Re: [asa] Keller on Evolution

Among Rich Blinne's point is this one:
Keller mentions with approval of Francis Collins in the main text. He also
responds to
Dawkins' citation of a survey where 7% of the NAS are believers with
the survey published in Nature showing a much greater number of
scientists who are believers.

Ted hopes to illuminate this point.
Dawkins, I assume was citing the same survey that Keller also cites.
Results appeared both in Nature and in Scientific American. The authors,
Larry Witham and Edward Larson, repeated the famous survey of the religious
beliefs of American scientists that had been carried out by atheist
psychologist James Leuba in 1914. They used exactly the same instrument,
and the same reference set: Members of the AAAS, who are listed in "American
Men and Women of Science." They polled two groups: regular members, plus
members of the NAS. Leuba did not poll NAS members per se, although the NAS
did exist then (it was founded during the Civil War to help the Union
cause). Rather, Leuba polled "starred" scientists listed in what was then
called "American Men of Science." The star system was discontinued about 30
years later, but at that time the most "eminent" scientists had asterisks
next to their names in "American Men of Science." (Incidentally, until
relatively recently, the word "scientist," which was coined in the 1830s,
was not much used. You were a "man of science," and indeed most of those
men were in fact men. There was no term "woman of science," as far as I
know. Virtually all of the "starred" scientists were men.) I won't go
further into the story of the star system, but it's a real hoot.

So, what Larson & Witham found was, that from the general group of AAAS
members, 39.3% affirmed belief in a personal God, as vs 41.8% in Leuba's
survey. This contradicts Leuba's personal expectation and hope that, as
science advanced in the 20th century, religious belief would decline
markedly. On the other hand, Lebua found that among "elite" (ie, starred)
scientists, 27.7% believed in God. Larson & Witham found just 7.0% among
the NAS members. (Interestingly, among mathematicians in the NAS, the
figure doubles to 14.3%, which is consistent with the fact that more
mathematicians from the general AAAS group are also believers (it's nearly
half). No surprise to me, given the transcendental character of
mathematical truths.)

Here's some of the data I refer to:

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/sci_relig.htm

So, Dawkins and Keller were citing the same survey.

Ted

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Fri Feb 22 11:42:42 2008