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

6Crossing the Picket Lines: The Personal Faith of Scientistsemploy just as many diverse responses to these challenges. Some, pressed bythe needs of (and their concern for) their students, engage the topic of religionin the classroom. This is what I call environmental push , when events outsidethe university challenge scientists to reexamine the barriers between scienceand religion. Some scientists were raised apart from a religious tradition, havehad bad experiences with religion, or simply know very little about differentreligious traditions or the variety of ways that religion and science might relate.They have not necessarily rejected religion because they are scientists. Otherswho do practice a religious tradition anticipate—whether rightly or not—hostility from their colleagues and so practice a closeted faith . Nearly all, fromthe atheist to the devout, think about how to interact with the increasing numberof religious students who are flowing into their classrooms. Some scientistseventually become boundary pioneers ; because of their institutional legitimacyas elite scientists and their deep commitment to religious ideals they are able tocross the picket lines of science and religion, introducing a measure of kinshipto the controversy. And others are what I call spiritual atheists , who practice anew kind of individual spirituality—one that has no need for God or agod—that flows from and leads into science.This isn’t chiefly a book about social forces or conflict resolution. It’s aboutvoices. Throughout my research and during countless probing discussions,certain voices have stuck out. Some individuals seem to perfectly capture whatentire groups are thinking, so I decided to structure the narrative around thelives of a few scientists who embody many of the major findings and themesrevealed by the larger study. Other interviews and the survey results provide asupporting cast for these protagonists. 10The stories of scientists like Arik, Margaret, and Evelyn emerged over andover during the systematic analyses of the one-on-one conversations I had withindividual scientists. As we journey from the personal to the public religiouslives of scientists, we will meet the nearly 50 percent of elite scientists like Margaretwho are religious in a traditional sense and the over 20 percent more likeEvelyn who, though eschewing religion, still see themselves as spiritual to someextent, with spiritual sensibilities that often derive from and are borne out inthe work they do as scientists. For the proportion of scientists who are, likeArik, indeed committed secularists, we will draw out the complexity in theirreasons for rejecting, leaving, or ignoring religion. 11Max Weber, a founder of sociology, described people he called “carriers,”who were “types representative of the various classes who were the primary . . .propagators” of major world religions. In particular, these carriers perpetuatedideologies of “the kind of ethical or salvation doctrine, which most readilyconformed to their social position.” 12 Scientists have been perceived as carriers