Most Americans Think The Founders Wanted to Create A Christian State

The First Amendment Center released the results of a new survey on American's views of freedom of religion, speech, and press.

Highlights:

28% believe the freedom to worship granted by the Constitution does not apply to fringe or extreme groups.
65% agreed the founders intended the United States to be a Christian nation.
55% agree that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation.
58% believe teachers should be allowed to lead prayers in public school, down from a high of 65% in 1999.
80% agree the Bible should be allowed as a form of literature in English class, up from 75% in 2000.
88% agree the Bible should be allowed as a text in comparative religion class, up from 85% in 2000.
50% believe the Bible should be used as a factual text in a history or social studies class, down from 56% in 2000.
18% believe public school programs in December should be secular, rather then hosting Nativity reenactments or featuring music from the Christian tradition.
60% believe that people should be allowed to say things in public which may offend religious groups, up from 46% in 2000.
41% believe people should be allowed to say things in public which may offend racial groups, up from 23% in 1997.
25% believe the First Amendment goes too far in granting rights, that is down from 39% in 2001.

Generally, respondents believed that rights granted by the First Amendment were essential dropped by 10% between 2002 and 2007.
Attitudes on the media, including reporting false stories, or reporting without bias have changed little between 2004 and 2007.

74% believe that students should not be allowed to wear a t-shirt with a message others might find offensive.
50% agree students who post entries in social networking sites while off-campus, like myspace.com, which may be disruptive to school classes should be disciplined by school officials.
15% of respondents get their news mostly from the internet, with declining numbers in radio and newspapers, but an increase in television, since 1997.
38% would approve of an amendment prohibiting burning or desecrating the flag.
The responsibility of keeping inappropriate material on television has shifted from parents to broadcasters since 2004, with an 87% to 74% drop in respondents holding parents responsible, and an increase from 10% to 19% on broadcasters.
40% of respondents want a specified amount of "positive" news in return for licenses.

You can see the paper here. The sample size is 1003, margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percent, and the survey was conducted between August 16, and August 26.

The Clergy Letter Project: An Open Letter Concerning Religion and Science

Check out this open letter from the Clergy Letter Project.

They support the coexistence of science and religion, and believe that evolution is not counter to Christian faith. It's this kind of activity which needs to be supported more. There are many people who may practice a religion, and don't do what many others do, which is disregard science which appears to clash with their religious beliefs. Much of this can stem from taking the scriptures of your faith literally. Fortunately, the literalists in America are in a minority, but they are a vocal minority. Secular institutions like law, or education take a back seat to literal interpretation of scripture. The Clergy Letter Project seeks to raise the volume of moderates who see what is happening in schools with the evolution / intelligent design debate and are willing to say that the people bringing the ID debate to schools do not represent them. Thanks to Michael Zimmerman of Butler University for starting this ambitious project.

And, thanks to Daily Atheist for bringing this to my attention.