Not if you can believe a new survey on Americans' religious beliefs, "American Piety in the 21st Century," published this month by Baylor University. The Baylor survey reports that 82 percent of Americans are Christians, 90 percent believe in God, 70 percent pray regularly, and half attend church at least once a month.

Writing in The Weekly Standard about these results, Mark Tooley observes, "Americans are demographically as religious, and as Christian, as they ever have been. But their denominational affiliations have become somewhat less structured. Less likely now to be Methodist or Lutheran, they are drifting towards more informal forms of evangelical Christianity.

"Similar surveys in recent years have shown an increased number of Americans claiming no religious affiliation. But the Baylor survey proposes that those seemingly-secular increases merely reflected the decline in formal denominational affiliation. When Baylor delved into the practices of supposedly unaffiliated respondents, it discovered that many of them do attend church or Bible studies, pray, and associate with some form of Christianity or other organized religion. . . .

"The Baylor survey found that only about one in ten Americans is not religiously affiliated, a statistic similar to past decades (and less than the 14 percent claimed in other recent surveys). This difference may not sound large, but it represents 10 million Americans.

"Many of those 10 million Americans who had inaccurately been counted as non-religious belong to evangelical Christianity, which now accounts for one third of the American population, and is the nation's largest religious demographic. Mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics account for a little over one fifth each. Members of black Protestant churches account for 5 percent and Jews for 2.5 percent.

"Some results are expected. Easterners are likelier to be Catholics. Southerners are the most likely to be evangelicals. Westerners are the most likely to have no affiliation. Young adults are three times as likely to lack a religious affiliation as older Americans.

A preacher has decided to boldly go where no cleric has gone before by writing the gospel according to Star Trek.
Alyson Leslie, an Episcopalian lay pastor from Newport-on-Tay in Fife, hopes to spread the word of God by appealing to fans of the science fiction series.
Her Star Trek gospel provides a list of religious and moral parables that can be drawn from episodes of the program, which celebrates its 40th birthday this year.
“I am inviting people to journey through the galaxy to find the meaning of life,” said Leslie, who is also a member of the Audit Commission and General Medical Council.
“As captains Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway and their crews explore the Star Trek universe they encounter situations and species that challenge their beliefs and ours.
“True exploration is always a journey towards greater understanding. I want people to join the quest to better understand our universe, ourselves and our place in time and space.”
Leslie intends to chronicle as many episodes as possible, adding lists of “points to ponder” and spiritual questions.
“Contrary to popular misconception, Star Trek is not a silly program about fighting bug-eyed aliens,” she said.
“The characters in the series are often able to look beyond themselves and beyond the ordinary on their journeys.”
The Star Trek Gospels have been backed by the Scottish Episcopal church. “We do encourage innovative and modern means of communicating the message of the gospels,” said a spokeswoman.
However, it is unlikely that the late Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s creator, would have approved. “Religions vary in their degree of idiocy, but I reject them all,” he said before his death. “I condemn the effort to take away the power of rational decision, to drain people of free will and a hell of a lot of money into the bargain.”

Nefertiti, one of the ancient world's legendary beauties, may have had wrinkles and bags under her eyes, according to a new investigation into the famous bust bearing her likeness.
Since its discovery in 1912 at Tel-El-Amarna in what used to be the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose, the 3,300-year-old painted limestone bust has become an international symbol of beauty.
Showing a woman with a long neck, elegantly arched brows, high cheekbones, a slender nose and an enigmatic smile played about red lips, the bust has established Nefertiti as one of the most beautiful faces of antiquity.
But on closer inspection, visible wrinkles run down her slender neck, and puffy bags circle her eyes, says Dietrich Wildung, director of Berlin's Egyptian museum. "We discovered that Nefertiti shows some signs of her age. Now she is even more fascinating.”.
Wildung discovered the features of aging as he considered using a different kind of lighting for the statue's new display at Berlin's Altes Museum. The finding was supported by a CT scan carried on the 19-inch bust in July. The test confirmed that the sculptor added gypsum around Nefertiti's eyes and cheeks.
"This is a very important finding. It destroys the myth of Nefertiti as the icon of youthful beauty and reveals a new, fascinating woman in her mature beauty," said Egyptologist Francesco Tiradritti.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30

A recent Harris Poll measuring public perceptions of 23 professions and occupations shows that firefighters, doctors and nurses are seen as prestigious occupations by U.S. adults, while business executives, stockbrokers and real estate agents are seen at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Six occupations are perceived to have "very great" prestige by at least half of all adults -- firefighters (63%) doctors (58%), nurses (55%), scientists (54%), teachers (52%) and military officers (51%). They are followed by police officers (43%) and priests/ministers/clergymen (40%).

By way of contrast, the list includes nine occupations which are perceived by less than 20 percent of adults to have "very great" prestige, with one of these under 10 percent. The lowest ratings for "very great prestige" go to real estate brokers (6%), stockbrokers (11%), business executives (11%), actors (12%), union leaders (12%), journalists (16%), bankers (17%), accountants (17%) and entertainers (18%).

Three occupations are perceived by one-quarter or more of adults to have "hardly any prestige at all." These include union leaders (15%), real estate brokers (32%) and actors (37%). Just over one-third of adults (36%) say that farming -- an occupation included on the list for the first time -- is an occupation of very great prestige, while 15 percent say it has hardly any prestige at all.

Teachers are the only occupation, among the 11 tracked since 1977, to see a rise in prestige. Those who see teachers as having "very great" prestige has risen 23 points from 29 to 52 percent.

Jesus said "The greatest among you will be your servant.(Matthew 23:11) Isn't it interesting that that occupations that are generally perceived as serving rank highest while those who receive the great publicity - actors, journalists, etc. - are ranked much lower?

When a construction worker unearthed a medieval text of the Book of Psalms in Ireland a few weeks ago, speculation arose that it was a sign that the end of the world was near. When found, the text was opened to what was thought to be Psalm 83. In the King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 83 is a lament to God describing the attempts of nations to wipe out the name of Israel. When that was coupled with the current conflict in Lebanon between Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerrillas, some jumped to the conclusion that this was indeed a sign of the end.

But, alas, calmer minds soon noticed that this text was from the Vulgate translation. In that translation, the Psalms are numbered differently than they are in the KJV. As a result the text really comes from Psalm 84 which is a song of praise and longing for godliness.

Those seeking a sign of the end of the world will have to look elsewhere.

1. He is the only man who has never been compared to the man she could have married.
2. He had no in-laws to drop in.
3. There were no Jones for him to keep up with.
4. There were no credit cards OR shopping centers.
5. He never had his dinner interrupted by window salesmen.
6. He got away with wearing a simple wardrobe.
7. He never had to shovel snow!
8. If he had gone bald, who would have known that wasn't normal.
9. There was no "standard weight and height" tables -- and the word fat meant good.

Dr. Michael Duduit tells about the Eagle Brook Church in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, that is building a new auditorium that will feature theatre-type seats -- complete with cup-holders. Church staffer Scott Anderson explains, "Coffee is such a part of our church culture. If they're gonna bring it in, they need a place to put it. It was a logical decision."

He then goes on to suggest that perhaps we should add cell-phone holders, and iPod at every seat to tune in alternative music, an auto bay so folks can have their cars serviced, a place to have their hair restyled while they listen to the preacher, and perhaps best of all a remote control so parishioners can fast forward to the end of the sermon!

Must we always multi-task? Can we not give God our full and undivided attention?
Just wondering!

Mark Knoll in the Opinion Journal reminds us of the place of the KJV in our nation's history. He states that in 1911 the English-speaking world paused to mark the 300th anniversary of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, with American political leaders foremost in the chorus of exaltation. To former president Theodore Roosevelt, this Bible translation was "the Magna Carta of the poor and the oppressed . . . the most democratic book in the world." Soon-to-be president Woodrow Wilson said much the same thing: "The Bible (with its individual value of the human soul) is undoubtedly the book that has made democracy and been the source of all progress."

Americans at the time mostly agreed with these sentiments, because the impact of the KJV was everywhere so obvious. It was obvious for business, with major firms like Harper & Brothers having risen to prominence on the back of its Bible publishing. It was obvious in the physical landscape and in many households because of the widespread use of Bible names for American places (95 variations on Salem) and the nation's children (John, James, Sarah, Rebecca). It was obvious in literature, as with the memorable opening of Herman Melville's Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael." And it was obvious in politics, with no occasion more memorable than March 4, 1865, when four quotations from the KJV framed Abraham Lincoln's incomparable Second Inaugural Address: Genesis 3:19 ("wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces"); Matthew 18:7 ("woe unto the world because of offences!"); Matthew 7:1 ("judge not that we be not judged"); and Psalm 19:9 ("the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether").

Because the KJV was so widely read for religious purposes, it had also become a source of public ideals. Because it was so central in the churches, and because the churches were so central to the culture, the KJV functioned also as a common reservoir for the language. Hundreds of phrases (clear as crystal, powers that be, root of the matter, a perfect Babel, two-edged sword) and thousands of words (arguments, city, conflict, humanity, legacy, network, voiceless, zeal) were in the common speech because they had first been in this translation. Or to be more precise, because they had been in the KJV or in the earlier translations, like those of John Wycliffe's followers (1390s) and William Tyndale (1520s), that King James' translators mined for their own version.
But during the past half-century, we have come into a new situation. For believers who read the Bible because they think it is true, a welter of modern translations compete for the space once dominated by the KJV. For the public at large, the linguistic and narrative place that for more than two centuries had been occupied by the KJV is now substantially filled by the omnipresent electronic media. The domains that have been most successfully popularized by television, the movies and the Internet are sport, crime, pornography, politics, warfare, medicine and the media itself. Within these domains there is minimal place for biblical themes of any sort, much less the ancient language of the KJV.

For some purposes, it is well that the KJV has lost its hold. Roman Catholics and Jews were once victims of coercive discrimination when they were forced to recite this Protestant translation of the Bible in the nation's public schools. And at many moments, like the Civil War, free use of this one version made it all too easy to transgress the boundary between the proper business of the churches and the proper business of the public sphere.

Yet if the KJV was sometimes abused, nearly universal use also meant that its spiritual themes of reproof and liberation, its stories of human sin and divine grace, also exerted a great influence for good. In the 1890s Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other aggrieved feminists published "The Woman's Bible" in an effort to counter interpretations of Scripture that had done women harm. When they asked others to comment, Frances Willard of the Women's Christian Temperance Union made a telling response: "No such woman, as Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, with her heart aflame against all forms of injustice and of cruelty . . . has ever been produced in a country where the Bible was not incorporated into the thoughts and the affections of the people and had not been so during many generations."
It was the KJV that Willard meant as the Bible "incorporated" in American consciousness "during many generations." Today the legacy of the KJV remains fixed in the common speech, even if awareness of the language's debt to this translation is fading (another KJV word). Whether any modern translation of the Scriptures, or any other moral guide, can anchor the culture as the KJV once did, is a question worth serious consideration in the run-up to 2011 and the 400th anniversary of this unsurpassed cultural force.

Have you seen the new Klondike Bar commercials? One shows a man noticing his wife’s new hair color. Because he does that he deserves a Klondike Bar. Another shows man talking to his wife when a beautiful woman walks by. He keeps his eyes on his wife rather than looking at the woman. Because he does this, the commercial suggests that he deserves a Klondike Bar.

These commercials present the idea that when men do things that are basically decent, they are doing something unusual and un-manlike, and deserve to be rewarded. The commercials suggest that “real men” normally would not behave this way and will lower themselves to such extraordinary behavior in order to receive the reward of a Klondike Bar. They seem to say that if these behaviors are to be rewarded then less-than-good behavior is “normal.”

That society presents and accepts these stereotypes may suggest that Christian men have some work to do. If anyone should be noticed for their decent and caring behavior it certainly should be men who are modeling the life of Christ. And they should do it for a greater reward than a Klondike Bar.

Men, let's redefine for society was "normal" is.

Biblical Archaelogy Review reports that high in the mountains of northwestern Iran, a Christian archaeology expedition has discovered a rock formation that its members say resembles Noah's ark.

The team discovered the prominent boat-shaped rocks at just over 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) on Mount Suleiman in Iran's Elburz mountain range.

"It looks uncannily like wood," said Robert Cornuke, president of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute (BASE), the Palmer Lake, Colorado-based group that launched the expedition.

Photos taken by BASE members show a prow-shaped rock outcrop, which the team says resembles petrified wood, emerging from a ridge.

"We have had thin sections of the rock made, and we can see [wood] cell structures," Cornuke said.

Cornuke acknowledges that it may be hard to prove that this object was Noah's ark. But he says he is fairly convinced that the rock formation was an important place of pilgrimage in the past.

The BASE team has uncovered evidence of an ancient shrine near the outcrop, suggesting that this was an important place to people in the past, Cornuke says.

"We can't claim to have conclusively found the ark, but it does look like the object that the ancients talked about," Cornuke said.