As Atheism Declines From Western Thinking, Ancient Religions are Emerging

krsna · March 23, 2005

http://religion.upi.com/view.php?StoryID=20050301-052524-8669r

March 1, 2005: With the decline of atheism as evidenced when British

philosopher Anthony Flew turned his back on his previous belief

structure, new spirituality with new and ancient roots is replacing the

former movement. Flew calls his new-found belief 'embracing the

intelligent design' and he said, "It is, for example, impossible for

evolution to account for the fact than one single cell can carry more

data than all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica put

together." Turkish philosopher Haan Yahya said, "Atheism, which people

have tried to for hundreds of years as 'the ways of reason and

science,' is proving to be mere irrationality and ignorance. The time

is fast approaching when many people who are living in ignorance with

no knowledge of their Creator will be graced by faith in the impending

post-atheist world." The news release said, "A few years ago, European

scientists sniggered when studies in the United States -- for example,

at Harvard and Duke universities -- showed a correlation between faith,

prayer and recovery from illness. Now 1,200 studies at research centers

around the world have come to similar conclusions, according to

'Psychologie Heute,' a German journal, citing, for example, the marked

improvement of multiple sclerosis patients in Germany's Ruhr District

due to 'spiritual resources'."

Traditional Christians have been waiting for this time when atheism,

that was formerly backed by scientific evidence, would lose its

credibility when new findings were recorded. However these same

Christians are surprised that a different kind of spirituality is

emerging. Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, dean of Vienna University's divinity

school, explained, "True atheists in Europe have become an

infinitesimally small group. There are not enough of them to be used

for sociological research. However, in the rest of Europe

re-Christianization is by no means occurring. What we are observing

instead is a re-paganization." Rev. Gerald McDermott, an Episcopal

priest and professor of religion and philosophy at Roanoke College in

Salem, Va., commented about a similar phenomenon in the U.S., " The

rise of all sorts of paganism is creating a false spirituality that

proves to be a more dangerous rival to the Christian faith than

atheism."

In conclusion, Zulehner said, " In the long run the survival of

worldviews should be expected to follow this lineup: The great world

religions are best placed. As a distant second he sees the diffuse

forms of spirituality. Atheism, he insisted, will come in at the tail

end."

theist · March 23, 2005

The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Copra.

Many atheists I believe will gravitate towards impersonalism in its various forms. Buddhism, Taoism etc. The more fortunate will ask whose intelligence designed it all.

March 23, 2005

What a mildly arrogant and unspiritual thing to say. Embrace the Void, Capra. Unless you're too attached to maya that is...

I think he's right, though, in that we'll see an upsurge in Buddhism and Taoism in the West. Well, not so much Taoism. But Buddhism yes, as long as someone with the right talents applys themselves to the situation.

theist · March 24, 2005

That's me arrogant and unspiriitual. But its just an observation. One that is happening now. But of course impersonalism and Buddhism etc. won't really be embraced, just believed in.

krsna · March 24, 2005

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/161/story_16115.html

IOWA, USA, March 6, 2005: In this news release V.V. Ganeshanathan, a

freelance journalist and graduate student at the Iowa Writers'

Workshop, shares her religious experiences growing up in the Sri Lankan

Hindu community in Bethesda, Maryland. V.V. Ganeshanathan recalls, "We

sang traditional thevaram, prayers in Tamil and Sanskrit, and listened

to legends of the gods recounted in English. For the children, the

stories were the best part; we sat through an hour of prayers that most

of us did not understand in order to hear them. Cross-legged on

someone's living room carpet, we passed the time by studying the

pictures of various gods--Siva, Murugan, Ganesh--propped up against a

fireplace, with flowers, incense, and prasatham, an offering of food,

before them. To some, the scene might have looked like a conflict:

prayers and thoughts directed to (essentially) one God; pictures of

many."

At school Ganeshanathan tried to resolve the apparent contradiction

where Western religious textbooks described Hindus as polytheists but

inside she felt Hinduism was also monotheist. Ganeshanathan explains,

"Polytheism and monotheism are the religious categories that everyone

knows, the ones everyone thinks matter. But there are religions that

are neither, and to me, Hinduism is one of them--not as easily

explained, perhaps, as the binary-inclined Western world would like it

to be. Hinduism is not unique in falling outside of the

polytheistic/monotheistic binary model that most people and textbooks

use. I have Buddhist friends who are irritated by the idea of even

being classified as a religion--they consider Buddhism a philosophy,

not a religion. But Hinduism is unique, at least in the scope of my own

knowledge about religion, in the way it presents its "monotheistic" and

"polytheistic" facets. One enfolds the other. A prayer directed to

Ganesh often asks for welcome--at other times, it requests blessings on

studies. To process a world in which everything is one, a Hindu

separates out parts of God for different purposes." Ganeshanathan

offers further elucidation, "This multiplicity of truth is a pillar of

the Hinduism I know. To categorize is not just impossible, it's

irrelevant. Just as, throughout life, we discover parts of ourselves we

had not known, we discover more faces of God. Just as a mother is also

a daughter, God will always exist both in one face and beyond that

face. A Hindu praying for something specific simply underlines the

request by directing it to the facet of the deity whose business that

is. My God has different faces; he does not explain them. He simply has

the ability to be both One and Many."

krsna · March 24, 2005

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/03/14/findrelig.DTL

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, March 14, 2005: This news release features

an interview with former U.S. Air Force Colonel Kirby Knox, a devotee

of Ammachi, the Hindu holy woman revered as the 'Hugging Saint'. Mr.

Knox was raised in a strict Methodist family and his father was also in

the Air Force. He became interested in Eastern spirituality when he was

in medical school. After reading Raymond Moody's book 'Life after Life'

that gave personal accounts of near-death experiences, Knox began his

own personal search for his religious roots. Knox recalls his first

experiences with Ammachi, "One of my friends was a serious devotee of

hers and invited us to the ashram [in San Ramon]. Each time, I got her

blessing, her darshan, which is a very powerful spiritual experience.

About two and a half years ago, that same friend suggested I spend

three days on retreat with her. As I was sitting there, watching this

woman beam unconditional love to every person, every single person she

was hugging that day -- and feeling that unconditional love myself -- I

started thinking about that [memory] and how this was almost like being

in the presence of Jesus. One thing led to another, and it was like

some floodgate in my heart opened up, like a ton of bricks fell -- I

just fell in love with this person.

Since that time, I've gone to every one of her retreats here locally.

Tasha, my wife, and I have become fairly serious devotees." As a

born-again Hindu (this is what Knox calls himself), Knox said, "Part of

my spiritual practice is, as much as I can, turning over every aspect

of my life to Amma. I do it in little ways, like when I'm driving in a

car and I notice that I'm stressed out because I'm trying to get

somewhere in a hurry. I'll say to myself, 'Just let go of the anxiety.

Turn it over to Amma. If she wants me to get there on time, I will. If

she wants me to be late, then that's OK with me, because she's the one

establishing the rules here.' It's brought me a tremendous amount of

peace and serenity in my life. When you surrender the responsibility

for how things turn out, you're no longer burdened by it." When

questioned how he applies this surrender to his daily life as a

physician Knox replied, "As a Western physician, I was taught that I am

responsible for the health care of my patients. I had to decide what

the problem was, choose the right medication and do the follow-up to

make sure everything went well. So there's this tremendous

responsibility that I, as the physician, assumed. But since I met Amma,

I've done a lot more of saying to myself, 'OK, Amma, I'm asking you to

let me be an instrument of your healing. I'm going to do the best I

can, take care of people as much as I can, but I'm going to let the

result of my effort be in your hands.'"

Apparently most of Knox's friends have excepted his new found

spirituality. However his Methodist family prefer to keep the subject

at arm's length as they do not accept Knox's commitment. When asked

about his spiritual practises Knox said, "I do quite a few things. I

have a mantra that Amma gave me. I'm supposed to recite it 108 times a

day. But I try to do it as much as I can, when I'm shaving or driving

my car. I also try to get up once in the middle of the night to pray

and meditate for an hour or so." Summing up his religious beliefs and

finding his true nature, Knox said, "You probably don't know until the

moment you've awakened, because, up to that point, there's still a

concept of 'I,' which represents the ego. As long as the ego is there,

there is a sense of separateness between you and everything else. If

there's ever going to be an experience of oneness, then you, as an

entity, have to disappear. My desire is that, through spiritual

practices and the grace of Amma, at some point in my life, my sense of

individuality will be eliminated, and, in that instant of time, there

won't be a Kirby anymore. Everything will be God -- it will all be one

with me."

krsna · March 24, 2005

Who's gonna save him from this ghastly act of self-murder?

____________________________

"You probably don't know until the