Re: [asa] Most scientists believe in God?

Bernie wrote:
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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.
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Allan replies:
Bernie, there is a nuance here that you and others may be missing, particularly with regard to the 7% with a personal faith.? This is not 7% of "scientists".? The Nature article title?gets it more correct; this is 7% of "leading scientists".? The survey was of members of the National Academy of Sciences, which is a small subset of very prominent scientists (they elect maybe 50 new members each year).? I am not a member of the NAS (although both my Ph.D. and postdoc advisors are), nor is any regular participant on the ASA list as far as I know.? Probably only a handful of ASA members are in the NAS (people like Francis Collins and Bill Phillips, maybe Owen Gingerich).

So, all one can really conclude from this is that unbelief in a "personal" God (which is not the same as atheism) is the position of the vast majority of this small set of highly prominent U.S. scientists.? When this stat came out 10 years ago, Phil Johnson even wrote something called "The more they learn, the less they believe" which was discussed on the ASA list starting with this post:
http://www.asa3.org/archive/asa/199808/0005.html
implying that indoctrination during advanced education at the highest levels led to unbelief.? Johnson committed the classic fallacy of confusing correlation with causation.? One could imagine a variety of reasons why Christians in science are less likely to achieve the sort of fame that leads to NAS membership.

I suggested some alternative explanations here:
http://www.asa3.org/archive/asa/199808/0018.html
from which I quote:
"I suspect more of this difference is due to a lower likelihood of Christians in science achieving "leading" status. Things today are not like they were early in the century when talent and a little hard work could bring a scientist to "leading" status. Now, it tends to take talent, a *lot* of hard work, and often a good amount of self-promotion. Because Christians will (we hope) have other priorities besides worldly success, they will be less likely to exhibit the sort of single-minded, non-humble, workaholic pursuit that tends to be required (there are, of course, exceptions) to make a scientist "leading". My semi-informed guess is that this sort of self-selection is the biggest reason for the disparity in the numbers."

Dr. Allan H. Harvey (ASA Member)
(usual disclaimers here)

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Received on Wed Feb 4 14:35:14 2009