Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Religion & Politics

  • fact sheet

    From Darwin to Dover: An Overview of Important Cases in the Evolution Debate

    Almost 150 years after Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking theory on the origins of life, Americans are still fighting over evolution. If anything, the controversy is growing in both size and intensity. Recent polls indicate that challenges to Darwinian evolution have substantial support among the American people. According to a July 2005 survey sponsored by […]

  • report

    Views of Muslim-Americans Hold Steady After London Bombings

    Summary of Findings The July 7 terrorist bombings in London drew considerable public attention and raised fears of another attack in the United States, but these concerns do not translate into less favorable opinions of either Muslim-Americans or Islam. And compared with 2003, fewer now say that Islam is more likely than other religions to […]

  • transcript

    Myths of the Modern Megachurch

    Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in May 2005 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker Rick Warren, pastor of the largest church in America, addressed misconceptions many Americans have about mega-churches. He also discussed his best-selling book, […]

  • transcript

    Islam and Democratization in the Middle East

    Los Angeles, California The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pacific Council on International Policy co-hosted a meeting on “Islam and Democratization in the Middle East” on April 27, 2005, at the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles. The roundtable featured one of Egypt’s foremost human rights activists, Saad Eddin […]

  • transcript

    Secular Europe and Religious America: Implications for Transatlantic Relations

    Pew Research Center Washington, D.C. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Council on Foreign Relations co-hosted a luncheon roundtable entitled “Secular Europe and Religious America: Implications for Transatlantic Relations” on April 21, 2005 at the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. According to a 2002 Pew Global Attitudes survey, there are […]

  • transcript

    A Monumental Decision: High Court Considers Constitutionality of Ten Commandments Displays on Public Property

    2:00-3:30pm National Press Club Washington, D.C. Download legal backgrounder on Ten Commandments cases (154K .pdf) On March 2, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two cases that concern the placement of Ten Commandments displays on public property. The commandments controversy came to national prominence in 2003, when the chief justice of the Alabama […]