Like the great GK Chesterton said-" "When you don't believe in God, it's not that you believe in nothing, you believe in anything"
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <r...@...> wrote: > > > Subject: Newsweek: We Are All Hindus Now > > By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK > > Published Aug 15, 2009 > > From the magazine issue dated Aug 31, 2009 > <http://www.newsweek> http://www.newsweek ..com/id/212155 > > America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by > Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to > identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American > history). Of course, we are not a Hindu-or Muslim, or Jewish, or > Wiccan-nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a > fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that > conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less > like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each > other, and eternity. > > The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: "Truth is One, > but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many > paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a > third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, > conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn > in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus > said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life No one comes to the Father > except through me." > > Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 > percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal > life"-including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to > believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek > spiritual truth outside church is growing. Thirty percent of Americans call > themselves "spiritual, not religious," according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, up > from 24 percent in 2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston > University, has long framed the American propensity for "the divine-deli- > cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not > picking and choosing from different religions, because they're all the > same," he says. "It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If > going to yoga works, great-and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And > if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works, > that's great, too." > > Then there's the question of what happens when you die. Christians > traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together they > comprise the "self," and that at the end of time they will be reunited in > the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you need them forever. > Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body burns on a pyre, while the > spirit-where identity resides-escapes. In reincarnation, central to > Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in different bodies. So > here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent > of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris > poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're > burning them-like > Hindus-after death. More than a third of Americans now choose cremation, > according to the Cremation Association of North America, up from 6 percent > in 1975. "I do think the more spiritual role of religion tends to > deemphasize some of the more starkly literal interpretations of the > Resurrection," agrees Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion at > Harvard. > > So let us all say "om." > > Aano bhadra krtavo yantu vishwatah "Let noble thoughts come to me from all > directions" > - RIG VEDA >
