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

CHAPTER 6No God on the QuadEfforts Toward a Purely Secular UniversityOf the 21 elite universities where I surveyed and interviewed scientists, eightbegan with a religious mission. None of the universities is religiously affiliatedtoday. Historian George Marsden, in his eloquently titled book TheSoul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to EstablishedNonbelief , argues that the modern American university began with a soulthat sprang from religious roots and was later trammeled by movements tosecularize the academy. Historians Jon Roberts and James Turner supporthis points by arguing that the sciences were at the center of these secularizingsocial movements. In time, science was separated from any reliance onreligious support, and many scientists took up their own unique value systemin which science was considered the superior form of knowledge. Thesciences basically stopped needing to engage with religion in any meaningfulway. (Religion has certainly not disappeared from these institutions as awhole. Four of the ones I studied currently have a divinity school. And 19house a center, department, or program devoted to the academic study ofreligion.) 1At the same time, the vision of the university itself has changed. Once, aprimary mission of the university was moral instruction and character building.In such an environment, efforts to integrate faith and learning wereparamount.2Universities like Harvard and Duke, with religious roots, havegradually shifted away from their faith origins in favor of an Enlightenmentvision of autonomous human reason. For centuries, Harvard’s coat of armshad portrayed three open books—two face up and one face down. The facedownone represented the portion of truth that could not be discovered byman but must be revealed from God. In a display of secularization, however,Harvard later flipped the third book, in what some considered an effort toflaunt humanity’s potential to obtain all knowledge through reason. And asHarvard’s example shows, pursuing this type of reason implicitly means for87