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A large majority of Americans, 70 percent, now say religion is losing its influence on American life — one of the highest such responses in Gallup’s 53-year history of asking the question, and significantly higher than in the first half of the past decade, according to Gallup’s latest poll on the subject.

Americans’ views of the influence of religion in the U.S. have fluctuated substantially in the years since 1957, when Gallup first asked this question. At that point, perhaps reflecting the general focus on “family values” that characterized the Eisenhower era, 69 percent of Americans said religion was increasing its influence, the most in Gallup’s history.

Views of the influence of religion shifted dramatically in the mid-1960s. By 1970, in the midst of the protests over the Vietnam War and general social upheaval, a record 75 percent of Americans said religion was losing influence in American society.

While these views moderated in the years thereafter, at several points during the Reagan administration, a plurality of Americans returned to the view that religion was increasing its influence. By the early 1990s, however, Americans became more convinced again that religion was losing its influence.

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Dr. Doug Phillips of Discovering Alabama, the natural history show at the University of Alabama, takes a special look at the Alabama Gulf Coast and raises questions about the future along the shoreline in the disaster’s wake.

Alaska just took its brutal war against the polar bear to a new level.

The state was already in court to strip federal protection from the polar bear, but last week it launched a new attack — on the bear’s habitat. It filed a legal notice to strike down the federal government’s designation of a 120-million-acre polar bear reserve along Alaska’s northern coast.

This is the largest imperiled species habitat reserve in history — bigger than 48 of the 50 states — and protecting it is essential to the survival of the polar bear, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, which is preparing to try and beat back Alaska’s new antiwildlife lawsuit.

“We’ve been fighting for years to stop Alaska’s bid to strip federal protection from the polar bear,” Kierán Suckling, the Center for Biological Diversity’s executive director said in an action alert. “And with your help today, we’ll be in court again in just two months to stop the state’s effort to eradicate the bears’ habitat reserve as well.”

The Center has been leading the charge to save polar bears since 2005 and helped get the majestic white bears placed on the federal list of “threatened species” and stop oil drilling in their habitat, winning the 120-million-acre habitat reserve earlier this year. The Center doesn’t spend its money mailing wolf and polar bear plush toys, or offer calendars and tote bags.

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Hillary Clinton the Most Admired Woman

President Barack Obama is the Most Admired Man in America for 2010, while Hillary Clinton is the Most Admired Woman, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject.

Obama ranks substantially higher than of the former presidents named along with iconic religious leaders and others who fill out the top 10 list. This is the ninth consecutive year Clinton comes in at No. 1.

Obama first became Americans’ Most Admired Man in 2008, shortly after his election as the nation’s 44th president, and has held the title since then. He is the runaway favorite for Most Admired Man among Democrats nationwide: 46 percent choose him, followed by 7 percent who pick Bill Clinton and 5 percent Nelson Mandela. Obama also leads among independents, with 17 percent, but ranks second among Republicans — behind George W. Bush.

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VIDEO – White Christmas Birmingham, Ala. 2010: Part 1

A Photo Essay [click here or on the image for the full photo essay...]

Glynn Wilson

A Carolina chickadee [poecile carolinensis] in a dogwood tree on the first ever White Christmas in Birmingham, Alabama…

Guest Column
by Michael Brune

The conservatives who are bending over backward to bash American ingenuity and deride modern and green technologies are hurting our economic competitiveness. Do they want China to ‘eat our lunch’?

“As goes General Motors, so goes the nation.” A year and a half ago, that old saying seemed ominous. GM was in bankruptcy, and our country was in the depths of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

But for a feel-good story, it’s hard to top what’s happened since: Federal investment helped General Motors get back on its feet and return to profitability, and GM has come out with a game-changing new car, the plug-in hybrid electric Chevy Volt. Motor Trend magazine named the Volt its 2011 Car of the Year. GM is investing $163 million in three plants (including one in hard-hit Flint, Mich.,) to help produce the car and is hiring 1,000 engineers to continue work on the Volt and develop other electric vehicles that will cut America’s dependence on oil.

Who wouldn’t be happy to witness the comeback of a major American industry, especially one that makes a down payment on American energy independence and produces new jobs?

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