“Until the late nineteenth century the question of woman’s ability to profit from or even survive higher education was controversial. Vassar College opened in 1865 was often described by its first president as an experiment.… as late as 1871 an MD at Harvard Medical School published a book on the dangers of higher education for girls, he doubted the achievement was worth the cost from their psyche and procreative powers.”

From: Carl N Degler, In Search of Human Nature, Oxford University Press 1991

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Extinction is the wrong word to describe what’s happening in these nations. Biological extinction means a life form completely disappears.

The census-takers asked people whether they were religious, belonged to a religion or believed in specific truth claims about divinity. Their results show that traditional religion commitments are rapidly weakening in these lands.

Had the census-takers asked, “Do you pray,” it’s likely that most of the respondents would have answered, “Yes, sometimes I pray.”

Mississippi River Disappears

One is reminded of Mark Twain’s excellent memoir, “Life on the Mississippi.” Concerning the science of the river, he writes: “In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles.

“Therefore,” he continues, “any calm person … can see that … just a million years ago … the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long. … And by the same token … that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long …”

People Are Praying

“Magma is capable of intrusion into adjacent rocks, extrusion onto the surface as lava, and explosive ejection as tephra to form pyroclastic rock.”

Prayer is the magma of religion. It emanates from our core. It may intrude into our lives at any time. As long as people are praying, religion isn’t facing extinction.

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