Authors note: This is probably not the kind of post your used to reading.  This is not the kind of post I ever envisioned writing.  But the muse struck.  Please excuse me, while I honor the muses.  Think of this as a one act, one scene play.  Please don’t take the characters seriously.  I used them to present a problem, not be an answer.  I consider none superior to the other two.

Fundie, Libby, and Abbie are resting on a park bench, musing about the nature of Truth and God.  The conversation is hours old and the three are at that philosophical place where all are making their final claims.  Fundie starts…

Truth must be absolute.  Why do you think they call it the Truth?  God gave me the ability to conceptualize absolute truth and it is absurd to suggest that God’s gift be for nothing.  Plato was right, if absolute truth…

Christian Smith has written a follow-up to his widely praised book Soul Searching, a thorough and incisive treatment of religion among America’s youth. While I have not yet read his new work, Souls in Transition, Naomi Schaeffer Riley has, and she summarized it in last Monday’s Wall Street Journal.

Smith’s conclusion is that young people are becoming increasingly irreligious. “Only about 20% attend religious services at least once a week, a 22% decline from Mr. Smith’s survey, five years ago, of the same group of young people.” But paradoxically, young people still expect to maintain their religious habits–when they grow up. And that appears to be farther away for many young people than ever. While statistically, my generation is not so different than our parents, we will spend longer away from religion (and a longer time before we marry, have kids, and “settle down”) than they did. We want religion, but…