RE: Scientists and Belief - More Up To Date Survey
March 19, 2014 at 4:49 pm
(This post was last modified: March 19, 2014 at 4:52 pm by MindForgedManacle.)
73% of philosophers are or lean toward atheism, a further 13% are other non-theistic positions, leaving only 14% of philosophers as some kind of theist. 
And actually, there are very good looks into why our species has religious beliefs. Two books I'd recommend on this are cognitive scientist and philosopher of mind Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" and science historian and psychologist Michael Shermer's "The Believing Brain". There's probably some good stuff from anthropology as well, I'm just not familiar with it.
And actually, there are very good looks into why our species has religious beliefs. Two books I'd recommend on this are cognitive scientist and philosopher of mind Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" and science historian and psychologist Michael Shermer's "The Believing Brain". There's probably some good stuff from anthropology as well, I'm just not familiar with it.
