Re: [asa] Scientists, Religion, and Politics

Hi Merv,

Yes, but that reply clearly comes across as convoluted face-saving. The
simplicity and beauty of the “intelligent science leads to atheism” argument
is cut away and replaced with a response that explains political stands in a
manner that does not reflect intelligent or scientific consideration. The
argument would have us believe that many scientists agree with Republican or
conservative values, but because of the outspoken conservative Christian
component of the Republican party, they choose to label themselves as
Democrats or liberals. Sounds like an emotion-based decision more than
“intelligent science.”

Of course, there is a more direct response to the “intelligent science leads
to atheism” argument (I missed it the first time around). As Schwarzwald
noted, the survey shows that a minority of scientists are atheists and, what’s
more, the younger scientists are more likely to be theists than the older
scientists.

http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1549

Mike

> The ready reply of those who wanted to press the "intelligent science
> leads to atheism" argument could be as follows: Your chosen phenomena,
> (Christian vs. Non-Christian, Republican vs. Democrat, Conservative vs.
> liberal) can't be considered independent variables. Rightly or wrongly,
> the republican party is the party most identified with an major
> outspoken conservative Christian component. So the three variables or
> spectra you cite are all placed roughly in lock-sync in the popular
> public (and scientific) mind. Hence, they will just reply that their
> generalization handily explains all three correlations. It doesn't help
> that definitions given for these three may often involve
> cross-referential identifications with each other, messily ignoring all
> the exceptions however numerous they may be.
>
> --Merv
>
> Nucacids wrote:
>>
>> We often hear that, unlike the general public, the majority of
>> scientists are atheists and, in some way, this is supposed to support
>> the notion that science and intelligence lead to atheism.
>>
>> Yet a recent Pew Research survey (http://people-press.org/report/528/
>> ) shows that scientists are also different from the general public
>> when it comes to their political views.
>>
>> _General Public_
>>
>> Democrat 35%
>>
>> Republican 23%
>>
>> Independent 34%
>>
>> _Scientists_
>>
>> Democrat 55%
>>
>> Republican 6%
>>
>> Independent 32%
>>
>> _General Public_
>>
>> Liberal 20%
>>
>> Moderate 38%
>>
>> Conservative 37%
>>
>> _Scientists_
>>
>> Liberal 52%
>>
>> Moderate 35%
>>
>> Conservative 9%
>>
>> Sorry folks, I think it would be silly to argue that intelligence,
>> reason, logic, evidence, etc. lead people to choose a political party
>> or political viewpoint. And if so, what we have here is something akin
>> to a control on the atheism/scientist statistics. That is, the high
>> percentage of scientists who are atheists may be as significant to the
>> debate about God’s existence/religion as the high percentage of
>> scientists who are Democrats.
>>
>> Mike
>>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.375 / Virus Database: 270.13.13/2236 - Release Date: 07/13/09
17:57:00

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Tue Jul 14 10:50:29 2009