"There has been phenomenal advancement in spiritual concepts in the last 2,000 years...and even significant advancement in some of the mainline churches.
Slavery was once taken for granted, and religiously sanctioned. No more. Women have gained much greater equality in much of the World. There has been a great cross-pollination of religious/philosophical ideas between East and West, revitalizing and broadening people's spirituality. Fewer and fewer people really believe the Pope is (!) infallible (!) anymore. ;-)"

This is what I am referring to when I say religion needs to be diluted with rationality. But I think the "cross-pollinization" of religious ideas between East and West is anathema to the true believer, LH. What you are talking about is the gradual erosion of dogma, and dogma is the bread and butter of the fundamentalist, Christian, Muslim, or Jew. We have deep, extensive, and proveable evidence of billions of years of evolution on this planet, but you have a sizeable contingent of people in the US (and probably Canada) who insist that the earth is 4500 years old and dinosaur bones are the skeletons of fallen angels. People like this believe in these kinds of fantasies because it allows the history in the Bible to remain intact and literal. Are they going to accept a refreshing influx of teachings from the Q'uran? How's about a nice dose of Revelations for the Sunnis?
It's Dogma that I'm concerned about, son. And 2000 years later, there's still enough of it around to pose major obstacles to man's future existence.