Future of Religion in Canada

Marta, at the conference, I met a young Canadian woman who immigrated to Canada from the Middle East.  She lives in Windsor, Ontario, and has a MBA from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  She is a wonderful person.  I plan to explore how she and I can co-author a book on the future of religion in Canada.  I studied at the U of Toronto with the greatest historian of religion in Canada, ever, John S. Moir as part of my M.A. from there.  He died last year.  When I last saw him he asked me to do this study for him.  Out of loyalty I plan to do it.  Right now, I want to use the mind mapping approach to conduct depth interviews with expert people.  Having a devout Muslim woman on the team would enhance the objectivity and credibility of the study.  Our 1.5 hour session at the Chicago World Future Society Conference 2013 came away with this trend.  As the economy worsens, which it will in this country for sure, people more and more will turn to religion for solace, comfort.  They will give up on the false gods of money, politics, materialism and return to what is "authentic."  If however the USA embarks on a war against Iran we can also expect the emergence of fundamentalism and hostility between Christians and Muslims.  In fact, one of the mind maps at the conference centered on War with Iran in 2018!   Is this probable?  Is it possible?  It most surely, probability there, would lead to fundamentalist backlashes in both Christian and Muslim communities, sadly. There, you have a concise summary of what emerged at the conference.  I hope we have sense enough to stop wars and seek common ground on core values, since both Muslims and Christians - and Jews - share the Old Testament in common.  The Prophet called these three religions "People of the Book" and called for Muslims to treat the "People of the Book" with exceptional kindness, concern, and "family" - like love.  It is amazing how oil politics distorts and ignores core teachings. 

Brazil and Canada and USA

Marta, the panel on the future of Latin America was stunning at the WFS conference in Chicago over the weekend.  At the workshop was a past President (three times elected) of the Dominican Republic!  I had an exciting visit with him.  Here is an example of what the panel presented.  Brazil purchases more from the USA right now than all of Europe combined!  And we are busy jabbering about Europe in our mass media with hardly a word about Brazil!