Interesting post FW, and your last paragraph especially caught my eye, "Despite the relative 'tat' that is often left behind these days I don't think that this should be seen as a drop in faith, though. It's just people's values have changed."

I don't want to bore folk with something that might be drifting too far away from our shared European traditions but I once lived in a country where, what we might loosely call 'paganism' is still very much alive. People on their way to the shops for example will still stop at an old tree, put their hands together and bow in silence for a few seconds before moving on. The fastest trains in the country have a little shrine in them; no business undertaking is entered into without the blessing of the gods, and there are few large buildings where, if you go up on the roof, you will not find a little wooden shrine to the local spirit.

Shrines big and small all over the country are visited by millions of people every day and prayers or thanks are written on pieces of paper which are then folded and tied to the branches of trees. Monetary gifts, big and small, are also made at these shrines, the pilgrim throwing money into a collection box before vigorously shaking a gong to attract the god's attention, then clapping his hands twice before bowing for a few minutes. The country I refer to is Japan, and the religion is Shinto. The core of Shinto belief is very close to how many of us would define 'paganism' but Shinto was never suppressed and never went underground as did European paganism. Buddhism and Shinto have succeeded in coexisting and, though it's a bit of a simplification, the former is generally seen to be concerned with matters of the afterlife while the latter with matters of this life (funeral ceremonies for example are generally Buddhist while marriages are Shinto). Many Japanese homes will have both a Buddhist alter and a Shinto shrine, usually placed discretely in different rooms but afforded the same respect.

So, to go back to your observation that people's values have changed; it's a tricky one. Maybe values <i>have</i> changed but on the other hand, if people's hopes and fears are more or less the same as they've always been, maybe the difference is that some of us now put our trust (faith) in other things - in medicines for example rather than in sacred well water. Perhaps it's only when hope and the medicines fail do we fall back on whatever else is available (faith/religion). Then again (as with the Japanese) perhaps some just like to keep their feet in both camps :-)