Here are some of the figures from the latest Newsweek poll, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International on March 28-29, 2007. According to the poll, which questioned American adults aged 18 and older on political and religious beliefs, 9 in 10 American adults believe in God.

Here are some of the other results from the poll.

Of the 1,004 American adults surveyed:

• 91% believe in God
• 87% identify with a specific religion
• 82% identify themselves as Christians (5% say they follow a non-Christian faith, such as Judaism or Islam)
• 48% reject the scientific theory of evolution
• 34% of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact
• 10% identify themselves as having “no religion”
• 6% said they don’t believe in a God at all

The “believe in God” number seems low to me compared to other polls I have seen in the past, and the “do not believe in God” number seems high. And although it may be nice for 82% of American adults to identify themselves as Christians, if 82% of all American adults truly followed Christ, I think we would see a very different moral climate in our country. You can read the actual poll questions here.

Tomorrow is April Fools’ Day. (Honest – no fooling!) Here are a couple links to the best April Fools’ Day jokes of all time.

• Top 100 April Fools’ Day Hoaxes Of All Time
• April Fools’ Day Pranks at Family Fun
• Family Fun’s Top Ten
• April Fool Zone

And just to balance things out:

• Top 10 Worst April Fools’ Day Hoaxes Ever

Have you ever played a favorite April Fools’ Day joke … or had one backfire?

Related posts:

• ¡¡¡ʎɐp slooɟ lıɹdɐ ʎddɐɥ
• Don’t Be an April Fool!

(This is from a series of posts on the Iron Sharpens Iron Men’s Conference in Hartford, CT on March 24, 2007. To view the whole series, click here.)

Here are some interesting statistics that were scattered throughout the 2007 Conference Program:

Two are Better than One – So Some Believe
Did you know that more fathers than mothers believe that two parents are more effective at raising children than one parent alone? Forty-four percent of mothers believe one parent is sufficient while only 25% of fathers hold that belief.
- ChildTrends, Washington DC June 6, 2006

The Explosion of Internet Pornography
    2.5 billion daily pornographic emails (8% of all emails)
    1.5 billion daily pornographic downloads (35% of all downloads)
    68 million daily pornographic search engine requests (25% of all requests)
- Pornography Statistics 2003. Family Safe Media. www.familysafemedia.com, 2003

Dads Make a Difference
Mother attends church regularly. Father does not attend church at all.
    2% of their children will end up attending church regularly
    37% of their children will end up attending church irregularly
    60% of their children will end up not attending at all

Father attends church regularly. Mother does not attend church at all.
    44% of their children will end up attending church regularly
    22% of their children will end up attending church irregularly
    34% of their children will end up not attending at all
- Center for Christ and Culture, Dallas, TX June 2006

Oops – What Happened?
Christians can be generous – but does it depend on the year? The percentage of U.S. born-again adults who tithed was 12 percent in 2000, 14% in 2001, and 6% in 2002.
- George Barna, to Generous Giving, Chattanooga, Tenn., June 12, 2004)

I have been praying along with Operation World’s Daily Prayer Guide for a couple weeks now. This is a new discipline for me, and I keep missing some days here and there, but at least I am praying more than I was before!

This week I have been praying for China. China is such a huge country that Operation World breaks it down according to provinces and spreads the whole country out over a two week period (March 24-April 5).

With China on my mind, I have found myself singing the Randy Stonehill song by that name throughout the week. It is a beautiful song, almost a prayer for China in itself. Here are the lyrics:

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(This is from a series of posts on the Iron Sharpens Iron Men’s Conference in Hartford, CT on March 24, 2007. To view the whole series, click here.)

Here is a brief summary of Bob Lepine’s keynote address at the conference.

The theme of Bob’s address was “Don’t Quit!” Bob began his address by telling us about Troy, a soldier who was killed in active duty while serving in Afghanistan. Troy was part of the Night Stalkers, a group of elite Special Operations Soldiers of the United States.

Bob recited for us the Night Stalker Creed, which speaks in bold and defiant terms of the Night Stalker’s complete dedication and loyalty to his country and his team. The Creed ends with these words: Night Stalkers Don’t Quit! “The Lord knows the way I take, and when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)

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. . . would not be a sequel.

Movie sequels are big business these days. Here are three big sequels coming to the big screen in the not-so-near future.

• Indiana Jones 4 (May 2008)
• Star Trek 11 (December 2008)
• Toy Story 3 (2010!)

As a long-time Star Trek fan, I am especially intrigued by news of the Star Trek sequel. The storyline is supposed to back up to the early days of Kirk and Spock right out of the academy. There are rumors that Matt Damon may play Kirk. Anybody have casting suggestions for Kirk, Spock or McCoy?

My wife, Rose, lives in a house full of men. So, when I saw this article, The Daughter I Never Had, I immediately thought of her. Honestly, I don’t know how she puts up with us at times. Even one of our dogs is a boy.

Of course, I would love to have a daughter. But I would not trade our family of three boys. Neither would Rose. Our family of all boys is full of high energy, lots of laughter, lots of Star Wars, lots of competition, lots of fun.

There is something special about every family – whether it is all boys, all girls, one child, or any mixture of the two. As someone once said to me when Rose was expecting, “It doesn’t matter if it is a boy or a girl, as long as it’s wealthy!”

What is your family like? Do you have any thoughts on the makeup of different families?

My 13-year old showed me this the other night:

“The following statement is true / The preceding statement is false.”

(Don’t spend too much time on this one. It is really not that important.)

Click here for more Random Thoughts.

(This is from a series of posts on the Iron Sharpens Iron Men’s Conference in Hartford, CT on March 24, 2007. To view the whole series, click here.)

Here is a brief summary of Hugh Ross’ afternoon seminar called “Creation as Science.”

Hugh spoke about the testable creation model that he and the people at Reasons To Believe have been working on developing. He explained the Anthropic Principle – how everything in the universe tends toward man, toward making life possible on earth and sustaining it. He described the fine-tuning of the universe and how human life on earth can only exist within finely-tuned parameters. Forty years ago astronomers could only identify a few of these characteristics, but by the year 2001 they had identified more than 150 finely-tuned characteristics necessary for life. These findings reduce the odds that any given planet in the universe would possess the necessary conditions to support intelligent physical life to less than one in 10¹⁷³.

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(This is from a series of posts on the Iron Sharpens Iron Men’s Conference in Hartford, CT on March 24, 2007. To view the whole series, click here.)

Here is a brief summary of George Sarris’ morning seminar called “Impacting the Culture – Changing the World.”

George shared one of the best presentations I have heard on wisely interacting with non-believers within the culture in order to make a difference for Christ. He shared from Proverbs 21:22 how God wants believers to impact the culture with the truth of God’s Word rather than retreat in a defensive posture.

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Speedy delivery. This husband helped deliver his wife’s baby in the car while simultaneously driving 100 mph to the hospital.

Super-size me. McDonald’s is currently testing its new Angus Third Pounder in California markets. This is McD’s biggest burger yet with 50% more calories than a Big Mac.

Grizzly news. Grizzly bears at Yellowstone Park have made a comeback and will no longer be listed as a threatened species. Must be all those picnic baskets Yogi and his pals raided over the last thirty years.

Randy Ingermason, who has a PH.D in physics from U.C. Berkley, has put together a fun set of statistics relating to the Jesus Family Tomb. In his March 26, 2007 article here, he introduces the reader to Bayes’ Theorum and at the same time gives you a crash course in statistical analysis.

What’s fun about Ingermason’s article is that he not only gives you five different possible scenarios (click on “Continue reading …” below), but he also gives you a downloadable Excel spreadsheet so that you can run the numbers yourself. How likely is it that the tomb at Talpiot is really the Lost Tomb of Jesus? You do the math!

HT: Dr. Darrell Bock at Bock’s Blog (Dr. Bock has multiple posts at his blog relating to the Jesus Tomb, including email exchanges with Jim Tabor, the biblical scholar and historical consultant on the Lost Family Tomb Documentary.)

Note: For more information on this blog about the Jesus Family Tomb, see the following articles:

• The Lost Tomb Losing More Ground
• How to Ensure Bias in a Presentation
• The Rabbi, the Historian and the Resurrection

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