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

120Society and Broader Publicsand talking about religion in his department. He gave me one such example:“Our Nobel Prize winner . . . said as we were walking along not too long ago, ‘Isay daily prayers every day just before I go to bed, just like my mother taughtme.’ He’s not a believer.” He laughed, “As far as I could tell before thatmoment!”This chemist is, however, greatly troubled by the way religious opposition toscience is sometimes handled on university campuses. He agrees with thosewho think that intelligent design theory is “not good science,” but he says thatreligious challenges to science “really frighten university professors, and thenthey respond in a way that is anti-intellectual.” After struggling with his wordsfor over 12 seconds—a long time in a personal conversation—he said, “Attimes they are really anti-Christian or anti-Jewish as well, or anti-Islam.” Whilehe did not think those on his campus are overtly antireligious, religion seemsto be acceptable only as long as no one talks about it, as long as it remains closeted.He thinks of it as a kind of “don’t ask and I won’t tell you” policy. He thenmentioned that if you do talk about your faith, “people think you’re nuts, actually—alot of people—if you really step out.” He does talk about issues of faithwhenever he can, however, because “you can’t deny who you are.” He explainedthat is why he wants to be associated with other Christians on campus.Like this chemist, other scientists also thought that antireligious sentiment—and particularly anti-Christian sentiment—could be rectified on campus if facultywere more willing to talk about their own beliefs. A biologist 38 who,although he considers himself Catholic, attends a nondenominational churchwith his family, told me that he thinks most of his colleagues are nonreligiousand even hostile toward religion. On a few rare occasions, a colleague in thesciences has tried to convince him to reject his faith. He said with a tone oflaughter in his voice that it’s a “sort of a fun kind of activity for them, youknow, to try to put religion down and then to get me to renounce it.” He thinksthat religion is almost uniformly viewed as something conservative, and becausemost of his colleagues are liberal, he reasons, they might be more reluctant totalk about religion or their attitudes toward it. From his perspective, “the academyin general is biased in a negative way toward religion. Students are a lot lessbiased toward religion than faculty. And, you know, the faculty bias in generalkind of bothers me.” He sees this bias as detrimental to learning. In his words,“At the academy, we’re supposed to be open-minded—as open-minded, asobjective, as possible. And that’s not always the case.”Both religious and nonreligious scientists mentioned that when antireligionbiases make their way into public arenas on university campuses, studentsmight feel fearful of talking about religion in academic settings. According to aphysicist39with no religious identity, “Getting students to talk about religion is