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

98Society and Broader PublicsAn outgrowth of viewing research universities as bastions of secularism isthat these scientists think that students who are interested in religion would bebetter off at universities and colleges with a specifically religious mission. Onesociologist35explained that he is an agnostic and a “scientist wannabe, [who]lives, for the most part, in a very positivistic, scientific world.” On one hand, hesaid, “you probably can’t be ardently antireligious [here] in the sense of drivingout believers, which is a good thing . . . because [I am] actually ambivalenttoward believers.” He does, on the other hand, hope the academy will remain“a bastion of secularism to the degree humanly possible.” A political scientist 36who described himself as ethnically Jewish without any religious beliefs addedthat being at a state university helps him to definitively answer the question ofwhat place religion ought to occupy in university settings:Because it’s a state university, an arm of the state and bound by constitutionalprinciples, I feel quite strongly that it would be utterly inappropriate for the universityto do anything to suppress, discourage, or denigrate religion. It would beequally inappropriate for the university to do anything to promote a particularreligion, or religion over irreligion.Most scientists do not have views about the separation of church and state thatare as well thought out as this particular political scientist’s, which is based onhis study of constitutional law. Others did have views that were similar, however.An economist 37 said, “It would be hard for me to envision a conflict[between science and religion], because it’s hard for me to envision what itwould be like being religious.” He teaches at a large state research university inthe West and explained that because he teaches at “a state school, this essentiallyprecludes any religious part of the actual faculty, I guess.” He especiallyassumed that any sort of proselytizing on the part of faculty was not allowed,since religion posed a threat to secular education and should be separated fromthe intellectual life of the university.The reality of university life does not match these scientists’ ideal. For example,most universities—even state schools—do have a chaplaincy service and apublic chapel on campus. Student ministries of many sorts are active on campuses,from evangelical Christian to Muslim to New Age—ministries that bolsterstudents who do raise religiously motivated concerns in classrooms. Forinstance, the ethical (and religiously based) implications of genetics testing andhuman genetic engineering would certainly crop up in a genetics seminar. 38Those who continue to express a view of the university that argues for an exclusionof religion are not able to respond adequately when religion inevitablydoes enter the campus.