among those citizens who are saying "Enough!" and are creating numerous interfaith groups working together to bring peace to the Middle East.

The Jerusalem Peacemakers is one of those groups. It is a network of independent interfaith peacemakers. Their purpose is to inform others about their work; encourage peace and healing in the Holy Land; nurture forgiveness, justice and collaboration, so that all people in the Holy Land may build a new future.

The Peacemakers are increasing in numbers, and include Christians, Muslims, Jews and Palestinians, men, women and children of all ages throughout the Holy Land.

On Sept. 7, we were invited to hear two representatives from the Jerusalem Peacemakers at an Interfaith Forum, held at the Antrim Chapel at Roanoke College. They were brought here by Sam Rasoul, a candidate for Congress and a member of the local Valley Character Interfaith Committee.

Rasoul introduced the two guest speakers to a sparse audience and moderated the forum. Eliyahu McLean and Ghassan Manasra represented the Jerusalem Peacemakers. Their topic was "Reclaiming Religion as a Source for Peace: Tools for Peacemakers in Judaism and Islam."

We learned that McLean was born in California and 10 years ago moved to Israel. He lives in Jerusalem and his faith is Judaism. He is active in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in Nablus and Eilat. Until 2003, he was director of the Israel Chapter of the Peacemaker Community, Mevakshei Shalom, which serves as an umbrella for many projects integrating spirituality and reconciliation efforts.

Manasra is a Sufi Muslim. He is the director of Anwar il-Salaam, a Muslim peace and dialogue center based in Nazareth under the guidance of his father, Sufi sheikh Abdul Salaam Manasra. His father serves as the head of the Qadiri Sufi order in the Holy Land. He is currently running a project that brings together Jewish and Muslim high school principals and educators for study and training in religious sources for peace.

This year, Ghassan Manasra was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

They told their stories of their struggles and successes of meeting together with rabbis, sheikhs and priests and the many citizens from these areas of unrest. The Jerusalem Peacemakers' efforts to bring peace include interfaith camps and meetings where they try to understand each other and build respect through interfaith dialogue. Some Jewish, Palestinian and Muslim women leaders are working with their counterparts to initiate various movements, i.e. The Women's Partnership for Peace in the Middle East, Women's Interfaith Encounter Association and Culture of Peace Educational Program for schoolchildren.

These efforts are reminiscent of the heroism in the biblical battle story of David and Goliath. They are all working against great odds and with no support from their own governments.

The forum was uplifting, hopeful and educational. It is reassuring to learn that individual of different faiths are working together for peace in their part of the world. My appreciation to Rasoul for his great effort in bringing these two Jerusalem Peacemakers to Roanoke.

Documentary Examines Role of Christian Faith in History of Freedom

2008-09-29T08:58:00.001-06:00

By Elena Garcia
Christian Post Reporter
Wed, Sep. 24 2008

If it weren�t for the Christian faith, the birth of freedom and liberty would not have been possible, according to a new documentary from the Action Institute.

In �The Birth of Freedom,� Action Institute takes a look at key freedom fighters and associated documents to trace the historical development of the principles of liberty and freedom that endow Americans with �unalienable� rights as �equal� men.

From the plight of slave abolitionist William Wilberforce and America�s founding father Thomas Jefferson to civil rights figure the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the documentary shows how the Christian faith was inextricably linked to their cries for freedom.

�Think of what a scandal it would be if we were to say the abolitionists should have kept their Christian faith out of the struggle against slavery. Rev. Martin Luther King should have kept his Christian faith out of the struggle for civil rights. People who fought against the terrible crimes committed in the name of eugenics should have kept their faith out of politics,� said Prof. Robert P. George of Princeton University in the documentary.

The film also suggests that the idea of human rights was created by theologians.

The documentary, which has been screened to select audiences earlier this year, was shown at an exclusive premiere to a crowd of Christian bloggers at the 2008 Godblogcon over the weekend.

In conjunction with �The Birth of Freedom,� Action Media has also been releasing a series of short clips that provide additional insight into key issues presented but not covered in the film.

On Monday, the organization released its fourth short video in the series which examines "Poverty in Medieval Europe." New videos are released every Monday.

The Mission of the Acton Institute is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.

What Happens When We Die?

2008-09-24T08:54:00.000-06:00

By M.J. STEPHEY Tue Sep 23

A fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project's origins, its skeptics and the difference between the mind and the brain.

What sort of methods will this project use to try and verify people's claims of "near-death" experience?

When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about 10 sec., brain activity ceases - as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, 10% or 20% of people who are then brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, Are these real, or is it some sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures only visible from the ceiling and nowhere else, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they're able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn't functioning.

How does this project relate to society's perception of death?

People commonly perceive death as being a moment - you're either dead or you're alive. And that's a social definition we have. But the clinical definition we use is when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working, and as a consequence the brain itself stops working. When doctors shine a light into someone's pupil, it's to demonstrate that there is no reflex present. The eye reflex is mediated by the brain stem, and that's the area that keeps us alive; if that doesn't work, then that means that the brain itself isn't working. At that point, I'll call a nurse into the room so I can certify that this patient is dead. Fifty years ago, people couldn't survive after that.

How is technology challenging the perception that death is a moment?

Nowadays, we have technology that's improved so that we can bring people back to life. In fact, there are drugs being developed right now - who knows if they'll ever make it to the market - that may actually slow down the process of brain-cell injury and death. Imagine you fast-forward to 10 years down the line; and you've given a patient, whose heart has just stopped, this amazing drug; and actually what it does is, it slows everything down so that the things that would've happened over an hour, now happen over two days. As medicine progresses, we will end up with lots and lots of ethical questions.

But what is happening to the individual at that time? What's really going on? Because there is a lack of blood flow, the cells go into a kind of a frenzy to keep themselves alive. And within about 5 min. or so they start to damage or change. After an hour or so the damage is so great that even if we restart the heart again and pump blood, the person can no longer be viable, because the cells have just been changed too much. And then the cells continue to change so that within a couple of days the body actually decomposes. So it's not a moment; it's a process that actually begins when the heart stops and culminates in the complete loss of the body, the decompositions of all the cells. However, ultimately what matters is, What's going on to a person's mind? What happens to the human mind and consciousness during death? Does that cease immediately as soon as the heart stops? Does it cease activity within the first 2 sec., the first 2 min.? Because we know that cells are continuously changing at that time. Does it stop after 10 min., after half an hour, after an hour? And at this point we don't know.

What was your first interview like with someone who had reported an out-of-body experience?

Eye-opening and very humbling. Because what you see is that, first of all, they are completely genuine people who are not looking for any kind of fame or attention. In many cases they haven't even told anybody else about it because they're afraid of what people will think of them. I have about 500 or so cases of people that I've interviewed since I first started out more than 10 years ago. It's the consistency of the experiences, the reality of what they were describing. I managed to speak to doctors and nurses who had been present who said these patients had told them exactly what had happened, and they couldn't explain it. I actually documented a few of those in my book What Happens When We Die because I wanted people to get both angles - not just the patients' side but also the doctors' side - and see how it feels for the doctors to have a patient come back and tell them what was going on. There was a cardiologist that I spoke with who said he hasn't told anyone else about it because he has no explanation for how this patient could have been able to describe in detail what he had said and done. He was so freaked out by it that he just decided not to think about it anymore.

Why do you think there is such resistance to studies like yours?

Because we're pushing through the boundaries of science, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people hold this idea that, well, when you die, you die; that's it. Death is a moment - you know you're either dead or alive. All these things are not scientifically valid, but they're social perceptions. If you look back at the end of the 19th century, physicists at that time had been working with Newtonian laws of motion, and they really felt they had all the answers to everything that was out there in the universe. When we look at the world around us, Newtonian physics is perfectly sufficient. It explains most things that we deal with. But then it was discovered that actually when you look at motion at really small levels - beyond the level of the atoms - Newton's laws no longer apply. A new physics was needed, hence, we eventually ended up with quantum physics. It caused a lot of controversy - even Einstein himself didn't believe in it.

Now, if you look at the mind, consciousness, and the brain, the assumption that the mind and brain are the same thing is fine for most circumstances, because in 99% of circumstances we can't separate the mind and brain; they work at the exactly the same time. But then there are certain extreme examples, like when the brain shuts down, that we see that this assumption may no longer seem to hold true. So a new science is needed in the same way that we had to have a new quantum physics. The CERN particle accelerator may take us back to our roots. It may take us back to the first moments after the Big Bang, the very beginning. With our study, for the first time, we have the technology and the means to be able to investigate this. To see what happens at the end for us. Does something continue?

More students 'searching for a spiritual meaning'

2008-09-24T08:51:00.001-06:00

by Allison Stice

Page one of two: Please click on "xternal link" at the bottom of this page for complete article

College students at this university and around the country are increasingly finding meditation a part of their overall health care, as health care providers learn more about the health and cognitive benefits of meditating.

Student groups like the Meditation Club and classes through the University Health Center and Campus Recreation Services are proliferating and promoting meditation as a means to combat anxiety, depression and even drug abuse, while meditation techniques are an integral part of other therapies like the smoking cessation and stress management programs.

At the Center for Health and Wellbeing, Coordinator of Wellness Programs Tracy Zeeger said last spring's decision to add free meditation classes - which became popular right away and continue to bring in about seven students per class - twice a week was encouraged by University Health Center Director Sacared Bodison as a means to bolster the alternative medicine programs at the health center. Zeeger said she has also seen an increase in her appointments for wellness counseling, where she incorporates meditation techniques like concentrated breathing and guided visual imagery into offerings such as relaxation training.

"Meditation falls very neatly into the category of wellness in that it not only promotes physical health but mental and spiritual health as well," Zeeger said. "It can help with students who suffer from depression or mild anxiety. � There are alternatives to prescription pills."

Attendance at the meditation class tallies about as many as the main lobby for the Center of Health and Wellbeing can comfortably hold.

At the Meditation Club meeting on McKeldin Mall Monday, about 30 students gathered in a circle, casting long shadows under the glare of the street lamp as they practiced meditation in silence. The club encourages students from all religious backgrounds to attend, junior history major Ryan Zembik said, and has helped him with stress and controlling his temper.
Continued...

Survey: Megachurches more intimate, believers less gullible than stereotypes

2008-09-24T08:39:00.001-06:00

Friday, 19 September 2008

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A new survey by Baylor University researchers suggests that megachurches are more intimate, believers less gullible and atheism less prevalent than popular stereotypes would suggest.

The survey found that members of such churches tended to have more friends within their congregations, hold more conservative or evangelical Christian beliefs, share their faith with friends and strangers more often, and be involved in volunteer work more frequently than their counterparts in churches with less than 100 in average attendance.

An additional factor suggested by the survey: Megachurches are far more likely than small churches to be conservative evangelical congregations. Meanwhile, smaller churches had a higher rate of affiliation with what the survey called a �liberal Protestant denomination,� or with mainline church bodies such as the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church.

The survey also found that active religious believers -- and particularly conservative Christians -- were less likely than the general public to believe in the occult and paranormal.

�The Baylor Survey found that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases credulity, as measured by beliefs in such things as dreams, Bigfoot, UFOs, haunted houses and astrology, with education having hardly any effect,� the survey�s authors said.

For instance, as measured against an index of belief in occult and paranormal beliefs researchers constructed, only 14 percent of respondents who described themselves as �evangelical� rated high on the index. Meanwhile, 30 percent of those who rejected the �evangelical� label scored high on the same index.

Those who described themselves as �theologically liberal� were actually more likely than evangelicals -- and than the public at large -- to believe in such things as the ability to communicate with the dead, the existence of mythical creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, and alien encounters with Earth.

The survey, of 1,648 English-speaking American adults, used detailed questionnaires mailed in the fall of 2007. Collected by the Gallup Organization and analyzed by Baylor researchers, it has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

It was funded by the Templeton Foundation, and is the second wave of a three-part survey project. The first set of results was released in 2006. The final set, researchers said, will be released next year.

Hunt for God particle

2008-09-24T08:29:00.001-06:00

By ROSS FREAKE

"The most important thing is to clear your mind so you don't expect anything in particular. You really have to be ready to see absolutely anything."

Who would say something like that: A psychologist, a preacher, or a physicist?

And does it make a difference because the rift separating the three is becoming increasingly narrow and each could be the high priest in the other's "religion".

They use different methods and a different language, but they all delve into the Big Reality beneath the apparent to find a larger Truth.

In this case, the speaker is Hulya Guler, a postdoctoral fellow at the universities of Montreal and McGill who is working at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

He's part of a Canadian team working on a project to find the Higgs boson, called the God Particle, which is believed to give everything mass, allowing the universe to exist.

Scientists hope the largest machine in the world will let them peer into nature, to see a reality that existed during the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, to see the platform on which reality is constructed.

The Higgs boson, named after British physicist Peter Higgs who concocted the theory 40 years ago, is hypothetical, but scientists believe it exists because it helps explain the universe we see, which is five per cent of the universe that is.

Like scientists seeking the truth, we can delve into the depths of self. While most of us don't have a spare $9 billion to build a collider, we can perform our own experiment and observe the collisions happenings within us, and why we act the way we do. We can learn to act consciously and choose to walk the mystic path "to the One, with the One, in the One."

Anyone who peers into nature or the nature of self, asking why, is just as much a mystic as Plotinus, St. Francis or Rumi.

We only "see" part of who we are because most of us are below the line of our consciousness. But just as the stuff we can't see, the dark energy and dark matter that make up 95 per cent of the universe, influences what we can see, so the stuff below the line of awareness affects what's above.

Science looks for facts, while religion attempts to clothe them in wisdom, wonder and awe. Religion is the glue of life for billions of people, while science investigates the gluons - the force that holds the quarks in the atomic nucleus together and allows us to have life.

We need to emulate the scientists and the sages mesmerized by the wonder and awe as they search for the really Real, and not be dazzled by the apparently real, the trinkets and beads of a society more concerned with the outward than the inward.

We need to marry the sensual and the spiritual.

Survey results provide insight on faith

2008-09-19T12:04:00.010-06:00

Sept. 18, 2008

By Sommer Ingram
Staff Writer,

More than 40 years ago, the first two major surveys of American beliefs and practices were published in American Piety. For the first time, Americans could examine the many different facets of religion and the impact on people's lives.

Now, a team of Baylor professors picks up where this survey left off.

Do Americans really believe in Santa Claus? Does God directly speak to people? Should the Bible be taken literally, word-for-word?

These, along with other in-depth questions relating to religion, belief in the supernatural, and the voice of God, comprised the new wave of the National Baylor Religion Survey on Americans' Beliefs and Practices.

Baylor scholars from the Institute for Studies of Religion have released the results from the follow-up to their 2005 landmark study on American religious attitudes.

The results, which are compiled of mailed questionnaires from fall 2007 collected by the Gallup Organization, represent a national sample of 1,648 English-speaking Americans aged 18 and older. The John M. Templeton Foundation provided funding.

The first wave of the study was conducted in 2005, and included questions that dealt with controversial books, such as the Da Vinci Code, whether Americans are truly losing their religion, and how often Americans pray.

The results of the most recent study were published in "What Americans Really Believe," written by Dr. Rodney Stark, Distinguished Professor of the social sciences and co-director of ISR.

The book will be available in stores Sept. 19.

Participants in the study had to identify what religious denomination they could most accurately identify themselves as, as well as the name of their current place of worship.

The questionnaire included questions about the strictness and structure of the church, and spiritual experiences.

The study found that 20 percent of the population has heard God speak to them, 16 percent believe they have received a miraculous physical healing, and 55 percent believe they have been protected from harm by a guardian angel.

Women, blacks and Republicans are more likely to have spiritual experiences.

The Baylor survey found that belief in traditional Christian values actually decreases the tendency to be superstitious, as measured by beliefs in the paranormal and occult. The religion survey was also the first to ever ask about a belief in Santa Claus.

"An argument out there says that these beliefs are the same as religion," Bader said. "They think that believing in UFOs is as crazy as believing in the divinity of Jesus. But we have been able to discount the fact that Christians will believe anything."

The researchers also assessed the attitudes of various churches to issues in the general culture.

Fifty-two percent of the population said their place of worship would forbid abortion, while 32 percent said their church would merely discourage it.

Only 44 percent of the population said their church would forbid homosexual behavior, and 38 percent of church members said their church would forbid premarital sex.

Despite the myth that the Atheist population is growing, the study found that the percentage of Atheists living in America hasn't changed from 4 percent of the population over the past 60 years.

Fifty-six percent of Americans who claim to be irreligious actually pray.

Megachurches, which are congregations comprised of more than 1,000 members, were also addressed in the study.

It is a widely-held belief that one must worship in a small congregation in order to have an intimate relationship with God, but the study shows that mega-church members actually display a higher level of personal commitment by attending services, tithing, and attending a Bible study group.

People in megachurches also participate in more outreach activities and witness to others more: 83 percent of the megachurch population had shared their faith with a friend within the past month, compared to 52 percent in small churches.

The team will continue their research until 2018 and will come out with new studies every other year. The gap between myths surrounding the religious attitudes of Americans and what Americans really believe is continuously shrinking as these Baylor professors persist in their research.

How different faiths view major issues

2008-09-19T12:04:00.007-06:00

By CATHY LYNN GROSSMAN � USA TODAY �
September 18, 2008

God is punishing us.

Guardian angels protect us.

The Earth is in grave danger.

So finds Baylor University�s newest survey on Americans� religious beliefs and practices.

The survey, to be released today, is based on interviews with 1,700 adults conducted in fall 2007. Among the highlights:

Environment

Evangelicals less worried about global climate change

Most respondents to the Baylor Religion Survey agree that �if we do not change things dramatically,� global climate change will be �a disaster� (67%); coal, oil and natural gas will be exhausted (70%) and most plant and animal life will be destroyed (57%).

But evangelical Protestants are significantly less likely (55%) than other religious groups to be alarmed about global climate change or to forecast destruction of life unless changes are made (49%).

While 56% of U.S. adults say the government is not spending enough to improve and protect the environment, fewer evangelicals do � 41%, says Baylor sociologist F. Carson Mencken.

Indeed, evangelicals are at least twice as likely as any other major religious group to say the government is already spending too much. Most likely to say spending is too little: Jews, 81%, and people with no religious affiliation, 79%.

Environmentalism has been controversial among evangelicals. When the National Association of Evangelicals launched a �Call to Action� on climate change in 2006, some religious conservatives, led by James Dobson of Focus on the Family, strongly opposed it.

Gender and politics

Are women suited for politics? Americans are deeply divided

The survey reveals deep divisions over women�s roles in society, splits that may play out in the November elections.

For example, 33% of Americans say �Most men are better suited emotionally for politics than most women.� But 44% of evangelical Protestants agree, more than other Christians and markedly higher than Jews (29%), other religions (23%), and those with no religion (14%).

The Baylor data was gathered in 2007, when Sen. Hillary Clinton was seeking the Democratic nomination, but long before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was named to the Republican vice-presidential ticket, putting motherhood and gender in the spotlight. Palin is a mother of five, including an infant with Down syndrome.

Both Republican candidates are evangelical Protestants (John McCain is Baptist and Palin non-denominational). Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is a mainline Protestant (United Church of Christ), whose running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, is Roman Catholic.

The survey also finds:

� 41% say a preschooler suffers if the mother works (54% of evangelicals say so, nearly double for other groups).

� 31% say �it�s God�s will that women care for children� (48% for evangelicals).
Will these views shape votes?

Tragedy and evil

Dealing with evil: Candidates disagree

God either causes or allows �major tragedies to occur as a warning to sinners,� say 20% of U.S. adults.

While 43% say most evil is caused by the devil, 47% disagree � a statistical tie.

But most (68%) would not say human nature is basically evil.

So where does evil dwell � in the devil or in mankind? The Baylor survey allows for overlapping views; it finds 36% strongly agree with both statements.

"Those who believe God causes or allows bad things to happen did not speak in terms of tragedies being God�s fault,� says Baylor sociologist Christopher Bader.

Bader says people told him that �tragedies are our fault. We have sinned as a nation and God has stood aside and allowed terrible things to happen.�

Among the questions that the Rev. Rick Warren asked both presidential candidates at his Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency was, �Does evil exist?� Both candidates said yes.

Sen. Barack Obama said it is �God�s task� to �erase evil from the world� but �we can be soldiers in that process.�

Sen. John McCain said, �Evil must be defeated,� and linked it entirely to �the transcendent challenge of the 21st century � radical Islamic extremism.�

Survey shows increase in support for separation church and state

2008-09-19T12:04:00.005-06:00

Alison Wing
Updated: Thursday, September 18, 2008

Mixing religion and politics has long been an issue in the United States, and with the next presidential election upon us, some people are once again questioning the importance or unimportance of the separation or non-separation of church and state.

A recent survey conducted by The Pew Research Center reported the percentage gap between the general public thinking church and state should be separate has increased almost twenty percent over the past decade.

Four years ago fourty-four percent of the public thought the two should be kept separate. Today fifty-two percent say that the church should stay out of social and political matters.

Sixty-three percent say they want their leader to have the same beliefs and faith, but the church should not endorse nominees.

The Pew Forum survey, however, said although fifty-one percent of Americans don�t mind listening to politicians talk about how religious they are, fourty-six percent today say that they are becoming more uncomfortable with it.

In contrast, the survey finds 72 percent of Americans agree with the president having strong religious beliefs.

Thirty percent of college graduates agree it is important for the president to have strong religious beliefs while 27 percent disagree, and only 21 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 agree and 38 percent disagree.

There are a little over 300 million people in the United States with 14,911 living in Oxford. About 11,526 of the Oxford population are 18 years and older and of voting age.

The survey also reveals that most of the increased opposition has come mostly from those who identify themselves as Republicans rather than Democrats. The percentage of Republicans who say churches should keep out of politics has jumped from 37 percent in 2004 to 51 percent in 2008.

The latest national survey also finds social issues still continue to be greatly overshadowed by both domestic issues and the war on Iraq.

Church of England issues 'apology' to Darwin

2008-09-19T12:04:00.004-06:00

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, September 17, 2008

[Episcopal News Service] A spokesman for the Church of England has said the church misunderstood Charles Darwin's work nearly 150 years ago and that "by getting our first reaction wrong," has continued an on-going misunderstanding.

The Episcopal Church has said that the theory of evolution does not conflict with Christian faith. In 2006, the General Convention affirmed, via Resolution A129, that God is creator and added that "the theory of evolution provides a fruitful and unifying scientific explanation for the emergence of life on earth, that many theological interpretations of origins can readily embrace an evolutionary outlook, and that an acceptance of evolution is entirely compatible with an authentic and living Christian faith."

The previous year, the Episcopal Church's the Episcopal Church Network for Science, Technology and Faith released a Catechism of Creation. In its section on creation and science, the catechism says, in part, scientific researchers since Darwin have refined and added to his ideas, "but never thrown out his basic theoretical framework."

In response to the question of whether accepting biological evolution conflicts with the biblical statement that humans are created in the image and likeness of God, the catechism notes that "image and likeness" have often be described as "those divine gifts of unconditional love and compassion, our reason and imagination, our moral and ethical capacities, our freedom, or our creativity."

"To think that these gifts may have been bestowed through the evolutionary process does not conflict with biblical and theological notions that God acts in creation," the catechism says. "Scripture affirms that God was involved (Gen. 1:26-27)."

Robert Schneider, a retired Berea College professor who was the catechism's lead author, wrote in June 30 essay here that the catechism grew out of a concern that "Episcopalians by and large shared [an American] ignorance about science, and even more distressing, showed little understanding of the doctrine of creation, even though we profess it every time we recite the Nicene Creed."

Schneider wrote that "it is incumbent upon all Episcopal educators to learn the basics about the doctrine of creation and its relationship to the work of science."

"God's two books, the Book of Scripture and the Book of Nature, come from the same source, the creating Word of God, and we need to help the faithful develop a better understanding and appreciation of this fundamental truth," he wrote.

Brown's essay is part of a new section of the Church of England's website developed to mark the approaching bicentenary of Darwin's birth in 1809, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species" in 1859.

The Darwin pages include ones that explore Darwin's faith and his relationship with the Church of England. Diocese of Swindon Bishop Lee Rayfield, a former biological scientist, contributed a welcome page to the section in which he comments that "theology and science each have much to contribute in the assertion of the Psalmist that we are 'fearfully and wonderfully made.'"

The website also includes sections titled Darwin and the Church, Darwin and Faith, and Brief History of Darwin, as well as a list of further reading, and an events page listing how various bodies are celebrating Darwin's bicentenary over the coming months.

Darwin attended a Church of England boarding school in Shrewsbury and trained to be a clergyman at Cambridge. He married into an Anglican family and was inspired to follow his calling into science by another clergyman who was fascinated by the study of botany.
However, Darwin is said to have lost his faith, in part due to the death of a daughter and an increasingly need for evidence to back up belief.

"There is no reason to doubt that Christ still draws people towards truth through the work of scientists as well as others, and many scientists are motivated in their work by a perception of the deep beauty of the created world," Brown writes in his essay, adding that "for the sake of human integrity -- and thus for the sake of good Christian living -- some rapprochement between Darwin and Christian faith is essential."

Guardian Angels Are Here, Say Most Americans

2008-09-19T12:04:00.002-06:00

By David Van Biema
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2008

More than half of all Americans believe they have been helped by a guardian angel in the course of their lives, according to a new poll by the Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion. In a poll of 1700 respondents, 55% answered affirmatively to the statement, "I was protected from harm by a guardian angel." The responses defied standard class and denominational assumptions about religious belief; the majority held up regardless of denomination, region or education � though the figure was a little lower (37%) among respondents earning more than $150,000 a year.
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The guardian angel encounter figures were "the big shocker" in the report, says Christopher Bader, director of the Baylor survey that covered a range of religious issues, parts of which are being released Thursday in a book titled What Americans Really Believe. In the case of angels, however, the question is a little stronger than just belief. Says Bader, "If you ask whether people believe in guardian angels, a lot of people will say, 'sure.' But this is different. It's experiential. It means that lots of Americans are having these lived supernatural experiences."

What's interesting about the Baylor findings on guardian angel experiences is that they cross all boundaries. They have scriptural writ (in Psalm 91 and elsewhere). They are clearly experiential. And guardian angels are a prominent part of Catholic belief that happens to float freely outside of a sacrament. The cross-spectrum legitimacy of the notion of angelic interventions may free Americans to engage in the kind of folk faith that is part of almost any religious system but is not always officially acknowledged.

Randall Balmer, chairman of the religion department at New York's Barnard College, says that the Baylor angel figures are one in a periodic series of indications that "Americans live in an enchanted world," and engage in a kind of casual mysticism independent of established religious ritual, doctrine or theology. "There is," he says, a "much broader uncharted range of religious experience among the populace than we expect." Just possibly, Baylor has begun to chart it.

Hospitals offer alternative therapies for mind, body & spirit

2008-09-17T09:13:00.002-06:00

Posted by Heather VanNest

St. Petersburg, Florida--When nurses tried to insert an IV into patient Linda Aron's hand, she was so anxious over the impending operation to fix her acid reflux that they simply had to stop.

Instead of continuing to poke and prod Aron, nurses at Grinnell (Iowa) Regional Medical Center called in a massage therapist to rub her shoulders and arms to help her relax. Within 10 minutes, Aron had an IV in place.

To meet patient demand and enhance the hospital experience, more hospitals like Grinnell offer patients complementary and alternative treatments. The American Hospital Association says today that 37% of hospitals around the USA make complementary and alternative treatments available � including acupuncture, touch therapy, and music and art therapy.

A similar survey by the hospital group in 2005 found that one in four hospitals offered such services.

Patients such as Aron, 56, of Grinnell (population: 9,100), say they are surprised at how some of these therapies make a difference in their hospital experience.alter

And, to help speed her recovery and relieve pain from the surgery, Aron currently receives weekly acupuncture from the hospital in Grinnell as an outpatient. She pays the $55 fee out of her own pocket.

"This is a movement toward 'patient-centered' care," says Sita Ananth, director of knowledge services for the Samueli Institute, an Alexandria, Va.-based non-profit that studies alternative therapies. "Many hospital mission statements are to serve the mind, body and spiritual needs of their patients."

Success measured in patient satisfaction

Ananth also points to the lucrative market potential of these types of therapies for hospitals, although most hospitals have yet to see a profit. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, up to $19 billion a year is spent on alternative treatments. And the AHA's survey showed that much of that is paid out of pocket for patients � 71% of them pay cash.

While these types of therapies have a useful place in the hospital, more data are needed to understand how they work, says Andrew Schafer, chief physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "Complementary and alternative therapies must be scrutinized in terms of their risk-to-benefit ratio and be subjected to placebo-controlled studies.

The majority of hospitals say that patient satisfaction is the No. 1 way they determine if an alternative treatment is beneficial, closely followed by clinical data on a treatment. Cleveland Clinic just completed a complementary and alternative therapy pilot program for patients undergoing heart surgery. Half of the patients � more than 1,700 � opted for spiritual care, counseling, art, music, touch therapy or guided imagery, and 93% of patients surveyed said the services were helpful.

Guidance from doctor groups for patients with chronic pain has helped bolster doctors' acceptance of complementary treatments, says Richard Nahin, senior adviser for scientific coordination and outreach at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He cites new guidelines for treating lower back pain issued jointly last year by the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society, which suggest many alternative therapies as potential treatments. "As doctors become more aware, hospitals will also follow," Nahin says.

Not all doctors are on board

Yet the picture is not so rosy at certain centers. According to the AHA, 44% of hospitals that offer such therapies say that their programs have a mediocre or poor relationship with staff physicians.

Faith and Values: Your World Is Colored by Who Your God Is

2008-09-17T07:48:00.001-06:00

By Sally Santana
Saturday, September 13, 2008

Last month, Pastor Rick Warren got Barack Obama and John McCain to sit down with him and answer some questions on faith because "we do not believe in the separation of faith and politics because faith is just a world view and everybody has some kind of world view and it's important to know what they are."

You can have a world view about God, too.

In 2006, some findings from The Baylor Religion Survey were released. Long story short, it produced four views, or filters, of God. In 2008, many of us are familiar with them. They are called Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical and Distant (see www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-09-11-religion-survey_x.htm) Writer Cathy Lynn Grossman says, "These Four Gods tell more about people's social, moral and political views and personal piety than the familiar categories of Protestant/Catholic/Jew or even red state/blue state."

The kind of God you're trained to believe in doesn't have to be the kind of God you end up with.

What kind of God do you believe in, and how does that color your world?

Faith, Golden Rule influence attitudes on torture, new poll shows

2008-09-17T07:40:00.000-06:00

Thursday, Sep. 11, 2008
From staff reports

A new poll commissioned by Mercer University and Faith in Public Life shows the conflicted attitudes on torture among white evangelical Christians in the South.

Close to six in 10 white evangelicals in the South say that torture can often (20 percent) or sometimes (37 percent) be justified in order to gain important information, according to the survey, conducted by Public Religion Research. This compares to roughly half (48 percent) of the general public that believes torture can be justified, according to a Pew Research Center poll earlier this year.
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Despite high levels of religiosity, white evangelicals in the South are significantly more likely to rely on life experiences and common sense (44 percent) than Christian teachings or beliefs (28 percent) when thinking about the acceptability of torture. And only about one in 20 white evangelicals rely on the advice of government leaders when it comes to torture.

Among those influenced by Christian teachings, a majority (52 percent) of survey respondents oppose torture. In contrast, among those who rely most on life experiences and common sense, less than one-in-three (31 percent) oppose torture.

A majority (52 percent) agree with the Golden Rule argument against torture - that the U.S. government should not use methods against this country's enemies that we would not want used on American soldiers.

An appeal to the Golden Rule increases opposition to torture among every subgroup of white evangelicals. For example, only about one-third (34 percent) of white evangelicals who attend worship services more than once a week say torture is never or rarely justified, but a majority (50 percent) of this group was persuaded by the Golden Rule argument against torture. This represents a 16 point shift in opinion among the most frequent attending white evangelicals in the South.

A majority (53 percent) of white evangelicals in the South believe that the government uses torture as part of the campaign against terrorism, despite repeated claims made by government officials that the U.S. does not engage in torture. Only about one-third (32 percent) say that the U.S. does not use torture as a matter of policy.

This survey was based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Opinion Access Corp. among a sample of 600 white evangelical Christian adults, ages 18 years or older in the southeastern United States. The survey was fielded from Aug. 14-22.

Largest particle collider, operational, could rewrite science

2008-09-10T11:13:00.002-06:00

September 9, 2008

Large Hadron Collider is a 17-mile ring constructed deep underground beneath the border between Switzerland and France.Large Hadron Collider is a 17-mile ring constructed deep underground beneath the border between Switzerland and France.
The world's largest particle collider successfully completed its first major test by firing a beam of protons around a 17-mile underground ring Sept. 10 in what scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe.

After a series of trial runs, two white dots flashed on a computer screen indicating that the protons had traveled the full length of the Large Hadron Collider.

The collider is constructed deep underground beneath the border between Switzerland and France.

Considered to be the world�s largest machine, it was built at a cost of $9 billion dollars to make truly groundbreaking discoveries in science.
The collider took ten years to build.

Inside the collider, powerful magnets chilled to a few degrees above absolute zero (-271C) zip beams of energetic protons in a loop at speeds close to the speed of light then collide them head on.

The energy released is so huge that the impacts will eventually recreate conditions in the universe as they existed just a tiny fraction of a second after the �Big Bang,� the so-called instant of the universe�s creation.

The first high-energy collisions are planned to take place beginning in October.

If the collider performs as expected, it will most likely reveal a previously unseen particle known as the Higgs boson. Other phenomena may also be created and observed for the first time, including microscopic black holes.

Some have theorized that this side of the project could go wrong with Earth-threatening results, a fear that the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the group that oversees the collider�s experiments, has comprehensively denied.

It is expected to be the most powerful tool yet for physicists who seek to uncover the secrets behind the laws of the universe, both on the sub-microscopic scale of quantum physics and in the huge domain of galaxies and black holes.

Critics who say the world�s largest atom-smasher could destroy the world have brought their claims to courtrooms in Europe and the United States, and although the claims are getting further consideration, neither court would hold up the official startup.

Legal action is pending at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. The court agreed to review doomsday claims from a group of professors and students, primarily from Germany and Austria. However, the court rejected a call for the immediate halt of collider operations.

Hopes are highest for the discovery of the Higgs boson, nicknamed �the God particle.�

It�s so called because it�s a key part of the standard model of particle physics, which explains how matter interacts with three of the four fundamental forces of nature � electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force that binds the parts of an atom�s nucleus together, and the weak nuclear force that allows for the radioactive decay of particles.

This model posits two kinds of elementary particles: bosons, which mediate these forces, and fermions, which combine to make up matter.

The Higgs boson, which is supposed to impart mass to other particles, so far has eluded researchers but because the standard model has stood up to repeated experimentation, it is assumed the Higgs is likely to be found at the energy levels the collider will be working.

Since this is exploratory science, the collider may uncover surprises that contradict prevailing theories, said Joseph Lykken, theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

�When Columbus sailed west, he thought he was going to find something. He didn�t find what he thought he would, but he did discover something interesting,� said Lykken, who works on the Compact Muon Solenoid, one of six experiments inside the collider complex.

Potential breakthroughs include identification of the mysterious dark matter that makes up 90 percent of the mass in the universe. More exotic possibilities include evidence for completely new forces of nature or hidden extra dimensions of space and time.

�The collider is a discovery machine. We don�t know what we�ll find,� said Abraham Seiden, professor of physics and director of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dominican Sr. Katarina Pajchel, a physicist, works with CERN on collider projects.Dominican Sr. Katarina Pajchel, a physicist from the University of Oslo in Norway, who works with CERN on collider projects, told NCR: �Today�s picture of fundamental particles and processes has become part of our common understanding of nature. The theories have so far been remarkably successful; however there are some key questions that remain open.�

The collider is designed to cover the energy range where we would expect new discoveries that answer these questions, she said. �We hope perhaps also to answer other questions: Are there, for example, more than three space dimensions? Can we understand better the small asymmetry between matter and anti-matter, which is the very reason that we and everything around us exists?

�It might sound like a science fiction scenario but it is not.�
The laws of nature speak of an amazing order, creativity and beauty, she said. �Our current understanding bears witness to the power of human thought, imagination and curiosity. Through it we are given insight into God�s creative plan.�

However deep these discoveries go, Pajchel said, they do not threaten religion, �but rather firmly hold up the real mysteries of faith, more clearly and in a challenging way.

�Contact with sober science can make us less vulnerable and more balanced as well in meeting modern religious movements, like New Age, which are often quasi-scientific,� she said. �One can end up in the paradoxical situation of defending both rational scientific research and the real mysteries of faith.�

Rich Heffern is an NCR staff writer. His e-mail address is rheffern@ncronline.org.