Arquivo da categoria: Religião

A Buddhist moment in America

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The world’s most famous athlete, through the prism of another faith, told a largely Christian nation how he would seek redemption. And as he talked about craving and the misery that inevitably follows, he provided everyone in our bigger-faster-higher society something to think about.

By Stephen Prothero

Until Friday, when Tiger Woods stood up in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and apologized for his sexual infidelities, the American public confession was a Christian rite. From President Grover Cleveland, who likely fathered a child out of wedlock, to Ted Haggard, who resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after allegations that he had sex with a male prostitute, our politicians and preachers have bowed and scraped in Christian idioms. Jimmy Carter spoke of “adultery in my heart.” Jimmy Swaggart spoke of “my sin” and “my Savior.” In any case, the model derives from evangelical Christianity — the revival and the altar call. You confess you are a sinner. You repent of your sins. You turn to Christ to make yourself new.

Woods was caught in a multimistress sex scandal after Thanksgiving. In January Brit Hume, channeling his inner evangelist on Fox News Sunday, urged Woods to “turn to the Christian faith.” “He’s said to be a Buddhist,” Hume said. “I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith.” Woods in effect told Hume Friday thanks but no thanks.

Part of Woods’ carefully prepared statement followed the time-honored formula that historian Susan Wise Bauer has referred to as the “art of the public grovel.” Though he did not sob like Swaggart, Woods seemed ashamed and embarrassed. He took responsibility for his actions, which he characterized as “irresponsible and selfish.” He apologized, not just to his wife and children but also to his family and friends, his business partners, his fans, and the staff and sponsors of his foundation. And he was not evasive. Whereas President Clinton confessed in 1998 to having an “inappropriate” relationship with Monica Lewinsky and took potshots at the independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, Woods said, “I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable, and I am the only person to blame.”

But this was not your garden-variety confession. Though Woods spoke of religion, he did not mention Jesus or the Bible, sin or redemption. He gave us a Buddhist mea culpa instead.

The key moment in Woods’ statement came at the end, when, in an effort to make sense of his behavior, he turned not to Christian theologies of sin but to Buddhist teachings about craving. Whereas Christianity seeks to solve the problem of sin, Buddhism seeks to solve the problem of suffering. Buddhists observe that suffering arises from a 12-fold chain of interlocking causes and effects. Among these causes is craving. We crave this woman or that car because we think that getting her or it will make us happy. But this craving only ties us into an unending cycle of misery, because even if we get what we want there is always something more to crave — another woman or another man, a faster car or a bigger house.

A ‘pointless search’

In an elegant distillation of the Buddha’s dharma (teaching), Woods said, “Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security.” Here he is obviously describing his craving for sexual encounters with beautiful women. But he is also describing our collective obsession with the next new thing.

As Woods recognized, the money and fame that came with celebrity made it easy for him to fulfill his temptations. But we Americans who can only dream of such money and fame also possess an unparalleled ability to satisfy craving upon craving. Ours is the richest country in the history of the world, and our core values derive at least as much from consumer capitalism as from Christian faith. Advertisers are forever conjuring up new desires and promising us that their products will satisfy them. Our cravings, however, are endless good news for big business, not such good news for human happiness.

When Woods said he “stopped living by the core values” he was “taught to believe in,” he was referring not to Christian values but to the Thai Buddhist values instilled in him by his mother, who was in the room with her son in Florida in a show of support. When he vowed to change his life, it wasn’t to turn to Christianity but to return to Buddhism. He actively practiced Buddhism from childhood, he said, but “drifted away from it in recent years,” forgetting its crucial observation that craving is overcome not by self-indulgence but by self-control. Buddhism “teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint,” he said. “Obviously I lost track of what I was taught.”

Much has been written in recent years about America’s astonishing religious diversity. Harvard religious studies professor Diana Eck has referred to the United States as “the world’s most religiously diverse nation.” In his inaugural address, Barack Obama referred to those who had just elected him president as “a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.” We have more than 1,000 mosques nationwide, and Los Angeles likely has more forms of Buddhism on offer than any city in the world. But with roughly 250 million Christians, we are also the world’s most Christianized country.

One of the core civic challenges in the USA today is to find a way to reconcile our Christian supermajority with our many religious minorities — the Jews and Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, Sikhs and non-believers in our midst. For the most part, we are an extraordinarily tolerant society. Yes, we have our bigots, but in the U.S. religious bigotry is usually called out for what it is.

A need for religious literacy

Nonetheless, we expect, sometimes unconsciously, for things to proceed largely on Christian terms. We expect our presidents to be Christians and to quote from the Bible. And when they fall short of the glory of God, we expect them to call their shortcomings sins and to confess them not only to us, but also to Jesus. Part of living in a multireligious society, though, is learning multiple religious languages. In a country where most citizens cannot name the first book of the Bible, we obviously need more Christian literacy. But to make sense of the furiously religious world in which we live, we need Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist literacy too.

There are all sorts of lessons, moral and otherwise, to learn from the Tiger Woods affair. One important one is that American citizens take all sorts of paths to ruin and redemption. Christianity has no monopoly over either hypocrisy or saintliness.

In calling Woods to Christ in January, Brit Hume imagined that there was only one way to fall, and only one way to be redeemed. In his statement on Friday, Woods intimated that he fell not because he wandered away from Christ but because he wandered away from the Buddha. Equally important, he suggested that the way forward, at least for him, is through the teachings of a man who, two-and-a-half millennia ago, sat down beneath a Bodhi tree in north India and saw through the illusions of endlessly craving after the next new thing. You don’t need to be a Buddhist to say “Amen” (or “Om”) to that.

Stephen Prothero is a professor in Boston University’s religion department and the author of a forthcoming book, God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World and Why Their Differences Matter.

(After the public apology: Tiger Woods gets a hug from his mother, Kultida Woods, on Friday./Pool photo by Joe Skipper.)

Posted on http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/02/column-a-buddhist-moment-in-america.html

Christian institutional leaders who ditch church ~ Melissa Wiginton

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Autumn forest

Melissa Wiginton

“I just don’t know what is going to happen to the church.”

I’d had this conversation dozens of times. It ends with everyone agreeing that the church might be completely different than it is now — not a bad thing. But this time, my interlocutor, an Episcopal priest, added something I’d never heard anyone say.

“You know what I’m afraid of?” She sounded light-hearted, but I knew a kernel of truth was about to pop. “I’m afraid I won’t like it and I won’t want to go.”

I thought to myself, I don’t like it now. I don’t want to go as it is.

“Really?” she said.

Did I say that out loud?

Many of my colleagues, friends and acquaintances are church people. They are involved with church-related institutions, doing work on behalf of congregations, ministry, theological education and the coming of the kingdom. Every once in a while I ask them to tell me honestly whether they go to church.

Many, of course, are active members of congregations, not only regular worshippers but teachers, elders, lay leaders, choir members, part of the engine that makes the place run. But some of us are not. Some of us are just phoning it in, putting in appearances, marking time until the church gets completely different.

For all the talk about differences in generations, I know lots of Boomers who are as discontent as the people under-35 are said to be. It seems especially poignant for those of us whose vocations lie in the dream of the church and whose work takes place outside of congregational ministry.

We spend our working lives talking and thinking about the church, its leadership and its myriad complexities. We critique and deconstruct, searching for ways to respond with the creativity and resources available to us. Maybe we are just worn out when Sunday comes. Maybe we feel we have done our part for ministry before the Lord’s Day, that we’ve given what we have to give to the institution and now just need to watch “Meet the Press” or read the paper at IHOP. Who needs to get up early and put on a suit to go see what we are devoted to changing?

What do you think? Do you know people who make a living by working for good leadership, good education and good structures for the church — and don’t go to church? What do you think that’s about? Let me turn the screws a little more: how many pastors do you think would ditch church if they weren’t the ones preaching, praying and leading?

Melissa Wiginton is Vice President for Ministry Programs and Planning at the Fund for Theological Education.

Posted on http://www.faithandleadership.duke.edu

February 22, 2010

Obra que retrata religiosos empilhados é criticada na Espanha

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Anelise Infante, BBC Brasil, 20 fev 2010

Uma escultura que traz elementos religiosos católicos, judeus e muçulmanos foi vendida em três minutos na feira de arte contemporânea de Madri, Arco 2010, e se tornou a obra de arte mais polêmica do evento.

Chamada Stairway to Heaven (Escadaria para o Paraíso), a obra do artista espanhol Eugenio Merino retrata três homens rezando, um em cima do outro: um muçulmano, sobre ele um sacerdote católico e acima dos dois um rabino judeu, todos eles segurando livros sagrados das religiões dos demais – o Alcorão, a Bíblia e a Torá.

A obra foi vendida por 45 mil euros (R$ 112 mil) a um colecionador belga cuja identidade não foi divulgada. A escultura provocou a ira dos fiéis na Espanha e recebeu queixas oficiais.

Ao lado dela, aparece outra escultura que une uma metralhadora Uzi com uma menorá (candelabro ritual judaico).

A primeira reclamação saiu da embaixada de Israel em Madri. Em uma nota à direção da feira, o governo do Estado judaico diz que as peças “contêm elementos ofensivos para judeus, israelitas e certamente para outros.”

A embaixada classificou as esculturas como “uma mensagem cheia de preconceitos, estereótipos, provocações gratuitas e que fere a sensibilidade por muito que pretenda ser uma obra artística”.

A Conferência Episcopal da Espanha também reclamou. Através de comunicado à Arco os representantes do alto clero descreveram a peça com os religiosos como “provocação blasfema absolutamente desnecessária”.

‘Mentes fechadas’

Mas apesar das reclamações feitas logo no primeiro dia do evento, a galeria espanhola ADN, que representa o autor, não tem medo de represálias e afirma não entender a polêmica levantada pela escultura.

O proprietário da galeria, Miguel Ángel Sanchez, disse à BBC Brasil que a peça “deveria ser vista pelo lado positivo de um encontro religioso porque não há nada de ofensivo ali”.

Já o autor da escultura acha que o problema “não é a obra dele”, mas as interpretações que possam ser feitas “por mentes fechadas”.

“Cada um é livre para pensar o que quiser. Fiz uma peça que fala da unidade de religiões. Uma torre com as três grandes religiões que se juntam para chegar ao mesmo fim, que é Deus”, disse Merino à BBC Brasil.

“Mas se as mentes fechadas querem ver outra coisa, aceito a crítica. Só que eles também têm que aceitar meu trabalho”, afirmou o artista.

Merino admite, no entanto, que a segunda escultura, que mistura a arma com o candelabro, possa afetar a sensibilidade de alguns fiéis.

“É verdade que a metralhadora é uma Uzi, uma arma de Israel famosa nos conflitos com os palestinos. Mas a intenção foi reciclar os elementos para transformar em uma coisa que não mata. No fundo a peça trata da paz”, disse ele à BBC Brasil.

A feira de arte contemporânea de Madri, Arco, é uma das duas maiores do mundo e já está na 29ª edição. Neste ano, o evento termina no próximo dia 21, embora para o público fique aberta até o dia 19.

Religion Among the Millennials

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The Pew Forum – Feb. 17, 2010

Introduction and Overview

By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans. Fewer young adults belong to any particular faith than older people do today. They also are less likely to be affiliated than their parents’ and grandparents’ generations were when they were young. Fully one-in-four members of the Millennial generation – so called because they were born after 1980 and began to come of age around the year 2000 – are unaffiliated with any particular faith. Indeed, Millennials are significantly more unaffiliated than members of Generation X were at a comparable point in their life cycle (20% in the late 1990s) and twice as unaffiliated as Baby Boomers were as young adults (13% in the late 1970s). Young adults also attend religious services less often than older Americans today. And compared with their elders today, fewer young people say that religion is very important in their lives.

Yet in other ways, Millennials remain fairly traditional in their religious beliefs and practices. Pew Research Center surveys show, for instance, that young adults’ beliefs about life after death and the existence of heaven, hell and miracles closely resemble the beliefs of older people today. Though young adults pray less often than their elders do today, the number of young adults who say they pray every day rivals the portion of young people who said the same in prior decades. And though belief in God is lower among young adults than among older adults, Millennials say they believe in God with absolute certainty at rates similar to those seen among Gen Xers a decade ago. This suggests that some of the religious differences between younger and older Americans today are not entirely generational but result in part from people’s tendency to place greater emphasis on religion as they age.

In their social and political views, young adults are clearly more accepting than older Americans of homosexuality, more inclined to see evolution as the best explanation of human life and less prone to see Hollywood as threatening their moral values. At the same time, Millennials are no less convinced than their elders that there are absolute standards of right and wrong. And they are slightly more supportive than their elders of government efforts to protect morality, as well as somewhat more comfortable with involvement in politics by churches and other houses of worship.

These and other findings are discussed in more detail in the remainder of this report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. It explores the degree to which the religious characteristics and social views of young adults differ from those of older people today, as well as how Millennials compare with previous generations when they were young.

Religious Affiliation

Compared with their elders today, young people are much less likely to affiliate with any religious tradition or to identify themselves as part of a Christian denomination. Fully one-in-four adults under age 30 (25%) are unaffiliated, describing their religion as “atheist,” “agnostic” or “nothing in particular.” This compares with less than one-fifth of people in their 30s (19%), 15% of those in their 40s, 14% of those in their 50s and 10% or less among those 60 and older. About two-thirds of young people (68%) say they are members of a Christian denomination and 43% describe themselves as Protestants, compared with 81% of adults ages 30 and older who associate with Christian faiths and 53% who are Protestants.

The large proportion of young adults who are unaffiliated with a religion is a result, in part, of the decision by many young people to leave the religion of their upbringing without becoming involved with a new faith. In total, nearly one-in-five adults under age 30 (18%) say they were raised in a religion but are now unaffiliated with any particular faith. Among older age groups, fewer say they are now unaffiliated after having been raised in a faith (13% of those ages 30-49, 12% of those ages 50-64, and 7% of those ages 65 and older).

Young people’s lower levels of religious affiliation are reflected in the age composition of major religious groups, with the unaffiliated standing out from other religious groups for their relative youth. Roughly one-third of the unaffiliated population is under age 30 (31%), compared with 20% of the total population.

Data from the General Social Surveys (GSS), which have been conducted regularly since 1972, confirm that young adults are not just more unaffiliated than their elders today but are also more unaffiliated than young people have been in recent decades. In GSS surveys conducted since 2000, nearly one-quarter of people ages 18-29 have described their religion as “none.” By comparison, only about half as many young adults were unaffiliated in the 1970s and 1980s.

Among Millennials who are affiliated with a religion, however, the intensity of their religious affiliation is as strong today as among previous generations when they were young. More than one-third of religiously affiliated Millennials (37%) say they are a “strong” member of their faith, the same as the 37% of Gen Xers who said this at a similar age and not significantly different than among Baby Boomers when they were young (31%).

Worship Attendance

In the Pew Forum’s 2007 Religious Landscape Survey, young adults report attending religious services less often than their elders today. One-third of those under age 30 say they attend worship services at least once a week, compared with 41% of adults 30 and older (including more than half of people 65 and older). But generational differences in worship attendance tend to be smaller within religious groups (with the exception of Catholics) than in the total population. In other words, while young people are less likely than their elders to be affiliated with a religion, among those who are affiliated, generational differences in worship attendance are fairly small.

The long-running GSS also finds that young people attend religious services less often than their elders. Furthermore, Millennials currently attend church or worship services at lower rates than Baby Boomers did when they were younger; 18% of Millennials currently report attending religious services weekly or nearly weekly, compared with 26% of Boomers in the late 1970s. But Millennials closely resemble members of Generation X when they were in their 20s and early 30s, when one-in-five Gen Xers (21%) reported attending religious services weekly or nearly weekly.

Other Religious Practices

Consistent with their lower levels of affiliation, young adults engage in a number of religious practices less often than do older Americans, especially the oldest group in the population (those 65 and older). For example, the 2007 Religious Landscape Survey finds that 27% of young adults say they read Scripture on a weekly basis, compared with 36% of those 30 and older. And one-quarter of adults under 30 say they meditate on a weekly basis (26%), compared with more than four-in-ten adults 30 and older (43%). These patterns hold true across a variety of religious groups.

In addition, less than half of adults under age 30 say they pray every day (48%), compared with 56% of Americans ages 30-49, 61% of those in their 50s and early 60s, and more than two-thirds of those 65 and older (68%). Age differences in frequency of prayer are most pronounced among members of historically black Protestant churches (70% of those under age 30 pray every day, compared with 83% among older members) and Catholics (47% of Catholics under 30 pray every day, compared with 60% among older Catholics). The differences are smaller among evangelical and mainline Protestants.

Although Millennials report praying less often than their elders do today, the GSS shows that Millennials are in sync with Generation X and Baby Boomers when members of those generations were younger. In the 2008 GSS survey, roughly four-in-ten Millennials report praying daily (41%), as did 42% of members of Generation X in the late 1990s. Baby Boomers reported praying at a similar rate in the early 1980s (47%), when the first data are available for them. GSS data show that daily prayer increases as people get older.

Religious Attitudes and Beliefs

Less than half of adults under age 30 say that religion is very important in their lives (45%), compared with roughly six-in-ten adults 30 and older (54% among those ages 30-49, 59% among those ages 50-64 and 69% among those ages 65 and older). By this measure, young people exhibit lower levels of religious intensity than their elders do today, and this holds true within a variety of religious groups.

Gallup surveys conducted over the past 30 years that use a similar measure of religion’s importance confirm that religion is somewhat less important for Millennials today than it was for members of Generation X when they were of a similar age. In Gallup surveys in the late 2000s, 40% of Millennials said religion is very important, as did 48% of Gen Xers in the late 1990s. However, young people today look very much like Baby Boomers did at a similar point in their life cycle; in a 1978 Gallup poll, 39% of Boomers said religion was very important to them.

Similarly, young adults are less convinced of God’s existence than their elders are today; 64% of young adults say they are absolutely certain of God’s existence, compared with 73% of those ages 30 and older. In this case, differences are most pronounced among Catholics, with younger Catholics being 10 points less likely than older Catholics to believe in God with absolute certainty. In other religious traditions, age differences are smaller.

But GSS data show that Millennials’ level of belief in God resembles that seen among Gen Xers when they were roughly the same age. Just over half of Millennials in the 2008 GSS survey (53%) say they have no doubt that God exists, a figure that is very similar to that among Gen Xers in the late 1990s (55%). Levels of certainty of belief in God have increased somewhat among Gen Xers and Baby Boomers in recent decades. (Data on this item stretch back only to the late 1980s, making it impossible to compare Millennials with Boomers when Boomers were at a similar point in their life cycle.)

Differences between young people and their elders today are also apparent in views of the Bible, although the differences are somewhat less pronounced. Overall, young people are slightly less inclined than those in older age groups to view the Bible as the literal word of God. Interestingly, age differences on this item are most dramatic among young evangelicals and are virtually nonexistent in other groups. Although younger evangelicals are just as likely as older evangelicals (and more likely than people in most other religious groups) to see the Bible as the word of God, they are less likely than older evangelicals to see it as the literal word of God. Less than half of young evangelicals interpret the Bible literally (47%), compared with 61% of evangelicals 30 and older.

On this measure, too, Millennials display beliefs that closely resemble those of Generation X in the late 1990s. In the 2008 GSS survey, roughly a quarter of Millennials (27%) said the Bible is the literal word of God, compared with 28% among Gen Xers when they were young. This is only slightly lower than among Baby Boomers in the early 1980s (33%) and is very similar to the 29% of Boomers in the late 1980s who said they viewed the Bible as the literal word of God.

On still other measures of religious belief, there are few differences in the beliefs of young people compared with their elders today. Adults under 30, for instance, are just as likely as older adults to believe in life after death (75% vs. 74%), heaven (74% each), hell (62% vs. 59%) and miracles (78% vs. 79%). In fact, on several of these items, young mainline Protestants and members of historically black Protestant churches exhibit somewhat higher levels of belief than their elders.

Young people who are affiliated with a religion are more inclined than their elders to believe their own religion is the one true path to eternal life (though in all age groups, more people say many religions can lead to eternal life than say theirs is the one true faith). Nearly three-in-ten religiously affiliated adults under age 30 (29%) say their own religion is the one true faith leading to eternal life, higher than the 23% of religiously affiliated people ages 30 and older who say the same. This pattern is evident among all three Protestant groups but not among Catholics.

Interestingly, while more young Americans than older Americans view their faith as the single path to salvation, young adults are also more open to multiple ways of interpreting their religion. Nearly three-quarters of affiliated young adults (74%) say there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their faith, compared with 67% of affiliated adults ages 30 and older.

Social and Culture War Issues

Young people are more accepting of homosexuality and evolution than are older people. They are also more comfortable with having a bigger government, and they are less concerned about Hollywood threatening their values. But when asked generally about morality and religion, young adults are just as convinced as older people that there are absolute standards of right and wrong that apply to everyone. Young adults are also slightly more supportive of government efforts to protect morality and of efforts by houses of worship to express their social and political views.

According to the 2007 Religious Landscape Survey, almost twice as many young adults say homosexuality should be accepted by society as do those ages 65 and older (63% vs. 35%). Young people are also considerably more likely than those ages 30-49 (51%) or 50-64 (48%) to say that homosexuality should be accepted. Stark age differences also exist within each of the major religious traditions examined. Compared with older members of their faith, significantly larger proportions of young adults say society should accept homosexuality.

In the 2008 GSS survey, just over four-in-ten (43%) Millennials said homosexual relations are always wrong, similar to the 47% of Gen Xers who said the same in the late 1990s. These two cohorts are significantly less likely than members of previous generations have ever been to say that homosexuality is always wrong. The views of the various generations on this question have fluctuated over time, often in tandem.

Roughly half of young adults (52%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. On this issue, young adults express slightly more permissive views than do adults ages 30 and older. However, the group that truly stands out on this issue is people 65 and older, just 37% of whom say abortion should be legal in most or all cases.

Interestingly, this pattern represents a significant change from earlier polling. Previously, people in the middle age categories (i.e., those ages 30-49 and 50-64) tended to be more supportive of legal abortion, while the youngest and oldest age groups were more opposed. In 2009, however, attitudes toward abortion moved in a more conservative direction among most groups in the population, with the notable exception of young people. The result of this conservative turn among those in the 30-49 and 50-64 age brackets means that their views now more closely resemble those of the youngest age group, while those in the 65-and-older group now express the most conservative views on abortion of any age group.

Surveys also show that large numbers of young adults (67%) say they would prefer a bigger government that provides more services over a smaller government that provides fewer services. Among older Americans, only 41% feel this way. Fewer young people than older people see their moral values as under assault from Hollywood; one-third of adults under age 30 agree that Hollywood and the entertainment industry threatens their values, compared with 44% of people 30 and older. And more than half of young adults (55%) believe that evolution is the best explanation for the development of human life, compared with 47% of people in older age groups. These patterns are seen both in the total population and within a variety of religious traditions, though the link between age and views on evolution is strongest among Catholics and members of historically black Protestant churches.

But differences between young adults and their elders are not so stark on all moral and social issues. For instance, more than three-quarters of young adults (76%) agree that there are absolute standards of right and wrong, a level nearly identical to that among older age groups (77%). More than half of young adults (55%) say that houses of worship should speak out on social and political matters, slightly more than say this among older adults (49%). And 45% of young adults say that the government should do more to protect morality in society, compared with 39% of people ages 30 and older.

GSS surveys show Millennials are more permissive than their elders are today in their views about pornography, but their views are nearly identical to those expressed by Gen Xers and Baby Boomers when members of those generations were at a similar point in their life cycles. About one-in-five Millennials today say pornography should be illegal for everyone (21%), similar to the 24% of Gen Xers who said this in the late 1990s and the 22% of Boomers who took this view in the late 1970s. Data for the Silent and Greatest generations at similar ages are not available, but data from the 1970s onward suggest that people become more opposed to pornography as they age.

Similarly, Millennials at the present time stand out from other generations for their opposition to Bible reading and prayer in schools, but they are less distinctive when compared with members of Generation X or Baby Boomers at a comparable age. During early adulthood, about half of Boomers (51%) and Gen Xers (54%) said they approved of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that banned the required reading of the Lord’s Prayer or Bible verses in public schools; 56% of Millennials took this view in 2008. Generation X and the Boomer generation have become less supportive of the court’s position over time, while the pattern in the views of the Silent and Greatest generations has been less clear.

More Information

For other treatments of religion among young adults in the U.S. and how they compare with older generations, see, for example, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults by Christian Smith and Patricia Snell (2009) and After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion by Robert Wuthnow (2007).

Download the appendix: Selected Religious Beliefs and Practices among Ages 18-29 by Decade (1-page PDF)

Download the full report (29-page PDF)

This analysis was written by Allison Pond, Research Associate; Gregory Smith, Senior Researcher; and Scott Clement, Research Analyst, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Após polêmica, mostra com Jesus gay é cancelada na Espanha

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BBC Brasil, 17 fev 2010

A exposição de uma polêmica releitura da vida de Jesus Cristo, que inclui cenas de homossexualismo, prostituição e forte conteúdo sexual, teve de sair de cartaz na Espanha após levantar a ira de grupos católicos.

A série Circus Christi foi descrita pelo seu autor, o fotógrafo Fernando Bayona, como “uma visão atualizada da vida de Jesus pelo filtro da sociedade atual, nas quais os personagens vivem vidas paralelas às narradas nos textos bíblicos”.

Em uma das 13 fotografias, o dolorido nascimento de Jesus se dá em um precário ambiente caseiro. A sua pregação é simbolizada por um show de rock.

E talvez o mais polêmico retrato seja o Beijo de Judas, no qual dois modelos masculinos, um com a camisa aberta no peito, trocam carícias. A foto empresta uma estética amplamente utilizada na publicidade.

Grupos católicos espanhóis qualificaram a mostra de “blasfêmia” e disseram que o “escárnio” do artista “fere o sentimento dos cristãos”.

Segurança

Segundo a imprensa espanhola, apenas 38 pessoas tiveram a chance de ver a exposição, que ficaria em cartaz até o dia 5 de março na Universidade de Granada, na sul andaluz da Espanha.

Por causa dos protestos de grupos católicos e a polêmica criada na imprensa e na sociedade local, a universidade decidiu suspender a exibição alegando que não poderia garantir a segurança no local.

Ouvido pelo jornal El Mundo, o artista, que declinou pedidos de entrevista da BBC Brasil, disse que ficou “surpreendido” com a reação gerada pela exposição e garantiu que a polêmica não lhe beneficia.

“Há muita gente que está falando de ouvir dizer, porque nem sequer houve tempo suficiente de todas as pessoas que estão opinando terem visitado a exposição”, afirmou, ao jornal.

Bayona disse que a decisão de encerrar a mostra foi de mútuo acordo entre ele e a universidade, “para não colocar ninguém em perigo”.

Em um comunicado, a Universidade de Granada lamentou que “um elevado número de pessoas” tenha se sentido ofendido e garantiu que o trabalho não foi patrocinado “através de bolsa de estudo ou qualquer outra forma”.

Young adults ‘less religious,’ not necessarily ‘more secular’

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Group of young people on grunge film strip bac...

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY. Feb 17, 2010

Young adults today are less church-connected than prior generations were when they were in their 20s. But a new study finds they’re just about as spiritual as their parents and grandparents were at those ages.

Members of today’s Millennial generation, ages 18 to 29, are as likely to pray and believe in God as their elders were when they were young, says the report from Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

“They may be less religious, but they’re not necessarily more secular” than the Generation Xers or Baby Boomers who preceded them, says Alan Cooperman, associate director of research.

The study, “Religion in the Millennial Generation,” draws primarily on data from the 2008 Pew Religious Landscape Survey of 35,000 people and on the General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, which has measured aspects of religious affiliation and religiosity for decades.

SURVEY: Religious groups have lost ground

Millennials are significantly more likely than young adults in earlier generations to say they don’t identify with any religious group. Among Millennials, 26% cite no religious identity, compared with 20% for most members of Generation X (born 1965-1980) at the same ages, and 13% for most Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) at those ages.

Worship attendance is sliding steadily, too: 18% of Millennials say they attend worship nearly every week or more often, vs. 21% of Gen Xers when they were in their 20s and 26% of Boomers at those ages.

Neither are Millennials any more likely than earlier generations to turn toward a faith affiliation as they grow older.

“Where people start is where they end up, or if they move, it’s away from religious ties, but they tend not to move on beliefs,” Cooperman says.

Yet “by several important measures, Millennials often look a lot like their elders now and earlier generations when they were young,” says Pew senior researcher Greg Smith.

Among Millennials:

•40% say religion is very important in their lives, similar to 39% of Boomers at the same ages.

•41% report praying daily, like 42% of Gen Xers as young adults.

•53% are “certain God exists;” 55% of Gen Xers were certain at the same ages.

It’s too soon to tell what Millennials will say when they’re older. However, the study finds that as people age, they are more likely to say religion is very important in their lives, and they pray more frequently.

In the late 1970s, when most Boomers were in their 20s or early 30s, 39% said religion was very important in their lives. Thirty years later, 60% of Boomers say so.

In the early 1980s, 47% of Baby Boomers who were young adults at the time said they prayed daily. But 25 years later 62% of this same group say they pray daily.

Is SEO the future of evangelism?

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By Kent Shaffer – Church Relevance – Feb 10, 2010

I think the future of evangelism is search engine optimized (SEO) online content.  By no means, will this replace face-to-face evangelism or other methods. However, online behavior is opening doors of opportunity that will only increase with time.

Optimizing your ministry for search engines is more than trying to show up in the top 10 search results for “your church name” or “churches in your city.” Using Google to answer life’s questions is normal for those with Internet access. Imagine what your church could accomplish if it provided relevant answers in these moments when people are more open-minded and seeking truth.

Scenarios:

Imagine someone in Chicago searching for “Chicago divorce attorney” because she is tired of trying to make her marriage work. What if a Chicago church has SEO content in the first results offering free marriage counseling or advice on how to make a marriage work?

Imagine a teen that is fed up with being the school outcast and begins searching for how to properly slit his wrists. What if a ministry had SEO content offering real time help (a live suicide prevention counselor) or guidance on alternatives to suicide?

What it looks like:

Creating relevant SEO content is not a bait-and-switch tactic. That will only fail.
It is also not about Bible-thumping or aggressive evangelism. That will only turn people off before they listen.

Creating relevant SEO content is providing relevant, helpful solutions to the problems people are searching about online. These solutions may be alternatives to what they thought they would find, but that doesn’t mean these solutions won’t connect with them, help them, and change their lives.

Make your goal to be able to connect with the searcher and offer instant help (i.e., advice, counseling, a team of workers, tangible resources). Equally important is that you make these connections sustainable. Don’t let the relationship die with the initial contact. Provide avenues for you to continue helping and for them to be able to hear the gospel and/or get plugged in to a local church at their own pace as you gradually earn their trust and respect.

Resources to Consider:

Church Web Optimizer
The creators of Ekklesia 360 and Cobblestone Community Network are launching a new church SEO service this year called Church Web Optimizer. From what I understand, it will be a very affordable alternative for churches to hiring a corporate SEO firm. The tools look great, but the tailored advice from a real human is one of the best parts. Features include:

  • Google Analytics Installation
  • Google Webmaster Tools Installation
  • Google Sitemaps Submission
  • Church Website Analytics /Pre-SEO Evaluation and Conference Call
  • Google Local Search Submission
  • Featured Directory Submission on Church Cloud & Sermon Cloud
  • Online Targeted Advertising (eg. Google Adwords)
  • Social Media Strategy Implementation
  • Full SEO Services: Link building, SERPS Monitoring and Custom SEO Implementation

Google’s Keyword Tool
If your budget is $0, Google offers a nice free keyword research tool that identifies what topics people search for the most and how they word their searches. Relevantly sprinkling a few keywords into your content is one of many factors that will help your search engine results.

SEOmoz
If you want to dive into giving yourself a search engine marketing education, SEOmoz is a great place to start. They have a well-respected blog, articles (some free), and tools (some free).

For Discussion:
– What do you think are some effective strategies for church SEO?
– What SEO tools would you add to this list?

“Teologia da Libertação é traidora dos pobres e de sua real dignidade”, diz arcebispo emérito do RJ

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Do Gaudium Press, 15 fev 10

O arcebispo emérito da arquidiocese do Rio de Janeiro, Cardeal Eugenio de Araujo Sales, em artigo publicado esta semana no site da arquidiocese, assinala o “apelo urgente” que o Papa Bento XVI endereçou ao episcopado brasileiro que esteve em visita ad limina ao pontífice no ano passado.

Embora esse apelo feito pelo Papa tenha sido dirigido aos bispos dos Regionais 3 e 4 da Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB) durante a visita, o arcebispo emérito avalia que o apelo “não se limitou aos bispos que estavam presentes”, mas, como sempre nessas visitas, o recado do Papa se dirige ao “episcopado inteiro e a toda a Igreja no Brasil”.

De acordo o texto do cardeal, na visita dos bispos brasileiros, o pontífice recordou as circunstâncias prementes que 25 anos atrás exigiam uma clara orientação da Santa Sé no documento “Libertatis Nuntius” que, em sua primeira linha, afirma que o “Evangelho é a mensagem da liberdade e a força da libertação”.

Para Dom Eugenio Salles, daquele documento a Igreja recebia “grande luz”, mas não faltava “a animosidade dos que queriam receber e obscurecer e difamar essa doutrina”.

Bento XVI afirmou, continua Dom Eugenio Sales, com “palavras claras e sempre muito mais convidativas para uma reflexão serena do que repreensivas”, a gravidade da crise provocada por uma teologia que tinha, inicialmente, “motivos ideais, mas que se entregou a princípios enganadores”, a doutrina chamada de Teologia da Libertação.

“O Papa lembrou a gravidade da crise, provocada, também e essencialmente na Igreja no Brasil, por uma teologia que tinha, em seu início, motivos ideais, mas que se entregou a princípios enganadores. Tais rumos doutrinários da Teologia chamavam-se Teologia da Libertação”, observa Dom Eugenio.

Dessa forma, é tarefa de todos os pastores do episcopado brasileiro de acolher a palavra do Papa e se lembrarem da crise provocada na época que tornou quase “impossível o diálogo e a discussão serena”. Por causa disso, recorda Dom Eugenio Sales, a Igreja no Brasil, em alguns lugares, “sofre consequências dolorosas daqueles desvios”.

Dom Eugenio Sales reforça ainda mais as palavras de Bento XVI [que, por sua vez, citou as palavras de João Paulo II] quando recorda sua observação sobre a Teologia da Libertação. Para Bento XVI, a Teologia da Libertação “negligenciava a regra da Fé da Igreja que provém da unidade que o Espírito Santo estabeleceu entre a tradição, a Sagrada Escritura e o Magistério vivo”.

“Os três não podem subsistir independentes entre si. Por isso, hoje ainda, as sequelas da Teologia da Libertação se mostram essencialmente ao nível da Eclesiologia, ao nível da vida e da união da Igreja. A Igreja continua enfraquecida, em algumas partes, pela rebelião, divisão, dissenso, ofensa e anarquia. Cria-se assim nas vossas comunidades diocesanas grande sofrimento e grave perda de forças vivas”, diz a mensagem de Bento XVI destacada pelo cardeal em seu artigo.

Infelizmente, ressalta o cardeal, certas Teologias da Libertação caíram em um grave unilateralismo. “Para o Evangelho da libertação, é fundamental a libertação do pecado”, assinala. Muitas Teologias da Libertação se distanciaram do “verdadeiro Evangelho libertador”, diz. “Foram identificadas coisas muito boas com as graves questões sociais, culturais, econômicas e políticas, mas já não mostravam seu real enraizamento no Evangelho, embora vagamente citado, e chegaram até a apelar explicitamente à ‘análise marxista'”.

“Devem-se exigir não só palavras retóricas, mas ações que na prática se comprometem com cada pessoa, com cada comunidade e com a história”, afirmou o cardeal.

Tal compromisso não se enraíza na dignidade que Deus dá ao homem e se apresenta Libertadora e, dessa forma, a tal Teologia é, na realidade, “traidora dos pobres e de sua real dignidade”.

Bento XVI sabe, pondera o prelado, que muitos pontos da Teologia da Libertação estão ultrapassados e sabe também que a Igreja no Brasil sobre ainda “devastadoras sequelas nesse desvio doutrinário”.

Ao final, Dom Eugenio de Araujo Sales afirma ser “quase” um juramento a observação feita por Bento XVI ao conclamar os bispos e agentes de Pastoral de todo o Brasil que, “no âmbito dos entes e comunidades eclesiais, o perdão oferecido e acolhido em nome e por amor da Santíssima Trindade, que adoramos em nossos corações, ponha fim à tribulação da querida Igreja que peregrina nas Terras da Santa Cruz”.

Sozinhos, nós não podemos. Sem nós, Ele não quer! ~ por José Roberto Prado

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Creio em Deus.

Creio em seu propósito de compartilhar sua glória — seu amor perfeito — com todos os povos da terra.

Creio que o universo e as nações serão um dia restaurados e reconciliados com o Criador.

Creio no projeto chamado Reino de Deus, e seu principal agente ̩ a Igreja Рum povo transformado pelo poder do Evangelho de Cristo Рque vive de maneira transformadora na sociedade.

Por conseguinte, entendo que Deus, em sua soberania, sabedoria e graça, decidiu agir em conjunto conosco, seu povo.

Considerada a grandeza da tarefa e nossa própria limitação, como povo que ainda está em processo, só posso aceitar esta verdade pela fé, submetendo-me à revelação de sua Palavra, entendendo que Ele deseja usar instrumentos frágeis para que o mérito seja todo Dele.

Pra dizer em outras palavras: “Sozinhos, nós não podemos; sem nós, Ele não quer!” Continue lendo →

The Big Issues Facing the Western Church

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Tim Keller, no Gospel Coalition Blog, 11 fev 10

1. The opportunity for extensive culture-making in the U.S. In an interview, sociologist Peter Berger observed that in the U.S. evangelicals are shifting from being largely a blue-collar constituency to becoming a college educated population.

His question is–will Christians going into the arts, business, government, the media, and film a) assimilate to the existing baseline cultural narratives so they become in their views and values the same as other secular professionals and elites, or b) will they seal off and privatize their faith from their work so that, effectively, they do not do their work in any distinctive way, or c) will they do enough new Christian ‘culture-making’ in their fields to change things? (See here.)

2. The rise of Islam. How do Christians relate to Muslims when we live side by side in the same society? The record in places like Africa and the Middle East is not encouraging! This is more of an issue for the western church in Europe than in the U.S., but it is going to be a growing concern in America as well.

How can Christians be at the very same time a) good neighbors, seeking their good whether they convert or not, and still b) attractively and effectively invite Muslims to consider the gospel?

3. The new non-western Global Christianity. The demographic center of Christian gravity has already shifted from the west to Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The rising urban churches of China may be particularly influential in the future. But the west still has the educational institutions, the money, and a great deal of power.

What should the relationship of the older western churches be to the new non-western church? How can we use our assets to serve them in ways that are not paternalistic? How can we learn from them in more than perfunctory ways?

4. The growing cultural remoteness of the gospel. The basic concepts of the gospel — sin, guilt and accountability before God, the sacrifice of the cross, human nature, afterlife — are becoming culturally strange in the west for the first time in 1500 years. As Lesslie Newbigin has written, it is time now to ‘think like a missionary’–to formulate ways of communicating the gospel that both confront and engage our increasingly non-Christian western culture.

How do we make the gospel culturally accessible without compromising it? How can we communicate it and live it in a way that is comprehensible to people who lack the basic ‘mental furniture’ to even understand the essential truths of the Bible?

5. The end of prosperity? With the economic meltdown, the question is — will housing values, endowments, profits, salaries, and investments go back to growing at the same rates as they have for the last twenty-five years, or will growth be relatively flat for many years to come? If so, how does the western church, which has become habituated to giving out of fast-increasing assets, adjust in the way it carries out ministry? For example, American ministry is now highly professionalized–church staffs are far larger than they were two generations ago, when a church of 1,000 was only expected to have, perhaps, two pastors and a couple of other part-time staff. Today such a church would have probably eight to ten full-time staff members.

Also, how should the stewardship message adjust? If discretionary assets are one-half of what they were, more risky, sacrificial giving will be necessary to do even less ministry than we have been doing.

On top of this, if we experience even one significant act of nuclear or bio-terrorism in the U.S. or Europe, we may have to throw out all the basic assumptions about social and economic progress we have been working off for the last 65 years. In the first half of the 20th century, we had two World Wars and a Depression. Is the church ready for that? How could it be? What does that mean?

Médicos de Cuba no Haiti: a solidariedade silenciada

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José Manzaneda, para Adital

Os aproximadamente 400 cooperantes da Brigada médica cubana no Haiti foram a mais importante assistência sanitária ao povo haitiano durante as primeiras 72 horas após o recente terremoto. Essa informação foi censurada pelos grandes meios de comunicação internacionais.

A ajuda de Cuba ao povo haitiano não começou por ocasião do terremoto. Cuba atua no Haiti desde 1998 desenvolvendo um Plano Integral de Saúde(1), através do qual já passaram mais de 6.000 cooperantes cubanos da saúde. Horas depois da catástrofe, no dia 13 de janeiro, somavam-se à brigada cubana 60 especialistas em catástrofes, componentes do Contingente “Henry Reeve”, que voaram de Cuba com medicamentos, soro, plasma e alimentos(2). Os médicos cubanos transformaram o local onde viviam em hospital de campanha, atendendo a milhares de pessoas por dia e realizando centenas de operações cirúrgicas em 5 pontos assistenciais de Porto Príncipe. Além disso, ao redor de 400 jovens do Haiti formados como médicos em Cuba se uniam como reforço à brigada cubana(3).

Os grandes meios silenciaram tudo isso. O diário El País, em 15 de janeiro, publicava uma infografia sobre a “Ajuda financeira e equipamentos de assistência”, na qual Cuba nem sequer aparecia dentre os 23 Estados que havia colaborado(4). A cadeia estadunidense Fox News chegava a afirmar que Cuba é dos poucos países vizinhos do Caribe que não prestaram ajuda.

Vozes críticas dos próprios Estados Unidos denunciaram esse tratamento informativo, apesar de que sempre em limitados espaços de difusão.

Sarah Stevens, diretora do Center for Democracy in the Americas(5) dizia no blog The Huffington Post: Se Cuba está disposta a cooperar com os EUA deixando seu espaço aéreo liberado, não deveríamos cooperar com Cuba em iniciativas terrestres que atingem a ambas nações e os interesses comuns de ajudar ao povo haitiano?(6)

Laurence Korb, ex-subsecretário de Defesa e agora vinculado ao Center for American Progress(7), pedia ao governo de Obama “aproveitar a experiência de um vizinho como Cuba” que “tem alguns dos melhores corpos médicos do mundo” e com quem “temos muito o que aprender”(8).

Gary Maybarduk, ex-funcionário do Departamento de Estado propôs entregar às brigadas médicas equipamento duradouro médico com o uso de helicópteros militares dos EUA, para que possam deslocar-se para localidades pouco accessíveis do Haiti(9).

E Steve Clemons, da New America Foudation(10) e editor do blog político The Washington Note(11), afirmava que a colaboração médica entre Cuba e EUA no Haiti poderia gerar a confiança necessária para romper, inclusive, o estancamento que existe nas relações entre Estados Unidos e Cuba durante décadas(12)

Porém, a informação sobre o terremoto do Haiti, procedente de grandes agências de imprensa e de corporações midiáticas situadas nas grandes potências, parece mais a uma campanha de propaganda sobre os donativos dos países e cidadãos mais ricos do mundo. Apesar de que a vulnerabilidade diante da catástrofe por causa da miséria é repetida uma e outra vez pelos grandes meios, nenhum quis se debruçar para analisar o papel das economias da Europa ou dos EUA no empobrecimento do Haiti. O drama desse país está demonstrando uma vez mais a verdadeira natureza dos grandes meios de comunicação: ser o gabinete de imagem dos poderosos do mundo, convertidos em doadores salvadores do povo haitiano quando foram e são, sem paliativos, seus verdadeiros verdugos.

Quadro Informativo 1. Dados da cooperação de Cuba com o Haiti desde 1998:

РDesde dezembro de 1998, Cuba oferece coopera̤̣o m̩dica ao povo haitiano atrav̩s do Programa Integral de Sa̼de;

РAt̩ hoje trabalharam no setor sa̼de no Haiti 6.094 colaboradores que realizaram mais de 14 milh̵es de consultas m̩dicas, mais de 225.000 cirurgias, atendido a mais de 100.000 partos e salvado mais de 230.000 vidas

– Em 2004, após a passagem da tormenta tropical Jeanne pela cidade de Gonaives, Cuba ofereceu sua ajuda com uma brigada de 64 médicos e 12 toneladas de medicamentos.

– 5 Centros de Diagnóstico Integral, construídos por Cuba e pela Venezuela, prestavam serviços ao povo haitiano antes do terremoto.

РDesde 2004 ̩ realizada a Opera̤̣o Milagre no Haiti e at̩ 31 de dezembro de 2009 haviam sido operados um total de 47.273 haitianos.

РAtualmente, estudam em Cuba um total de 660 jovens haitianos; destes, 541 seṛo diplomados como m̩dicos.

– Em Cuba já foram formados 917 profissionais, dos quais 570 como médicos. Cuba coopera com o Haiti em setores tais como a agricultura, a energia, a pesca, em comunicações, além de saúde e educação.

РComo resultado da coopera̤̣o de Cuba na esfera da educa̤̣o, foram alfabetizados 160.030 haitianos.

Quadro 2. Dados das atuações do Contingente Internacional de Médicos Cubanos Especializados em Situações de Desastres e Graves Epidemias, Brigada “Henry Reeve”, anteriores à cooperação no Haiti:

– Desde sua constituição, a Brigada Henry Reeve cumpriu missões em 7 países, com a presença de 4.156 colaboradores, dos quais 2.840 são médicos.

РGuatemala (Furac̣o Stan): 8 de outubro de 2005, 687 colaboradores; destes 600 m̩dicos.

РPaquisṭo (Terremoto): 14 de outubro de 2005, 2 564 colaboradores; destes 1 463 m̩dicos.

– Bolívia (inundações): 3 de fevereiro de 2006-22 de maio, 602 colaboradores; destes, 601 médicos.

РIndon̩sia (Terremoto): 16 de maio 2006, 135 colaboradores; destes, 78 m̩dicos.

РPeru (Terremoto): 15 de agosto 2007-25 de mar̤o 2008, 79 colaboradores; destes, 41 m̩dicos.

РM̩xico (inunda̵̤es): 6 de novembro de 2007 Р26 de dezembro, 54 colaboradores; destes, 39 m̩dicos.

РChina (terremoto): 23 de maio 2008-9 de junho, 35 colaboradores; destes, 18 m̩dicos.

– Foram salvas 4 619 pessoas.

РForam atendidos em consultas m̩dicas 3.083.158 pacientes.

– Operaram (cirurgia) a 18 898 pacientes.

РForam instalados 36 hospitales de campanha completamente equipados, que foram doados por Cuba (32 ao Paquisṭo, 2 a Indon̩sia e 2 a Peru).

– Foram beneficiados com próteses de membros em Cuba 30 pacientes atingidos pelo terremoto do paquistão.

Notas:

(1) http://cubacoop.com
2) http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=153705&Itemid=1
(3) http://www.ain.cu/2010/enero/19cv-cuba-haiti-terremoto.htm
(4) http://www.pascualserrano.net/noticias/el-pais-oculta-344-sanitarios-cubanos-en-haiti
(5) http://democracyinamericas.org
(6) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-stephens/to-increase-help-for-hait_b_425224.html
(7) http://www.americanprogress.org/
(8) http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2010/0114/Marines-to-aid-Haitian-earthquake-relief.-But-who-s-in-command
(9) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/14/AR2010011404417_2.html
(10) http://www.newamerica.net/
(11) http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/
(12) http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2010/01/american_diplom/

Moralidade independe de religião, diz estudo

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Herton Escobar, no Estadão, 9 fev 10

De onde vem a religião? O fato de que todas as sociedades humanas conhecidas acreditam (ou acreditavam) em algum tipo de divindade – seja ela Deus, Alá, Zeus, o Sol, a Montanha ou espíritos da floresta – intriga os cientistas, que há tempos buscam uma explicação evolutiva para esse fenômeno.

Seria a religião uma característica com raiz evolutiva própria, selecionada naturalmente por sua capacidade de promover a moralidade e a cooperação entre indivíduos não aparentados de uma população? Ou seria ela um subproduto de outras características evolutivas que favorecem esse comportamento social independentemente de crenças religiosas?

A origem mais provável é a segunda, de acordo com um artigo científico publicado ontem na revista Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Os autores fazem uma revisão dos estudos já publicados sobre o tema e concluem que nem a cooperação nem a moralidade dependem da religião para existir, apesar de serem influenciadas por ela.

“A cooperação é possível graças a um conjunto de mecanismos mentais que não são específicos da religião. Julgamentos morais dependem desses mecanismos e parecem operar independentemente da formação religiosa individual”, escrevem os autores. “A religião é um conjunto de ideias que sobrevive na transmissão cultural porque parasita efetivamente outras estruturas cognitivas evoluídas.”

O artigo é assinado por Ilkka Pyysiäinen, da Universidade de Helsinki, na Finlândia, e Marc Hauser, dos Departamentos de Psicologia e Biologia Evolutiva Humana da Universidade Harvard, nos Estados Unidos.

Em entrevista ao Estado, Hauser disse que a religião “fornece apenas regras locais para casos muito específicos” de dilemas morais, como posições sobre o aborto ou a eutanásia. Já questões de caráter mais abstrato são definidas com base numa moralidade intuitiva que independe de religião.

Estudos em que pessoas são convidadas a opinar sobre dilemas morais hipotéticos mostram que o padrão de julgamento de religiosos é igual ao de pessoas sem religião ou ateias. Em outras palavras: a capacidade de distinguir entre certo e errado, aceitável e inaceitável, é intuitiva ao ser humano e independe da religião, apesar de ser moldada por ela em questões específicas.

“Isso pode sugerir como é equivocado fazer juízos sobre a moralidade das pessoas com base em suas religiões”, disse ao Estado o pesquisador Charbel El-Hani, coordenador do Grupo de Pesquisa em História, Filosofia e Ensino de Ciências Biológicas da Universidade Federal da Bahia. “Entre os ateus, assim como entre os religiosos, há a variabilidade usual dos humanos. Há ateus tão altruístas quanto Irmã Dulce, assim como há religiosos tão dados à desonestidade e a faltas éticas quanto pessoas não tão religiosas.”

Segundo Hauser, o ser humano não tem uma propensão a ser religioso, mas sim a buscar causas e propósitos para o mundo ao seu redor – o que muitas vezes acaba desembocando em alguma forma de divindade. Nesse caso, a religião seria um produto da evolução cultural, e não da evolução biológica. “O fato de algo ser universal não significa que faça parte da nossa biologia”, diz o pesquisador de Harvard.

Ele e Pyysiäinen sugerem que “a maioria, se não todos, dos ingredientes psicológicos que integram a religião evoluiu originalmente para solucionar problemas mais genéricos de interação social e, subsequentemente, foi cooptada para uso em atividades religiosas.”

Ao estabelecer regras coletivas de conduta, a religião funcionaria como uma ferramenta de incentivo e controle da cooperação – tanto pelo lado da salvação quanto da punição. “Que a religião está envolvida na cooperação não há dúvida. Mas dizer que ela evoluiu para esse propósito é algo completamente diferente”, afirma Hauser.