The Great Dialogue

From today's Writer's Almanac: "Only half of Vermonters say they believe in God, compared with about 70  percent of the rest of the nation. People there attend weekly services at a  much lower rate than other Americans, and a much smaller percentage say that  religion is important to them. There are, however, a disproportionately high  number of American converts to Buddhism living in Vermont, and there are several Buddhist  retreat centers through out the state."

From the Barna Group Website, today:   Posted on January 12, 2009 For much of America's history, the assumption was that if you were born in America, you would affiliate with the Christian faith. A new nationwide survey by The Barna Group, however, indicates that people's views have changed. The study discovered that half of all adults now contend that Christianity is just one of many options that Americans choose from and that a huge majority of adults pick and choose what they believe rather than adopt a church or denomination's slate of beliefs. Still, most people say their faith is becoming increasingly important as a source of personal moral guidance. Choosing a Faith The survey shows half of Americans believe the Christian faith no longer has a lock on people's hearts. Overall, 50% of the adults interviewed agreed that Christianity is no longer the faith that Americans automatically accept as their personal faith, while just 44% disagreed and 6% were not sur

Good Morning...It has occurred to me often that religions with some sense of scientific inquiry about them [I think of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Yoga...] are growing in popularity [well, maybe not Taoism] whereas Christianity is so very focused on accepting things as true without much tangible evidence...Jesus did not experiment with meditative techniques or postulate the principles that guide nature and produce natural phenomena, nor the operating principles of Dharma and Karma - He spoke to his disciples and others about God and about man's behavior, and, about the need to believe in Him and be saved [with no mechanism involved other than faith and that God can do all things]...Now, it has been said that Islam is also gaining converts steadily - and I suspect that this is due to both a political impetus [in some situations it may be expedient to espouse Islam for one's own safety] and because it is in some ways more accessible to people - sin-debt is more simple: the balanc