Scientists and Belief - More Up To Date Survey

[Confused Ape]

I was googling for information about what scientists believe and found that a survey had been done in 2009.

Scientists And Belief

A survey of scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in May and June 2009, finds that members of this group are, on the whole, much less religious than the general public.1 Indeed, the survey shows that scientists are roughly half as likely as the general public to believe in God or a higher power. According to the poll, just over half of scientists (51%) believe in some form of deity or higher power; specifically, 33% of scientists say they believe in God, while 18% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. By contrast, 95% of Americans believe in some form of deity or higher power, according to a survey of the general public conducted by the Pew Research Center in July 2006. Specifically, more than eight-in-ten Americans (83%) say they believe in God and 12% believe in a universal spirit or higher power. Finally, the poll of scientists finds that four-in-ten scientists (41%) say they do not believe in God or a higher power, while the poll of the public finds that only 4% of Americans share this view.

Even though scientists as a group are less religious than the general population, that's still a lot of scientists who believe in God or a universal spirit or higher power.

What I find really interesting is the following -

The Pew Research Center poll of scientists also found that levels of religious faith vary according to scientific specialty and age. For instance, chemists are more likely to believe in God (41%) than those who work in the other major scientific fields. Meanwhile, younger scientists (ages 18-34) are more likely to believe in God or a higher power than those who are older.

Scroll down the page to the table showing the results for scientists in different fields.

Biological and Medical - 32% believe in God while 19% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.

Chemistry - 41% believe in God while 14% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.

Geosciences - 30% believe in God and 20% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.

Physics and Astronomy - 29% believe in God and 14% believe in a universal spirit or higher power.

Why does belief vary between scientific fields? I've been looking to see if anyone had managed to figure it out but haven't had any success so far.

This survey only covered scientists who belong to a particular organisation so we don't know what the results would be if every scientist in the world took part in a similar survey.