America's religious beliefs

Hello,

I tend to strongly agree with Kristoff's conclusions below - what are your thoughts?
If the poll numbers that Kristoff cites are accurate, and I don't have any sources at present to dispute them, I think "we are certainly moving in the wrong direction" ~ Phineas
PS. - When it comes to believing in evolution, I find it alarming that the numbers of Americans that trust evolutionary facts, are so low!

This was a recent (fairly) NewYorkTimes editorial piece:

Believe It, or Not
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Today marks the Roman Catholics' Feast of the Assumption, honoring the
moment that they believe God brought the Virgin Mary into Heaven. So
here's a fact appropriate for the day: Americans are three times as
likely to believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus (83 percent) as in
evolution (28 percent).

So this day is an opportunity to look at perhaps the most fundamental
divide between America and the rest of the industrialized world: faith.
Religion remains central to American life, and is getting more so, in a
way that is true of no other industrialized country, with the possible
exception of South Korea.

Americans believe, 58 percent to 40 percent, that it is necessary to
believe in God to be moral. In contrast, other developed countries
overwhelmingly believe that it is not necessary. In France, only 13
percent agree with the U.S. view. (For details on the polls cited in
this column, go to www.nytimes.com/kristofresponds )

The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is
becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time. The percentage
of Americans who believe in the Virgin Birth actually rose five points
in the latest poll.

My grandfather was fairly typical of his generation: A devout and
active Presbyterian elder, he nonetheless believed firmly in evolution
and regarded the Virgin Birth as a pious legend. Those kinds of
mainline Christians are vanishing, replaced by evangelicals. Since
1960, the number of Pentecostalists has increased fourfold, while the
number of Episcopalians has dropped almost in half.

The result is a gulf not only between America and the rest of the
industrialized world, but a growing split at home as well. One of the
most poisonous divides is the one between intellectual and religious
America.

Some liberals wear T-shirts declaring, "So Many Right-Wing Christians .
. . So Few Lions." On the other side, there are attitudes like those on
a Web site, dutyisours.com/gwbush.htm, explaining the 2000 election
this way:

"God defeated armies of Philistines and others with confusion. Dimpled
and hanging chads may also be because of God's intervention on those
who were voting incorrectly. Why is GW Bush our president? It was God's
choice."

The Virgin Mary is an interesting prism through which to examine
America's emphasis on faith because most Biblical scholars regard the
evidence for the Virgin Birth, and for Mary's assumption into Heaven
(which was proclaimed as Catholic dogma only in 1950), as so shaky that
it pretty much has to be a leap of faith. As the Catholic theologian
Hans Küng puts it in "On Being a Christian," the Virgin Birth is a
"collection of largely uncertain, mutually contradictory, strongly
legendary" narratives, an echo of virgin birth myths that were
widespread in many parts of the ancient world.

Jaroslav Pelikan, the great Yale historian and theologian, says in his
book "Mary Through the Centuries" that the earliest references to Mary
(like Mark's gospel, the first to be written, or Paul's letter to the
Galatians) don't mention anything unusual about the conception of
Jesus. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke do say Mary was a virgin, but
internal evidence suggests that that part of Luke, in particular, may
have been added later by someone else (it is written, for example, in a
different kind of Greek than the rest of that gospel).

Yet despite the lack of scientific or historical evidence, and despite
the doubts of Biblical scholars, America is so pious that not only do
91 percent of Christians say they believe in the Virgin Birth, but so
do an astonishing 47 percent of U.S. non-Christians.

I'm not denigrating anyone's beliefs. And I don't pretend to know why
America is so much more infused with religious faith than the rest of
the world. But I do think that we're in the middle of another religious
Great Awakening, and that while this may bring spiritual comfort to
many, it will also mean a growing polarization within our society.

But mostly, I'm troubled by the way the great intellectual traditions
of Catholic and Protestant churches alike are withering, leaving the
scholarly and religious worlds increasingly antagonistic. I worry
partly because of the time I've spent with self-satisfied and
unquestioning mullahs and imams, for the Islamic world is in crisis
today in large part because of a similar drift away from a rich
intellectual tradition and toward the mystical. The heart is a
wonderful organ, but so is the brain.

END OF NYTIMES ARTICLE - by Nicholas Kristoff

MODERATOR: should this thread be moved to a place we can all discuss that old, classic "creationism vs. evolution" debate? Undoubtedly, any discussion of this article will end up doing just that. :-)