Here are seven popular religious urban legends. Are they true or false?

1. Atop the Washington Monument, beyond the view of visitors, the words "Laus Deo" (Praise be to God) are inscribed. This was intended to signal that Washington was a devoted Christian.

2. U.S. space scientists have discovered a "lost day," one day of astral time that can't be accounted for. This confirms the account in Joshua 10:12-13 of God's halting the sun in the sky for a day.

3. A nonprofit group known as the Second Coming Project is seeking to clone Jesus, using DNA extracted from holy relics.

4. A physician once placed dying patients on a scale to measure the weight of the soul.

5. A Belgian supercomputer nicknamed "the Beast" is gathering data about every person on Earth.

6. Appearing on "60 Minutes" in 1994, Attorney General Janet Reno said that anyone who believed the Bible was a dangerous cultist.

7. Lightning struck a church during a sermon moments after the preacher identified thunder as the voice of God.

ANSWERS

1. Partly true.

"Laus Deo" is inscribed on the east face of the four-sided point that tops the Washington Monument. But that probably says more about religious sentiment in the era when the monument was built (1848-1884) than it does about the first president's faith.

2. False.

NASA says no such discovery has been made. The story of the "lost day" was popularized in the 1974 Christian self-help book "How to Live Like a King's Kid" by Harold Hill, who had been president of the Curtis Engine Co., a NASA contractor. He also liked to repeat the tale in speeches to schoolchildren. Eventually, he admitted that he had no evidence. Still, he said, "My inability to furnish documentation of the 'missing day' incident in no way detracts from its authenticity."

3. False.

This tale was made up by author Kristan Lawson as an Internet stunt. The concept surfaced in a 1999 episode of "The Outer Limits" titled "The Shroud."

4. True.

A 1907 story in The New York Times recounted the experiments of Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Mass., a physician who calculated that the weight of a body decreased by 21 grams at the moment of death. His methodology was unreliable by modern standards. Still, his work inspired the title of the 2003 film "21 Grams."

5. False.

This comes from a 1970 Christian novel, "Behold a Pale Horse," by Joe Musser. The story was repeated as fact in a Christian periodical several years later and endures despite the novelist's protests.

6. False.

Reno never said it. She wasn't on "60 Minutes" in 1994. Similar versions of the quote have been attributed to Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr.

7. True.

According to a story in The Courier of Findlay, Ohio, a traveling evangelist was preaching in Forest, Ohio, on July 1, 2003, when a storm hit. After a clap of thunder, the preacher joked, "That's right, God! We hear you!" At that moment, lightning struck the church's steeple, setting it ablaze.

Sources: Snopes.com, TruthOrFiction.com