With the onset of the hard-hitting recession, and coming into an age where there is a growing awareness of our environmental issues and integration of more spirituality into our lives, there has been less emphasis on consumerism at Christmastime and more emphasis on improving the lives of others by helping to provide even basic necessities for many of us. One of our December posts on Holistic Future talked about Advent Conspiracy, a Christian organization in which hundreds of churches in at least 17 countries around the world have enlisted to participate in campaigns to spend less on extravagant gifts and instead use some of that money for charitable distribution. For instance, participating churches have donated millions of dollars to dig wells in developing countries through Living Water International and other organizations involved in supporting grassroots projects around the world. Read the rest of this entry »
A new survey found more Americans now integrate their spiritual beliefs from a variety of religions, including Christianity, Eastern religions, and New Age beliefs.
The poll, conducted by Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, found a third of the respondents regularly or occasionally attend religious services at more than one location, and a quarter of them worship outside their own faith. More Americans, over their lifetime, will try out different religions than will stay true to one faith.
S. Scott Bartchy, a professor of the history of religion at UCLA, believes that the Internet plays a part in our mix-and-match religious beliefs, with people going online and becoming more exposed to ideas offered by religions different from their own.
Bartchy said the findings were not surprising, noting the growing cultural diversity of the United States.
Approximately 25 percent of respondents believe in New Age ideas and Eastern religious concepts, such as reincarnation and the existence in ghosts, with many people identifying themselves as being on a "spiritual journey."
And approximately 65 percent of respondents either believe in or have had an experience with supernatural phenomena, such as astrology, contacting spirits on the other side, or psychic abilities.
America spends an average of $450 billion every year on Christmas. Advent Conspiracy proposes that people buy less and give more–of their time and love through relational giving.
In 2006, five pastors decided to create Advent Conspiracy and revolutionize the increasingly commercialized holiday of Christmas by encouraging their congregations to worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all.
Part of the Advent Conspiracy message is a simple suggestion that people buy one less gift, and spend the extra time with people they care about and put the extra money toward projects such as drilling for fresh water wells in India, Liberia, Peru and Sudan. For three years, Advent Conspiracy has partnered with Living Water International to tackle providing clean water to the 1.8 million people who die every year from water-borne illnesses. The $10 billion Advent Conspiracy estimates it would take to solve the world's water woes pales in comparison to the $450 billion Americans spend each year on Christmas.
Advent Conspiracy is a movement that proposes people "spend less, give more."
No matter your religion or spiritual beliefs, even if you're atheist, contemplating the questions of the universe — whether they be religious, scientific, or psychological — can enhance brain function. Practices such as meditation, chanting mantras, and intense prayer can provide significantly positive effects on cognition, relaxation, and psychological health.
According to a new book by Andrew Newberg, MD and Mark Robert Waldman called "How God Changes Your Brain," such practices both increase activity in the frontal lobe, which "creates and integrates all of your ideas about God," and diminishes activity in the amygdala, the region responsible for emotions that can generate fearful images of a frightening and punitive God and suppress the frontal lobe's ability to logically think about God. Read the rest of this entry »
Health and religion have always been intertwined, most obviously through prayer on behalf of the sick. Does intercessory prayer for sick people actually help heal them? For thousands of years some people have believed so. But new Brandeis University research in the June 2009 Journal of Religion shows that over the last four decades, medical studies of intercessory prayer — the prayer of strangers at a distance — actually say more about the scientists conducting the studies than about the power of prayer to heal.
Intercessory prayer has been the subject of scientific study since at least the nineteenth century, when an English scientist, assuming that kings were prayed for more often than others, sought to find out whether those prayers were answered. He concluded that they were not, but that prayer might be a comfort to the people praying anyway. Read the rest of this entry »
Over a period of seven years there's been a slight downshift in the number of Americans who attach themselves to a Christian religion and an upswing in the number of those who don't profess to any religion at all.
A recently released report by The Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut surveyed 54,461 adults across America, which highlighted religious trends in the U.S. compared to previously released statistics. Read the rest of this entry »
Decades ago, one of the most popular comedy programs on television was Monty Python's Flying Circus. Frequently, the next skit would be introduced with the words, "And now for something completely different."
Well, now it's my turn to utter that famous phrase, because today I am offering you something completely different.
For one thing, it's a poem. But that's not why this message is different. I presented a poem to you last December.
No, what makes today's message completely different is its unusual source. Although I always write from the heart — and today's message is no different — it was directly inspired by a unique book I just read called, The 72 Names of God . . . a book of teachings and tools that are based on the mystical, spiritual tradition known as Kabbalah. Read the rest of this entry »
Evidence is growing that suggests our well-being is influenced by our spiritual and religious beliefs and practices.
Dr. Andrew Newberg, a professor of radiology, psychology and religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of Penn's Center for Spirituality and the Mind, studies the effects of spirituality on the human brain. He and his team of researchers have noted that during prayer the frontal lobes become engaged, affecting focus and concentration. And in very deep prayer the parietal lobes become disengaged, helping us to feel detached from time and space, leaving behind our everyday concerns. Read the rest of this entry »
This Thursday is the day that many of us will celebrate the birth into this world of the being we call Jesus. There are many different opinions about the exact nature of this extraordinary man's mission on this planet. But I do believe there is one aspect to his life that most of us can agree upon: Jesus was the perfect example of living a life of unconditional love. And he made it quite clear that we would all benefit greatly by living our lives in the same loving way. Read the rest of this entry »
Neopaganism — a modern form of the ancient, pre-Christian religion that honors the intelligent forces of nature and its associated gods and goddesses — is now among the fastest growing religions, roughly doubling every 18 months in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
It is especially popular among teens who reject what they see as the "autocracy, paternalism, sexism, homophobia and insensitivity to the environment" of some more traditional religions, according to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, a group that follows religious trends. Read the rest of this entry »
