(h/t Jon Acuff)

It’s for the H2O Project and in a nutshell, it encourages folks to drink water only during Lent* and to set aside the money one would use for coffee, sodas, juice, etc.

We take access to clean water for granted, while families living in Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia — just to name a few places — don’t have clean water available or have to travel many miles just for a few gallons. The H2O Project encourages those of us living in affluent nations to not only appreciate what we have, but do what we can so that all may have access to a clean source of water.

So give what you can. Give up what you can. I’m planning on starting next week.

P.S. The ONE Campaign has other ways you can raise awareness for clean water and sanitation.

*or its secular counterpart, The Month of Pleasure Denial :)

…large numbers of America’s faithful do not neatly conform to the expectations or beliefs of their prescribed religions, but instead freely borrow principles of Eastern religions or endorse common supernatural beliefs.

Among the findings of the survey, by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:

• Almost 1 in 4 American adults say they sometimes attend religious services of a faith different from their own.
• Twenty-four percent of the public say they believe in reincarnation, and 23 percent believe in yoga as a spiritual practice.
• Twenty-five percent of the overall public (and 23 percent of Christians) believe in astrology.
• Fifteen percent of the public acknowledges having consulted a psychic or a fortuneteller.

Others, though, argue that religious purity is a non sequitur.

“The thing that is forgotten in these discussions is that any single religious tradition is itself already a composite,” says Harvey Cox, a professor at the Harvard Divinity School whose 1965 book, “The Secular City,” is considered a theology classic. He considers the idea of isolated religious traditions to be “a big myth.”

“What we have are streams that have been fed by other streams and have fed other streams all along,” he says. “Even what is advertised by clerical leaders as the kind of ‘pure package’ is already the result of the collage.”

A large component of any religion is the stories told within it. The Jews’ journey to the Promised Land, Buddha confronting the demon Mara and Inanna’s journey to the underworld, not to mention countless creation and end-time myths. And these stories didn’t just come from anywhere; they were already present in local tales and legends. You could argue that religion is the ultimate mashup.

Some Roman Catholic leaders say their followers do not need to look outside the church to find what they’re looking for.

“A lot of young adults who are attracted to the beauty of meditation techniques are very unaware of the contemplative and mystical tradition of their own faith,” says the Rev. Donald Senior, president of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Indeed. Quakers are often lumped in with the mystical side of Christianity with their reliance on silent worship and belief in the Inner Light. There was also Quietism, a movement within the Catholic Church that had its heyday during the 17th century, before it was condemned by Pope Innocent XI.

Obviously, these articles are nothing new. But what is alluded to, if not said outright in these articles is a sense that believers are just cherry-picking beliefs from a broad spectrum of religious backgrounds. A deep rootedness in one’s original or preferred faith not only means you get where you’re going more quickly, but that you miss out on seeing some of those same characteristics in your faith. If anything, one should be looking deeply within one’s own faith before looking out across the vast landscape of spirtuality systems.

Mind Hacks asks Is Religion a Product of Mind and Evolution?

Crucially, this research is not simply tackling the idea that biblical ideas such as creation are incorrect, but arguing that the belief in God or other supernatural forces, itself is a product of evolution.

Among the included links is a pretty decent New Times article that details the two scientists, the experiment, and its aftermath.

I must say that the notion intrigues me, but I have problems with the article. Granted this was a newspaper and those kind of writers aren’t known for grasping the nuances of a particular field (hell, they’re still trying to get a handle on search engine optimization), but in reading it, I couldn’t but help notice:

• There’s no background on the group of children who saw the puppet show. What sort of upbringing do they have? Have their parents already discussed God? Are they active in Sunday School or other religious activities?

• The article sounds too God-centric. What about other religions, such as Zen? It’s possible that the Dharma could be a stand-in of sorts, but it’s not that comparable to God anyway. Then there’s the fact that most Americans are Christian. Nevertheless, it just feels too narrow for these findings to be truly significant.

• The article portrays scientist Jesse Bering as this guy who really wants creationists to get lathered up over the study. You can almost hear, “Hey, holy man! What do you think now, holy man? Huh, huh, huh, huh. What up? What up now?” It just sounds to me like he has an agenda.

Still, it’s intriguing. Give it a look over, won’t ya?

Religions become counter-productive to world order when they neglect the fundamental values of compassion, kindness and self-discipline that make them “more or less the same,” [The Dalai Lama] said.

–”Dalai Lama Says All Religions ‘More or Less the Same’”:http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=2,1939,0,0,1,0, Buddhist Channel