"EU More Atheist Than USSR"

This bit of news is somewhat "dated", but news of the ratification of the EU's Lisbon Treaty on 9 December compelled me to post it anyway.

Renowned French traditionalist philosopher, geopolitical thinker, and founder of the intellectual movement Nouvelle Droite Alain de Benoist believes that modern Europe "has beaten the record of the USSR" in the depths of its mass atheism.

"Now, Europe has reached a level of atheism higher than that found in Russia, even after the forced totalitarian policy of the Soviet period", M de Benoist said at a meeting with Russian scholars at the Conservative Studies Centre of the Sociology Faculty of Moscow State University.

In his observation, today, religious values "are good for Russia, but, not for Europe. Indeed, I believe that a political party based on religious values would win absolutely no votes in elections in the EU", he said.

In particular, he said that 30 years ago France had a law providing punishment for the advocacy of homosexuality, but, today, it has another law that "bans saying anything critical concerning homosexuality". For instance, French schools are using textbooks entitled 'Against Homophobia'.

Professor Valery Rastorguyev, the Head of the MGU Political Theory Department, concluded, "Conservatism is possible only in Russia, for true conservatism should answer the question: Is there a place for God in this ideology?"

- Interfax-Religion, 25 November 2008, 11:18

[via Voices from Russia]

Behind Religious Harmony

Camille of Forsan et Hæc Olim Meminisse Iuvabit alerts us to this little-known article from Singapore's leading newspaper and official organ of the ruling party:

ZOROASTRIANISM is the 'sign of Zorro'. Islam is when 'their marriages take place in the void deck'. Buddhism is 'about filial piety'.
These were some comments made by youth here on various religions, as found in a study by former Aware president and educator Phyllis Chew.

[...]

While 76 per cent said they were 'tolerant' of other religions, their idea of tolerance was 'not talking about it'.

And while a whopping 92 per cent expressed desire to find out more about other religions, the majority said they would do so from the Internet.

At the same time, Dr Chew found that they switched religions through an emotional process. 'They will usually say things like, 'I've a good feeling (about this religion)' or 'My friends influenced me'.

'So it's not a very rational decision, like what are the pros, what are the cons. It's not very cognitive. The switching process is usually an emotional one.'

- News @ AsiaOne, Sep 14, 2008

It is as I have long feared. Religious tolerance (or 'harmony', as official sources often phrase it) in Singapore does not rest on mutual understanding and cooperation, but on a massive foundation of profound ignorance.

After all, what else can explain the existence of both 'Christian' and 'Catholic' as choices on official question forms? The leading newspapers continue to perpetuate this ignorant mistake, year after year, despite numerous friends writing in every so often to request that they refrain from doing so.

I disagree somewhat with the good doctor on the second quoted bit. Religious choice is hardly, if ever, a rational one. Some people are very systematic and insist on studying every detail, but these only make up a small percentage of converts. Most choose to convert based on a wide variety of factors, with intellectual rationalism usually not very high on their list of priorities.

Although, this would account for the massive increase in megachurch attendance this island nation has seen over the past few years - so much so, that a (nominally) Buddhist classmate was compelled to ask me if speaking in tongues and ecstatic Praise & Worship services were traditional components of Christian worship.

*sigh*

This is nation where students swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry.

"The Church Has Been Buried Many Times"

During a speech at the Saint-Louis of France cultural center in Rome, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, said that the de-Christianization of Europe is dramatic and accelerated, but it is not irreversible.

[...]

However, he added, religion is “far from disappearing.” “And Christians have not renounced their task,” because “this apparently dying Christianity displays a surprising vitality and holds many surprises,” he said.

Cardinal Tauran mentioned the Church’s capacity to renew herself, pointing to “that October afternoon in 1978 on which the Archbishop of Krakow, in the heart of Marxists central Europe, was called to the Chair of Peter.”

[...]

“Christianity has a good future in the West and beyond,” he said, “because, as in the past, it will know how to ‘overcome the barbarians,’ to find the path of renewal in faith and tradition, as it always has.”

- Catholic News Agency, February 11, 2008

[via The Western Confucian]

Saint Buddha

Today's saints (according to the Roman Catholic calendar; the Orthodox mark it on 26 August) is perhaps the most peculiar commemoration in the Church calendar - East or West:

Barlaam and Josaphat are said to have lived in third or fourth century India, where the Gospel was first preached by St Thomas the Apostle. The religion had grown steadily, but was persecuted by, among others, one King Abenner. This king was told by his astrologers that his son Josaphat would become a Christian. King Abenner kept his son locked away from the outside world to prevent this prophecy from coming true, but a Christian hermit named Barlaam preached the Chrsitian religion to the young prince, and he converted. King Abenner later became a Christian and then a hermit. Josaphat became king, but abdicated soon after to live a life of ascetic piety.

Josaphat's tale was wildly popular in the Middle Ages, and versions of it appeared in nearly all European languages, from Armenian to Icelandic. It was the basis of La vida es sueño (Life is a dream), the masterpiece by Spanish Golden Age playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca. The legend quite nearly circumnavigated the globe; a version of it came into being in the Tagalog language of the Philippines.

The story, it turns out, is a Christianized retelling of the story of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. Before his birth a seer predicted he would either be a great king or a holy man. To ensure the former outcome, his father the king shielded the boy from all forms of religious teaching and from witnessing any form of human suffering. Having accidentally witnessed the latter, he left his palace to lead an ascetic life. The Buddha's story traveled in all four directions. As it traveled west, the Sanskrit "Bodhisattva" became "Bodisav" in Persian, "Budhasaf" or "Yudasaf" in Arabic, "Iodasaph" in Georgian, "Ioasaph" in Greek, and "Josaphat" in Latin.

Thus, the Buddha came to be venerated in Christendom. This remarkable origin of this tale need not be cause for embarrassment. It is a testimony to the faith of the Age of Faith, whose children yearned for holiness and recognized it when they saw it, even in a tale from a faraway land. Without access to a fact-checking resource like Wikipedia, it is easy to see how such a cultus could have developed.

Were the Christians of the Middle Ages who asked for St Josaphat's intercessions praying to the Bodhisattva? Were the many parishes named after St Josaphat erected in honor of the Buddha?

MORE at the Western Confucian's interpretation of what this could mean to the Church.