Religion in the U.S. on the wane - What's next?

EL CERRITO, Calif. - July 7, 2015 - PRLog -- Surveys recently are pointing to an astonishing rise of the “Nones” - those disaffected people, young and old, who more and more are joining the ranks of those who profess no allegiance to any of our mainline religions.

On the other hand, atheism, agnosticism, and humanism are boldly gaining adherents right and left.

The old myths, the old stories, do not hold weight anymore - especially with the younger generation.

So what’s next?

In his tenth and latest book - “A New Myth for the World” - James Hilgendorf writes of a relatively unknown Buddhist movement that has been experiencing phenomenal growth in recent decades, and is now beginning to emerge upon the world stage as the next great world religion.

This is the SGI, or Soka Gakkai International, now the largest Buddhist lay organization in the world, with 12,000,000 members in 192 countries and territories around the world.

The Soka Gakkai has been called not only the most dynamic and empowering Buddhist movement in history, but one that is even beginning to change our very notions of religion itself.

This is religion down on the ground.

Hilgendorf writes:

“All the theory, all the theology, all the priests and all the ayatollahs, have not stopped the hemorrhaging of the world’s wounds.  They have never forged a dream and myth that translated into lasting peace and prosperity, that became a reality and a fortress against hatred and anger and the foul urgings of the human heart.”

The problem, Hilgendorf argues, is the way we perceive ourselves, and the way we perceive our relationship to the universe around us. Our religions - Christianity and Islam - tell us there is something wrong with us from the very beginning of our life on Earth, or that salvation is only to be achieved by submission to a power and authority outside ourselves.  In either case, the real power and potential of individual men and women is distorted and usurped by orthodoxy.

The new myth he writes about is the story of the utter empowerment of the individual, and of a vision of the deep interconnectedness of all our lives with one another, and with the sun and stars and universe around us.

It is religion completely in alignment with the revelations of modern day science.  It is religion imparting meaning to the farthest reaches of the vast cosmos, yet bolted down to the most mundane occurrences of everyday life.

James Hilgendorf is the author of ten non-fiction titles. His website can be found at http://www.jameshilgendorf.org