It All Begins Here

In a book called “Entertaining Angels,” the author cites a survey conducted by a major advertising agency. According to the report (entitled “Fears and Fantasies of the American Consumer”), about seventy-five percent of Americans have daydreamed about saving someone else’s life, and fully one-third of the population has daydreamed about finding a cure for cancer. But when it came to the question, “What is the greatest pleasure in life,” the most popular answer was, “Watching television.” Television topped the list. We would love to be good, it seems, just as long as it doesn’t inconvenience us. It’s one thing to dream about being good, and another to be good for something.

A few years ago, the pollster George Gallup was asked to comment on what his polls were saying about “the correct state of religion in America.” He said, in part …

The two major trends really are a search for depth in our society — people seeking spiritual moorings — and the search…