RE: [asa] Most scientists believe in God?

That last link was the best (http://ncseweb.org/rncse/18/2/do-scientists-really-reject-god )

- thanks much. Conclusion, the vast majority of scientists do not believe in God.

Given that- it seems to me that the ASA has an obvious niche and job to fill- evangelism to scientists!

Also- it appears to me that the LiveWire article is really misleading when it says most scientists believe in God:

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/050811_scientists_god.html

As for the link I like from Ted

(http://ncseweb.org/rncse/18/2/do-scientists-really-reject-god ) ,

 I really appreciate this point:

1. Poll question: I believe in a God in intellectual and effective communication with humankind, i.e., a God to whom one might pray in expectation of receiving an answer. By "answer", I mean more than the subjective psychological effects of prayer.

1. I believe in a [personal] God...
AM&WS

NAS

1914

1998

27.7

7.0

Indeed, the percentage of "yes" answers in 1998 is strikingly lower than that in 1914. Does this mean that fewer scientists believe in God? Not necessarily. Consider how specific this question is. To answer "yes" to this question, one would have to believe that God is not only in communication with humankind, which many religious people do believe, but that God is in both intellectual and effective communication. What is the meaning of "intellectual" communication? "Effective" communication? Someone who believed that God communicated with humankind but not "intellectually" (whatever that means) would have to answer "no." Is "effective" used in the modern sense of the word meaning "something that works well", or in the more archaic (1914) use of the term meaning "to bring about"? Do scientists reading this question today interpret it in the same way as those in 1914?

The clause about answering prayers is also problematic.There are schools of theology that hold that God is personal in the sense of watching over and caring for humankind, but nonetheless, does not answer prayers. We do not know whether members of the general public would respond similarly or differently than scientists do to this definition of God: we do know that there is a wide variety of definitions of God.

Not only have there been changes in theology since 1914, which may be reflected in different Americans' definitions of God, but there have been improvements in survey research techniques. Experienced pollsters simply do not ask paragraph- long questions anymore because they know that they elicit contingent (and therefore difficult to interpret) answers!

Most educated, late 20th century Americans are "test wise" and know that the more components to a question, the more likely it is that the question is "wrong". I doubt that this was the case in 1914, when citizens 'were exposed to far fewer surveys than they are today. I surmise that modern survey-wise scientists would be more likely to answer "no" to a multi-component question like Leuba's number 1 than "yes".

I like how the question was worded. That was the poll I was trying to find- so thanks much! Only 7% of scientists have a "relationship with God."

...Bernie

-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Davis [mailto:TDavis@messiah.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 10:18 AM
To: AmericanScientificAffiliation; Dehler, Bernie
Subject: Re: [asa] Most scientists believe in God?

The information Bernie Dehler needs is here:

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/news/file002.html

and here

http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/66869-ebook.htm

and here

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

and here

http://ncseweb.org/rncse/18/2/do-scientists-really-reject-god

Ted

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Received on Wed Feb 4 13:54:13 2009