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

The Voice of Faith 35TABLE 3.1. Opinions of Religious Truth: Elite Scientists Compared to theU.S. PopulationReligiousTruth PositionPercent ofScientistsPercent ofU.S. PopulationThere is very little truth26 4in any religionThere are basic truths71 84in many religionsThere is the most truth3 12in only one religionTotal Percent 100 100Sources: Religion Among Academic Scientists Survey 2005, General Social Survey 1998.believe. And scientists’ religious beliefs are different from those of the generalpopulation.On the whole, scientists tend to view themselves as religiously liberal. Forexample, when asked to compare themselves to other Americans along a continuumof religion from liberal to conservative, a 7-point scale on which 1represents extremely liberal religious beliefs and 7 represents extremely conservative,most of the scientists I interviewed saw themselves as measuringaround 2. This means that when they are religious, scientists tend to see themselvesas religious liberals. It also means that they view other Americans ashaving much more conservative beliefs than they themselves do. 15 And this isimportant to understand as they converse with the general public.When we hold this liberalism alongside the fact that scientists at elite U.S.research universities are the least likely to be evangelicals (at least to label themselvesso) and that evangelicalism is heavily represented in the general population,we see that scientists who care about translating science to a generalpublic might need a lot of help to do so effectively.The table above reveals that 71 percent of scientists think there are basictruths in many religions—the pluralist position—compared to 84 percent ofthe general public who have the same view. In contrast, only 3 percent of scientistswho work at elite universities see one religion as holding the most truth—the exclusivist position—and that is the position most likely to be held byevangelicals16(the majority of the religious population).About 36 percent of scientists have some form of a belief in God. When thissame question about belief in God is asked of members of the general public,