Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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The United States remains a highly religious nation. A large majority of Americans say they belong to a particular faith, and similarly large numbers express agreement with statements about key religious beliefs and behaviors. There have been only modest changes in the level of agreement with these statements over the past decade. About eight-in-ten (83%) […]
Two experts — a geneticist and a religion writer and correspondent — discuss why they believe the current perceived conflict between evolution and faith is unnecessary and destructive.
In an ongoing series of occasional reports, “Religion and the Courts: The Pillars of Church-State Law,” the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life explores the complex, fluid relationship between government and religion. Among the issues to be examined are religion in public schools, displays of religious symbols on public property, conflicts concerning the free […]
Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in May 2009 for the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Francis S. Collins, the former director of the Human Genome Project, discussed why he believes religion and science are compatible and why the […]
Before the American Revolution, most of the original colonies used tax dollars to support religious activity. Indeed, several colonies chose a single church as their officially established religion, and these churches enjoyed many privileges not extended to other religious groups. For instance, the Anglican Church enjoyed government support in some of the Southern colonies, while […]
Two issues on which there is widespread agreement among scientists – evolution and climate change – divide the general public. Not only do many Americans diverge from the dominant scientific positions in their own attitudes and beliefs, but many also believe that the scientific community itself is divided over these issues. While education levels matter […]
On June 17-19, hundreds of Hispanic evangelical church leaders will participate in the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, finds that Hispanic evangelicals, like other evangelicals, are more likely to pray every day than the population overall. […]
As Obama’s faith-based office illustrates, changes in presidents and political parties may change the character of church-state partnerships. But the effects of these changes are limited because the executive and legislative branches are obligated to respect the appropriate constitutional limitations, which are determined by courts. It is difficult to predict precisely how the appointments of […]