Re: [asa] Scientists, Religion, and Politics

My two cents' worth:

The very nature of scientists' work is to challenge authority, the received "truth," and replace it with deductions from carefully measured data. One of a scientist's joys is proving an accepted theory incomplete or wrong.

The root meaning of conservatism has to do with opposing change and preserving the ways of the past. Religions also impose from on high, declare truth on the basis of "authority."

Hence a scientist who's immersed in his work and allows its methods to reach into the rest of his life will tend to challenge and oppose both standard versions of religious truth and conventional ways of living and governing.

The fact that scientists as kids often don't fit in probably contributes to the phenomenon.

Don

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Randy Isaac<mailto:randyisaac@comcast.net>
  To: asa@calvin.edu<mailto:asa@calvin.edu>
  Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 9:01 AM
  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<mailto:TDavis@messiah.edu>>
  To: "asa" <asa@calvin.edu<mailto:asa@calvin.edu>>; "Merv Bitikofer" <mrb22667@kansas.net<mailto:mrb22667@kansas.net>>;
  "Nucacids" <nucacids@wowway.com<mailto: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 Wed Jul 15 00:26:47 2009