Beliefs & Practices

A Pew Research Center survey of Israel provides a rare window into the religious beliefs and practices of this close-knit group.

For the National Day of Prayer, we rounded up survey data on Americans’ prayer habits, as well as historical instances of prayer intersecting with the government.

Jehovah’s Witnesses, who make up just less than 1% of U.S. adults, are known for their door-to-door proselytism. But members of this denomination, which has its origins in 19th-century America, are also unique in many other ways.

They come in several basic styles, with some more favored by particular Jewish subgroups than others.

Despite Pope Francis’ overwhelming popularity, few U.S. Catholics say they turn to the pope “a great deal” for guidance on difficult moral questions.

About half of U.S. adults tell us they seldom (33%) or never (16%) talk about religion with people outside their family.

A new Pew Research Center study of the ways religion influences the daily lives of Americans finds that people who are highly religious are more engaged with their extended families, more likely to volunteer, more involved in their communities and generally happier with the way things are going in their lives.

Fifty years ago this month, Time magazine published one of its most famous and controversial covers. Splashed in bold red print across a black background was a short, simple and yet intensely provocative question: “Is God Dead?” Without providing a definitive answer, the authors of the piece, dated April 8, 1966, seemed to imply that, […]

After the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Israel’s largest wave of Jewish immigrants arrived from Russia and other former Soviet republics. These Soviet Jews brought a secular mindset to Israel, and more than two decades later, Jews who were born in the former Soviet Union continue to be noticeably less religious than Israeli Jews overall.

While Christian women are on the whole more religious than Christian men, Muslim women and Muslim men have similar levels of religious commitment. And when it comes to attendance at worship services, Muslim men are more active than Muslim women.