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Famed physicist Stephen Hawking says in his newest book: "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God ..."

Did creation need a creator? British physicist and mathematician Stephen Hawking says no, arguing in his new book that there need not be a God behind the creation of the universe.

It's the conundrum Protestant denominations with declining memberships and shrinking budgets are desperate to solve: How to stem the decades-long losses and attract new worshippers.

It is "unethical, insensitive and inhumane" to oppose the planned mosque near ground zero, more than 50 leading Muslim organizations said Wednesday as they cast the intense debate as a symptom of religious intolerance in America.

Brits are lining up to bash the papal visit to England and Scotland coming mid-month. And a new book by Italian journalists documents five years of global gaffes by the Pope Benedict XVI. Why is he under such heavy fire? Is it only his PR staff to blame?

The Mormon church says it is working to better prevent the names of Jews Holocaust victims from being submitted for posthumous baptism by proxy.

Glenn Beck's 'theology' of "Mormon politics or American nationalism" should not be confused with with the gospel of Jesus Christ," says Southern Baptist theologian Russell Moore. But Moore is optimistic the gospel will prevail that is "more than just Fox News at prayer." Are you optimistic on that?

Five years since Katrina swept across Lake Catherine, and Rev. Arthur Ginart, known as Father Red, remains among the missing.

Glenn Beck is presenting himself as a theologian and he says that folks don't think Obama is Christian because they don't recognize his way of being Christian. Is Beck taking on the modern prophet mantle last held by incendiary preacher Jeremiah Wright?

President Obama said Sunday he isn't worried about a recent poll showing that nearly one-fifth of Americans believe he is a Muslim.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Obama's controversial former pastor, referred to people who wrongly believe Obama is Muslim as "psychopaths" during a fiery sermon Sunday in Arkansas.

Someone who doesn't want a mosque to be built in Murfreesboro, Tenn., set fire to the construction equipment Saturday. Christian voices have been speaking up for the mosque but opponents say it's not about Murfreesboro, it's about terrorism. Is arson also terrorism?

Federal agents were called in Saturday after someone poured flammable liquid on four pieces of construction equipment early today at the site of a planned new Islamic center and mosque just outside Murfreesboro.

A retired Presbyterian minister was found guilty of misconduct Friday by a church court for officiating the weddings of 16 gay couples when same-sex marriage was legal in California.

Christian critics who consider the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to be a cult and the concept that the nation that prays together stays together as Bible-blurring blaspheme, say believers should avoid Glenn Beck's Friday night faith rally. Do you think Mormon Beck is Christian? As Christian as Obama?

The nation's newest church denomination has been created by Lutherans breaking away from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which approved gay clergy in a contentious vote last year.

Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to make decisions that could end the lives of their terminally ill patients, compared to doctors who are very religious, according to a new study in Britain.

Which is the grabber headline: Unreligious British neurologists let -- or lead - their severely ill patients die earlier than religious docs do.Or Religious Brisith neurologists less inclined to base decisions about dying on patients' values, not their own. Have you ever asked a doctor about his or her religious values and how they might shape the care they offer you or a loved one? What happens if the doctor's values and yours are not in sync?

Hundreds of nuns, bishops and volunteers marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mother Teresa, at a Mass in Calcutta where the selfless nun served the poor.

More than 1,000 Lutherans are espected to vote Friday to create a new Lutheran denomination without gay clergy, which are now allowed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The beatified nun, born 100 years ago, who cared for the dying in the streets of India, is lauded, mostly, not only by Catholics. She's not officially a saint -- yet -- but is she someone you would emulate?

The Sufi imam and his followers (from the mystical tradition of Islam) who want to build a community center and prayer room in lower Manhattan are "on solid legal footing" under the Federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, passed in 2000, when Republicans controlled Congress.

Debate over a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero has jeopardized New Yorkers' sense of tolerance and unity, the leader of the area's Roman Catholics said Tuesday.

Many of us don't know much about Islam but that doesn't stop many of us from saying we don't like it. That's the latest from a Pew Forum survey conducted during the height of the N.Y. mosque furor and released this afternoon.

Why don't dudes do church? Pastor Mark Driscoll's case is that men step up to emulating Christ. But men are few in the pews, as we noted in a 2007 story on how every major Christian tradition in the USA has more female members than male. And Driscoll sees the under-30 guys as "boys who shave." So, when September 12, a Back to Church evangelical campaign day, rolls around, are you inviting any dudes -- or maybe a grown up politician -- to church?

Supporters of a Greek Orthodox church destroyed on Sept. 11 say officials have been silent on efforts to get their church rebuilt.

Bets were on this weekend that President Obama would/would not to to a church Sunday on Martha's Vineyard. He evidently didn't. And that makes him just like most Americans. Gallup studies show that only about 35% of Americans say

The Museum of Tolerance examines the word and the rancor over whether to tolerate a mosque and Islamic cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero.

NEW YORK At a Mass on Staten Island on Sunday, Archbishop Timothy Dolan said he was saddened by a spate of suspected anti-Hispanic attacks there have left some Latin American immigrants fearing for their safety.

After CNN's John King gave Franklin Graham 24 hours to raise more doubts about President Obama's Christian faith, he brought on Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, who said the evangelist was ignorant of Islam and spreading a "disinformation campaign" on Obama.