Science vs. religion : what scientists really think - File PDF

48Crossing the Picket Lines: The Personal Faith of Scientistscolleagues are universally negative toward religion. Little can dispel theirnotion. To be sure, some nonbelieving colleagues do discriminate against religiouspeople, making it difficult for religious individuals to talk about faithparticipation openly in their departments or voicing suspicions about facultycandidates who have religious beliefs. And a large majority of the scientists Italked with, both those with faith and those without, were especially negativeabout American evangelicalism.What religious scientists fail to realize, however, is that a significant proportionof their colleagues, although not religious themselves, are open to talkingand thinking about matters of faith. Some are even looking for scientists withfaith traditions to help them connect better with a religiously believing Americanpublic. These “open but nonbelieving” scholars are looking in particularfor models like Francis Collins—even though he is an outspoken evangelical—to serve as boundary pioneers leading the way in crossing the picket lines of thescience and religion debates. But because religious scientists rarely talk candidlyabout their faith in the science environment, they are not aware of theseopen but nonbelieving scientists. The actions, then, of both groups end up perpetuatingcloseted faith, further hardening an embedded custom that religionshould not be discussed in universities and science environments.The Boundary Pioneers of the FutureThe sizable group of elite scientists who are committed to their faith traditionsare potentially crucial commentators about science to the American public.That the scientists in this population are from prestigious universities makesthem all the better positioned to contribute to significant dialogue about whatdistinguishes scientific and religious claims. But who, exactly, are our futurereligious spokespersons for science likely to be? And how can this positive dialoguecome about? Elite universities are extremely hierarchical, with the academygenerally giving preference in voice to senior scientists—those with thelargest labs and the most publications and the richest research grants. But myresearch finds that it is the younger scientists who are more religiously minded.So when it comes to translating science to a broader believing public, it mightbe younger scholars who lead the way—suggesting that the effort might alsotake a while to be realized.Religious scientists of all professional stages, however, might need to leadtheir own denominations and congregations toward a publicly accessible sciencethat takes seriously the concerns of a religiously motivated American public.There is significant common ground, for instance, to be gained between