Faith-based reality or reality-based faith?

Browsing Albert Mohler's Blog, I came across this great quote:

"The leading thinkers of the British and American Enlightenments hoped that life in a modern democratic order would shift the focus of Christianity from a faith-based reality to a reality-based faith..."

"American religion is moving in the opposite direction today, back toward the ecstatic, literalist and credulous spirit of the Great Awakenings. Its most disturbing manifestations are not political, at least not yet. They are cultural. The fascination with the ''end times,'' the belief in personal (and self-serving) miracles, the ignorance of basic science and history, the demonization of popular culture, the censoring of textbooks, the separatist instincts of the home-schooling movement -- all these developments are far more worrying in the long term than the loss of a few Congressional seats."

Church Meets State, Mark Lilla, New York Times, May 15, 2005

Dr Mohler does not approve: "Well, if those on the evangelical left have their way, he won't have to wait long."

Well, if we're all lucky...