Q&A: Why we studied American sermons and how we did it
Dennis Quinn, computational social scientist, explains how our analysis of sermons came together and the challenges that arise when religion meets big data.
This study is based on an analysis of 49,719 sermons, delivered between April 7 and June 1, 2019, and collected from the websites of 6,431 churches found via the Google Places application programming interface (API), a tool that provides information about establishments, geographic locations or points of interest listed on Google Maps. Pew Research Center […]
A majority of U.S. adults think religious leaders have high or very high ethical standards (65%). And among those who attend religious services at least a few times a year, an even larger share have similarly positive ratings about the ethical behavior of the clergy at their congregation (88%). The survey also finds that a […]
A large majority of Americans feel that religion is losing influence in public life, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey.
Before you read the report Test your religious knowledge by taking an interactive quiz. The short quiz includes some questions recently asked in the nationally representative survey that forms the basis of this report. After completing the quiz, you can see how you did in comparison with the general public and with people like yourself. […]
Based on religious affiliation (or lack thereof), the groups that display the highest levels of religious knowledge on this survey include Jews (who get an average of 18.7 out of 32 questions correct), self-described atheists (17.9) and self-described agnostics (17.0). Looked at another way, seven-in-ten Jewish respondents (69%) answer at least half of the questions […]
Over the decade from 2007 to 2017, government restrictions on religion – laws, policies and actions by state officials that restrict religious beliefs and practices – increased markedly around the world.
In recent years, the percentage of U.S. adults who say they regularly attend religious services has been declining, while the share of Americans who attend only a few times a year, seldom or never has been growing. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that the main reason people regularly go to church, synagogue, mosque […]