Doctors Mix Religion and Science A survey of religion in medicine found that most U.S. doctors believe in God and an afterlife, a surprising degree of spirituality to find in a science-based field, researchers say. In the survey of 1,044 doctors nationwide, 76 percent said they believe in God, 59 percent said they believe in some sort of afterlife, and 55 percent said their religious beliefs influence how they practice medicine, as reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.




When I Wish. . . It's About Me
If Americans could have their wildest dreams come true, 38% would choose to win the lottery; 1% would pick world peace. Source: Newsweek, January 3, 2005




Christians Best at Relationships, Worst in Bible Knowledge
Nine out of ten adults contend that their faith is very important to them, and three out of every four adults who consider themselves to be Christian say they would like to improve aspects of their faith life, according to a new national survey by The Barna Group.

Among adults who deem themselves to be Christian, almost half (48%) rated themselves above average in their ability to develop and maintain relationships, compared to only 5% who rated themselves below average.
By a five-to-one margin, adults were more likely to portray themselves as doing an above average job of "consistently living" their faith principles than to say they were below average on this factor.
The two aspects of spiritual life that people were most likely to acknowledge struggling with were "sharing your faith with others" (23% above average, 23% below average, with 53% average) and "Bible knowledge" (21% above average, 25% below average, 53% average).
The most pronounced pattern was that adults involved in either a house church or in some type of marketplace ministry consistently rated themselves as more mature in each of the faith dimensions than did people associated with a typical church.
Adults who attend small churches--i.e., those averaging fewer than 100 adults on a typical weekend--were more likely than people attending larger congregations to admit struggling with Bible knowledge and consistently practicing their faith principles.
Young adults--especially those under 30 years of age--were comparatively likely to describe themselves as missing the mark in relation to worship and Bible knowledge.

George Barna, who directed the research, says, "The data show that millions of people who are aligned with the Christian faith have not thought very much or very clearly about what spiritual maturity means. Perhaps the outcomes of the survey will encourage church leaders to help people not only prioritize their spiritual development, but also consider what spiritual transformation looks like in practical terms. The old adage tells us that 'you get what you measure,' and the survey revealed that most Christians don't measure much of anything beyond church attendance when it comes to their spiritual maturity. This information could help leaders assist followers of Christ in connecting the dots regarding the meaning of and the route to spiritual growth."