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A recently released report from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago shows which countries have the most, and the least, belief in God by population percentage. The Philippines, a predominantly Catholic nation, was found to have the highest percentage (84 percent) of people who "know God really exists and ... have no doubts about it," and the lowest percentage (less than one percent) of people who said they "don't believe in God" at all. The report, titled "Beliefs about God across Time and Countries," analyzes 30 countries based on surveys from the International Social Survey Programme...

This is a video.

Rep. Michele Bachman officially threw her hat into the presidential ring on June 27. Since then, the Minnesota congresswoman has emerged as a Republican front-runner, riding on a wave of Tea Party support and national media appearances. New Yorker Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza spent four days with Bachmann and her staff aboard their campaign jet in mid-June. On Tuesday's Fresh Air, he talks about his unprecedented access to the congresswoman, whom he profiles in the Aug. 15, 2011, edition of The New Yorker. The piece looks at the writers, beliefs and books that Bachmann has specifically mentioned as major influences...

Despite the binary title, Science vs. Religion is about the need for greater nuance, informed communication, and mutual understanding within the complicated intertwining spaces of religious belief and scientific research. Using social science research methods, Ecklund aims to map the contours of religious belief and spirituality in the lives and minds of natural and social scientists at 21 elite research universities in the United States. Her research included 1,700 web and phone surveys and 275 personal interviews (and the survey instruments are included in the book). One of the dominant themes that emerges from this primary research is the extraordinary...

Caution! The experiment I’m about to explain might increase your belief in God. It should only be attempted by academics who are immune to such deleterious effects. Got a pair of dice? Before you throw them, guess what numbers will show. Obviously, what will happen is random, you have no control over the dice, and chances are you will guess wrongly. This is bad news. Because when you experience the dice’s randomness, you now are more likely to believe in God. Even worse, you might even toss your copy of The Descent of Man into the bin! The result of...

Fifty years ago, in the midst of his presidential campaign against Richard Nixon, Sen. John F. Kennedy gave a speech to ease voters' concerns about his Catholic faith. Speaking in Houston, Kennedy emphasized that Article VI of the Constitution maintains that no "religious test" may keep a candidate from aspiring to political office. He went further, implying that his Catholicism should be off limits to public scrutiny. To treat a politician's religious beliefs as politically relevant was an affront to America's noblest civic traditions, he declared.

Jesse Bering's mother died of cancer on a Sunday, in her own bed, at 9 o'clock at night. Bering and his siblings closed her door and went downstairs, hoping they might somehow get some sleep. It was a long, hard night, but around 7 a.m., something happened: The wind chimes outside his mother's window started to chime. Bering remembers waking to the tinkle of these bells, a small but distinct sound in an otherwise silent house. And he remembers thinking that those bells carried a very specific message. "It seemed to me ... that she was somehow telling us that...

A few months ago, football's New York Jets willingly accommodated Jewish fans by moving their home opener from the evening to the early afternoon of the same day. That evening - Yom Kippur - would have presumably found thousands of the Jets faithful in synagogue and not at the Meadowlands or glued to their television sets. This altruistic act - moving the game out of prime time - speaks volumes about the Jets' sensitivity to Jewish sensibilities (perhaps it even propelled them to a successful season), to the influence of politicians and civic leaders to cause a commotion over trivialities,...

It is foolish to take inflexible stands on positions of dubious merit. I don’t know whether the Earth is warming, cooling, doing both, or doing neither. Nor, if it is doing one of the first three, do I know whether or to what extent it is caused by changeable human behavior or, if so, what if anything can or should be done about it. The law of unintended consequences suggests that any cure may be worse than the disease, if both the disease and a cure for it actually exist. If the disease does not exist, the results are likely...

WASHINGTON – Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, even as the U.S. and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change. In a poll of 1,500 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, released Thursday, the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that...

A quizola to match your religious beliefs to your most comfortable religious expression.

What is the moral foundation of your economic beliefs? Do economic beliefs even require a moral foundation? Do you find it natural to accept the varied religious beliefs of others even if they contradict your own? On the other hand, are you often at odds with people who espouse different economic beliefs and policies? Why, especially if the former forms the foundation for the latter? Would you ever use the ballot box to force others to practice your religion or make them pay to build you a church? Why do you find it easy to do this with your economic...

Section III - Religion and Science Despite recent controversies over issues at the intersection of religion and science, such as evolution and stem cell research, there is broad agreement that scientific advances help mankind. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) take a positive view of scientific advances; just 19% say they harm mankind. Solid majorities in every major religious group say that scientific advances help rather than harm mankind. The view that science is helping mankind varies from 63% among mainline Protestants to 72% among white Catholics. But the issue of evolution and the origins of life remains highly divisive. Specifically,...

I'm a dyed in the wool baseball fan and watch a game on TV almost every day. I've noticed that many players, while on the field, cross themselves or point to heaven before and/or after their appearances. It appears to me that this is predominantly a habit with African-Americans and those from Spanish-speaking countries. While white players frequently display crosses around their necks, they seem less apt to signify their faith to other players or to the crowd. Has anyone an opinion on my observation.

“Most people are religious because they’re raised to be. They’re indoctrinated by their parents.” So goes the rationale of my nonreligious friends. Maybe, but a study entitled “Faith in Flux” issued this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life questioned nearly 3,000 people and found that most children raised unaffiliated with a religion later chose to join one. Indoctrination be damned. By contrast, only 14 percent of those raised Catholic and 13 percent of those raised Protestant later became unaffiliated. (It should be noted that about a quarter of the unaffiliated identified as atheist or agnostic, and...

It started out as the dream job for a passionate Christian -- reporting about religion for a major newspaper. But writing about other people's religions ended up costing William Lobdell his own. The former Los Angeles Times reporter chronicled his soul-wrenching, emotion-laden journey in the recently released book "Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America -- and Found Unexpected Peace," published by Harper Collins. Lobdell's spiritual journey led him from an uninspired Protestant childhood to agnosticism before he attended a weekend Christian men's retreat where he was "born again." Concerned with what he considered...

Immigration is a hot button political issue. But what is the theological take on immigration? That is the subject of M. Daniel Carroll Rodas’ lecture “Can You Hear Me Now? Ground Rules for a National Conversation on Immigration,” being presented at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Lincoln Berean Church, 6400 S. 70th St. The free lecture is part of The Worldview Lecture Series. “We all get a bit weary of hearing the political rhetoric from both the right and the left on the issue of immigration,” said Mark Mathewson, academic dean at the Christian Leadership College, which is hosting the...

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We believe in God - plus miracles, heaven, the devil and UFOs - but not Darwin so much. It must be true. A poll says so!

Following hard after God My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. Ps. 63:8 Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which briefly stated means this, that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man. Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow. We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put...

Now this is sad. "Toupie" is a serialized French picture-book ("for ages two through four"), of which I came upon a ten-year-old Christmas-themed issue. One of the vignettes (click here and here) shows a living-room scene with the kitten Pikou cozily enjoying Christmas Eve with Momma and Poppa cat. The following dialogue takes place: -- Why have Grandma and Grandpa gone out tonight? asked Pikou. -- Grandma and Grandpa go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. -- Why don't we go with them, Momma? -- Because I don't share their religion, said Momma. -- What? There's more than one...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Supreme Court's most recent term was a difficult one, Justice Stephen Breyer said Saturday, because he found himself on the losing end of several key cases. "I was in dissent quite a lot and I wasn't happy," Breyer said at the American Bar Association's annual meeting. Breyer was one of four liberal justices who dissented in cases involving abortion rights, school integration and pay discrimination. In the school case, in which the court struck down student assignment plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, his frustration bubbled over in a lengthy dissent that was twice as long...

...This is different from the scientific assault on religion that has been garnering attention recently, in the form of best-selling books from scientific atheists who see religion as a scourge. In “The God Delusion,” published last year and still on best-seller lists, the Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins concludes that religion is nothing more than a useless, and sometimes dangerous, evolutionary accident. “Religious behavior may be a misfiring, an unfortunate byproduct of an underlying psychological propensity which in other circumstances is, or once was, useful,” Dawkins wrote. He is joined by two other best-selling authors — Sam Harris, who wrote...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

The Republican Party must get Back to Basics By Michael Zak Friday, January 12, 2007 As the Republican Party tries to recover from crushing defeat in the mid-term elections, a little historical perspective is in order. Halfway through his second term, an unpopular Republican president saw his party lose its majority in the House of Representatives, ending more than a decade of congressional control, and Republicans wondered why they had lost the “fire in the belly” of just a few years before. I’m referring to President Ulysses Grant and the mid-term elections of 1874. That year, the Republican share of...

On most tours through the blogsphere, a stop by Ann Althouse’s Blog is well worth the mouse-click. She often thinks freely, unfreighted with dogmatic twaddle, and presents the events of the day in an interesting and enlightened perspective that dwarfs the mediocre and mendacious interpretations of them offered up by the likes of The Associated Press. One of her recent posts, however, touched off a firestorm. She compared a group of strongly committed Conservatives and Libertarians to the 9-11 hijackers. I initially chalked the whole thing up as an over the top metaphor and took no real offense. I myself,...

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. St. Augustine of Hippo Sermons?

(CBS) A new CBS News poll shows that almost all Americans believe in God or some higher power and more than half pray often and consider religion an important component of their daily lives. Eighty-two percent of poll respondents said they believe in God, with nine percent saying they had faith in some sort of higher power or spirit. Doubt about the existence of God was highest in the "young" demographic as well that of political independents, those living in the West, people who live in big cities and men. Fifty-nine percent of Americans indicated that they pray often and...

  Digital RulesPredicting the Future: Part IIRich Karlgaard, 02.13.06 I graduated from college in 1976. That was 30 years ago, the same 30-year gap experienced by Marty McFly in the movie Back To the Future (see Jan. 30, p. 33). Let's fire up Doc Brown's DeLorean time-traveler and return to 1976. But would we really want to go? We'd be reminded that the prevailing view of the world in 1976 was: • The planet was severely overpopulated and would soon run out of natural resources. • The age of entrepreneurship was dead and was being replaced by the conglomerated...

(I received the following in an email and thought some here might enjoy reading this timely little story) "There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.....

Quito, Nov 4 (EFE).- Hundreds of Ecuadorians are visiting an area in the southern province of Loja where people say an image of Christ's face is visible on the trunk of a tree. The face was first seen on Oct. 19, and since then hundreds of people have visited the site, located in the village of Zamora Guayco. The Catholic Church has asked several priests to examine the tree trunk privately, the TV channel said. Most of Ecuador's 12.5 million people are Catholic. The face on the tree trunk has aroused much interest and drawn increasingly large crowds to the...

  by Thomas J. Nash Other Articles by Thomas J. Nash Worthy Is the Lamb? 08/16/05 Even among animals, a lamb is not a likely “leading man” for a Hollywood action-adventure. Mighty Mouse or Underdog could save the day, but not a lamb; lambs are known for needing help in times of trouble. Recall the wandering lamb that had to be rescued (Mt 18:12-13), or other lambs that needed protection from a menacing wolf (Jn 10:11-12). In This Article...An Untimely and Humiliating DeathFollow the LeaderThe Lambs Win in the End An Untimely and Humiliating Death What was God thinking when He...

When I was a boy, my parents used to enjoy a comedian named Ronnie Graham. One of his jokes was, "The other day a cat came up to me and said, 'How do I get to Carnegie Hall?' and I said 'Practice, man, practice.' This other cat came up to me and said, 'Meow.' He was a real cat." We talk a lot in our movement about spiritual practices. I am a Religious Science Practitioner; the root word of Practitioner is practice. But why do we practice? Ernest Holmes said that a central concept of our movement is "Perfect God,...

Here's remarkable statement by U2 lead singer, Bono, in which he discusses the difference between Karma and Grace in his new book Bono on Conversion. It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma. . . . You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in...

David Aikman's recent book, A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush, highlights the pivotal role religious faith plays in George W. Bush's life and presidency. The book chronicles Bush's slow ascendancy to his faith, taking note of the key people and seminal events that helped shape his Christian worldview. Aikman, a former senior correspondent for Time magazine, is an open Christian who is sympathetic to Bush's core religious principles. Aikman's work is the second one that touches on Bush's faith. Stephen Mansfield wrote the first, The Faith of George W. Bush, which was released last year,...

On Sunday they packed 'em in -- a circumstance you wouldn't have noted for some long while in English churches, which, like European churches in general, seem to resound mainly with historic echoes. But there was praying to be done, and it seemed to the English people meet, right and their bounden duty -- as the Book of Common Prayer would have it -- to lay their sorrows and perplexities before the Lord. And so, three days after the explosions and screams that scarred a London morning, something like the old European civilization popped back into view. I didn't say...

The column I've written over the past year that attracted the most reader response was one last December about Peter Singer, the Princeton professor of ethics who sees no ethical problem with polyamory, bestiality, necrophilia or some kinds of infanticide. Readers frequently asked questions concerning past and future: How did the individual called by The New Yorker today's "most influential" philosopher develop such beastly positions, and how should conservatives fight his influence? First, the past: Although Singer would like to think that his conclusions are the result of pure intellectual labor, his family history is worth noting. He and President...

A number of years ago I discovered a root cause of America's culture war. It came to me as I debated professor Alan Dershowitz about issues of Jewish concern before a 1,000 Jews at the 92nd Street "Y" in New York City. With the exception of support for Israel, Dershowitz, a Harvard liberal, and I agreed on nothing, political or religious. Toward the end of the evening I came to understand why. "Ladies and gentlemen," I announced, "the major difference between Alan Dershowitz and me is this: When professor Dershowitz differs with the Torah, he assumes that he is right...

It is of much relief to me to see not one single name in the list posted here belonging to a leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormons. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We firmly believe our leaders receive revelation directly from the Lord Jesus Christ and it is through revelation that our church began. We consider our church to be a restoration of the truths and blessings that were lost during the great apostasy that occurred after the apostles and prophets were killed...

As one who is not a Roman Catholic and for the first four decades of life viewed Catholicism with a jaundiced eye, this writer mourns the death of Pope John Paul II. It wasn't until a midlife crisis that the writer ever looked at religion beyond his conservative Methodist roots. He knew little about them except that other religions existed, and that included Roman Catholicism. In fact, he held many of the same views that condemn Catholics as Pope, statue and Mary worshippers, even toying with the notion, that far from being Jesus' representative with a lineage that began with...

Stone Buddhas and the Ten Commandments: Icons or Idols?   An OrthoVox Exclusive by Sheila Enstine     An icon is a flawed representation of the real thing.  An idol, on the other hand, attempts to replace the real thing.  As author Madeleine L’Engle explains, an idol is an icon of which we have false expectations.   If Afghanistan’s now-defunct Taliban government is any indication, L’Engle’s distinction is too fragile for some people to grasp. Consider the plight of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Since the fifth century, these two massive statues placidly watched over the southern-most route of the...

I imagine more than a few people will never forgive God for the recent Tsunami. Today I went on Google and typed in, "Why did God allow the tsunami to happen?" The search engine found 108,000 web entries on the subject. Yeah, people are wondering. Just like they wondered why God did nothing to stop the Holocast. Before that, the First World War. Many turned away from God after each of these tragedies. And it's not surprising. When criminals in our society commit gross crimes of willful murder, we execute them. Many people, putting two and two together, figure an...

Im a conservative...and still struggle with the idea of whether or not to be a Christian. I find more in common with Ayn Rand's view that "rational thinking" is man's only absolute. Is there anything wrong with this thinking?

I am a lifelong skeptic. I am also a Christian believer. Skeptics Club is aimed at those who are by inclination the former but who would like, if possible, to be the latter as well. Some otherwise sophisticated believers seem unable to understand skepticism. If they can't, that's okay. Yet I believe many people can only come to faith by exploring their doubts. As for me, most faith claims strike me as dubious, at least at first, before I've had a chance to investigate them. Fair warning: This site is designed for true skeptics who are nonetheless exploring faith. None...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A watchdog group has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family broke the law by trying to sway voters in the November presidential election. Citizens Project, a group that has monitored Focus and other religious organizations since 1992, is taking issue with an article in the Citizen, a magazine printed by Focus. The November article, "The 2004 Election: What's At Stake," compares presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry and their positions on abortion, stem-cell research and same-sex marriage. "You're pro-life, and you want to preserve...

America was not founded on the concept of a "wall of separation between church and state," it was founded upon pluralism. The "wall of separation" phrase does not appear in any of our founding documents; it is taken from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. To base our laws on the correspondence of Jefferson, rather than the Constitution ratified by representatives of each of the original " united states ," is in direct opposition to our system of representative government. Jefferson was a brilliant man, but he also favored slavery and was fanatical about macaroni and cheese. However, slavery was...

For those bad-news-from-Iraq-only information consumers, stop reading here. There have been several recent developments out of Iraq that should give some comfort to those who believe that Arabs and Muslims are capable of embracing democracy. There have been military victories in Iraq, a debt relief agreement for the country has been hammered out, and Iraq’s independent electoral commission has set a firm date for elections. First Najaf was cleaned up, then Sadr City, then Fallujah, then Mosul… Yes, Iraq’s “insurgency” won’t go away overnight, but it is certainly getting harder and harder for the “militants” – they’re either dead or...

I am sorry this country is red states and blue states, the message to me read. I am sorry conservatives see liberals as the cause of all that is evil and wrong with America. I am sorry that liberals see conservatives as the cause of all that is evil and wrong with America. I don’t know if Bush or Kerry will be able to heal this awful divide. I know I’m sick of it. I had to agree. I’m sick of it, too. Politics, that is. For the record: I don't think liberals are evil, nor do I think...

MOSCOW. Sept 19 (Interfax) - Every fifth Russian believes that Democrat John Kerry's victory in the next U.S. presidential election would benefit Russia more than the success of any other candidate, and 13% of Russians would like George W. Bush to be re-elected, pollsters said. Fourteen percent of those questioned in an August survey said Kerry and Bush stood practically equal chances of winning, the ROMIR Monitoring group said. ROMIR said 33% of Russians did not expect any of the candidates' victory to be in Russia's interest and that 20% were undecided. ROMIR said a substantial proportion of Russia's population...

I spoke to God the other day and it went something like this. Me: Why is it that people have such a difficult time accepting or even believing in you? God: Are you saying you have perfect faith in me? Me: Well, no, but what does that have to do with my question? God: You, who are receptive to things that are spiritual, have your limits as to what you'll trust me with. Me: I understand, but I'm not talking about issues of tithing or even whether or not I should share my faith (witness) with someone - I'm talking...