Americans See Many Stairways to Heaven: Poll

Drew Barrymore, converting to Judaism, is the latest

(NEWSER) - Drew Barrymore is getting married , but first she's—reportedly—converting to Judaism, the religion fiance Will Kopelman practices. She follows the tradition of these seven other celebrity spouses (or not-quite-spouses) who did the same thing, notes The Frisky :

• Isla Fisher: Converted to Judaism for Sacha Baron Cohen.
• Jesus Luz: Started following Kabbalah for Madonna.

Relativity, theory of evolution top the list

(NEWSER) - Every year, the website Edge poses a big, open-ended question to leading scientists. This year's query— "What is your favorite deep, elegant or beautiful explanation?" —received 191 answers covering a wide range of ideas, with Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution receiving the most replies, reports Reuters . Some interesting responses:

• "Darwin's natural selection wins hands down," writes Richard Dawkins, unsurprisingly. "Never in the field of human comprehension were so many facts explained by assuming so few."

And so did the fourth-quarter television ratings

(NEWSER) - This might just be a weird coincidence, or Tim Tebow's dramatic defeat of the Steelers last night may have been a miracle in more ways than one. The polarizing Denver quarterback wound up throwing for 316 yards, which, if you toss in a colon in the right spot, mirrors the call number of a famous bible verse, John 3:16. That's a verse Tebow occasionally wrote on his face while playing at the University of Florida, Fox News reports. More»

Believers join Missionary Church of Kopimism

(NEWSER) - Sweden may not condone file-sharing—it's still illegal—but the country is officially OK with belief in the practice. Some 3,000 passionate file-sharers have gotten their beliefs recognized as an official religion. The Missionary Church of Kopimism—as in, "copy-me-ism"—has sought official status in Sweden since 2010, and it's finally won the battle, TorrentFreak reports. The decision follows a pair of rejections; authorities wanted Kopimism to define its prayer practices. More»

'It was the BEST feeling,' Ben Breedlove says of near-death experience

(NEWSER) - A Texas teen reveals his near-death experiences with a beneficent "big, bright light" in a crushingly poignant double video he made just days before his death on Christmas Day. Ben Breedlove, 18, recounts years of battling his progressively worsening hypertrophic cardiomyopathy heart illness and his three near-death experiences in a series of hand-written messages he shows on note cards to the haunting strains of "Mad World," appearing sad, then sublimely happy in the wordless films. He nearly died at the age of 4 and remembers seeing a "big, bright light" in the hospital that filled him with "peace." Just weeks ago he had a similar experience when his heart stopped beating for three minutes, reports the Los Angeles Times . He was dressed in a white suit, alongside his favorite rap star, Kid Cudi, he recalls. More»