Religion

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 […]

National Press Club Washington, D.C. In late September 2005, Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District et al. went to trial in federal district court in Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs challenged the decision of the Dover School Board requiring that public schools teach that intelligent design is an alternative theory to evolution. The plaintiffs alleged […]

Summary of Findings Both major political parties have a problem with their approach toward religion, in the eyes of many Americans. More than four-in-ten say that liberals who are not religious have too much control over the Democratic Party, while an almost identical percentage says that religious conservatives have too much influence over the Republican […]

Religion A Strength And Weakness For Both Parties Navigate this Report Executive Summary Contrasting Party Images: The Political Parties and Religion Evolution & Creationism Religion & Politics Promoting Democracy Support for Israel Religion & Mideast Views Faith-Based Aid Gays in the Military Other Issues Executive Summary Both major political parties have a problem with their […]

Summary of Findings Abortion has dominated the early skirmishing over President Bush’s nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court. But the public takes a more expansive view of the court’s agenda. Indeed, about as many Americans rate the rights of detained terrorist suspects as a very important issue for the Supreme Court as say […]

On June 27, 2005, the Supreme Court issued sharply divided decisions in two cases involving constitutional challenges to government-sponsored displays of the Ten Commandments. In McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky (03-1693), a 5-4 majority held that two Kentucky counties had “predominantly religious” purposes in posting the Ten Commandments in their courthouses, […]

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 […]

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 encourage violence. The […]

A look at internet and cell phone penetration data shows that: a) older Americans are more likely to have cell phones than internet connections, and: b) African Americans are more likely to have cell phones than internet connections.

Concerns over Islamic extremism, extensive in the West even before this month’s terrorist attacks in London, are shared to a considerable degree by the publics in several predominantly Muslim nations surveyed.