TruthBook Religious News Blog

By Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter
Thu, Jul. 16 2009

About one out of every three scientists in the United States professed believing in God, a recent survey found.

That figure is strikingly lower than the proportion of the general American public that say they believe in God (83 percent), according to the report by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

However, a Christian biochemist after examining the report said the comparably small number of scientists who believe in God is nothing to be alarmed over.

Dr. Fazale Rana, vice president of research and apologetics at Reasons to Believe ministry, said the percentage of American scientists who believe in God has remained constant for more than three-quarters of a century.

In the early 1920s, he explained, there was a similar survey conducted that found a similar proportion of scientists who believe in God.

"I see a lot of reason to be very encouraged by these results," said Rana, who has a Ph.D. in chemistry with an emphasis in biochemistry and was a senior scientist in product development for Procter & Gamble, to The Christian Post on Wednesday.

"The take home message is that if science and religion are incompatible then there is no way we would still see 30-40 percent of scientists acknowledge there is a God or higher power behind everything," he contended.

Besides asking about belief in God, the survey also asked the public and scientists about their belief in a higher power. Eighteen percent of scientists said they believe in a higher power or universal spirit, while 12 percent of the public said so.

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Labels: belief, God, Michelle A. Vu, scientists, survey

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Monday, June 09, 2008

Survey of Indian Scientists’ Attitudes toward Religion, Ethics and Society

The Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC) at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, recently released the first in a series of ground-breaking sociological studies entitled “Worldviews and Opinions of Scientists.” Each of the studies explores the opinions of science professionals in non-Western societies. The first report focuses on the views and attitudes of scientists in India. Subsequent studies will explore the opinions of science professionals in countries such as China, Japan, Russia and Turkey.

More than 1,100 participants from 130 universities and research institutes in India were surveyed for this research project, which was begun in August 2007 and completed in January 2008. The research team was led by Professors Ariela Keysar and Barry A. Kosmin of the ISSSC at Trinity College.

Among the findings, the study shows that only 8 percent of Indian scientists express ethical reservations about genetic engineering and stem cell research, while 90 percent somewhat or strongly agree with the teaching of traditional Ayurvedic medicine in university degree courses. The vast majority (88 percent) either definitely or probably endorse the theory of evolution.

Other survey questions cover such topics as Reasons for Becoming a Scientist; the Status of Women; Scientific Literacy in India; Ethical Constraints on Science; Belief in God; Belief in Miracles; and Spirituality.

Those queried include engineers, mathematicians, chemists, physicians, physicists, geologists, and those involved with behavioral and social sciences.

The survey was designed in consultation with Dr. Meera Nanda, author of Prophets Facing Backwards, and conducted in cooperation with the Center for Inquiry-India, for which Dr. P.M. Bhargava serves as a chief adviser.

The entire survey is available online at: http://cruller.cc.trincoll.edu/NR/rdonlyres/D98B14DA-CC70-4CA2-B270-EA0A6E9B4006/0/WholeIndiaReport.pdf

Labels: ethics, India, Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture, religion, scientists

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Saturday, September 01, 2007

Scientists, Evangelicals Team Up For Alaska Expedition

Date: August 30, 2007

Science Daily — The historic collaboration between leading scientists and Evangelicals to protect the environment, spearheaded by the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) continues this week with a trip to Alaska.

A group of five scientists and five evangelical leaders began traveling together on August 25th to observe first- hand the dramatic effects of climate change on local people and on the land, ocean, plants, and wildlife of the nation's northernmost state.

"The goal of our trip is to witness together what human-caused climate change is doing to our world," said co-leader of the trip Eric Chivian, who shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize and is Director of the HMS Center. "While this collaboration may come as a surprise to some, it makes perfect sense. Both scientists and Evangelicals see life on earth as sacred and share the same deep sense of responsibility about protecting it."

"The idea is for all of us to experience what human activity is doing to God's Creation so that we can understand the urgent importance of caring for it," added expedition co- leader Rev. Richard Cizik, Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the NAE. "We dare to imagine a world in which science and religion cooperate, minimizing our differences about how Creation got started, to work together to reverse its degradation."

Led by a naturalist from Homer, Carmen Field, the group began its journey with a two-day stop in Shishmaref, a traditional Inupiaq Eskimo village in the Bering Strait with a population of about 500 people. The Inupiats have inhabited this village, located on Sarichef Island in the Chukchi Sea, for over 400 years. Because of melting sea ice and permafrost, however, the village is at high risk from storm surge erosion, and already 14 houses have fallen into the sea in recent years, raising concern that the village will soon need to be relocated to the mainland.

"People in the Arctic are among the most vulnerable on Earth due to the impacts of climate change," said James McCarthy, Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University, an expert on climate change and the Arctic, and President-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest scientific society. "They depend on intact sea ice and permafrost, both of which are rapidly disappearing, for their hunting and fishing, indeed for their very lives."

The group will also stop at Portage and Exit glaciers to witness the rapid, unprecedented melting of glacial ice, and at the Kenai Peninsula, where more than three million acres of spruce forests have been killed by exploding populations of Spruce Bark Beetles, brought on by warming temperatures.

During the week-long expedition the group will meet with scientists, physicians, local church leaders, and evangelical pastors in Shishmaref, Anchorage, and Homer to learn directly from Alaskans about how they are coping with the effects of climate change. Leith Anderson, Senior Pastor of Wooddale Church and President of the NAE said, "It is very important to involve Alaskan pastors in our work, for they are central in helping to spread the message about the importance of Creation Care."

The Scientists-Evangelical Alaska Expedition grew out of a collaboration that began at a two-day private retreat in December 2006 attended by 30 leaders from the scientific and evangelical communities. The retreat led to close relationships of mutual trust and understanding among the participants and to the release in January 2007 of an "Urgent Call to Action," a pledge that these leaders would speak with one voice in their shared commitment to protect life on Earth.

Trip Participants:

Leith Anderson D.Min, M.Div., President, National Association of Evangelicals; Senior Pastor, Wooddale Church
Eric Chivian M.D., Director, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School; Shared 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
Richard Cizik M.Div, M.A., Vice President for Governmental Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals
Deborah Fikes M.A., Advisor, Ministerial Alliance of Midland, Texas; Special Advisor to Governor Kim Moon-soo, Republic of Korea; Advisory Committee, Senator Sam Brownback; President; D.H. Fikes International Inc.
Peter Heltzel Ph.D., M.Div., Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, New York Theological Seminary
Harry Jackson D.Div, M.B.A., Bishop and Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
James McCarthy Ph.D., Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography, Harvard University
Camille Parmesan Ph.D., Associate Professor, Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas
Peter Raven Ph.D., President, Missouri Botanical Garden; George Engelmann Professor of Botany, Washington University
Carl Safina Ph.D., President, Blue Ocean Institute; Adjunct Professor, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Harvard Medical School.

Labels: Alaska, evangelicals, global warming, God, Harvard Medical School, National Association of Evangelicals, religion, scientists

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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Study: Upbringing Why Most Scientists Not Religious

2007-07-02 19:02:58

BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhuanet) --

A new study suggests household upbringing -- not the study of science or academic pressure -- is most often the determining factor when it comes to whether or not a scientist is religious.

"Our study data do not strongly support the idea that scientists simply drop their religious identities upon professional training, due to an inherent conflict between science and faith, or to institutional pressure to conform," said Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociologist at the University at Buffalo and co-author of the study.

"It is important to understand this, because we face religious-scientific controversies over stem-cell research and evolution," Ecklund said Friday.

Detailed in the latest issue of the journal Social Problems, the study is based on a survey of 1,646 scientists at 21 elite research universities and in-depth interviews with 271 of the scientists. The survey contacted researchers specializing in physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, economics, political science, psychology and other fields.

Ecklund used data from the 1998 and 2004 General Social Survey (GSS), a national survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, for general population information. Ecklund then compared the data to the scientists’set, which was modeled after the GSS.

The data revealed 52 percent of scientists surveyed had no religious affiliation, compared with only 14 percent of the general population. Of the religious scientists, however, 15 percent identified themselves as Jewish compared to 2 percent of the religious general population.

And 14 percent of the general population described themselves as "evangelical" or "fundamentalist." Less than 2 percent of scientists, however, identified themselves as either of these. Younger scientists were more likely to believe in God and attend religious services than older scientists.

If these young and religious scientists continue to stay religious, Ecklund said, "it could indicate an overall shift in attitudes toward religion among those in the academy."

Labels: Elaine Howard Ecklund, General Social Survey, National Opinion Research Center, religion, scientists, upbringing

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Friday, June 22, 2007

Religion And The "Evolutionists"

Category: Religion
Posted on: June 21, 2007 1:02 PM,
by Razib

Greg Graffin & Will Provine report on the results of the Cornell Evolution Project in The American Scientist. Emerging out ot Graffin's Ph.D. work it is a survey of prominent evolutionary biologists (see the full list) in regards to their views about religion and science.

Their conclusion is:

Only 10 percent of the eminent evolutionary scientists who answered the poll saw an inevitable conflict between religion and evolution. The great majority see no conflict between religion and evolution, not because they occupy different, noncompeting magisteria, but because they see religion as a natural product of human evolution. Sociologists and cultural anthropologists, in contrast, tend toward the hypothesis that cultural change alone produced religions, minus evolutionary change in humans. The eminent evolutionists who participated in this poll reject the basic tenets of religion, such as gods, life after death, incorporeal spirits or the supernatural. Yet they still hold a compatible view of religion and evolution.

Labels: Cornell Evolution Project, evolution, religion, scientists