How God Changes Your Brain - Andrew Newberg, M. D_ [59]
Percentage of hate crimes reported by the FBI in 2004.11
According to the Baylor study, more than half of Americans are intolerant of non-Christian values, which is not surprising considering that half of those surveyed embraced an authoritarian or critical God. This may also explain the constant Supreme Court battles we see concerning the attempts to introduce religious values (such as prayer and Intelligent Design) into the public school system, or attempts to insert the Ten Commandments and references to God into government activities and facilities.
In our survey, of the people who reported spiritual experiences, only one-third said they were uncomfortable with those who held different religious beliefs. Still, that represents as many as 100 million Americans. Two other studies conducted in 2002 also showed high degrees of intolerance.12 They found that 17 to 18 percent of Americans—50 million people—believed that their religion should be the only true religion in the world. Seventy-one percent said that we should not try to convert people of other religious faiths, but that still leaves close to 60 million Christians who want to convert every Muslim, Jew, Hindu, and Buddhist to their religion. Interestingly, our online survey found that people who took up Eastern spiritual practices were more tolerant and accepting of other religions than those who were involved in Western monotheistic traditions.
If you put all the surveys together, there appears to be a slow decline in religious intolerance, especially over the last five years, and many religious leaders are speaking out about the need to embrace a different perception of God. Marcus J. Borg, professor of religion and culture at Oregon State University, points out that the emerging paradigm of tolerance creates a new but difficult vision for traditional Christian followers.13 If you see the Bible as metaphorical, it becomes an inspirational text, not a literal document by which you should govern your life. This transforms Christianity into a tool through which people can transform their lives in the here-and-now. Religion becomes a guideline, not a truth, and this allows people to see different traditions as paths that also lead to personal and spiritual growth.
Similar sentiments have been recently voiced by leaders of the Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim communities. For example, the Episcopalian bishop John Spong believes that Christianity must reinvent itself, and that “theism, as a way of defining God, is dead.” He argues that a “new way to speak of God must be found.”14 Spong's message reflects a strong rebellion against religious conservatism, a view that is mirrored by many recent surveys and polls. According to one study, within the evangelical community, a quarter of its young members feel that their religion has lost touch with the basic teachings of Jesus.15 The study noted that in each new generation, more Americans shift their allegiance from Christianity to other faiths or systems of belief. Some embrace agnosticism and atheism, and as our college student survey showed, many prefer to see themselves as spiritually inclined but unaffiliated with any religious group. As a recent Gallup survey found, Americans may maintain their belief in God, but in general, Protestantism has been slowly declining since 1965.16
Fundamentalists will continue to argue for a return to biblical orthodoxy, but Americans seem bent on reinventing Atkinson's creed. Consider the phenomenal success of Rhonda Byrne's The Secret after endorsements from Oprah and Larry King.17 The funny thing is that the philosophy behind New Thought religion and materialism comes very close to several fundamental neurological truths:
Your thoughts clearly affect the