Jerome E. Copulsky compares references to God in the inaugural addresses of three American presidents.

A new analysis released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that "African-Americans are markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S. population as a whole."

On her New York Times blog, illustrator Maira Kalman retells the presidential inauguration as a theological event in words and pictures.

Jerry A. Coyne reviews two new books that attempt to reconcile science and religion, and argues that it is a doomed effort, in The New Republic.

Phil Zuckerman, associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College, uses Sweden and Denmark as examples to counter the assertion that without religion, society is doomed.

At Religion Disptaches, legal scholar Bruce Ledewitz predicts that, despite its repeated religious invocations, the pageantry of Obama's inauguration might actually point the way to a more secular and inclusive civil religion, one where the beliefs of nonbelievers, too, need to be respected.

During the past three weeks in France there have been more than 60 documented anti-Semitic incidents, including Molotov cocktails thrown at synagogues, and the Judeo-Muslim Friendship Association has dissolved, with Muslim officials resigning "because their Jewish counterparts didn’t openly condemn Israel for its operations."  However, Shirli Sitbon points to the positive results in France.

Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya and recently named Chairman of the African Union, proposed a one-state solution for Israel and Palestine, in a New York Times op-ed.

Namit Arora at 3 Quarks Daily asks, "does pluralism imply relativism, and thus (or otherwise) undermine liberalism’s universal pretensions?"