A recent Pew survey shows that almost a third of non-scientist Americans believe that humans have not evolved.

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President Barack Obama has chosen influential genetic scientist Francis Collins to head the National Institutes of Health. Known for helping to unravel the human genetic codes, he is also known for trying to find common ground between belief in God and science and is author of the 2007 best-seller The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

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Two eccentric British artists talk about why religion needs to be mocked and why identifying the inner freak is a positive experience in this video preview of their latest exhibition.

Despite a renewed crackdown by the security forces, Iran’s students are looking for clever new ways to keep their campaign for democracy going. But it is a struggle. Nearly all foreign journalists, bar a handful of agency reporters, are being kept out, so that channel of communication is barred. Websites such as those of the BBC and Facebook are blocked. The text-message system has been stop-go. The authorities have randomly declared public holidays and told people to stay off the streets because of unhealthy pollution levels. Security men in plain clothes stop people, especially young ones, at crossroads, to check their bags and identities. Communication between Tehran and other big cities is similarly tricky; there have been reports of dozens of students being arrested at a university in the central city of Isfahan, a former capital of Persia.

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Biology professor Kenneth Miller discusses one of the more compelling pieces of evidence for evolution: errors in the genetic code that are shared among closely related species.

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The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops, looking to clarify their position on interfaith dialogue with Jews, have instead caused an uproar by issuing a recent statement that appears to endorse attempts to convert them. Jews are accusing American bishops of backtracking on a statement that explicitly directs Catholics to not attempt to convert Jews.

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Both Bible-bashing fundamentalists and dogmatic atheists have a similar idea of what “God” means, she points out, and it is an absurdly crude one.

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This Fourth of July, those who identify themselves as non-believers, or humanists, or atheists—or a whole host of other names which signify a nontheistic worldview—have much cause for celebration.

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A senior Church of England bishop has called on homosexuals to repent and “be changed” in comments that have infuriated equality campaigners.

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Iranian employees of the British Embassy in Tehran face the prospect of a show trial after the regime said that they had admitted conspiring against the Islamic Republic. Tensions between the Iranian theocracy and the EU rose as a hardline Ayatollah accused Britain of attempting to undermine the regime and EU officials expressed concern that confessions may have been extracted by torture, leaving the door open for a wholesale withdrawal of EU diplomats from the country.

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A Turkish television show is offering contestants what it claims is the “biggest prize ever” — the chance for atheists to convert to one of the world’s major religions. The show, called Penitents Compete, features a Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Buddhist monk attempting to persuade 10 atheists of the merits of their religions. Atheists who convert win a trip to a holy location, depending which religion they pick.

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The Vatican is quietly conducting two sweeping investigations of American nuns, a development that has startled and dismayed nuns who fear they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition.

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Belief in evolutionary varies around the world, but there’s some evidence that Darwin-scepticism may have an Islamic flavour

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A fascinating new poll conducted by the Irish radio station Newstalk has found that attitudes to Catholicism have shifted significantly since the publication of the Ryan report into child abuse in Catholic-run institutions.

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That religious leaders have joined forces on euthanasia is not surprising – favouring dogma over kindness is standard fare

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Fear and beheadings in the heartland of the militants

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