RE: [asa] Scientists, Religion, and Politics

People do not realize that different kinds of knowledge require different evidence to establish the truth or falsehood of prepositions in that kind of knowledge. Surely, a physicist cannot expect the same kind evidence to apply both to science and theology. Of course, many scientists may dismiss theology from the outset.

Moorad
________________________________________
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Randy Isaac [randyisaac@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 12:01 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: [asa] Scientists, Religion, and Politics

I recall that when I was in graduate school, oh so long ago, someone on the
faculty made the comment that scientists tended to be more liberal in
politics to counter their need to be so conservative in their science. I'm
not sure if there's any evidence for a human being to need a balance of
liberalism and conservatism in one's life, but it's an observation that
stuck with me.

Randy

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Davis" <TDavis@messiah.edu>
To: "asa" <asa@calvin.edu>; "Merv Bitikofer" <mrb22667@kansas.net>;
"Nucacids" <nucacids@wowway.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: [asa] Scientists, Religion, and Politics

> Polls of this sort are never easy to interpret with much confidence. What
> polls have shown consistently for many years is that academics (including
> scientists) are far more "liberal" both politically and religiously than
> the general American population. That is a generalization, obviously, and
> any given academic or scientist can be a right-wing atheist, a left-wing
> Christian, or any other combination you can imagine.
>
> The reasons for this are not really clear to me, but even 60 years ago it
> was probably true that a large majority of leading physicists (confining
> my comments to physicists, since they are based on what I know anecdotally
> about the Manhattan Project) were very liberal politically and mainly
> irreligious. Some, like Oppenheimer, had considered Communism very
> seriously (his wife was the genuine article), and a few even worked
> covertly for the Soviets (American versions of Klaus Fuchs), as documented
> extensively by the new book, "Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in
> America," based mainly on Soviet archives that became available briefly
> several years ago.
>
> I won't try even to guess at the reasons for this type of demographic, but
> I think it would not be too hard to refute a trivial conclusion that
> intelligence results in liberal political views and religious scepticism.
> Plenty of corporate executives, attorneys, and other folk are also highly
> intelligent, and the demographics among them are probably not similar to
> those among academics and scientists. People in all walks of life tend to
> encourage and empower people who think similarly to themselves, and
> similarities of beliefs in these areas are surely part of that. As
> someone from a top research university once said to me, "places like [the
> university of X] don't hire people from places like Messiah."
>
> Ted
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Jul 14 14:52:34 2009