On the basic topic of the subject line, the following editorial appeared in
today's (far left-wing, pinko, effete, godless) NY Times:

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August 15, 2003
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Believe It, or Not
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Today marks the Roman Catholics' Feast of the Assumption, honoring the moment
that they believe God brought the Virgin Mary into Heaven. So here's a fact
appropriate for the day: Americans are three times as likely to believe in the
Virgin Birth of Jesus (83 percent) as in evolution (28 percent).

So this day is an opportunity to look at perhaps the most fundamental divide
between America and the rest of the industrialized world: faith. Religion
remains central to American life, and is getting more so, in a way that is true of
no other industrialized country, with the possible exception of South Korea.

Americans believe, 58 percent to 40 percent, that it is necessary to believe
in God to be moral. In contrast, other developed countries overwhelmingly
believe that it is not necessary. In France, only 13 percent agree with the U.S.
view. (For details on the polls cited in this column, go to
www.nytimes.com/kristofresponds.)

The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is
becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time. The percentage of Americans
who believe in the Virgin Birth actually rose five points in the latest poll.

My grandfather was fairly typical of his generation: A devout and active
Presbyterian elder, he nonetheless believed firmly in evolution and regarded the
Virgin Birth as a pious legend. Those kinds of mainline Christians are
vanishing, replaced by evangelicals. Since 1960, the number of Pentecostalists has
increased fourfold, while the number of Episcopalians has dropped almost in half.

The result is a gulf not only between America and the rest of the
industrialized world, but a growing split at home as well. One of the most poisonous
divides is the one between intellectual and religious America.

Some liberals wear T-shirts declaring, "So Many Right-Wing Christians . . .
So Few Lions." On the other side, there are attitudes like those on a Web site,
dutyisours.com/gwbush.htm, explaining the 2000 election this way:

"God defeated armies of Philistines and others with confusion. Dimpled and
hanging chads may also be because of God's intervention on those who were voting
incorrectly. Why is GW Bush our president? It was God's choice."

The Virgin Mary is an interesting prism through which to examine America's
emphasis on faith because most Biblical scholars regard the evidence for the
Virgin Birth, and for Mary's assumption into Heaven (which was proclaimed as
Catholic dogma only in 1950), as so shaky that it pretty much has to be a leap of
faith. As the Catholic theologian Hans Kung puts it in "On Being a Christian,"
the Virgin Birth is a "collection of largely uncertain, mutually
contradictory, strongly legendary" narratives, an echo of virgin birth myths that were
widespread in many parts of the ancient world.

Jaroslav Pelikan, the great Yale historian and theologian, says in his book
"Mary Through the Centuries" that the earliest references to Mary (like Mark's
gospel, the first to be written, or Paul's letter to the Galatians) don't
mention anything unusual about the conception of Jesus. The Gospels of Matthew and
Luke do say Mary was a virgin, but internal evidence suggests that that part
of Luke, in particular, may have been added later by someone else (it is
written, for example, in a different kind of Greek than the rest of that gospel).

Yet despite the lack of scientific or historical evidence, and despite the
doubts of Biblical scholars, America is so pious that not only do 91 percent of
Christians say they believe in the Virgin Birth, but so do an astonishing 47
percent of U.S. non-Christians.

I'm not denigrating anyone's beliefs. And I don't pretend to know why America
is so much more infused with religious faith than the rest of the world. But
I do think that we're in the middle of another religious Great Awakening, and
that while this may bring spiritual comfort to many, it will also mean a
growing polarization within our society.

But mostly, I'm troubled by the way the great intellectual traditions of
Catholic and Protestant churches alike are withering, leaving the scholarly and
religious worlds increasingly antagonistic. I worry partly because of the time
I've spent with self-satisfied and unquestioning mullahs and imams, for the
Islamic world is in crisis today in large part because of a similar drift away
from a rich intellectual tradition and toward the mystical. The heart is a
wonderful organ, but so is the brain.

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Wirt Atmar

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