Are American scientists getting more religious?

Last updated on: December 6, 2014 at 2:13 am by Epiphenom

Are American scientists getting more religious? 2014-12-06T02:13:42+01:00 Epiphenom

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Razib at Gene Expression has the lowdown on a new survey comparing social, political and religious attitudes of scientists with the general public. Unsurprisingly, there’s a huge gulf between the two groups. While 41% of the scientists said they didn’t believe in god or in a high power, just 4% of the general public said the same.There’s one statistic that is rather unexpected, however. As you can see in this table, younger scientists are more likely to be religious than older ones. That’s the reverse of what you see in the general population.

A similar thing was seen in a study published back in 2007 by Elaine Ecklund at SUNY. In a survey of of 1,500 academics, she found that those aged under 35 were 50% more likely to say that they believed in god or attended religious services compared with those aged over 45.

Ecklund thinks that this might indicate a trend towards increasing religiousness in academics. After all, adults don’t often change their religious beliefs. So as the younger academics get older and the older ones retire (or die), you would expect the number of believers to increase. But I have one niggling doubt.

Ecklund also thinks (and she’s probably right) that the reason academics are less religious is because academia attracts freethinkers. It’s not so much that the facts you learn as a professional biologist tease you away from religion, it’s more that people who aren’t that wowed by religion are more likely to become biologists (see Matt Young’s recent post on this over at Panda’s Thumb).

So I wonder about the age effect. Could it simply be that there’s a selective process at work here? Perhaps religious scientists simply don’t stay in the profession after their PhD and maybe one or two post-docs.

For this to be true, however, you would expect there to be fewer older academics than younger. Stats on that are hard to come by. The NSF publishes comprehensive stats on just about everything other than the age of university-employed scientists. Ecklund doesn’t break down the age demographics in her survey. The Pew Survey does (p 95), and over half of the scientists they surveyed (selected from members of the AAAS) are actually over 50!

So I’m not sure what can be concluded from the age profiles of non-religious scientists. Evidence that scientists are bucking the general secularizing trend, or an interesting insight into workplace peer pressure?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Ecklund, E., & Scheitle, C. (2007). Religion among Academic Scientists: Distinctions, Disciplines, and Demographics Social Problems, 54 (2), 289-307 DOI: 10.1525/sp.2007.54.2.289

This work by Tom Rees is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 8, 2009

Why some countries are more religious than others

Next Post

July 14, 2009 Prayer reduces stress - but no more than self-motivation

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Causes of religion - evolution Causes of religion - psychological Causes of religion - social Demographics Digest Effects of religion - health Effects of religion - psychological Effects of religion - social Notifications Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Ezekiel was commanded to lie on his left side for 390 days and his right side for 40 days.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE