[Buddha-l] Why the gods are not winning

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Will Buddhism decline? But perhaps only as a faith and not as a 
nontheistic selfpractice?

WHY THE GODS ARE NOT WINNING [4.30.07]
by Gregory Paul & Phil Zuckerman

Disbelief now rivals the great faiths in numbers and influence. Never
before has religion faced such enormous levels of disbelief, or faced
a hazard as powerful as that posed by modernity. How is organized
religion going to regain the true, choice-based initiative when only
one of them is growing, and it is doing so with reproductive activity
rather than by convincing the masses to join in, when no major faith
is proving able to grow as they break out of their ancestral lands via
mass conversion, and when securely prosperous democracies appear
immune to mass devotion? The religious industry simply lacks a
reliable stratagem for defeating disbelief in the 21st century.

[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge209.html#gp

GREGORY PAUL is an independent researcher on subjects dealing with
paleontology, evolution, religion and society. Books include PREDATORY
DINOSAURS OF THE WORLD AND DINOSAURS OF THE AIR.

PHIL ZUCKERMAN is a sociologist at Pitzer, and the author of
INVITATION TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION, and SEX AND RELIGION.



 


Erik


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